Page 08, History gobbles up true context of holiday

Daily Illini Editorial, 11/20/95

Ah, Thanksgiving. There's nothing like going home to visit your folks,
watching pro football, eating more food than you see in the average month
at school and starting your shopping for the upcoming, commercialized
holiday.

But this week, as you drool at the sight of the traditional turkey with
your relatives, you can either sit quietly and talk only when asked your
major, or impress them with some facts about the true historical context
of Thanksgiving. Consider these two myths and facts:

* Myth: Thanksgiving was a holiday initiated by the early Pilgrims, who
invited Native Americans to share in their bounty.

Fact: Thanksgiving had its origins in autumn harvest festivals celebrated
by eastern tribes of Native Americans. The modern American Thanksgiving
dates back to 1863, when Abraham Lincoln declared it a national holiday.

The foods that American legend says were served at the first Thanksgiving
(and that are still served today) were all foods native to this country:
turkey, pumpkins, corn and squash.

Additionally, it was the Pilgrims who were apparently in need of
assistance when they first arrived here. One colonist's journal tells of
Pilgrim sailors stealing from Native Americans as soon as they arrived in
the New World. Other journals tell of Pilgrims plundering Native
Americans' fields and robbing their graves.

* Myth: Thanksgiving was a holiday in which Pilgrims honored God for the
vast wilderness of America that they had been provided with.

Fact: But in reality, it wasn't God that cleared the way for the early
European settlers. It was the diseases the Europeans brought with them
that wiped out entire villages of Native Americans.

Modern scientific estimates place the pre-Columbian indigenous population
of America at around 14 million. After contact with the Europeans, those
numbers dropped by nearly 95 percent in many Eastern areas.

Entire populations of cities vanished. The Europeans moved in and
"settled" the land that the Native Americans had cleared. In fact, the New
Plymouth Colony was built on the Native American city of Patuxet.

The historical view of America as a "wilderness" ignores the fact that
Native Americans were already living here and that contact with Europeans
destroyed their populations.

Now we're not bashing America, here. We're not saying that Thanksgiving
needs to be eliminated. What we are saying, however, is that Americans
need a better understanding of this holiday's historical implications.