This is the first in a elementary series about the United States holiday called "Thanksgiving". For many Native Americans this holiday is a "Day of Mourning". The history of the Plymouth colony and its relationship with the Wampanoag Native people began in an interesting manner where equality and justice did exist through a treaty that is historically the longest unbroken treaty with Native people in the United States. Although, what happened after the mythical "First Thanksgiving" is a tragedy, as more and more colonists arrived with the sole intent of financial profit from exporting resources. England pushed this venture forward in their pursuit of owning and controlling the "New World" before the French and the Spanish. This naturally lead to the extermination of the original people. This genocide or extermination continued throughout American history and across the United States. It is tragedy and injustice at it's utmost and far too many remnants of it exist today as was found in the 2012 United Nations investigation of the violation of Native American Human rights. Through this series on Thanksgiving created by myself, a Native American and a friend who is a direct descendent of a Pilgrim family we have transmuted the tragedy using our personal relationship which evolved through many tears and intensely emotional moments of changing our ancestral anger and shame into a positive relationship enabling us to see a new world in a positive light with much potential. Through this series and through our website at http://www.manyhoops.com we hope to share our journey.

1. Thanksgiving
More than Turkeys and feathers!

2. How did Thanksgiving as we know it today
start?
Painting by David Bradley

3. A woman named Sarah Josepha
Hale created Thanksgiving.

4. Who was Sarah Josepha Hale?

5. Sarah was a very unusual woman. She was educated
and worked as an editor of a national magazine.
During the 1800’s, editors were men and most
women weren’t educated. Sarah was an exception to
the times.

6. Sarah believed all women should have the
opportunity to become educated and became an
activist for women’s education.
She was also one of the first American women to
write a novel.

7. Sarah was one of the first few in the United States
to write a book about slavery.
The premise of her book was that while slavery
first and foremost hurts and dehumanizes slaves,
and as a consequence it also dehumanizes the
masters and retards the psychological and moral
development of their world.

8. How did Sarah become responsible for the
creation of our modern day the Thanksgiving?

9. Sarah was the editor of Godey’s
Lady’s Book. She used this position
of power to begin a campaign in her
editorials and then followed with
personal letters to various politicians
and presidents to petition
Thanksgiving as a National Holiday.

10. Responding to Sarah’s numerous letters and
influenced by issues of a country divided by civil
war, President Lincoln in an attempt to unify the
Nation, proclaimed Thanksgiving as a national
holiday in 1863.

11. What does all of this have to do with Pilgrims and
Indians?

12. In creating her ideas for a National
Thanksgiving Day, Sarah thought of the
Mayflower and the Pilgrims and used part of a
letter from Edward Winslow a governor of
Plymouth Colony, which mentioned a meal
between the Plymouth settlers and the
Wampanoag native people.

13. In his letter Edward Winslow said:
“Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men
on fowling, that so we might, after a special manner,
rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our
labors… At which time, amongst other recreations, we
exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst
us [including] their greatest King, Massasoit, with some
ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and
feasted; and they went out and killed five deer, which they
brought to the plantation, and bestowed on [us]…”

14. And now we can begin with the historic Thanksgiving