Well its thanksgiving time again, and as i do with all holidays i want to know their origins. The more i dig the more i see that every American Holiday seems to be secretly based upon the fact some poor bastards life got destroyed for it and thanksgiving is no exception.
So depending on the school book you pick up it teaches us that thanksgiving got started by the pilgrims having a feast with the native American Indians right? And how wonderful life was with pretty little cornucopias of food spilling out over a table full of happy people. But there just might be a little more to that fairy tale.
First take the pilgrims, what exactly was a pilgrim? They where hardcore religious group of sexually repressed, uptight, rejects that left Europe because they were even to uptight for the English. ( much like the republican party ) Then you invite the Wampanoag tribe of native American Indians that were a group of pagan hunter/gathers. Depending on which history book you follow these two groups of people sat down and had a big feast to celebrate the years harvest. A little nugget of history that the cartoonish depiction we see of peace and joy between to totally different people seems to overlook is just how did these two people hook up? I mean you have a serious language issue not to mention the whole religious thing and all , just what did bridge the gap between loin cloth wearers and goofy guy with belt buckle on their hats?
One word Squanto Patuxet Native American indian that helped the Pilgrims the first winter they spent in the new world. I find it funny how most books i read say Squanto "helped" the pilgrims , but from my perspective the word "helped" means something entirely different. See Sqaunto was a slave that managed that had been kidnapped from his tribe then shipped to england to be enslaved as a worker for the uptight brits. Looking at his history on wiki shows he got bought and sold several times and ended up in good ole john smiths possession. ( you know that famous history guy from jamestown) Squanto finally in 1618 ended up finally getting to go back to his homeland and his tribe only to find they where all dead from a plague. Then he somehow ends up helping the pilgrims and inevitably coordinating the first feast which we end up calling thanksgiving. Squanto died in 1622 after suffering from a fever and some speculate he was poisioned by the sachem tribe since hell who can trust an idian that would hang out with the repiublicans? ( Sorry meant to say pilgrims).
So in a nut shell thanks giving is here because some poor bastard named Squanto, got kidnapped, enslaved , his entire tribe of people wiped out , then poisoned by people of his kind. As your thinking of this and poor Squanto one has to wonder how did this mutate into a holiday where you whack the head off a turkey and shove bread up its ass.
http://www.baddrink.com/geeklog/public_html//article.php?story=20071121095615763