Diorama of Iroquois Indians tending maize (corn), one of the crop staples grown by most Indians living in Eastern Woodlands and Atlantic Coast at the time of First Contact, along with beans, squash, and in the colder climates barley and wheat.From the New York State Museum. Similar dioramas depicting Algonkian Indians -- the Yaocomico and Piscataway -- or 'Conoy' to their Susquehannock (Iroquois) enemies -- are found at the Maryland Historical Society. Their photos will be posted here soon.
As one may imagine, I'm compelled to say 'something' about the occasion of Thanksgiving, whose eve it is tonight, given my topic of Indian-Native American presence in early Baltimore and Maryland. I'll save a critical philosophical discourse perhaps to a later post (or you may read a cogent and thought-provoking discussion of the political uses of stereotyping American Indians here). For now I want to share a musing or two, beginning with depictions of "The First Thanksgiving." (All images are in the public domain)
For the most part, the uniquely "American Thanksgiving" is a hallowed notion where many of us today think of Puritans and Indians feasting together in celebration of a bountiful autumn harvest and in perfect brotherhood and harmony. According to a primary source description from the ony two first-hand accounts written of the event, this actually was true in the Plimoth Plantation (or Plymouth Colony-Massachusetts) Thanksgiving of 1621. The Pilgrim writers were Edward Winslow and William Bradford.
A contrasting view of the Plimoth-Massasoit Thanksgiving as the Great Thanksgiving Hoax, terms the event as "not so much a celebration as it was the last meal of condemned men."
The first image appropriately claims to portray THE very first American [meaning Europeans in America] Thanksgiving that occurred at what became St. Augustine, Florida, in 1565, and was constituted as a Catholic Mass conducted by a Spanish priest for Spanish soldiers and Indians. I've zoomed in but have yet to spot an Indian. Hmmm.... Would that because the Indian population in that area had already been deeply reduced in the 73-odd years of European contact, put simply here for now, through warfare and disease?
The city's historians claim otherwise; in fact they have this to boast, attributed to Michelle Whitmer of the My Safe Florida travel site:
"Surprisingly, (the explorer) Menendez did not receive orders, nor did he personally desire, to eradicate the Native Americans. This is an extraordinary contrast to the Northern treatment of Indians by subsequent European colonists ... Dr. Michael Gannon, distinguished service professor emeritus at the University of Florida and preeminent authority on the founding of St. Augustine, has written '... the two cultures exchanged traditions and ways of life. Spanish men married native women and adopted the Timucuan diet and methods of food preparation ... Spanish missionaries taught European farming, cattle raising, carpentry, weaving, and, in many instances, reading and writing [to the Timucuan tribe].'"
Image courtesy of the St. Augustine Historial Society.
Similarly, we have this portrayal of another Spanish colonial "First Thanksgiving" -- in 1598 in New Mexico, a Spanish Catholic thanksgiving event with at least one Indian personage in the scene, albeit in a very submissive position -- he is the one on the ground. Image courtesy of the New Mexico Hispanic Culture Preservation League (annual banquet announcement).
Now let's look at three portrayals of that 1621 Puritan "First Thanksgiving" at Plimoth Plantation, Massachusetts. You may agree that the first two are beautifully evocative paintings, but heavy on the romanticized aspects of the event.
Painting by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris (1863–1930).
1. Seated in the foreground is Squanto, a translator and guide for Gov. Bradford and the Pawtuxet Indian (who later lived with Massasoit's Wampanoags) credited with showing the Pilgrims how to fertilize their seedlings with a piece of fish. Note the healthy English setter. The Maryland Piscataways kept dogs both as pets and as a back-up food source. This was evidenced by placement of canine bones both randomly and carefully buried in the excavated Piscataway town called Moyaone by Capt. John Smith on the eastern bank of the Potomac River a few miles south of modern day Washington, DC. [Source: Alice Ferguson, 1931]
This painting is by 19th Century American artist Jennie Augusta Brownscombe, who was termed "a kind of Norman Rockwell of her day."
2. Note in the shadow of the piety of the prayer leader is one 'guest' who cannot wait to chomp into his meaty drumstick -- or are his hands clasped in prayer? The feathered Indians mostly squat in respectful repose, far to the rear of the seated diners, who do at least include the Indian King -- presumably Massasoit.
3. The third depiction of the Plimoth Thanksgiving is my favorite in that there are a LOT of Indians in the picture [reportedly 91 were present] -- many more than of the Puritans [the 51 or 53 who survived the depredations of the first year] -- and thus giving a semblance of realism to what that actual historical event could have been like. I know the layout of the huts match up with what I have seen personally at Plimoth Plantation historical site.
In contrast and closer to our Baltimore home are the reputedly two Virginia Thanksgivings. The first came about in the spring of 1610 with the arrival of supplies from England after the 1609 winter of famine "Jamestown settlement's starving time" had killed 430 of the original colonists leaving merely 60 who survived.
The second Virginia "First Thanksgiving," occurred at nearby Berkeley Plantation in 1619. In that instance, a day of thanksgiving to be observed annually on the date of the group's landing was in the group's charter. Only three years after the Berkeley thanksgiving (1622), approximately one third of the entire Virginia Colony was massacred. These Virginia 'first thanksgivings' were set amidst a more raw and threatening danger from the Virginians' contact with the Powhatans, a fiercely more belligerent and aggressive Algonkian group than the Wampanoags of Massachusetts, who saved the Plimoth Pilgrims.
Here are two views of the vulnerable Jamestown fort, the first unattributable; the second an overhead from NASA files of today's reconstruction of the site, or a mock-up thereof:
Tying up our Thanksgiving threads back to Maryland where we began, we find a "Maryland First Thanksgiving" event that one could say combines the best of the others particularly the trusting generosity of two Algonkian Eastern Woodland Cultures -- the Wampanoags and the Yaocomico Piscataways -- and certainly a sincerely spiritual one. I'll let you surf this very nice St. Mary's Genealogy site that is chock full of period information about Maryland's First Thanksgiving. It is the source of this picture.
It reads: "In St. Mary's City, in 1634, Father Andrew White of the Society of Jesus, apostle of Maryland and first historian of the colony, offered up the holy sacrifice of the Mass in thanksgiving to God for having led the pilgrims to a land of sanctuary, where they and their descendants might live in civil and religious freedom."
Here is a companion piece, an old 1895 map of St. Mary's County (City is right bottom third) courtesy of the Cato Family Genealogy site.
Our Maryland's First Thanksgiving in 1634 at what became St. Mary's City signaled the start of an anomalous partnership between the Yaocomico-Piscataways and the Calvert colonists that truly benefited both populations for a relatively long period of time -- this will be the subject of a future blog and is at the heart of my research 'paper'.
(So with that teaser, I'll end by saying to hard-core Thanksgiving groupies who can't get enough -- here's your site!)
HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL! Since this blog was a bit heavy on the serious stuff, here's this for an 'after-dinner' treat -- if the folks at Plimoth Plantation "dot org" can have fun with Thanksgiving, so can we!
