The True Meaning of Thanksgiving

When I was in elementary school, I was taught that Thanksgiving was a holiday remembering the Pilgrims giving thanks to the Native Americans for saving them when they didn't know how to survive in the American wilderness. The Pilgrims arrived, had no idea where they were, had no idea what they were doing, and almost were wiped out because of it, until the Indians showed them how to plant corn and brought gifts; and in return, the Pilgrims brought plague and stole the Indians' land. This is what is taught in schools, and it's not true. Sure, horrible diseases were brought to the Americas that did a lot of damage to the inhabitants, but the disease went both ways and was not part of a sinister plan. Nor were the Pilgrims "saved" by the Indians. The truth, which they won't teach in schools, is that Thanksgiving is a very religious holiday that has nothing to do with the Indians at all. Thanksgiving came about when the colonists abandoned their original communal system and adopted capitalism, and the "thanks" goes to God for saving them from starvation.

It also irritates me to no end when people call it "Turkey Day," since that's not what day it is. This is not like calling Christmas X-mas, which is completely legitimate, as the "x" is the Greek letter Chi, which has been a symbol for Christ for over 1000 years. That's beside the point, though.

The lies about Thanksgiving go even farther. This is from a story by Mike Ivey in the Madison Capital Times, under the headline "The Pilgrims Were Really Grave Robbers":

Everything you know about the "first" Thanksgiving is wrong.

Plymouth Rock.

Pilgrims.

Perseverance.

Big feast.

Happy Indians sharing in the bounty.

According to award-winning filmmaker Patty Loew, it's all bunk, except maybe the part about eating turkey. Early settlers were so hungry they ate about anything with fur or feathers.

Otherwise, there is little connection between reality and the version of Thanksgiving events still taught in most schools.

That point was hammered home Sunday by Loew.

A member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe, Loew was the keynote speaker at the third annual "Interfaith Thanksgiving Celebration" held at Lakeview Lutheran Church on Madison's north side.

Loew said the problem with the traditional Thanksgiving story is that it plays to the American version of history where peace loving English settlers tame the wilderness and survive attacks from the bloodthirsty Indians.

"It's the quintessential American holiday," she said. "It involves escaping danger, surviving in a harsh environment, carving out a new life."

Unfortunately, Loew says, the whole Thanksgiving story is nothing but myth.

In reality, the Indian tribes living along the Eastern seaboard had been decimated by disease in the years preceding the storied landing at Plymouth Rock in 1620.

An epidemic of bubonic plague, most likely brought to the New World by European fishermen in 1617, had killed an estimated 90 percent of the Native population by the time the Pilgrims landed in Massachusetts.

"What the settlers found were empty villages with crops still in the field because the Indians had either died or left," Loew said, quoting a version of events laid out by author James Loewen. www.trinicenter.com/historicalviews/thanksgiving.htm.

The more religious of the settlers -- only 32 of the 102 who landed at Plymouth were actually Pilgrims -- thought the existing villages and cleared fields were a sign that God was providing for them.

Other settlers took to digging up the graves of Indians, picking through the housewares, blankets or weapons buried with the dead.

"So the first Thanksgiving in America was actually held by grave robbers," Loew told the crowd of more than 200.

Loew challenged the audience to tell the correct version of events and think about what it means when they celebrate this Thursday with family or friends.

"We're not just talking about feel good history, but history that reflects the truth," said Loew, a longtime local TV anchor who serves as associate professor of life sciences communications at UW-Madison.

So if the Pilgrims were out digging up graves, why didn't they get the plague? I've heard similar stories cited elsewhere, as well. While it is true that disease and conflict had widespread effects on the native populations and colonists alike, this has nothing to do with Thanksgiving. And of course every year PETA complains about cruel treatment of turkeys, as if it would make us stop eating them.

So what is the true story of Thanksgiving? You can read what I have to say, or better yet, go to my sources and read these articles:

"Giving Thanks" by Jennifer James

"The Real Story of Thanksgiving" from a transcript of The Rush Limbaugh Show

The true Thanksgiving story is a perfect example of why communism fails. The early colonists were sponsored by English merchants, who required that the colonists keep everything common and distribute everything equally. Of course this wasn't a very efficient way to do things, since the more productive people have no incentive to work harder than anyone else, and the rest had no reason to work since they were entitled to a share whether they contributed or not. William Bradford wrote in his journal that the results of keeping everything common brought about needless suffering and should be every schoolchild's lesson.

"The experience that we had in this common course and condition, tried sundry years...that by taking away property, and bringing community into a common wealth, would make them happy and flourishing – as if they were wiser than God...For this community (so far as it was) was found to breed much confusion and discontent, and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort. For young men that were most able and fit for labor and service did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men's wives and children without [being paid] that was thought injustice."

Seeing the dangers ahead, and fearing that this communal system would be as harmful as the harsh winter they had suffered through, Bradford decided to ignore the original contract with the merchant sponsors, and divided the land into individual plots, for which the colonists were personally responsible. He got the system out of the way and allowed capitalism to take over. Bradford wrote that "This had very good success, for it made all hands industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been. The Pilgrims soon found themselves with more bounty than they could consume themselves, and so were able to set up trade with the Indians. Their success attracted more settlers and began the Great Puritan Migration.

Thanksgiving came about as the Pilgrims learned the hard lessons of socialism, that it doesn't work. The only system that works is capitalism. Capitalism is not greed, it is personal accountability and responsibility. In fact, it is socialism that allows greed to pull everyone down. Capitalism requires contributing to the system before benefitting from it. Thanksgiving is a capitalist and religious holiday; thanks to God for providing for the Pilgrims once they got their heads on straight and did what they could for themselves, thanks to capitalism for saving them from the evils of socialism.

Interestingly enough, while every year people complain about the commercialization of Christmas, there is little complaint of the under-commercialization of Thanksgiving other than to mention that it is forgotten in retail stores as they put up Christmas merchandise as they take down Halloween. Incidentally, I don't complain about the commercial Christmas thing, because does Wal-Mart running ads and putting up decorations take anything away from me remembering Christ's birth? It doesn't. If there was ever a holiday that should be commercialized, it's Thanksgiving. This year, celebrate the triumph of capitalism over socialism by buying lots of food from grocery stores, and doing some extra Christmas shopping. It may be our last chance before Obama institutes his economic plan, and we have to triumph over socialism all over again.

Happy Thanksgiving.