A small collection of emails
related to Thanksgiving
Note: these emails are presented here verbatim
Hello,
My name is Jenna Crooms, I am a Sophomore at Quinnipiac University in Hamden Ct. I have an assignment coming up for my Journalism class entitled "The Truth about Thanksgiving". I was wondering if anyone would be able to answer a few questions I had.
1. How do you think Americans should celebrate Thanksgiving?
2. How do you celebrate Thanksgiving?
3. Where did your family assimilate, and why there?
4. What did you learn about Thanksgiving from your parents/family?
If anyone could answer these questions or give me any type of information about Thanksgiving it would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Jenna Crooms
Quinnipiac University Student, Class of 2011
Arramikowa Jenna,
Arumshemocke (Thank you kindly) for contacting ACQTC. Here are answers to your questions for your QU JOURNALISM CLASS, "The Truth About Thanksgiving."
1). Our Algonquian culture does have an ancient tradition. Each time we gather together for any social, political, or religious purpose, we recite the Thanksgiving oration. We give thanks to the Creator, for all living things, our health, a good harvest, etc. We invoke the blessings of our Long Water Land. I think that "Americans" should celebrate the real Thanksgiving by gathering with the aboriginal people. We are "Pre-American" and collectively are "Turtle Islanders." Americans need to understand that our people welcomed the "newcomers," and helped them survive. Thanksgiving should be celebrated as a time of reconciliation, repatriation, and appreciation for indigenous traditions.
2). The Algonquian people DO NOT celebrate "Thanksgiving" (the American holiday). it is marked on our calendars as a "Day of Mourning." The Holiday of Thanksgiving wasn't declared a national holiday until the 20th century. it was a Puritan celebration of the massacre of an entire Algonquian sub-tribe, while they were in ceremony. Killed like fish in a barrel.
3). My family never assimilated. They've always been traditionalists. The Quinnipiac were persecuted, disenfranchised, and relocated to many different places, where we continued on as part of tribal councils with other indigenous peoples. I lived all over CT, NY, MA, and Quebec, Canada, with my family. We chose these places because our extended Algonquian family (sub-tribes) welcomed us.
4). I learned the truth. If you'd like to really know --- then here's what to do. Call this phone # in Branford. Ask for Gordon Brainerd. He's our eider Bear Clan Sachem and Curator of the Quinnipiac Dawnland Museum. Tell him I sent you a email and about your class assignment. Make arrangements to meet him at the Museum. He's got scrapbooks of all my "Branford Review" columns (100 of them). I did a special at the beginning of the series on the Thanksgiving history. Fox was interviewed on Yale Radio about this article I wrote, so he can tell you about that.
I have been a journalist for 35 years …, published in close to 50 different forums. Any time I can be of assistance, I/we am/are here for you, Jenna.
Study those columns I wrote and you'll be able to understand whatever it is you need to know about the People of the Long Water Land (Quinnipiac).
TELEPHONE: (203) 481-6533.
Keetomp (Your friend),
Iron Thunderhorse (Biwabiko Paddaquahas)
Quinnipiac Grand Sachem
Dear Native Americans,
My name is Mark Fetz in St. Augustine Florida, place of the earliest attested Thanksgiving celebration on September 8, 1565, I actually can trace my ancestry back to William Leete who left England in 1639 after becoming a Puritan, He was one of the first to purchase Indian lands between 1639 and 1641 from the Quinnipac Indians. He later became the govener of New Haven, Conn and was the third govener Of Conneticuit under the Crown of England.
Thanksgiving to you really seems like it would he a day of sorrow, like the holiday Tisha B'av is for Jews. The beginning of the end of tribes and civilizations that had flourished for thousands of years only to be rapidly decimated with European diseases, culture, massacres, and exploitation in only 250 years.
As a descendant of Leete and as a representative of Jesus Christ, I am terribly sorry for the afflictions and plight that others have caused you, that have represented those very same names.
There should be a holiday of memorial for all tribes whose disappearance enabled the great collassus and empire that is called the United States to be formed. What a travesty that Americans celebrate the memory of a handful of mythical figures sitting on beachfront, feasting on a dining room table, rather than the real lives that were lost because of the European invasion to the "New World".
Hopefully, some of you guys can share your feelings to me on Thansgiving. How do people in your tribes celebrate it? What are their attitudes? Do they/you see it as as farce?
Thank You,
Mark Fetz
This webpage is part of the Thanksgiving Collection:
