Colonial Village and Wampanoag

Thanksgiving, A time that we think of giving thanks for all that we have. We attribute this tradition to the Pilgrims giving thanks for a good first harvest and inviting their friends the Indians. This is what brought Evan and I to Plymouth, MA. Well, we have learned that it is not quite that way it happened. Quite to our surprise Plimoth Plantation’s (Yes it is spelt with an i, there were not rules for spelling in 1620 and people would spell Plymouth with a y or an i) goal is to change how people view Thanksgiving.

As most of us know: It was a time that the English (they do not like it when you call them Pilgrims) were going to celebrate their first successful harvest. The Wampanoag had messengers (aka spies) that told their chief of the planned feast. The Chief would visit his surrounding villages at this time of year. He decided to include the English in this visit; mainly to keep and eye one the village. The Wampanoag decided to stay for a couple of days. They ate, celebrated in Wampanoag traditional ways and in English traditional ways. This is what we took part in today. We met Wampanoag that are concerned with maintaining their bloodline, keeping their traditions alive – and have deep routed feelings against the English. We met people that were in total character for the village (and would not break character.) From them we learned that yes they wanted to practice their religion, but more importantly they wanted to make a profit selling furs. They did not quite get what they were bargaining for. We learned all this while exploring the recreation of Plimouth Plantation. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit and our New England Thanksgiving meal, but we did tire of the constant barrage of “what really happened”.

The day was Very Cold, Incredibly Windy and we had an Inch of rain. We still braved the outside exhibits, and truly enjoyed our day!