The first native contact for the Plymouth Colony pilgims was a native American who approached them asking for a glass of beer. It was Samoset, an Abenaki Indian from Maine. “Welcome Englishmen” he said, and then asked for that cold glass of beer.
The pilgrims were amazed at the English speaking native. They had no beer, but gave him brandy, biscuits, butter, cheese, and pudding, all of which he enjoyed. He stayed at Plymouth Plantation one night (the Pilgrims keeping careful watch over him).
It turns out Samoset had picked up English from fishermen visiting along the coast of Maine. And Samoset asking for a beer? How interesting, how human. Why, oh why didn’t they teach me that in history class?
Samoset spoke “broken English”, but he told the Pilgrims he would return with a native man who spoke English fluently.
Guess who that man was? Squanto. Remember Squanto the savior of the Pilgrims, who taught them to plant fish heads as fertilizer? No one ever explained how Squanto communicated with the pilgrims. After all, Squanto was teaching the Pilgrims survival strategies. How was Squanto fluent in English? you might ask. Squanto had been kidnapped a few years previously, taken by a British ship captain, eventually spending a few years in England. I think Squanto negotiated a trip back across the ocean, convincing the English he could assist in guiding a ship along the New England coastline.
Poor Squanto. When he arrived in the area known as" “Patuxet” he found it empty, his tribe gone. Most of the Patuxet tribe had perished from smallpox and other diseases. What trauma for the poor guy. Yikes. (The Pilgrims attibuted the empty land as providential, a gift from God).
Why leave this stuff out of the history books though? Were the writers of our history books embarrassed about the not infrequent kidnapping of Indians? Was it too sensitive a subject? Is there a bit of racism in not portraying them as human? Does history have to be so sanitized for children?
I’d really like answers to those questions.
Years ago I attended an Indian Powwow. I saw a group of Iroquois Indians sitting together and saw them laughing, really enjoying themselves. I had an instant reaction, thinking I thought Indians were sullen and serious. I guess the Indian of John Wayne and Hollywood was still deep in my subconscious. I caught myself but was ashamed and embarrassed by my ignorance.
A friend of mine went on a Plantation tour in the deep South. The guide pointed out the slave cabins and said “The workers lived over there”. My friend said “Excuse me, weren’t they slaves?” The tour guide seemed a little irritated with the question, as if it was “splitting hairs”. My friend continued “My definition of workers is someone who is paid for their labor, slaves weren’t really ‘workers’ per se.”
Until films like “Little Big Man” and “Dances With Wolves”, we were all somewhat ignorant I guess.
Interestingly, the portrayal of a transgender or "two-spirit" named “Little Horse” in the 1970 movie “Little Big Man” was positive, long before it became a big issue in America.
I hope someone can explain to me why our teaching of history left out so many good stories.
Sources:
Mourt's Relation: A Relation or Journal of the Beginning and Proceedings of the English Plantation Settled at Plimoth in New England
Of Plimouth Plantation, by Governor Bradford
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