The Natives who gathered with the English settlers in the fall of 1622 thought they were coming to their aid. Only a few months earlier, in March 1622, the two communities had worked out the terms of a treaty. It stipulated that if either party were in trouble, the other would come to help. When the Natives heard the English shooting off their guns as part of their celebration, they thought they were being attacked. When they learned the English were having their own thanksgiving ceremony, they left to get more food and returned to help them celebrate.

Fall 1620

In November of 1620, the Mayflower was still at sea, where it had been sailing since September. Some of the passengers had been on the ship since July. The start of the cross-Atlantic journey was delayed three times to repair leaks in the companion ship, the Speedwell. The third time turned out not to be the charm, but rather the conclusion of attempts to make the Speedwell seaworthy.

Finally, on September 6 – or 16 – depending on which calendar you prefer – the Mayflower was at sea at last. There was no thanksgiving celebration that fall as there was no harvest, or crops, or a place identified where crops might be planted. Their first fall in the New (to them) World, the Pilgrims reached into the bottom of their food barrels in search of anything to eat.

Other Thanksgiving Traditions

Mayflower Chronicles: The Tale of Two Cultures, my historical novel about the events leading up to our traditional Thanksgiving, is now two years old. I’d be happy to speak to your book club or organization about this fascinating history. Contact me at HowWiseThen to make arrangements. You can sign up to receive weekly blogs and/or a monthly newsletter there as well. If you enjoyed this article, share it with a friend.

Mayflower Chronicles: The Tale of Two Cultures covers the Pilgrim’s escape from England and their interactions with the Pokanoket people. Available wherever books are sold in paperback, eBook, and audio.
Bookshop.org (Supporting local Indie Bookshops)
Amazon.com/Mayflower-Chronicles-Tale-Two-Cultures/
BarnesandNoble.com/w/mayflower-chronicles-kathryn-haueisen/
Autographed copies are available from my website or BlueWillowBookShop.com/book/

The post Thanksgiving History appeared first on How Wise Then.

The official publication date was October 12, 2020 – aka Columbus/Indigenous Peoples Day.  We had hoped (I know, what were we thinking?) that by the 16th it would surely be safe to gather folks in person. Consistent with 2020, we had to limit the in-person crowd to family only, except for our gracious hostess Julie. Another disappointing turn of events, which rendered our dash to have books on hand for the book launch unnecessary.

A Few Folks in the Book Publishing Village

Originally I planned to introduce some of the folks who helped with the book by bringing them on-line, one at a time. My granddaughter Sarah Flores has considerable theatre tech experience and is now also a COVID-19 veteran at providing tech support for virtual theatre events.  She assured me doing that would be an internet connectivity nightmare of gigantic proportions. Plan X (This year I’ve used up nearly an entire alphabet of alternative plans. How about you?) was to pre-record a series of interviews.

Publicist Ben Tanzer to the rescue. Over the course of a few weeks he set up interviews with eight special guests. We planned to give each guest four to five minutes. None of the interviews were that short. Sarah hasn’t fessed up to how many hours she spent editing them down to that length, but she managed to do it, with one notable exception, that I’ll explain in a new paragraph. While Sarah was editing, Ben was interviewing me for his This Will Change Your Life Podcast.

I wanted to run a contest to give away some prizes. Book launch professional extraordinaire Sandy Lawrence ran the contest portion and I assigned my daughter Carol Flores to collect answers as they appeared in the chat box.

New Old Family Friends

The last and longest of Ben’s interviews were with two special folks I met while looking for indigenous people to preview the book before publishing it. It turns out our ancestors met 400 years ago in Cape Cod. We met a few months ago. Ben did an amazing interview with William Guy, aka Po Wauipi Neimpaug, the Sagamore of the Pokanoket people, and his daughter, Tracey Brown, aka Po Pummukaonk Anogqs. The edited version is about ten minutes; the unedited version about twenty-six minutes. Both are available at www.HowWiseThen.com

The whole event is available on You Tube, with the link on the HowWiseThen website. There you’ll also find links to the other interviews and a couple of readings from the audio book which is in production.

Catch It If You Can Contest

In other breaking news, we printed a small batch of ARCs (Advance Review Copies), which were gone in a couple of weeks, but not without catching assorted errors overlooked in many previous proof reads of the manuscript. This, confirms my theory the best way to catch errors is to print the paper, article, or book. All the errors have now been found and corrected. We think.

We’re so sure we’ve found all of them that we’re going to offer you a chance to prove us wrong, and if you do, and you’re the first to catch one we missed and report it, you’ll win a $25 gift card.

How to Enter the Catch It If You Can Contest

• All errors must be reported by 11:55 December 31, 2020.
• You must first request a copy of errors already brought to our attention whether you find them in the e-book or the print version. To get this list send me an e-mail through https://www.HowWiseThen.com with “Catch It if You Can” in the subject line.
• State whether you caught an error in the print or E-book version.
• Document page number, paragraph, and line.
• State the error and what the correction it would be.
• Make sure we have your full name, e-mail address, and phone number in case we need to contact you.

On Our Way Rejoicing

To conclude the virtual event I wrote a benediction that I’ll leave with you as I close this week’s blog:

As we go our separate ways, may the Great Giver of all life guide our way, guard our hearts from hate, grant us courage to challenge injustice and compassion to reach across cultural boundaries.

May bonds of friendship prove stronger than fear of strangers. May we embrace our differences, make amends for past wrongs and resolve to respect the rights of those who look, dress, talk, and think in ways that are foreign to us.

May we work together to pave a path of peace and reconciliation.

The post Behind the Scenes: Virtual Book Launch! appeared first on How Wise Then.

An Amazing Introduction

And that is how I met Po Pummukoank Anogqs, also known as Tracey Brown, of the Pokanoket Nation. And daughter of Neimquag, also known as William Guy, the Sagamore of that nation. As if all that weren’t exciting enough, her family heritage traces directly back to Ousamequin, commonly known in the history books as Massasoit. That is his title, not his name. It was this great leader who called on the newly arrived English settlers as they were establishing their Plimoth Plantation on the site of the village left abandoned by the Great Dying only a couple of years earlier. Tracey and I talked. Twelve generations later – two descendants of two families that played key roles at the start of what has became the United States. We talked. Two women with overlapping family histories and a shared passion for working for justice and peace among people of different cultures.

Twelve Generations Later

Kathryn Haueisen

I am a twelve-generation descendant of William and Mary Brewster, two of those refugees. While I do not know how many generations are between Tracey’s family and Ousamequin, I suppose about twelve. Her ancestors and mine met four hundred years ago in modern Plymouth, Massachusetts. They and others from both cultures sat together one March afternoon to negotiate a treaty. They worked out an agreement that they would help one another, come to one another’s aid, and hand over for punishment anyone from either group that did wrong to the other group. Both communities honored that treaty for a generation.

But as more and more immigrants arrived things shifted for the worse. Newer arrivals did not honor the treaty or the Pokanoket people. Eventually the situation erupted in war. Tracey straightened out my understanding of some of the details of that horrific King Philip’s War. King Philip’s name was actually Metacomet, Ousamequin’s son, and also Tracey’s ancestor. The Pokanoket people were badly defeated and the survivors forbidden to use the name of their nation. Some reformed as the Wampanoag Nation. Others were hauled away as slaves.

The descendants of some now live in the same neighborhood as the friend I met while writing a story about both our family histories. Now, twelve generations later, we’ve met by phone. I am humbled and honored to now know about Tracey and her family.

A Belated Thank You and Apology

Dear Po Pummukoank Anogqs and all of your family,

First, I am grateful to you for the support and welcome you extended to my family when they arrived as half-starved and desperate refugees four hundred years ago. I am grateful that our ancestors saw the wisdom of finding ways to live near one another, respecting one another’s differences, learning one another’s ways, and even enjoying one another’s friendship.

But I am also deeply saddened to think that likely some of my ancestors fought against some of yours. That people of my heritage did not always see the value of mutual cooperation and community. That they did not appreciate the long and rich history of your people. That they did not appreciate the ways your people have cared for the earth and lived together in communities for thousands of years before our families met.

Having now met you, at least by phone, I am encouraged that perhaps our generation can make progress toward once again living together in peace and mutual respect. I pledge to you that I will do all that is within my power to set the record straight; to give your people the credit you well deserve for your part in my family’s and our nation’s history; to tell the story as fully and accurately and honestly as I am able.

Twelve generations later, on behalf of William and Mary Brewster and all those who traveled on the Mayflower with them, thank you. May there once again be a lasting peace between my family and yours. May that peace be contagious. May mutual respect spread until all our children, grandchildren, and their grandchildren are infected with a spirit of respect, honor, and appreciation for one another’s histories and communities.

And thank you Beth Splaine for this introduction.

If you enjoyed this blog, you might also enjoy this one: Massasoit Ousamequin

The post Twelve Generations After the Mayflower appeared first on How Wise Then.

The Wampanoag have inhabited this area for 15,000 years, and provided lifesaving survival skills and assistance to people arriving from Europe and Great Britain in the early 17th century. However, few Americans are fully aware that Native communities are still here and nurturing a beautiful living culture consisting of Earth-based spirituality, language revival, and environmental caretaking and consciousness.

The good news is that today Native people – and those who want a more complete and accurate history of this continent – are starting to receive more attention and traction. The not-so-good news is that many people in the United States are still perfectly content to ignore the history and rights of Indigenous people, even dismissing Native culture as past history. All too often, Indigenous people are still mentioned in the past tense in the schools, history classes, books, articles, and essays.

The traditional term for a Wampanoag community leader is sachem. The role of the sachem is to provide egalitarian leadership and facilitate consensus based decision-making. Historically, sachems worked alongside everyone else to provide food and shelter for the community. They have held specific roles, but not in the context of hierarchy as it is understood in European societies.

Women are Equals

One aspect of Wampanoag culture that truly baffled English men first negotiating trade and other deals was the matrilineal nature of Wampanoag community. Women wielded great influence within the community. Time after time an English man approached a Wampanoag man, only to be directed to talk to a Wampanoag woman. Wampanoag communities typically choose sachems through the mother’s line. If no qualified leader is available there, the community chooses someone else, usually with the consensus of the elder women. Leaders are chosen for their natural leadership abilities.

The Wampanoags, along with thousands of others in adjacent Native communities, had been taking care of the land for thousands of years before Europeans arrived. In Europe, a few wealthy people owned most of the land and controlled it with deeds. The Wampanoag and other groups view Mother Earth as sacred, and care for her accordingly. Owning land is as far fetched as the idea of owning the air or rain. In contrast,  Europeans risked the treacherous trans-Atlantic journey hoping to own a piece of land, something not likely to ever happen for them back in Europe.

Tragedies to Address

In the years right before the Mayflower sailed into Cape Cod Bay the Native people had to deal with two assaults to their peaceful way of life. The first occurred in 1614 when English Captain Hunt kidnapped 19 young Wampanoag men and a half dozen other Native people to sell as slaves in Europe. These kidnappings naturally made Indigenous people suspicious of all Europeans. The second disaster was the series of epidemics from 1616 to 1619. Native people had no immunity to European-imported diseases like Yellow Fever that left three out of every four in their graves. Entire villages were wiped out. The Wampanoag refer to this period as the Great Dying.

By the time the Mayflower arrived, the Wampanoag population was reduced to around 30,000 inhabiting 40 villages. At that time, Ousamequin was the great sachem among

sachems – the Massasoit. He bore much of the responsibility for leading the Wampanoag after the devastation described above. As I wrote in a previous blog about Massasoit Ousamequin, this  shaped how he and others interacted with the English settlers in 1620 and 1621.

Seasons of Change

Initially, the fledgling English settlements had little impact on the Wampanoag, who spent their summers closer to the ocean, tending their gardens and supplementing their diets with fish, lobster, and other creatures caught from the sea and rivers. Each spring Wampanoag women prepared the fields for planting, using fish caught by men in the annual herring run to the enrich the soil. They grew corn, squash and beans. When summer gave way to fall, they moved inland where they hunted in the forests. They also tapped maple syrup and dined on cranberries and other wild plants.

Sleeping benches along the perimeter

During this time period Wampanoag lived in wetus, dome-shaped homes built with wood poles, bark, and cattail reeds, leaving a hole in the roof for smoke to escape from fires used for cooking and warmth. People slept on benches along the perimeter. (Photos by author at Plimoth Plantation Wampanoag Village, Plymouth, MA)

Early European sleeping closet

Sleeping quarters for people in Europe weren’t much more luxurious. With the exception of royalty and the very wealthy, a typical “bedroom” in a European home of the same era might be an over-sized closet where adults slept sitting up. Children slept on bedding spread on the floor by night and stored in the closet by day. (Photo by author in a 15th-century home at American Pilgrim Museum in Leiden, Netherlands)

Adaptation of the Cultures

The Wampanoag are highly spiritual in nature. They believe a divine spirit blessed them with the gifts from the land and had well developed rituals to express their gratitude. The Wampanoag have a reciprocal relationship with the land that gives them life and they care for it in return.

Massasoit Ousamequin initiated a treaty with the first English settlers, and several friendships between the two cultures followed. A generation later two pivotal events pitted the two cultures against each other. The first was Ousamequin’s death in 1661. Before he died he asked the English to give his two sons English names. His older son, Wamsutta, was re-named Alexander. His younger son, Metacomet, was re-named Philip. Wamsutta/Alexander followed his father as the great sachem when Ousamequin died. After meeting with the English, he became violently ill and perished, leaving his younger brother to take his place. A record from the Plymouth Council from that era records the purchase of poison “to rid ourselves of a pest.”

Metacomet/King Philip, grew increasingly concerned about the second alarming situation. The first English settlers operated more or less under a “live and let live” philosophy, in part because they were desperate and needed Native assistance to survive; but also, because they got to know the Wampanoag as neighbors. Later arrivals, no longer in danger of starving, brought insatiable appetites for more and more land and drove Native peoples further and further away. King Philip decided the only way to preserve their way of life was to chase the Europeans away once and for all.

In terms of the percentage of the population dead because of it, King Philip’s War was more deadly than the Civil War. The Wampanoag lost the war, their land, their relatives, and much of their way of life.

Life Today

Though significantly reduced in number, the Wampanoag people survived. Today there are an estimated 12,000 Wampanoag, living mainly in the Massachusetts and Cape Cod area. The few Wampanoag currently living in the Caribbean probably descend from ancestors taken there as slaves. Some Wampanoag live at Gay Head on Martha’s Vineyard, some in Mashpee on Cape Cod, where there is a museum; and others are scattered in a variety of places.

So, what? you may ask. That happened 400 years ago. Who cares about that today?

I care for two reasons. First, a community founded on genocide is a community in need of repentance. Secondly, the earth groans with the consequences of centuries of neglect and abuse. Indigenous people know how to care for the earth. We do ourselves a great service when not only learn about the Wampanoag and their past; but also learn from them today.

We can’t undo history; but we can learn from it and do better going forward.

Thank you for taking time learn more about the history of the people who saved the lives of the people we credit with establishing our modern Thanksgiving tradition. I hope you found this informative and inspiring. If so, please take another minute to forward this to a friend. If you got this from a friend, you can have your very own free subscription by signing up at up at HowWiseThen. One of the gifts I have for you is a schedule of the many events scheduled to commemorate the first encounters between the English and the Wampanoag. Mayflower Chronicles: The Tale of Two Cultures will be released next year to tell a more complete story of what happened 400 years ago.

If you enjoyed this blog you may also enjoy an earlier one I wrote about Ousamequin as the Wampanoag Massasoit

The post Who Are the Wampanoag? appeared first on How Wise Then.

What you probably know about our annual Thanksgiving celebration is incomplete at best. Parts of the popular story are also inaccurate and misleading.

I pick up the story in the later decades of the 1500s when political and religious upheavals that drove a small group of rural folks to flee for safety and sanctuary in a foreign country. Sound familiar? I include the history of what was unfolding on this continent during this same time period. Though the societies living in North America varied greatly from those of Europe, this continent already sustained hundreds of thousands of communities with diverse religions, economies, and governance.

Their Story – My Personal Story

I grew up knowing we descend from William and Mary Brewster, through my mother’s side of the family. The Brewsters were among the 102 Mayflower passengers. I was many years into adult life before I understood that William was a deacon in his congregation in Holland. When they established a new community along the coast of Cape Cod he functioned as their pastor since their pastor stayed behind in Holland. Having become a pastor myself later in life, I feel a special kinship to this relative I never met. After researching his life in great detail, I realize I have a beloved grandfather who died centuries before I was born. He and I share in common our later-in-life work as leaders in our respective faith traditions.

As I learned more about his wife, Mary-whose-birth-family-is-yet-unknown, she too captured my admiration. Her story inspires me to put whatever challenges I face in perspective. She left three older children behind when she and William and their two younger sons sailed. Before that, she gave up a life of relative luxury in the Scrooby Manor house in England to emigrate as a desperate refugee.

Via marriage our family tree now also includes relatives who carry Native DNA in their blood. These relatives have made me much more aware and ashamed about the how some of my ancestors have abused and mistreated some of theirs. Retelling this story more fully and accurately is one small step I can take to advocate for more respectful cross-cultural relationships. I can’t undo or redo history; none of us can. I can tell the story more fully and accurately. Their amazing story played an integral part in shaping the USA of today.

Historic Heroes

Once the Mayflower anchored after a treacherous two-month voyage, the real heroes in this story were the Natives. Natives saw them exploring and realized they were dying, sometimes at a rate of two or three day. Half the Europeans died before the first spring thaw from poor diet, extreme weather conditions, inadequate shelter, and hard, physical labor. The Natives had to contend with their own challenges when thousands of them died from diseases introduced by earlier explorers. Though the Natives had good reasons to take advantage of the desperate and weakened strangers encroaching their land, they chose instead to work out a treaty. Both parties honored the treaty for a generation. Later immigrants ignored the treaty with devastating consequences.

For a moment in time the equally desperate English and Natives befriended and assisted one another. We found ways to collaborate once. We can do it again. I believe that, and that is why I’ve invested seven years and multiple research trips to tell this story again as historical fiction. By writing it as historical fiction I was able to give voice to these people and fill in the gaps in the historical record.

A Few Fun Facts

• In Germany in 1517 Martin Luther used the new invention of the movable type printing press to publish and post his objections to what the church of his day was doing. He posted 95 talking points on the church door in Wittenberg, unknowingly launched the Protestant Reformation, and went into hiding for nine months.
• Not quite a century later William Brewster and a partner procured a printing press which they hid in the garret of Brewster’s home in Holland. They published religious books and pamphlets protesting the policies and practices of the Established Church of England. When his printing press was confiscated Brewster went into hiding for most of the year before boarding the Mayflower.Taking that voyage led Brewster to help draft the Mayflower Compact which helped establish the course of a new nation.
•  Earlier in his life William was on the staff of Queen Elizabeth I’s Secretary of State, Ambassador William Davison. Davison delivered the death warrant for her Majesty to sign that resulted in the execution of her cousin, Mary Queen of Scots. Brewster was likely an eye witness, or nearby, when the Queen signed the death warrant.
• William and Mary Brewster often hosted William Bradford for meals until he married. Bradford eventually served as Governor of Plimoth Plantation for three decades. When his young wife died, he lived with the Brewsters for a short period of time.
• The Mayflower was damaged in a storm mid-Atlantic. When Captain Jones assessed the damage, he wanted to return to England, afraid the ship wouldn’t make it all the way to the Americas and back to England. The passengers saved the day and the trip with a giant screw they brought with them to use in constructing their new homes.
• The Natives negotiated a treaty with the newcomers in English because a few of them learned the language from prior encounters with English-speaking explorers. One of the Natives was kidnapped by an English captain who intended to sell him into slavery in Europe. Catholic friars purchased his freedom. He made it to England, lived with an international business man, learned English, and was sent home to serve as an interpreter for trade negotiations.

Today there are an estimated thirty-five million descendants of the original 102 Mayflower passengers. Ten million of them live in the States. Perhaps you’re one of them? There is also a Wampanoag Nation, whose members live primarily, but not exclusively, near where the the two cultures first met.

If you’re interested in this chapter of history you may also enjoy this blog about The Mayflower.

Thinking about publishing your own book? Take a look at what  Green Writers Press  has to offer.

I’ll be posting updates on the book’s progress. Next year – 2020 – is going to be full of activities in four communities: The United States, the Wampanoag Nation, England where it all started, and Holland where the future Pilgrims lived for over a decade. Come along for tips and updates on various activities planned. Meet the people who made history and the people who brought it to life for the quad-centennial commemoration. If you got this blog from a friend, you can get your own FREE subscription at HowWiseThen. I’m currently giving away tips for recognizing and coping with dementia in memory and honor of my older brother who passed away recently after struggling with dementia issues for several years.

The post Mayflower Chronicles – The Tale of Two Cultures appeared first on How Wise Then.

But what if the alternate name for a rose was not something that suggested a fragrant-smelling plant but rather a slur of some sort to call it a hideous bush with thorns that scratch and leave scars? Then would any other name matter?

I recently visited Plimouth Plantation in Plymouth, MA to learn more about the rest of the story of the arrival of the Mayflower nearly 400 years ago. The common version either overlooks or drastically condenses the impact of that event on the people who were on this continent first.

While there I overheard a conversation between a mother visiting the Wampanoag home site and the young woman demonstrating what Wampanoag life might have been like in the early 1600’s. The gist of their conversation was that her son had used the term “Indian” in asking a question, and had been told that wasn’t really appropriate terminology. The mother asked what would be proper terminology.

The young woman explained it this way: The term “Indian” comes from Christopher Columbus’ bad geography. He thought he’d arrived near India and so named the people he encountered “Indians” and the term stuck. The United States government established the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1824. Continuing to be referred to by a term describing people from a country thousands of miles away, is problematic for those who were here first.

Common alternatives are “Native Americans,” “Indigenous,” or “First Nation.” These are often used inter-changeably, but also pose some challenges. For example, the Native Americans were here long before there was any concept of this continent being “America.” That name derives from Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian explorer who suggested what Columbus sailed into was actually an entirely different continent, previously unknown to European globe sailing captains of ships and commerce.

The term “First Nation” incorrectly assumes there was one nation established before the Revolutionary War that led to the establishment of a second nation, the United States of America. In reality there were hundreds of native nations and hundreds of thousands of people living in this vast continent before the Europeans found their way to these shores.

The term “indigenous peoples” seems innocuous enough until we delve into the history of relationships between those who were here first and those who came later. The later arrivals had a very nasty practice of displacing those here first, kidnapping them to sell as slaves, murdering them, and introducing fatal diseases that reduced their pre-European population by 70 or more percent in a matter of a few years. Modern terminology uses the term “indigenous people” to describe the persons whose way of life was virtually eliminated by the new comers.

So, where does that leave us? Well the young woman at the Wampanoag home site suggested we start by asking someone their nationality. Just as I sometimes define myself as half English and half German, those who were here first have a specific national identity they claim. Native nations consist of groups of communities, usually bound together by a common language. Though their numbers have been considerably reduced since the early pioneer era, there are still direct descendants of the Wampanoag nation and other original nations all up and down the East Coast, as well as many other areas within the USA.

I’d like to suggest a possible way move forward through the awkwardness of trying to decide how to define groups of people. First, listen and when someone says a particular term is offensive be willing to hear why. There is probably some history the other knows about what happened that most of us do not know. Listen to learn.

Next, find things we have in common and build a connection based on that. For example, we are all dependent on the natural resources for survival, so perhaps we can do more to preserve and protect them. We all have families of some sort. We can learn about one another’s families. We all have some very basic needs for food, shelter, and some sort of work to sustain life. We can learn about these.

Names have tremendous power. Farmers often discourage children from giving names to the animals that are eventually headed to the family dinner table. Once a creature has a name, it morphs into something more than livestock.

Name-calling is a common weapon used to discredit the value of another human being. Names easily put people into categories and then we judge the value of a person by that category. On the other hand, NOT giving someone a name is a way of discrediting their existence. Many women in history are known only as some man’s wife, daughter, or mother. Their lives weren’t considered important enough to record their actual names.

Confusion about what name to use creates a barrier where we ought to be building a bridge. I don’t claim to have the answers, but I do have some suggestions. Start with a smile. A smile is a universally recognized non-verbal expression of friendship. Be genuinely interested in learning; including being open to hearing ways in which our ancestors have abused and discredited other people. Denying history does not erase it; it only keeps us from learning from it and moving forward beyond it. When we don’t know, ask: “What name do you prefer?”

Individuals are just that – unique and separate from all other people. There isn’t going to be one term that meets with approval from everyone who may appropriately be classified in a particular group within the human family. We can learn. We can ask. We can do our best to avoid offending after we learn what is offensive.

Most of all, we can show up with an open mind, willing to increase our awareness. If you’re interested in increasing your own awareness about the people who dwelt on this continent first, you may find these books helpful: An Indigenous People’s History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and Our Beloved Kin by Lisa Brooks.

If you liked this blog, you may also enjoy reading Pilgrims Meet the Locals.

Thank you for reading about my recent visit to Plimouth Plantation Plimouth Plantation in Plymouth, MA.  If you enjoyed reading this, please take another minute to forward this to a friend. If you want to read future weekly blogs about people and programs making helpful contributions to society, sign up at HowWiseThen. I’m currently giving away a section from the study guide from of my most recent book, Asunder.

The post What’s in a Name? appeared first on How Wise Then.

Of the 102 passengers on the Mayflower less than half were part of the Pilgrim congregation from Leiden, Holland. The Pilgrims were English refugees who immigrated to Holland in 1608 to escape persecution and possibly execution. First known as Separatists, they formed their own congregation that challenged the practices of the Established Church of England. The Puritans wanted to purify the Church. The Separatists, or Pilgrims, wanted to establish their own first-century style Christian community. They immigrated to Holland for that purpose. In 1620 they cast their fate with English investors sending settlers to colonize the New World.

Pilgrims and Strangers

The Pilgrims referred to the other settlers as Strangers. Some of these were assigned to the group by the investors who wanted more people working on their behalf. Some signed on for personal reasons. The investors planned to profit from the fish and furs settlers would send back to England. More settlers, more profits. Though they were less than thrilled with the Strangers joining them, the small Separatist community needed more people along to help cover the cost of trip.

The Mayflower finally set sail from Plymouth, England on September 6, 1620 after two failed attempts to leave earlier in the summer. A companion ship, the Speedwell, brought the Separatists from Holland to meet the Mayflower at Southampton, with the Stranger passengers already on board. The Speedwell was supposed to stay with the settlers to facilitate their trade and fishing efforts when the Mayflower returned. After the Speedwell returned to harbor twice for repairs that ship abandoned the journey. The Passengers and cargo from the Speedwell were added to the passengers, cargo, and around thirty crewmen already on the Mayflower.

Storms and Sightings of Land

Their late departure meant they crossed the Atlantic during the fall with rather rough seas. During one particularly violent storm the main mast beam snapped in two. High waves combined with strong waves tossed the ship around and frigid rain soaked everyone. Yet somehow a combination of passengers and crewmen managed to repair the beam, using the giant screw the passengers brought to help build their new homes.

The ship crew was headed for the mouth of the Hudson River, but first sighted land off the coast of Cape Cod on November 11 – after over two months at sea. Rather than fight more treacherous seas, Captain Christopher Jones sailed to the inside of the tip of the Cape, They dropped anchor off the coast of what is now Provincetown and stayed there six weeks. First they had to reassemble the shallop they’d dissembled to fit in the cargo hold. It took nearly two weeks to do that. Then expedition parties set out in search of a suitable place to establish their settlement.

Lost and Found

The exploration party found what they considered the perfect place at Plymouth. The site was an abandoned Native American village. Most of the previous residents died in an epedemic a few years earlier. The rest moved further inland or weren’t there because they were captured by Europeans and taken to Spain as slaves. One of them – Tisquantum, or Squanto – eventually made it back and introduced the English to Sachem (Chief) Massasoit the following spring.

In the years leading up to the arrival of the Mayflower thousands of Natives all along the East coast died from diseases introduced by earlier explorers and traders. Figures on how many Natives died from the diseases introduced by Europeans vary, but some estimate as many as 90% of the Native population died because they had no immunity to these imported scourges. The Mayflower passengers and crew survived in part because they found the food supplies left behind when epidemics turned village after village into ghost towns.

When the expedition men reported finding the deserted Native village that they renamed Plymouth, Captain Jones sailed the Mayflower across the harbor. He dropped anchor again, a mile off shore; as close as the ship could get due to the low water levels. They anchored just in time for Christmas, but the Pilgrims didn’t observe it; for them it was just another workday. Captain Jones kept the Mayflower in the harbor until May. The ship served as home base while the settlers started felling trees to build the Common House. Work progressed slowly. Some of the men spent their time hunting to replenish low food supplies. Frequent rain or snow made work difficult and some days impossible. Many were too sick to work. Death was a constant companion.

Overcoming Hardships and Setbacks

One passenger died shortly before they first sighted land and was buried at sea. Dorothy Bradford died while they were anchored off the coast of today’s Provincetown. She fell overboard while William was off exploring with other men. William Bradford served as their Governor for many years and much of what we know about this history comes from his detailed account of their lives. During that first winter forty-five men, women and children died from a combination of scurvy, the ill effects of extreme temperatures and inadequate food and shelter. Many of the Mayflower crew also fell sick, and about half of them died, including the cook and three of the four quartermasters.

By May the settlers had built the Common House, a storage shed, and seven houses. Before he and his diminished crew set sail, Captain Jones offered to take anyone who wanted to go, back to England. They all stayed. The Mayflower made the return voyage in one month.

Giving Thanks

By the 1621 fall harvest only fifty-three of the original 102 passengers were still alive. Only five adult women survived to pull together their first harvest celebration. The Natives and the English worked out a treaty the previous March, stating they would protect and help one another if either group were to be attacked by any other group. It may be that the Natives came around initially because they heard the gunfire from the English celebration activities. It was obvious there was not enough food for the estimated ninety Natives who showed up. So the Natives went hunting and added considerabe additional resources. Massasoit’s people lived some distance from Plymouth, so it was only logical they would stay to rest and dine before heading back to their own villages. However the two groups got together, they apparently did share several days of feasting, games and celebrating the fact they were still alive.

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. It seems less commercialized than some of the other holidays. The more I learn about what transpired back in the 1600’s, the more grateful I am we have established this as a national holiday. Whether your ancestors were Native Americans, refugees, slaves or immigrants, on this Thanksgiving Day, let us celebrate that they got here and established our family trees. Given the hardships for both the Natives and the English, it is truly a miracle any were alive by the fall of 1621.

Some of the information for this blog comes from http://mayflowerhistory.com which is written and edited by Caleb Johnson.

What is your favorite Thanksgiving memory or story?

The post The “First” Thanksgiving Was No Picnic appeared first on How Wise Then.

After Christopher Columbus encountered the Americas other European captains regularly explored the bays and inlets along the North American shoreline. They were in search of resources to haul home and trade for profits. With visions of wealth and prosperity filling their heads, they crisscrossed the turbulent Atlantic seas often.

Expanding International Trade

Captain John Smith was one of those captains. He is best known for being rescued by Pocahontas, but he also explored the New England area. He hoped to establish a fishing export business there. When he finished his explorations in 1614 he appointed Captain Thomas Hunt to negotiate a trade agreement with the Native Americans. Captain Hunt did that, but he also kidnapped twenty-four young Patuxets and Nausets to take home as slaves. Tisquantum was one of them.

Tisquantum and the others made their cross-Atlantic journey in the hold of Captain Hunt’s ship. Hunt sold several of the men as slaves in Spain. A group of Friars found Hunt’s business plan repugnant. They bought the freedom of some of the men, including Tisquantum.

Somehow Tisquantum made his way to England. There he met and lived with John Slaney, Treasurer of the Newfoundland Company. The Newfoundland Company had established a colony in the New World in 1610. Slaney saw the advantage of a bi-lingual person to help facilitate trade deals in the New World. He sent Tisquantum back across the Atlantic to serve as an interpreter for the Newfoundland Company.

Home Not So Sweet Home

In Newfoundland Tisquantum met Captain Thomas Dermer. Dermer wanted to get in on the lucrative beaver pelt business evolving in today’s Massachusetts area. However after Hunt kidnapped those twenty-four Natives things got tense. Dermer took Tisquantum with him in 1619 to help ease relations.

During the years Tisquantum was detained in Europe, some form of plague introduced by European explorers wiped out his entire village. He alone survived. He migrated to where the Wampanoag Confederation lived, near where the Mayflower would end its long voyage the following year.

Networking Seventeenth Century Style

The Mayflower arrived in Cape Cod November 1620. Because it was winter, passengers and crew slept on the ship until March. One day shortly after they moved onto land Native-American Samoset came to meet them. He had learned a little English from European traders, so, much to the English immigrants’ surprise, he greeted them in their own language. He soon introduced them to Tisquantum, who in turn introduced them to Chief Massasoit, leader of the Wampanoag Confederation. Tisquantum helped the two parties negotiate a peace treaty and establish trading relations.

Tisquantum soon became a regular visitor among the English, teaching them how to hunt for eels and plant crops. His help as an interpreter made negotiations with influential Native leaders much easier.

Had Tisquantum not come along with his bi-lingual skills the Mayflower story might have had a very different ending. It’s likely we wouldn’t know any more about the Mayflower passengers than we do about hundreds of anonymous Europeans who died trying to establish colonies in the New World. Thanks to Tisquantum, enough Pilgrims survived to host that famous fall feast and we get to enjoy our annual Thanksgiving Day traditions. I’ve often told my grandchildren they represent the whole story. Their genetic heritage includes English, German, Irish, Spanish, and Native American.

Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours.

Some of the information for this blog is from Caleb Johnson’s website: http://mayflowerhistory.com/tisquantum

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