How Thanksgiving Got Its Turkey
- Posted by: Kevin West
- on November 6, 2009 at 8:49 am
The history of Thanksgiving is much deeper than you think. Plus, a Thanksgiving jam recipe.
Thanksgiving is a myth, or at least it is as taught to school children. I don’t mean to be a spoil-sport. Thanksgiving is still my favorite holiday, in part because it sanctifies gluttony. More meaningfully, it also is the rare holiday that is framed by beliefs I hold dear: about nature’s abundance, the vitality of kinship across the generations, and the universal brotherhood of the table.
But the fond story about Pilgrims in brass-buckle shoes being saved from starvation in 1621 by kindly buckskin-clad Indians bearing gifts of wild game and corn is a legend, according to a fascinating article by food historian Andrew F. Smith that appeared in the fall, 2003, issue of the academic journal Gastronomica. The Thanksgiving meal is as laden with symbolism as sustenance; it’s just that the true meaning isn’t exactly what we learned in grade school.
After the grave Puritans arrived on the Mayflower and established Plimoth Plantation in 1620, they promptly began to issue all sorts of thanksgiving proclamations. These “celebrations” might be declared in observance of “a military victory, a good harvest, or a providential rainfall,” says Smith, but they were solemn days of prayer, not sumptuous meals shared with their First Nation brothers.
It’s true that there does exist a letter dated December, 1621, that mentions a big feast of wild fowl eaten with Native American king Massasoit and his men, and the missive has since been enshrined as evidence of the original thanksgiving feast. But the purpose of this letter makes it suspect: It was sent to England to attract more settlers to Plymouth Plantation. Rather than the founding document of America’s a multicultural past, it’s something of a hyped-up real-estate advertisement.
The idea of a national day of feasting, family, and reflection belonged to the 19th century and was promulgated by an energetic writer named Sarah Josepha Hale. Best remembered by history for having penned the verses for “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” Hale also wrote the 1827 novel Northwood; a Tale of New England, which included an entire chapter on thanksgiving. She laid out quite a spread: a roast turkey with stuffing, pumpkin pie, and “plates of pickles, preserves … and all the necessaries for increasing the seasoning of the viands to the demand of each palate.” This florid passage established the template for the traditional turkey dinner, the same menu sentimentalized in Norman Rockwell’s 1943 painting Freedom from Want.
We still eat turkey with all the trimmings today largely thanks to Hale’s political acumen. She worked her connections all the way up to President Lincoln, to whom she wrote a personal letter persuading him to make thanksgiving a national holiday. In 1863, a few months after the battle of Gettysburg, Lincoln did just that, declaring the last Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day. (But why so late in the season—long after the the harvest season has succumbed to barren frost in many parts of the country?)
The idea of a thanksgiving feast, however, is older than Lincoln, Hale, or the Pilgrims. Indeed, buried beneath Rockwell’s layers of sentiment and piety are the dim outlines of pagan customs of autumnal gorging. The Celts, the Germanic tribes and the Greeks all had their own version of the harvest festival, and likely the idea of feasting to celebrate the end of communal work is as old as organized agriculture itself. (Before lasagna came to The Olive Garden, it was first a traditional hay-harvest dish in the French Alps, where after a good day’s work you were said to have “earned your lasagna.”) In other words, I love Thanksgiving because it’s older than America—even older perhaps than the Christian faith which moves many to say Grace before the meal.
What Thanksgiving does have to say about America’s past that is both true and worth remembering is that from the earliest Pilgrim days, the American diet has been cosmopolitan, dependent from its start on edible species from two hemispheres. The late, great Guy Davenport observes in his essay about painter Charles Burchfield:
“The honey bee came over with the settlers of New England, along with the apple tree and the pear. Two enormous ecologies blended in the New World, where pumpkin, maize, persimmon, melon, and other native vegetables changed the European palate.”
The Thanksgiving meal heaps the bounty of these “two enormous ecologies” onto one groaning board: pumpkin pie (America) and Brussel spouts (Europe). Just as vividly, it acknowledges the bounty of the New World’s aboriginal forests: the wild turkey, Meleagris gallopavo, is a native game bird that was important to the Pilgrims’ survival and can still he hunted in many parts of the country today.
In this sense, Thanksgiving is a testament to the culinary opportunism of trans-Atlantic immigrants who cooked everything they could find to nourish their bodies—and for that matter, their souls. That’s a Thanksgiving tradition worth celebrating.
As a jam-maker, I’m pleased that Hale’s ur-Thanksgiving extravaganza included “preserves … for increasing the seasoning of the viands.” Today’s Thanksgiving is probably the single meal in our entire food calendar when almost everyone adds a bit of little sweet preserves—cranberry jelly—to their savory plate. It’s an old-fashioned thing to do, but one that is suddenly trendy again thanks to the ongoing renaissance of home-made and artisanal jams, jellies, and pickles. The Slow Food movement has helped spur interest in home canning, and Thanksgiving provides the perfect occasion for anyone who ever wanted to try his hands at making a little pot of jam.
Cranberry jam is perhaps the very easiest sweet preserve to make—it’s quick and virtually foolproof—and the results are vastly superior to the jello-stuff that glops out of a can.
This recipe, in the spirit of the Pilgrims—and our global age—pays tribute to multiple continents: the cranberry is a native North American species (order organic berries from Cranberry Hill), apples arrived to America via Europe, and oranges, ginger and cinnamon come from Asia. You can adjust the quantity of cranberries to suit what you have, just as long as you equally adjust the amount of sugar to maintain a 1:1 ratio of berries to fruit. (Note: a heaping cup of sugar equals one-half pound.)
CHUNKY CRANBERRY JAM
Ingredients:
1 pound cranberries
1 hard apple such as Arkansas Black or Granny Smith, peeled, cored and sliced into 1/2-inch chunks
1 cup water
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon chopped fresh ginger or crystallized ginger
3 inch cinnamon stick
zest of 1 orange in finest possible threads
1 teaspoon vodka
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1: Rinse cranberries and put in a kettle with water, cubed apple, ginger, cinnamon stick, and orange zest. Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes until berries pop.
2: Add sugar to the kettle and return to a gentle boil, stirring constantly. Once the sugar has fully dissolved, add vodka and nuts and cook for 2-3 minutes more until thickened, stirring carefully to prevent scorching.
3: Remove cinnamon stick and serve or refrigerate in a covered container for up to two weeks. If you want to can the jam: ladle hot jam into prepared 1/2 pint jars and seal. Process sealed jars in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.
Banner art: Jean Leon Gerome Ferris, The First Thanksgiving, 1621 (1919)
Guest blogger Kevin West is West Coast editor of W Magazine and the proprietor of the canning website Saving the Season. He’ll give a free demonstration of how to make cranberry jam and persimmon butter at Surfas in Los Angeles on Saturday, Nov. 7, at 11:00 a.m.
DISCUSSION: 37 Comments
Great article. The history of holidays is always fascinating. I love how there actually is much more deep-rooted tradition in our holidays (especially Christmas, Halloween, Easter, and Thanksgiving) than it seems on the surface.
I read this and I find it somewhat disturbing that the predominant race still try to blow smoke over history, Thanksgiving, please take a look, go on the article, and make your comments, set this crackers strait that still fantasize over the real history of Thanksgiving, especially us form the Northeast that has and still put up this colonization.(jrdx) You want to know what really happened those days of the Puritans arrival on the Mayflower and established Plimoth Plantation in 1620?If it hadn’t been for Massasoit and his tribe the Puritans would have starved to death, they did not know how to plant and how the seasons were in the new land they invaded. Ousamequin aka Massasoit leader, of the Wampanoag Confederacy, Algonquian speaking northeastern woodland Natives in the area which now is known as Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and parts of Maine.According to English sources, Massasoit prevented the failure of Plymouth Colony and the almost certain starvation that the Pilgrims faced during the earliest years of the colony’s establishment. His tribe showed them when, what, and how to plant corn, squash, beans and other, showed them the rotation of crop and the year after at harvest time which is in the month of October both Natives and Pilgrims had a big feast of thanksgiving, a Native American feast that Natives celebrated at harvest time, which, it continues to this day and age.I can’t base historical event on a cockamamie letter send to England: (letter dated December, 1621, that mentions a big feast of wild fowl eaten with Native American king Massasoit and his men, and the missive has since been enshrined as evidence of the original thanksgiving feast. But the purpose of this letter makes it suspect: It was sent to England to attract more settlers to Plymouth Plantation. Rather than the founding document of America’s a multicultural past, it’s something of a hyped-up real-estate advertisement.) There you go it was to entice more colonization, and where does this food historian Andrew F. Smith gets his history about: (Pilgrims in brass-buckle shoes being saved from starvation in 1621 by kindly buckskin-clad Indians bearing gifts of wild game and corn is a legend,)????As usual history is always set by the predominate “winning” race, and not by the real facts.It is sad to see that this people teach in our schools the false side of history.(jrdx) and others that read this article, before believing anything the “master race” writes in his books and tell, if you really want to know the truth research, read about the history of other races, or hear what a Native has to say, then you know the truth about history of TURTLE ISLANDN’multes
THIS THANKS GIVING PHOTO is BULLSH**** and HYPOCRITICAL!!! if you don’t believe me ask a true Indian. We don’t even speak their language. We speak English, a European language! not an American language.
This comment has been deleted, because it violated our comment policy. We welcome spirited discussions, as long as they’re civil.
wtF***…i usually dont mind what anyone OPINION is about thanksgiving. However a majority of populations wouldn’t be here today if those ancestor’s of yours didn’t get fed by ndn. Im proud to be Native American. Sad to be losing our Native Language. But also understand They would have starved and be dead..no more of them if they were not fed by Native Americans. Bottom line we taught them how to survive and they probably shared some stuff with us tooo. dont hate on that. live it up and now its the truth.
First Thanksgiving???? Do a little more research, it was actually the second thanksgiving in the US. The first one was held in west Texas, a few years before the alleged first Thanksgiving…
Some of you are bashing the writer. He is merely discussing the “legend” and folklore that surrounds our current Thanksgiving. And please, dont sit on your high horse and make racist comments. Do you really think that is a constructive way to discuss anything and that anyone wants to hear from you? No. Please be aware that no person of any sort can be put in a box and labeled. People can only be judged individually. I suggest you detach yourselves from narrow thinking and prejudicial groups and become a human being, insightful and eager for knowledge that can be discussed in arenas where it will expand knowledge of others. Now, regarding Thanksgiving. One wonderful book out there that I just finished is called “Mayflower” by Nahtaniel Philbrick. It used a tremendous amount of historical sources to formulate the story of the beginnings of white civilization in this country. I found the political intricacies in the natives communities intertwining with those of the colonists very interesting. It is as it always has been, in every culture and every community, and probably in most organizations and possibly even families. Human nature’s most incredible need for power is not lost on only the majority of an area or people. It affects everyone. Also, the religious evolutions in it are amazing. Enjoy Thanksgiving for what it is today. Enjoy and love each other.
OK we white people in USA we have to kiss minorities ass!THey will do away with or traditions but JEWISH BS is OK, MUSLIM BS is OK, KAWANZA is OKLet’s make a pactName any Jewish country you conquered? Palestine, MURDERES!Ok Muslim Pakistan, Apheganistan………..endless listBlack you slaved your own brothersOK that’s the deal stop fucking around with my Xmas tree, Tks Giving cerimonyjust go do your prayers in your home landGet out of USA
We are doing something different this t-giving.. instead of going home to family.. we are doing a potluck dinner among friends.. we are using recipes from this cookbook called “Get in the Kitchen, BIT@HES!”.. (bitchcooks.com)… i am making the “bend me over beef” Jim is making the Poke Me Pork, and Emily is making the “Eat Me Eggplant”.. cant wait.. is gonna be such fun!
Bello… you are forgetting the major point.You “white” people are the foreigners. Native Americans… the clue is in the word. It’s their country, not yours. You came in and screwed them out of lots of land, before murdering them. If the US stops fucking around in the world and actually doing more positive and worthwhile things, we could finally get somewhere.Just like the “white” people in South Africa, Australia etc… You are guests (ungrateful ones at that) of the native inhabitants of the country you live in. Slaves didn’t voluntarily come to the US, they were forced to, they were ENslaved… duh! That’s what slavery is about. All the time when they did want to return home, they didn’t get the chance and they were hunted down and punished or killed. If you just took some more time to think instead of mouthing off with all kinds of bullshit, you’d see the world is not “black or white”. You forget that in times of Reagan or before the CIA trained the Taliban to fight against Russia… while they were doing that, you were more than happy for them to do so. But as always, the US screwed the people after they accomplished what you wanted, and then you get upset when they don’t stand for that shit and it blows up in your own face. You are stuck in the A-team style “violence will solve everything” way of thinking. Anyway… you probably are to prejudiced to see the truth anywayThe second major thing… there is no god! How else would you explain George Bush and Sarah Palin… Intelligent design? Yeah right!Anyway, if all the ignorant “white americans” like you came back to their countries of origin, they would have to have to change their major attitude problems first, a daunting task I suppose.
GREENFAIRYnl you rock!!! there are legions of uninformed people in this country including the White House and the Senate!! why is it that there has to be always a threat against the AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE? is’t just a lie to justify imperial ways of domination around the world. But sadly a lot of us don’t know that. Tha majic word is EMPIRE! and we better beleive it. Or we think that the license plate in NY with “THE EMPIRE STATE” frase on it is beacause it sounds cool? just in Latin America since1846
The U.S., fulfilling the doctrine of Manifest Destiny, goes to war with Mexico and ends up with a third of Mexico’s territory.
1850, 1853, 1854, 1857
U.S. interventions in Nicaragua.
1855
Tennessee adventurer William Walker and his mercenaries take over Nicaragua, institute forced labor, and legalize slavery.
He’s ousted two years later by a Central American coalition largely inspired by Cornelius Vanderbilt, whose trade Walker was infringing.
1856
First of five U.S. interventions in Panama to protect the Atlantic-Pacific railroad from Panamanian nationalists.
1898
U.S. declares war on Spain, blaming it for destruction of the Maine. (In 1976, a U.S. Navy commission will conclude that the explosion was probably an accident.) The war enables the U.S. to occupy Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines.
1903
The Platt Amendment inserted into the Cuban constitution grants the U.S. the right to intervene when it sees fit.
1903
When negotiations with Colombia break down, the U.S. sends ten warships to back a rebellion in Panama in order to acquire the land for the Panama Canal. The Frenchman Philippe Bunau-Varilla negotiates the Canal Treaty and writes Panama’s constitution.
1904
U.S. sends customs agents to take over finances of the Dominican Republic to assure payment of its external debt.
1905
U.S. Marines help Mexican dictator Porfirio Díaz crush a strike in Sonora.
1905
U.S. troops land in Honduras for the first of 5 times in next 20 years.
1906
Marines occupy Cuba for two years in order to prevent a civil war.
1907
Marines intervene in Honduras to settle a war with Nicaragua.
1908
U.S. troops intervene in Panama for first of 4 times in next decade.
1909
Liberal President José Santos Zelaya of Nicaragua proposes that American mining and banana companies pay taxes; he has also appropriated church lands and legalized divorce, done business with European firms, and executed two Americans for participating in a rebellion. Forced to resign through U.S. pressure. The new president, Adolfo Díaz, is the former treasurer of an American mining company.
1910
U.S. Marines occupy Nicaragua to help support the Díaz regime.
1911
The Liberal regime of Miguel Dávila in Honduras has irked the State Department by being too friendly with Zelaya and by getting into debt with Britain. He is overthrown by former president Manuel Bonilla, aided by American banana tycoon Sam Zemurray and American mercenary Lee Christmas, who becomes commander-in-chief of the Honduran army.
1912
U.S. Marines intervene in Cuba to put down a rebellion of sugar workers.
1912
Nicaragua occupied again by the U.S., to shore up the inept Díaz government. An election is called to resolve the crisis: there are 4000 eligible voters, and one candidate, Díaz. The U.S. maintains troops and advisors in the country until 1925.
1914
U.S. bombs and then occupies Vera Cruz, in a conflict arising out of a dispute with Mexico’s new government. President Victoriano Huerta resigns.
1915
U.S. Marines occupy Haiti to restore order, and establish a protectorate which lasts till 1934. The president of Haiti is barred from the U.S. Officers’ Club in Port-au-Prince, because he is black.
1916
Marines occupy the Dominican Republic, staying till 1924.
! 1916
Pancho Villa, in the sole act of Latin American aggression against the U.S, raids the city of Columbus, New Mexico, killing 17 Americans.
1917
U.S. troops enter Mexico to pursue Pancho Villa. They can’t catch him.
1917
Marines intervene again in Cuba, to guarantee sugar exports during WWI.
1918
U.S. Marines occupy Panamanian province of Chiriqui for two years to maintain public order.
1921
President Coolidge strongly suggests the overthrow of Guatemalan President Carlos Herrera, in the interests of United Fruit. The Guatemalans comply.
1925
U.S. Army troops occupy Panama City to break a rent strike and keep order.
1926
Marines, out of Nicaragua for less than a year, occupy the country again, to settle a volatile political situation. Secretary of State Kellogg describes a “Nicaraguan-Mexican-Soviet” conspiracy to inspire a “Mexican-Bolshevist hegemony” within striking distance of the Canal.
1929
U.S. establishes a military academy in Nicaragua to train a National Guard as the country’s army. Similar forces are trained in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
1930
Rafael Leonidas Trujillo emerges from the U.S.-trained National Guard to become dictator of the Dominican Republic.
1932
The U.S. rushes warships to El Salvador in response to a communist-led uprising. President Martínez, however, prefers to put down the rebellion with his own forces, killing over 8000 people (the rebels had killed about 100).
! 1933
President Roosevelt announces the Good Neighbor policy.
1933
Marines finally leave Nicaragua, unable to suppress the guerrilla warfare of General Augusto César Sandino. Anastasio Somoza García becomes the first Nicaraguan commander of the National Guard.
1933
Roosevelt sends warships to Cuba to intimidate Gerardo Machado y Morales, who is massacring the people to put down nationwide strikes and riots. Machado resigns. The first provisional government lasts only 17 days; the second Roosevelt finds too left-wing and refuses to recognize. A pro-Machado counter-coup is put down by Fulgencio Batista, who with Roosevelt’s blessing becomes Cuba’s new strongman.
! 1934
Platt Amendment repealed.
1934
Sandino assassinated by agents of Somoza, with U.S. approval. Somoza assumes the presidency of Nicaragua two years later. To block his ascent, Secretary of State Cordell Hull explains, would be to intervene in the internal affairs of Nicaragua.
! 1936
U.S. relinquishes rights to unilateral intervention in Panama.
1941
Ricardo Adolfo de la Guardia deposes Panamanian president Arias in a military coup– first clearing it with the U.S. Ambassador.
1943
The editor of the Honduran opposition paper El Cronista is summoned to the U.S. embassy and told that criticism of the dictator Tiburcio Carías Andino is damaging to the war effort. Shortly afterward, the paper is shut down by the government.
1944
The dictator Maximiliano Hernández Martínez of El Salvador is ousted by a revolution; the interim government is overthrown five months later by the dictator’s former chief of police. The U.S.’s immediate recognition of the new dictator does much to tarnish Roosevelt’s Good Neighbor policy in the eyes of Latin Americans.
1946
U.S. Army School of the Americas opens in Panama as a hemisphere-wide military academy. Its linchpin is the doctrine of National Security, by which the chief threat to a nation is internal subversion; this will be the guiding principle behind dictatorships in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Central America, and elsewhere.
1948
José Figueres Ferrer wins a short civil war to become President of Costa Rica. Figueres is supported by the U.S., which has informed San José that its forces in the Panama Canal are ready to come to the capital to end “communist control” of Costa Rica.
1954
Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán, elected president of Guatemala, introduces land reform and seizes some idle lands of United Fruit– proposing to pay for them the value United Fruit claimed on its tax returns. The CIA organizes a small force to overthrow him and begins training it in Honduras. When Arbenz naively asks for U.S. military help to meet this threat, he is refused; when he buys arms from Czechoslovakia it only proves he’s a Red.
The CIA broadcasts reports detailing the imaginary advance of the “rebel army,” and provides planes to strafe the capital. The army refuses to defend Arbenz, who resigns. The U.S.’s hand-picked dictator, Carlos Castillo Armas, outlaws political parties, reduces the franchise, and establishes the death penalty for strikers, as well as undoing Arbenz’s land reform. Over 100,000 citizens are killed in the next 30 years of military rule.
1957
Eisenhower establishes Office of Public Safety to train Latin American police forces.
! 1959
Fidel Castro takes power in Cuba. Several months earlier he had undertaken a triumphal tour through the U.S., which included a CIA briefing on the Red menace.
1960
Eisenhower authorizes covert actions to get rid of Castro. Among other things, the CIA tries assassinating him with exploding cigars and poisoned milkshakes. Other covert actions against Cuba include burning sugar fields, blowing up boats in Cuban harbors, and sabotaging industrial equipment.
1960
The Canal Zone becomes the focus of U.S. counterinsurgency training.
1960
A new junta in El Salvador promises free elections; Eisenhower, fearing leftist tendencies, withholds recognition. A more attractive right-wing counter-coup comes along in three months.
1960
Guatemalan officers attempt to overthrow the regime of Presidente Fuentes; Eisenhower stations warships and 2000 Marines offshore while Fuentes puts down the revolt. [Another source says that the U.S. provided air support for Fuentes.]
1960s
U.S. Green Berets train Guatemalan army in counterinsurgency techniques. Guatemalan efforts against its insurgents include aerial bombing, scorched-earth assaults on towns suspected of aiding the rebels, and death squads, which killed 20,000 people between 1966 and 1976. U.S. Army Col. John Webber claims that it was at his instigation that “the technique of counter-terror had been implemented by the army.”
1961
U.S. organizes force of 1400 anti-Castro Cubans, ships it to the Bahía de los Cochinos. Castro’s army routs it.
1961
CIA-backed coup overthrows elected Pres. J. M. Velasco Ibarra of Ecuador, who has been too friendly with Cuba.
1962
CIA engages in campaign in Brazil to keep João Goulart from achieving control of Congress.
1963
CIA-backed coup overthrows elected social democrat Juan Bosch in the Dominican Republic.
1963
A far-right-wing coup in Guatemala, apparently U.S.-supported, forestalls elections in which “extreme leftist” Juan José Arévalo was favored to win.
1964
João Goulart of Brazil proposes agrarian reform, nationalization of oil. Ousted by U.S.-supported military coup.
! 1964
The free market in Nicaragua:
1965
A coup in the Dominican Republic attempts to restore Bosch’s government. The U.S. invades and occupies the country to stop this “Communist rebellion,” with the help of the dictators of Brazil, Paraguay, Honduras, and Nicaragua.
1966
U.S. sends arms, advisors, and Green Berets to Guatemala to implement a counterinsurgency campaign.
1967
A team of Green Berets is sent to Bolivia to help find and assassinate Che Guevara.
1968
Gen. José Alberto Medrano, who is on the payroll of the CIA, organizes the ORDEN paramilitary force, considered the precursor of El Salvador’s death squads.
! 1970
In this year (just as an example), U.S. investments in Latin America earn $1.3 billion; while new investments total $302 million.
1970
Salvador Allende Gossens elected in Chile. Suspends foreign loans, nationalizes foreign companies. For the phone system, pays ITT the company’s minimized valuation for tax purposes. The CIA provides covert financial support for Allende’s opponents, both during and after his election.
1972
U.S. stands by as military suspends an election in El Salvador in which centrist José Napoleón Duarte was favored to win. (Compare with the emphasis placed on the 1982 elections.)
1973
U.S.-supported military coup kills Allende and brings Augusto Pinochet Ugarte to power. Pinochet imprisons well over a hundred thousand Chileans (torture and rape are the usual methods of interrogation), terminates civil liberties, abolishes unions, extends the work week to 48 hours, and reverses Allende’s land reforms.
1973
Military takes power in Uruguay, supported by U.S. The subsequent repression reportedly features the world’s highest percentage of the population imprisoned for political reasons.
1974
Office of Public Safety is abolished when it is revealed that police are being taught torture techniques.
! 1976
Election of Jimmy Carter leads to a new emphasis on human rights in Central America. Carter cuts off aid to the Guatemalan military (or tries to; some slips through) and reduces aid to El Salvador.
! 1979
Ratification of the Panama Canal treaty which is to return the Canal to Panama by 1999.
1980
A right-wing junta takes over in El Salvador. U.S. begins massively supporting El Salvador, assisting the military in its fight against FMLN guerrillas. Death squads proliferate; Archbishop Romero is assassinated by right-wing terrorists; 35,000 civilians are killed in 1978-81. The rape and murder of four U.S. churchwomen results in the suspension of U.S. military aid for one month. The U.S. demands that the junta undertake land reform. Within 3 years, however, the reform program is halted by the oligarchy.
1980
U.S., seeking a stable base for its actions in El Salvador and Nicaragua, tells the Honduran military to clean up its act and hold elections. The U.S. starts pouring in $100 million of aid a year and basing the contras on Honduran territory. Death squads are also active in Honduras, and the contras tend to act as a state within a state.
1981
The CIA steps in to organize the contras in Nicaragua, who started the previous year as a group of 60 ex-National Guardsmen; by 1985 there are about 12,000 of them. 46 of the 48 top military leaders are ex-Guardsmen. The U.S. also sets up an economic embargo of Nicaragua and pressures the IMF and the World Bank to limit or halt loans to Nicaragua.
1981
Gen. Torrijos of Panama is killed in a plane crash. There is a suspicion of CIA involvement, due to Torrijos’ nationalism and friendly relations with Cuba.
1982
A coup brings Gen. Efraín Ríos Montt to power in Guatemala, and gives the Reagan administration the opportunity to increase military aid. Ríos Montt’s evangelical beliefs do not prevent him from accelerating the counterinsurgency campaign.
1983
Another coup in Guatemala replaces Ríos Montt. The new President, Oscar Mejía Víctores, was trained by the U.S. and seems to have cleared his coup beforehand with U.S. authorities.
1983
U.S. troops take over tiny Granada. Rather oddly, it intervenes shortly after a coup has overthrown the previous, socialist leader. One of the justifications for the action is the building of a new airport with Cuban help, which Granada claimed was for tourism and Reagan argued was for Soviet use. Later the U.S. announces plans to finish the airport… to develop tourism.
1983
Boland Amendment prohibits CIA and Defense Dept. from spending money to overthrow the government of Nicaragua– a law the Reagan administration cheerfully violates.
1984
CIA mines three Nicaraguan harbors. Nicaragua takes this action to the World Court, which brings an $18 billion judgment against the U.S. The U.S. refuses to recognize the Court’s jurisdiction in the case.
1984
U.S. spends $10 million to orchestrate elections in El Salvador– something of a farce, since left-wing parties are under heavy repression, and the military has already declared that it will not answer to the elected president.
1989
U.S. invades Panama to dislodge CIA boy gone wrong Manuel Noriega, an event which marks the evolution of the U.S.’s favorite excuse from Communism to drugs.
1996
The U.S. battles global Communism by extending most-favored-nation trading status for China, and tightening the trade embargo on Castro’s Cuba.
That was just in Latin America folks!!!… and then, they talk about dictators and and enemies? preaching nonsese until the United States of America, understand that the only way to achieve peace is treading others with respect and as equals… there will be not one but many other 9/11’s That is all I have to say about that.
The article does nothing to dispel the myth of Thanksgiving, but rather verifies that Turkey was indeed the centerpiece of a meal that was shared by early settlers of this country from different cultures. A peaceful sharing of a meal that symbolizes friendship & appreciation – this is the true meaning of our Thanksgiving. Despite the suggested motivation for the letter of 1621, no evidence contradict’s it’s honesty. So why does the lead-in to the story say “Fowl Myth”? As for some of the comments, let’s set some things straight. Both the European colonists and American Indians contributed to each other’s culture. Survival would have been more difficult without their help, but the colonists probably would’ve survived anyway. Remember, these weren’t the first people to settle in this hemi-sphere. And the term “Native” American is a myth; if you do your research, they migrated from Asia. Historical fact shows they were not native to this land. We all came here under different methods, at different times, for different reasons. But, together, we do make up America. And if you think the English we speak here isn’t our language, go visit England. They will tell you how the language we speak is nothing like their language. Our language, and our culture, has been molded by the many influences of the people who came here. Celebrate the diversity of our culture, don’t hate on it.
poorly written and researched article. there was a thanksgiving celebration in St Augustine in 1565 another in Texas in 1598 (both by Spanish speakers) and the first english/christian thanksgiving was in Virginia in 1619.
The truth of the matter is short and sweet the native americans saved the newcomers from sure death the first winter. Then when more came to shore they knew now how to survive in a so called hostile land.Then started pushing west and begin the largest ethnic cleansing on earth. No thanks. One more thing, people celebrate Columbus day and he was one of the biggest killers of american indians ever. End of story!!
Come on folks, lighten up a little! Nothing, and I mean nothing in our history really went 100% the way we believe it did, be it through what our families knew or what we were taught in school by what someone else (the teacher) knew, who learned it from someone else who wrote the book said teacher studied from.In any event, it is always entertaining, but troubling, reading some of the white America hating liberal neo-Marxists (yeah that’s you GreenfairyNL). “Native” Americans were not “native” to the Americas either. They migrated across the Alaskan pass from Asia. Ever wonder why they have Asian features? Of course, in schools today they probably don’t teach that. In fact, if you go back far enough in time, you will find that NO human is “native” from anywhere. Our ancestors were roamers soon after they began walking upright. So, the point being, any American tradition hating wretch (usually a radical leftist liberal) to come on here and starting whining about “Native” American Indians and naturually throwing in some hate for Republicans is just being a mindless blowhard who needs to go home, close the doors, and shut up. We don’t need to hear your venom, your hate, and see your silver tongued devilish words. The rest of us America lovers will continue celebrating this great holiday known as Thanksgiving with good food, good family, and good TV to watch from the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in the morning to college football in the afternoon.
HA HA HAI love it that everyone thinks the first Thanksgiving was held at Plymouth. Remember—the winners write the history. The English won North America, so they get to write the account of the “first” Thanksgiving.Anyone who has read anything by Dr. Michael Gannon will tell you that the first Thanksgiving was actually held between the Spanish and the native peoples in St. Augustine, Florida. According to the late Dr. Gannon, “by the time Plymouth was established in 1620, St. Augustine was up for urban renewal,” having been established in the mid-1500’s. Because of his views on the subject, he was, in New England, known as “the grinch who stole Thanksgiving.”So be it—the truth hurts.
Concerning your Thanksgiving story-Thanksgiving is not celebrated on the last Thursday of November-it is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. This date may be on the last Thursday as this year is, however if November 1st happens to fall on a Thursday Thanksgiving will be second to the last Thursday of November.
T-Dawg, you’re very right and a very kind person. Thanks for being around and commenting as one should. Too many are self-absorbing on here. It’s nice to see a change. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
I must confess, I don’t know what the colonists ate at that first Thanksgiving, held near Jamestown, Virginia, on December 4, 1619, one year, three weeks and a day before the arrival of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock.
I am including some information that you should probably check out, and also as a journalist, present the facts instead of the same misinformation that continues to be written in our text books. Check out the following information.
The year was 1637…..700 men, women and children of the Pequot Tribe, gathered for their “Annual Green Corn Dance” in the area that is now known as Groton, ConnWhile they were gathered in this place of meeting, they were surrounded and attacked by mercenaries of the English and Dutch.
The Indians were ordered from the building and as they came forth, they were shot down. The rest were burned alive in the building. The next day, the Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony declared: “A day of Thanksgiving, thanking God that they had eliminated over 700 men, women and children. For the next 100 years, every “Thanksgiving Day” ordained by a Governor or President was to honor that victory, thanking God that the battle had been won.Source: Documents of Holland, 13 Volume Colonial Documentary History.
Letters and reports form colonial officials to their superiors and the King in England and the private papers of Sir William Johnson, British Indian agent for the New York colony for 30 years.
Researched by William Bunuel (Penobscot Tribe) Former Chairman of the University of Connecticut Anthropology Department.”Thanksgiving” a National Day of MourningAn editorial by Publisher/Editor – Terri J AndrewsNever before in the history of America has a subset of this country’s population been so misrepresented, lied about, and viciously condemned and criticized than the Native American Indians. Our own history books present a censored and false past that glorifies the “proud, pure and righteous” settlers, while stereotyping the original inhabitants as wild savages in war bonnets, running through the forest looking for food and scalping innocent children and womenTake a look through a child’s history book and you will often note an image of the pilgrims, colonists and pioneers that include log cabins, the pursuit of
religious freedom and a strong sense of community. Now look for references to the Native peoples – words such as “primitive”, “massacre”, “Earth Gods” and “religious rituals” fill those same pages. Often times, paintings of the Native Indians hiding behind trees with tomahawks, watching the unsuspecting Europeans, are wrongly depicted to children!This is a common thread woven through the fabric of American history – a lie that ties together a past built on stolen tradition and absent information retold in books authored by non-Native Americans.The Thanksgiving holiday is a perfect example of censorship and the rewriting of truth. A portrait painted of the friendly Indians and the openhearted pilgrims coming together to feast after a long, sorry winter is accepted and tolerated by the American community. But this portrait is not correct. The story is much deeper than that; so much deeper that the Native American Indian community calls this day – The National Day of Mourning
A Very Proud Native American HERE IS THE URL TO MS. DAVIS’ ARTICLEhttp://www.cheboygannews.com/lifestyle/x776456523/What-is-Thanksgiving-Tracing-the-meaning-of-the-holiday IF YOU DO A SEARCH ‘jennifer davis, gatehouse news service’ IT WILL SHOW THIS APPEARED IN OTHER NEWSPAPERS ALSO. HOW SAD : ( .Enough said!
I did not realize this was a forum for racists. too bad. really their IS only at this point one race that matters the human race as a whole … were all red on the inside. we have our differences and the past is the past…That cant be changed , however the future can be better for everyone if people just learned to let go of what was and focus their positive energy on what can be. instead of postulating on who did what first or to who me or them why why why this or that. look forward with love in your heart to what will benefit the entire human race. From this point on if your point of view is defaulted in the negative then you don’t really set a example of how the future should be there fore your not really a of part of the solution. ….suggestion: POSITIVE KINDNESS !!! me.
I am deeply saddened how in 2009, with all the war, poverty, and strife around the world, the lives lost on a daily basis to religious, political, and racist hatred, that the majority of the postings here continue to carry this hatred forward. What world do you live in where you feel entitled to shred everyone today for the things our ancestors did? We have no more blame for our ancestors’ behavior than for what shirt you put on today. The “Native” Americans are not native to America any more than the English settlers. Native Americans came across and stole the land just the same. They were never born here. Rape, pillage, and war is threaded throughout the history of mankind, and this was no different by the English settlers. We always kill and take over what we don’t understand and fear. That is the psychology of humans. Who cares if there was a Thanksgiving feast in Texas or Florida or Timbuctu? This article is speaking of the 1st Thanksgiving among the English settlers. Of course they are not talking about the first feast ever held in celebration of something. That began with the beginning of time of humans. Stop being so technical for things you don’t understand. Texas has no credit for starting the first of anything worth repeating. #1 for most death penalty convictions carried out is nothing to brag out. Supporting Bush for the implorable actions over 8 years, I’d close my door and draw the shades (or just plain move far away from Texas).The basis of this article was to talk about pieces of traditions that eventually led to the Thanksgiving as we know it today. In reality, who really cares about history for Thanksgiving? Any bright-minded individual knows that history is shadowed by writers, their opinion of what happened, and their beliefs. Nothing written in history can be taken as fact. But the strains of history that led to our Thanksgiving is enough to say we are thankful that we have the opportunity to celebrate Thanksgiving, when so much of the world will have no food in their stomachs on this day. We have the opportunity to be thankful for the things God has given us, for our families and friends, for all of humanity and the love we can spread if we step outside of our self-absorbed worlds for just a moment. God bless America and the FIRST PILGRIM THANKSGIVING. Thanks to this writer for an interesting and well-written article on his view of Thanksgiving.
As a side note, but very important one: How sad it is that this world has gotten away from God. Everyone is so convinced God doesn’t exist to justify all their immoral behaviors. I am a well-educated adult who doesn’t believe in fairytales and understands the cold harsh realities of this world. But that is no reason to say God doesn’t exist. Believing in God is not a bad thing, and wouldn’t you rather believe in God so that when you die, you won’t regret it as you come to enter the pearly gates? If in the end God is a made up fantasy (which of course it’s not, but playing devil’s advocate here), was it really a waste of your time and energy to believe in Him? You probably led more of a moral life, treated others kindly, and spread good rather than evil. That’s not such a bad thing.
Hot – stop spreading your filth on this site. If you have no interest in watching the news, then why are you posting on here?
Thanksgiving is time of giving thanks for those things we have rather than complaining about the past or the problems that we feel are impacting us despite the fact that we didn’t commit any crime against people 100 years ago.Just to set the record straight: Native Americans came from Asia across a land bridge (this is the contemorary belief by the scientific academia). There were more than likely other people here before the ” Native Americans”.The Native Americans were the first generation born here on the North American Continent, not their parents. I was born in this country, I work hard to teach children in this country to be good citizens and understand that not everything they learn is unbias. I am a native of this country. My own view of Thanksgiving is one of family and friends together no matter the race, age, sex, religion, or even political view.Just for the record, the Pilgrims didn’t celebrate anything. They were against celebrations. The dinner they had was a harvest dinner and the natives came over and they saw all the food. they were invited to eat even though the Pilgrims were not exactly interested in havingthem for dinner. It was the natives who made the celbration last for three days by bringing in food (venison, turkey, duck, etc) for the women to cook.Today, does the real story detract from the fact that we get together to share and enjoy each others company? I will be spending again this year serving food to those in need. I have been given, therefore, I give back.