Happy Thanksgiving!

[Conscripted]

It's that day of the year again, where we give thanks that the native Indians helped teach us local agriculture and shared their bounty with us instead of slaughtering those Puritan tightwads like they should have.

 

I get to help my friend fill a pilgrim costume with dead leaves so he can fasten it to a stake and burn it in effigy. I feel so honored to be part of the Native American Thanksgiving tradition.

 

My family will be spend the day eating turkey, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, etc. What do your families do for this holiday?

 

ETA: My apologies for placing this in the wrong room. I have the Nexus Forums->Fallout page bookmarked, and not the homepage.

[gandalftw]

I get to help my friend fill a pilgrim costume with dead leaves so he can fasten it to a stake and burn it in effigy. I feel so honored to be part of the Native American Thanksgiving tradition.

That's funny,would have liked to have seen that.I'm sure your forefathers would have understood the meaning quite well.

[Conscripted]

I'm not sure, considering that I'm neither Native nor early American. My family enjoyed their own form of prejudice and persecution when they came here. Well, the half that came here, anyways.

[Circuitous]

Sweet.

[Asrayl]

I'd tell you how I spent my thanksgiving but after the tenth pint, I can't say I remember.

 

"If I listen closely I can hear my genes crying..."

[SpeedyB64]

I've already had thanksgiving. October is a much better month for it. ;)

[gandalftw]

I'm not sure, considering that I'm neither Native nor early American. My family enjoyed their own form of prejudice and persecution when they came here. Well, the half that came here, anyways.

Ah,i see.I wondered because the Native people,i know,don't describe themselves as Indians or native Americans.They refer to themselves according to their tribal names.

The German side of my family came to America in the 1600s,everyone was a foreigner then.At that time they were so preoccupied with survival that there was no time to be prejudiced.The more time some have on their hands the more time they have to find things to get upset about and more time to persecute others.It's unfortunate that of all the choices an individual has in life they choose to ridicule and condemn those that are different than them rather than appreciate those differences and perhaps even learn something from them.

[Circuitous]

The Native Americans I meet tend to describe themselves as Native American to those who ask, and only give tribe as a clarification to those genuinely interested.

 

Then again, most Native Americans I meet are heavily watered-down (1/3 or less) so maybe that has a lot to do with it.

[Conscripted]

I have some FBI (Full Blooded Indian) friends and they refer to themselves (or at least let me refer to them) as Indian or Native. But since only half of my background is American, I always try to claim special privilege. And even in the 1600s, they had plenty of time for hate. As I recall, they were burning witches at the time (mostly in Germany) and a lot of that spilled over into the US. So plenty of hate, no matter what your nationality!

[gandalftw]

Most of the Natives i know or have known were determined to bring back a respect for the old ways and beliefs.One fellow said that he doesn't like Indian because he's not from India.Native American suggests,to him,that there always was an America and that he and his ancestors are not Native Americans but Comanche.I've also met those that have no problem with Indian or Native American but the majority,i have known,prefer a tribal designation in reference to their heritage.One fellow i met had no respect for his ancestors and came right out and said that they were no more than animals,that they were evil.He was of the Christian faith yet he would use his Indian heritage to his advantage by making and selling carvings he made of Native figures.I bought several from him.It was funny,he saw a drawing i had done and told me he liked it so i gave it to him.He didn't want to take it,wanted to buy it, but i insisted.The next day he brought me a pair of boots i saw him wearing and had commented on and insisted i take them to remember him by.Not a fair trade,to me,because they were very nice,yet he felt it made us even.He was a good guy,his name was Naheta,not sure of the spelling.

 

The witch craze started,as you said,in Europe and eventually,in the late 1600s,1690 i believe,took root in the Americas.The Puritans are the ones to thank for that nonsense.Cotton Mather believed that the devil was sending witches to live among them.If you happened to be born with an odd birthmark,some physical abnormality or god forbid a mental disability you were watched very closely.It's now thought that a parasitic fungus was the cause for hallucinations and fits that some of the so called witches

suffered from.While their accusers,suffering from the same thing,with perhaps milder symptoms, had them tortured and put to death.What fun.

 

What i was referring to was,early in the 1600s, when settlements were few and far between.Trying to keep themselves and their families alive was all they could afford to think about.What with predators,disease and the weather being the most common foe they had their hands full just surviving.Not to mention the sudden realization that not all the Natives were friendly just added to their struggle.Of course it wasn't long,with increased population and expanding settlements, before factions began to form due to a need for security.Fortified settlements began to appear but still they had to deal with hunger and disease.A hundred settlers arrived in Virgina to establish the settlement of Jamestown.They arrived in April of 1606 and half of them were dead by that fall.

Isn't it ironic that most came here to find freedom from persecution and prejudice,struggled and died to form a new society, only to end up recreating a similar environment.