A Different View of Thanksgiving

Discover the Wampanoag side of Thanksgiving history. Practice critical reading and writing skills.

Read the article and then answer the questions below. The author says that the Wampanoag people decided to help the Pilgrims survive by teaching them about farming and fishing. The two communities lived in peace for 50 years. What happened after this time of peace? Warfare broke out between the two communities, and hundreds of Native Americans were killed or enslaved. The two communities continued to live peacefully, forming a new government that combined their people into one group. The two communities started fighting against each other, and the European settlers eventually got sick of fighting and went back to England. The Native Americans decided to leave the area because the land was all being farmed by the Pilgrims. Why do Native Americans consider Thanksgiving a day of sadness and solemnity for hundreds of years of mistreatment? Use text evidence to support your answer. Use the RACE strategy to answer the question. Click here for RACE resources starters if you need them.Remember: Do not say, "I think, I know this because, my opinion is," etc. How is the treatment of Native Americans by European settlers, like the Pilgrims, related to modern-day Native American tribes? Many tribes today still struggle with poverty and illness because they have suffered many years of injustice from European settlers and their descendants. Many tribes today refuse to talk about the harm that European settlers caused their communities because they prefer not to think about it. Many tribes today are doing very well because eventually European settlers stopped being destructive and started helping them. Many tribes today don't remember most of what the settlers did to them years ago because they've tried to forget it and not talk about it often. What is the main idea of this text? The Pilgrims were a group of Englishmen and women who came to America in 1620, escaping religious persecution in their homeland with the belief that land in America was theirs to take. Many people understand the Thanksgiving holiday as a celebration, but Native Americans are challenging that idea by talking about the painful and destructive history of their relationship with European settlers. An epidemic in 1615 was caused by rats that came to America on trading ships from Europe, and the disease that spread was very deadly to the Wampanoag tribe, who lost up to 90 percent of their tribe. Wamsutta James is a leader of the Wampanoag people today, and when he was asked to give a speech on Thanksgiving in 1970, he wrote a speech that captured the truth of the history of the holiday.