Thanksgiving revealed

Thanksgiving (today) is considered one of the most innocent of American holidays; after all, what could be wrong with the uplifting story of oppressed pilgrims coming to America in search of religious freedom? And what could possibly be more inspirational than a bunch of Indians feeling sympathetic towards these pilgrims and agreeing to help them harvest their crops?

Actually, this story is mostly false. It has been retold so many times since the actual event that today we accidentally equivocate when retelling it, concealing some of the more sinister aspects of what actually happened.

Firstly, the pilgrims were hardly innocent. They did not travel to America to find religious freedom; they came to institute the worst kind of religious tyranny, as later events such as the Salem witch trials proved.

As for the Native Americans—they ended up far worse off because of this event. Afterwards, negotiations between Indian tribes and white became capricious, and soon the newly born America government began organizing sorties to harass and drive away Native American tribes. Eventually the formerly great tribal civilizations were reduced to a battered, saturnine bunch as white Americans began pushing westward. When the Native Americans finally ran out of land to move to they reached the nadir of their suffering, as they were persecuted and discriminated against to no end. Thus, the supposed dinner held at Plymouth Rock did not change relations between white and Native Americans in any way.

Lastly, I doubt the picnic the pilgrims and Native Americans had was the ebullient affair it is usually described as (if it existed at all). Both parties were probably highly suspicious of one another, and I doubt they could put aside their differences even for one meal.