Sacheen Littlefeather, in her calm and soothing voice, politely declines the Oscar awarded to Marlon Brando. Lets stop acting like Native Americans are second-rate citizens, or that the Pilgrims granted the Native Americans food, land and shelter. The land was their own. We did not land on Plymouth Rock. Plymouth Rock landed on us. They brought smallpox and forced Christianity onto them. The first official Day of Thanksgiving was proclaimed in 1637 by Governor Winthrop. He did so to celebrate the safe return of men from the Massachusetts Bay Colony who had gone to Mystic, Connecticut to participate in the massacre of over 700 Pequot women, children, and men. The myth of Thanksgiving, served up with dollops of European superiority and manifest destiny, just does not work for many people in this country. As Malcolm X once said about the African-American experience in America, We did not land on Plymouth Rock. Plymouth Rock landed on us. Indians who survived the initial invasion were required to work and to accept Christianity. If they refused, they could be forced to comply. Many did resist and a system was devised to deal with them. It was known as the encomienda. Under this system Indians were regarded as part of the land: When land grants were made to settlers, the native inhabitants became a part of the grant. As property of the landowners, they could be forced to work without being technically enslaved. At the same time they were to be converted to Christianity by the local priests. John Winthrop wrote to an English friend about the earlier arrival of the Pilgrims who spread diseases amongst the local Natives “the natives are neere all dead of the smalle Poxe, so as the Lord hathe cleared our title to what we posses.”[14] The Bible also commands that Gods people should “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”[15] With this ground rooted into their beliefs, the Puritans were not hesitant in taking land to sustain them. However, acquiring land was not simple. The Puritans faced opposition with the Native Americans, who already claimed the land as their home. This was amongst the first and strongest reasons that forced the Puritans to deeply despise the Native Americans. The Puritans viewed any opposition to them in any fashion was a direct opposition to God, thus making the Native Americans minions of Satan himself. Happy Thanksgiving.
Posted on: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 20:22:37 +0000
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