First Thanksgiving

Let Us Not Forget

“Gratitude to Mother Earth, sailing through night and day—

and to her soil: rich, rare, and sweet

in our minds so be it.

Gratitude for plants, the sun-facing, light-changing leaf

and fine root-hairs; standing still through wind

and rain, their dance is in the flowing spiral grain

in our minds so be it.

Gratitude to Air, bearing the soaring Swift and the silent

Owl at dawn. Breath of our song

clear spirit breeze,

in our minds so be it.

Gratitude to Wild Beings, our brothers, teaching secrets,

freedoms, and ways; who share with us their milk;

self-complete, brave, and aware

in our minds so be it.

Gratitude to water: clouds, lakes, rivers, glaciers,

holding or releasing; streaming through all

our bodies salty seas

in our minds so be it.

Gratitude to the Sun: blinding pulsing light through

trunks of trees, through mists, warming caves where

bears and snakes sleep—he who wakes us—

in our minds so be it.

Gratitude to the Great Sky

who holds billions of stars—and goes beyond that—

beyond all powers, and thoughts

and yet is within us—

Grandfather Space.

The mind is his wife.

So be it.”

                                   Gary Snyder (After a Mohawk Prayer)

This Thanksgiving prayer from the Mohawk tradition, is in the book Earth Prayers, edited by Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon. It is a good example of the reverence our native people had, and have, for the earth and its gifts.

I like to remember at this time of year that the first Thanksgiving in 1621, would not have happened had it not been for the tribal people who helped the Pilgrims to survive their first year in the new world. It was Squanto, a Wampanoag Indian, who taught the Puritans how to grow native crops such as corn, squash and beans, using fish as fertilizer, and how and when to hunt deer and turkey. The Indians instructed the new arrivals in how to use every part of the animals they killed, right down to the organs and hooves. Nothing was wasted.

Thanksgiving did not become an national holiday until Lincoln declared it so during the Civil War. He set it on the third Thursday in November. Then in the 1930's Roosevelt moved it back a week in order to create a longer retail season for Christmas. This caused so much consternation that he finally moved it to the forth Thursday in November in 1941, and signed it into law. Along the way, we and the Native Americans lost our connection due to the misery of the long Indian wars and the resulting Trail of Tears. Today, we restore these original people to our history books and honor them in our traditional feasts. We can never repay the harm done, but at least we now acknowledge our indebtedness.

Today, as I am preparing the feast we will enjoy tomorrow, I will remember those first Native Americans who made it possible.

                                                     In the spirit,

                                                         Jane