“Thanksgiving Day was first officially proclaimed by the Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1637 to commemorate the massacre of 700 Pequot men, women and children who were celebrating the annual green corn dance Thanksgiving Day to them- in their own home. Gathered in this place of meeting they were attacked by mercenaries, Dutch and English. The Indians were ordered from the building and as they came forth they were shot down. The rest were burned alive in the building. My research is authentic because it is documentary. You can't get anything more accurate than that because it is first hand," said anthropologist William B. Newell, a Penobscot with degrees from 2 universities, and former chairman of the anthropology department at the University of Connecticut. His research; Holland Documents and the 13 volume Colonial Documentary History, a set of letters from colonial officials to their superiors and the king in England, and the private papers of Sir William Johnson, a British Indian agent for the New York colony for 30 years in the mid-1600s. The next 100 Thanksgivings commemorated the killing of the Indians at Groton, Connecticut, rather than a celebration of them. The image of Indians and Pilgrims sitting around a large table to celebrate Thanksgiving Day is “fictitious” although Indians did share food with the first settlers. Community Endeavor News, Nov. 1995.

Native American Resistance