Posted on 11/24/2005 5:13:54 PM PST by lainie
ALCATRAZ ISLAND, United States (AFP) - A tribal chant rose from a thousands-strong prayer circle on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay as Native Americans held a sunrise "Unthanksgiving Day" ceremony.
"What we call it is Unthanksgiving," Bear Lincoln of the Wailikie Tribe told AFP as he waved burning sage to purify the area and ward off evil spirits.
"It was the saddest day for us. It was a big mistake for us to help the Pilgrims survive that first winter. They betrayed us once they got their strength."
Traditional Thanksgiving feasting in the United States is a tribute to the meal the original European Pilgrims shared with the Native Americans who helped them survive in the new land.
An estimated 3,000 people packed onto ferries that set out from Fisherman's Wharf for Alcatraz in the pre-dawn darkness Thursday, according to organizers.
A bonfire blazed at the center of a prayer circle set up on a bluff beneath the Alcatraz lighthouse. And at the base of the rock wall leading up to the ruins of the former federal prison were a pair of Indian teepees.
"Ultimately, this is their land," said Irma Pinedo, a Mexico City native who was among the Aztec dancers taking part in the ceremony. "For us, no turkey today."
Turkey, which nearly became the national bird in the United States instead of the eagle, is the main course at traditional Thanksgiving dinners.
"I take my children to this every year because I want them to understand there is another side to the story," said 41-year-old Erin Alexander, who added that the event has grown significantly since she began attending 12 years ago.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.netscape.cnn.com ...
OMG there are thousands of them!
This is actually pretty amusing.
This is so much BS. The original pilgrims had a peacdful relationship with the indians of the plymouth area. They set up a mutual society of trade and buying. The pilgrims paid for land etc. The relationship lasted in harmony for 50 years. The Indians in SF didn't deal with the pilgrims, they dealt with the spanish and then later Americans coming in for the gold rush, and entirely different situation.
"Groups representing Palestinian, Aztec and African indigenous people joined Native Americans in dancing, chanting and prayers. "
Loony liberal left losers losers losers losers
Palestinians and Aztecs and Africans oh my!
The Palestinians can blow up the Aztecs, the Aztecs can rip the beating hearts out of the Palestinians, and the Africans can eat the remains cooked over that bonfire... and all will be at peace.
Sheesh.
"This is so much BS"
Don't forget these are San Francisco Indians.
Yeah, and the guy acts as if his Wailikie Tribe were personally harmed by pilgrims.
Earth to Indians (of 100+ years ago), You lost....
Can't take land from someone who doesn't believe in ownership of land to begin with.
Not only that. The native Americans were slaughtered, raped, and nearly wiped out by the Spanish, long before the pilgrims landed. They should be grateful North America was conquered by the English speaking people, or they would be a bunch of scraggly wetbacks trekking through a hot, dry border instead of fat lazy bums living off their casinos.
Yeah, running water was a real bummer.
More like Earth to Indians ... you were defeated by a far superior civilization.
Get over it already!
"Yeah, running water was a real bummer."
That's real clever, coming from a guy named AmishDude. :)
Ahhhh, the wisdom of the Stone Age.
Is John Edwards handy? Maybe the descendants of the Pilgrims can sue the descendants of the Injuns for all the nastiness and death caused by that wonderful Native American gift of tobacco. ;>)
"They betrayed us once they got their strength."
Reminds me of Algore...
"He betrayed this country! He played on our fears!"
I beg to differ. Just look around you.
It's hard to fathom why they align with Palestinians and Aztecs (?), then probably wonder why they're not taken more seriously. I think I can see the intent here, but, obviously, the execution is misguided.
Wow, pretty harsh don't you think?
I guess they forgot their ancestor Indians sold off a bunch of their native land for beads and other barter.
Mine did too, but I am over it after two centuries.
Bingo. North American native culture is one of the most over-rated and over-hyped social phenomena. In 15000 years of existence on this continent, these guys did not build any permanent structure of value or significance, which is what you would expect from a legitimate civilization. These people were nothing but a bunch of warmonger nomadic tribes.
"Not only that. The native Americans were slaughtered, raped, and nearly wiped out by the Spanish, long before the pilgrims landed", Then the Democrats tried to do them in. Look up trail of tears. and whose idea was that?
On the other hand, one of the reasons the Pilgrims had such a long period of peace with the Indians was the arrival of various Eur/Asian/African (Old World) diseases that wiped them out ~ mostly in 1646/47/48.
I'd suggest that by 1676 (and the Pequot, et al, uprising) there'd been enough gene flow from the arriving European population to the existing Indian population to have created a new type of warrior ~ one with inherited partial immunity to the Old World diseases.
News you can use.
" In 500 years of contact with Europeans, not once did any of the warring tribes attempt to emulate the European technology or tactics."
Except for that whole rifle/horse thing.
What do you mean "US" Tonto. You werent there. Just go back to your Casino and start dealing blackjack.
Any time one of these stories is posted about some Indians who subscribe to the leftist viewpoint, we have our share here who spout just as much ignorance; i.e. that all Indians are "fat, lazy" and live off of casinos, or that all were nomadic tribes.
Gene flow. Never heard it called that before.
Yeah, I'm not exactly sure who the intended audience is with this one.
You left out "drunk".
The Spaniards wiped out the Incas, they did not give them reservations and casinos. Someday, I would like to hear some gratitude from North American tribes for this.
The photograph of the 2003 ceremony included a view of a portable oxygen cylinder most likely used by one of the "indiginous survivors." What a riot!
Public school graduates.
Old World disease wiped out the Indians. For the most part if every Spaniard in the Americas from 1492 to 1550 had stood shoulder to shoulder and begun slaughtering Indians marching toward them, they'd never have run out of Indians.
There are some very good books on the arrival of the Spanish. One is called The Conquest of Peru and Mexico. Originally in Spanish and French, it was translated into English over a century ago. It's written against a background of primary and secondary records ~ not just third party opinions. I've found it to be a very good genealogical source as well.
I'd like to note here that the Indians would have eventually been wiped out by those very same diseases even if they'd been technologically superior to the Europeans they encountered, and had conquered the Old World.
We'd be telling a history about how they spilled out of the Americas and created havoc in Europe, but then one day they just died (which is how we came to take over their homeland).
***"I take my children to this every year because I want them to understand there is another side to the story,"***
If they don't like our peaches, don't shake our tree.
There is nothing to prevent them from going back and living as their stone age ancestors did.
The Indians should be happy. They are getting all those outsourcing software jobs....
The Aztecs "domesticated" the turkey. Guess eating that stuff over a period of many generations does things to your brain.
And most still vote Democrat.
They then produced to whuth lots and lots and lots of people.
In the American Revolution the Oneida were American allies and saved the Revolution more than once.
Just where did you learn your American Indian history anyway? Sounds like Souvrn' Mexico or something ~ maybe Argentina?
***You left out "drunk".***
They are not drunk. They are having religious visions.
I agree. The Indians wouldn't have "lost" their land if they understood the concept of property rights to begin with. They didn't, and a paleolithic people simply weren't going to retain their hunter/gatherer nascent agrarian lifestyle in the face of societies that had engaged in global circumnavigation and could predict planetary movements with mathematical formulas.
They were first.
Guarantee your people were napping flint and these guys had figured out copper.
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