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 ...
I think you don't understand what the first metal smelters faced up in Wisconsin. First of all they had tens of thousands of acres of NATIVE COPPER ORE on the surface of the ground. It spread out from this area West and North to Lake Superior.
Going from that source to "smelting" as we understand the term was a trivial problem.
The folks in the Old World were not as well blessed and found themselves having to first pound the ore out of rock.
This is not Indian lore ~ and NOTHING has been passed down by word of mouth for that long a period anywhere.
There are a sufficiency of archaeological studies of the Oconto site that there's no reason anyone should be uninformed about them.
Had some native genius invented the wheel in North America, the Euros would have found the conquest far more difficult to accomplish.
That's ignorant too. The Pilgrims settled where they did because a year or two before an epidemic had completely wiped out the tribe that had lived there...except for this guy named Squanto. The land was empty and uninhabited.
Early English settlers treated indian tribal leaders as nobles...ones they might fight with, as they would in Europe, but as nobles. Pocahontas went back to England as a lady and the wife of John Rolf...not as some sub-human.
4700 years ago is not 5000 years ago. Poster above gave 2700 BC as the oldest copper smelting site in the Old World.
Initially the Iriquois fought AGAINST the French. The enmity continued for several centuries. I don't think they started dealing positively with the French until after the English conquered Canada.
It was mostly Ottawa and related tribes here in southern Michigan who allied themselves with the french at some times and the Brits at others.
Michigan is loaded with indian names like Tecumseh and Oceola. There's the big Soaring Eagle casino up at Mount Pleasant.
I'm not trying to say that what happened to the Indians was a good thing. My point was that at the time of Columbus, they were a stone age people and by the time the American frontier was closed, the tribes wanting to fight Europeans were still stone age.
During those 500 years of contact, many Native peoples decided to emulate Europeans. However, owing to their small population size, intermarriage ultimately absorbed most into the American people.
"They betrayed us once they got their strength."
Perhaps they should have written the pilgrims a note expressing their displeasure. Opps, they never developed a written language, or the wheel for that matter.
Are you assuming Egyption and Nubian chariots were not in Africa?
That myth was debunked. There was no germ theory at the time, so no one would have been aware of the concept of spreading germs as a weapon of war.
And before that, the Indians were doing the same thing to each other.
The Iriquois regularly encouraged European settlement within their country, and the Oneida and Onondagas were quite noteworthy for the percentage of their populations who actually were purely European or mostly European in origin.
The leader of the Mohawk (for the Brits) during the Revolution actually was mostly European.
***and cheap beer and wine.***
"STRONG MAN'S DRINK."
From a beer billboard outside Farmington NM about 30 years ago. Written in Navajo and English.
The Spaniards didn't do it on their own!
Ummm. Those would be the aforementioned freed slaves. And it was a heck of a lot more than a few tens of thousands.
Don't confuse me with the facts, that doesn't count.:)
The local tribes near where the Pilgrims settled had suffered from several plagues just before the Pilgrams landed. However, Squanto was not of their tribe. He was simply an employee of the land sales and settlement company Captain John Smith was running in England.
The Aztecs did have a toy something or other that did have a small wheel. I have seen a picture of it.
You are, of course, most concerned for the plight of the Cherokee slaves aren't you?
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