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 ...
Hmmm ~ written language ~ hmmmm ~ there are several in Meso-America. Only recently have we been able to figure out what the Maya were saying, but they were writing it in stone.
Well said
Where the Cherokee and the Creeks screwed up, is they mainly backed the British in the American Revolution. They still trusted the British government but did not trust the colonist. During the American Civil War, once again the Cherokee threw in with the side that was going to loose the war.
This did not win them many friends.
One thing that happened was that some major culture covering most of the Missippi river valley had a complete cultural collapse around 1100. Their descendents never completely recovered. We can find the remnants of the structures they built - which required not insignificant knowledge - but no written works.
***The Indians pretty much sold their land for money***
Red Cloud even wanted to sell the Black Hills to the white man. $$$
Not the oldest, one of the oldest.
That's why the rules of war allowed a besieging party to slaughter everybody inside a city under siege after so many days ~ after all, the guys standing guard got sick too.
There was no such thing as a truly static defense. Folks gotta' use the toilet Fur Shur.
You're saying Squanto was from England?
Further, many tribes did not have-in general-the concept of ownership. This lack of the ownership idea applied to land and in many instances to what we would call personal property. Irony of ironies it was the whites that applied the European idea of ownership to the indian hence would buy it from the various tribes.
Did they invent it on their own or, was it due to pre-Columbian Old World contact?
My understanding of history is that the Native Americans are glad Columbus was looking for a way to India instead of a way to Turkey.
Correct me if I'm wrong. A culture on the brink of an Industrial Revolution, characterized by emerging nation states encounters a new land occupied by tribal hunter gatherers, little more than neoliths, and the invaders take over and displace the indigenous population. Sounds like the way of the world to me. We lifted them up, as much as they may hate to admit it.
***That's right, they are thousands of years old ~ but the smelting of copper happened FIRST in Oconto, not in any of the places you named. And that, too, happened thousands and thousands of years ago.***
If I remember my history, Indians and some Eskimos used raw unsmelted copper to make arrow points. When they moved from the area they went back to chipping flint and did not keep up the copper use.
Some Indians were quite aggressive and foreward looking when it came to getting in on the groundfloor of European re-development of the East Coast. Squanto is the first Indian known to history to go to work for the man, eh?!~
The Abenaki Indians and several other tribes in the Hudson Valley actually decided to become Europeanized and made every effort possible to do so.
It should not surprise anyone that they did not give up that invention!
They ran into settled agricultural societies in the New World.
Stuff happened.
Invasion and occupation of countrys have been going on since the beginning of time....and the invasion and occupation of what is now North America is no exception....
Look what is going on as we speak. America took the southwest states from Mexico....now Mexico is taking it back, wetback by wetback....and our government and therefore, WE the People, are letting it happen with only minimum resistance. Maybe we ought to use a little ingenuity, upgrade our arms, and hone our guerrilla fighting tactics??...its already too late to kick them out easily due to their numbers already here.
So the World turns and grinds on.
*** The South Americans built substantial boats that enabled them to mount an invasion from what is now Venezuela to conquer Hispanola and other Caribbean islands just a few years before the arrival of the Spanish.***
Yes, those Caribe Indians developed quite a sweet tooth for Awark Indian flesh. They chased them all over the Carribian Islands, chowing down all the way.
It's probably the case that wherever native copper was available someone figured out something to do with it. However, smelting happened first at Oconto. I've visited the place. Out in the middle of nowhere!
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