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 ...
And they were so sophisticated that they smote the evil Spaniards back across the ocean from whence they came. You're getting revisionist garbage from left-wing profs.
More to the point, they arrived at copper, and no got farther. The advanced metals were not mastered, pre-contact.
***. I seem to recall that there was a similar bogus "Tribe" in California who tried to claim ownership of some land so they could build a casino or someshuch. **
There is a group in Arkansas trying to get recognition as Cherokees so they can build a casino near Hot Springs, Ark.
"This is actually pretty amusing."
It is not amusing.
Whether or not Oklahoma has ever been "policed" is a real question, but not one to be addressed in this thread about the whack jobs in San Francisco.
Cherokee were not the only slave owning tribe.
They were paid off. Trust had nothing to do with it. Turns out, though, that the US eventually had to adopt the Brit method of buying off the tribes and gradually moving them "West".
***Had some native genius invented the wheel in North America,***
They did invent the wheel but used it only on rolling toys.
But I was a PE major in college.
I'm confused. Is the Left for or against science, progress, and modernity? They keep switching back and forth depending on whether the holdouts are white Kansans or "indigenous pipples."
On the other hand, Eskimos didn't wait on the Land-Bridge when they decided to move into the Arctic, and the Haida in the PAC NW were building quite large seagoing vessels all along.
Thor Hyerdahl sought to dispel the primacy of the Land Bridge theory by building reed boats and balsa catamarans to cross open ocean. I would have loved to have sailed with him.
"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."
Thank you for pointing out the ignorance.
"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."
What happened to the indians was unavoidable. Does anyone seriously think that if Columbus had not discovered America, that the continent would never have been found? Do they also think that if all the pilgrims died that Europeans would not have colonized America? And that when America was colonized that disease would not have spread thought the indian population. Keepin mind that it was just as likely that Indian diseases could have wiped out Europe (as asian disease nearly did). IMO, the indians got a better deal from the americans than they would have from the english, french, spanish or any other culture. Their habit of massacring settlers for several hundred years did not make them particularly sympathetic.
I think you better reread about ol' Squanto.
You're still getting your information from anti-Spanish propaganda published by the English.
I've also spent more than a little time studying Spanish history from Roman times until today, and even Spanish history as reported by the ancient Greeks.
Life was tough in Europe in the 1400s ~ very tough with the Hundred Years War and all going on ~ see St. Joan of Arc ~ and your religious affiliation could mean your life.
It got worse in the 1500s (see Religious Wars, Protestant Reformation, Counter Reformation), and fell through the toilet in the 1600s (see Thirty Years War).
Gad.
Thor Hyerdahl's works is under serious re-examination today. Apparently, he committed quite a bit of research fraud in order to get the results he hypothesized. I would not use Thor Hyerdahl as a credible source for the question of navigation between the Pacific islands and the Americas.
The post expressed concern for the Cherokee. I'm asking about their slaves? Certainly everybody should be concerned for the plight of those poor slaves.
I know what you are referring to. It was in a book I read about archaeology in the Americas.
The thing is, the indigenes never thought of using the wheel as a means of transport - something as simple as a rikshaw would have amazed them, much more so a horse-drawn wagon.
The occational Scraling showed up on the shores of Scotland or Ireland in his Leather boat.
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