Teacher Resources

Take Christmas: What about "the night before;" the flying reindeer; the reindeer with the nose of a drunk; a dancing, talking snowman; a drummer boy; bell-ringing pan handlers (pun intended) in front of the mall; etc.?

Or, Easter: bunnies and chocolate rabbits; candy chicks; baskets of plastic grass; showing off new outfits; pictures with a giant, flop-eared plush-coated person; etc.

Or Columbus Day: moved to Monday (some years), celebrating the brave explorer who didn't know where he was, a person imprisoned for cruelty in an era when slavery was outlawed by decree (except in the case where the slave's life would be "better off" under slavery than in their former condition.

Sidebar

Some folks think that the cannibalism of the Caribbean was exaggerated so that the Conquistadors had justification for enslaving the people there.

Surprise! Real cannibals are too warlike, fierce and violent to be easily subjugated into slavery.

End the Myth: A "Tell-it-Like-it-Was" Thanksgiving

Textbook and politically correct history is boring, limp and lame. But, real history, real people, real stories are exciting. Even students can be turned on and motivated by the "stuff that history is made of."

Fortunately, in our Internet Age, real history materials (even primary sources are available at the beck and call of our keyboard-tapping fingers.

Primary sources, investigation, comparing discoveries…these make history exciting. If only teachers had time to explore learning in this way.

Sidebar

Unfortunately, original source materials may not be politically correct. What if children learned what really happened? Who would they trust after finding out that their parents and teacher have been telling them fabricated facts?

Their parents' and teachers' defense: They believed the myths, too, and didn't know any better.

Cases in Point

Look at some real evidence…

• Turkeys: The English-speakers sent out men as "fowlers." They brought back birds, maybe Ruffed Grouse, ducks, geese, swans, cranes, other sea birds. These settlers referred to all kinds of birds as "turkey" From the number of birds that the "fowlers" brought back, we can guess that their success occurred because they happened upon flocks of migrating birds. Otherwise, if they could have experienced this kind of hunting success all year, so many people wouldn't have starved.


• Pilgrims: The settlers were not really pilgrims, i.e., travelers to a religious shrine. They were workers after land. Land that belonged to people other than the ones in England who financed the expedition


• The real Thanksgiving: The first Thanksgiving is probably the celebration that took place a year after the celebration that is often referenced as the real one


• Costumes: The black suits with rectangular collars and buckles were not the style of clothes that the settlers wore.


• Religious Freedom: This was more of doing what they wanted. Only about half of the original settlers were Puritan. Their complaint was against King James for running the Church of England like the Roman Catholic Church. They wanted to get rid of the Catholic Church trappings, and make the church "pure."


• Starvation: This was the result of stupidity and lying.
• These folks called their farms, "Plantations." This concept is irrelevant in the rocky, short growing season of Massachusetts. And, the crops that they could grow and ship (corn) didn't have the economic value of a product like tobacco (grown in Virginia)


• These folks were supposed to earn money by fishing, but they found that they could make more money by trading with the Native Americans for furs (beaver and otter pelts). If they went fishing, they would have had food. Trading for furs gave them nothing to eat. But, trading furs was a lot easier than fishing every day


• In defense of the settlers, they were not fishermen, they brought the wrong sized fish hooks, and eventually learned how to fish


• The lying was a subterfuge to get the rich backers of the expedition in England to send more money. They wrote to England that the area was rich in fish, deer, crops (a paradise). But, instead of sending more money, the backers figured that the settlers didn't need as much, and sent less supplies


• Pre-Winter Arrival: These folks couldn't have picked a worse time to arrive in Massachusetts, unless it was later during the "dead of winter (no pun intended). They didn't realize that the weather was more severe than in England. Leaving England on Sept. 23^rd, they headed into the cold ocean currents, and the trip took over two months (66 days). They ate only cold food, and one person (a sailor) died during the voyage.
• Friendliness with the Native Americans: Neither group trusted the other. Relations got so bad that the settlers even posted dying people at the gate of their fort so that the Native Americans thought that they had more guards than they really had.


• King Massasoit: The colonists mistook a local tribal chief as a "king." In fact, the word "Massasoit" means leader. This was not his real name. There were other chiefs of the Wampanoag Nation that were not as friendly as group that Massasoit lead.
• It is surprising that the the Wampanoag were as friendly as they were. The colonists…


• Arrived after an incident where 27 Wampanoag men were kidnapped by English fishing boats


• The settlers dug up (and took without permission) Wampanoag caches of corn


• The settlers just moved in on Wampanoag land without asking
• Pure Speculation - Not History, but Plausible: The invitation of the Native Americans may have been an accident. The Wampanoag heard lots of shooting (maybe the sound of the fowlers blasting away at the flocks of migratory birds) and Chief Massasoit took 90 men to investigate. (If the Wampanoag were invited, wouldn't they have brought their wives and children to the party?) But now that they "showed up" the settlers had little choice but to invite the army of Native Americans, that outnumbered them almost two to one, to stay and eat. Then, Chief Massasoit sent his men out and they shot five deer to contribute to the fiesta. (If they had been invited in the first place, they would have brought the deer with them as gifts when they arrived, wouldn't they?)

Link to Primary Source - Hearsay Graphic Organizer

English Colonists Cultural Chart graphic organizer

Primary Sources 3-2-1 Chart graphic organizer

Sources for "Myth-Busting" Information

Plimoth Vocabulary (note the early spelling)

What the Settlers and the Wampanoag Wore

Plymoth Plantation and the Pilgrims

Online Presentation

Teacher's Guide to the Online Presentation: You are the Historian: Guide to the First Thanksgiving

More Myth Debunking than you can possibly have time for…The sub menus are deep and the narrative is long

Unrelated to Myth-Busting but fun, anyway: Thanksgiving Crafts