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Native Resources |
A Very Sad
Thanksgiving Day
In 1637,
seven hundred men, women and children of the Pequot Tribe, gathered for
their
“Annual
Green Corn Dance”
in the area that is now known as Groton, Conn. While they were gathered in
their meeting place, they were surrounded and attacked by English and
Dutch mercenaries.
The Indians were ordered from the
structure and as they came forth, they
were, unmercifully, shot down. Others were brutally burned alive in the
structure.
The next day, the Governor of the
Massachusetts Bay Colony declared:
“A Day of
Thanksgiving?” ...thanking God that
they had eliminated over 700 American Indian men, women and children.
For the next 100 years, every "Thanksgiving Day" declared by a Governor or
President was to honor that victory,
“thanking”
God that the battle had been won.
Source: Documents of
Holland, 13 Volume Colonial Documentary History letters and reports from
colonial officials to their superiors and the King in England the private
papers of Sir William Johnson, British Indian agent for the New York
colony for 30 years.
Researcher: William B.
Newell (Penobscot Tribe) Former Chairman; University of Connecticut
Anthropology Department.
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