Ally Action Project Week 23: Native American History Month

This week is commonly associated with US Thanksgiving and turkeys, but it should be viewed through the eyes of the Native American as well as the European participants. November is National Native American Heritage Month, which began as a week to celebrate the indigenous people in 1986, and became a month in 1990. Take time to learn history through their experiences.

The Wampanoag tribe inhabited Cape Cod with nearly 70 villages in the early 1600’s. In 1616-1617, European explorers brought disease that wiped out an estimated 75% of the tribe. Tisquantum was a Wampanoag from the village of Patuxet, who was abducted by an Englishman in 1614, and sold to monks in Spain. He learned English and escaped back to America in 1619 to find his entire village dead from disease. Pilgrims arrived on the Mayflower in late 1620, and Tisquantum acted as a liaison for the pilgrims and the local Pokanokets, brokered peace, and taught them to farm.

Half of the 102 pilgrims survived the first year at Plimoth, build upon the ruins of a Patuxet village. In the decades after the pilgrim's arrival, an estimated 300k Native Americans were killed in New England and more were enslaved in the West Indies. The National Day of Mourning began in 1970 when Wamsutta, a Wampanoag leader, was silenced from giving a speech about the first Thanksgiving.