This Land Is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving

Description

Ahead of the 400th anniversary of the first Thanksgiving, a new look at the
Plymouth colony’s founding events, told for the first time with Wampanoag
people at the heart of the story. In March 1621, when Plymouth’s survival was
hanging in the balance, the Wampanoag sachem (or chief), Ousamequin
(Massasoit), and Plymouth’s governor, John Carver, declared their people’s
friendship for each other and a commitment to mutual defense. Later that
autumn, the English gathered their first successful harvest and lifted the
specter of starvation. Ousamequin and 90 of his men then visited Plymouth for
the “First Thanksgiving.” The treaty remained operative until King Philip’s
War in 1675, when 50 years of uneasy peace between the two parties would come
to an end. 400 years after that famous meal, historian David J. Silverman
sheds profound new light on the events that led to the creation, and bloody
dissolution, of this alliance. Focusing on the Wampanoag Indians, Silverman
deepens the narrative to consider tensions that developed well before 1620 and
lasted long after the devastating war-tracing the Wampanoags’ ongoing struggle
for self-determination up to this very day. This unsettling history reveals
why some modern Native people hold a Day of Mourning on Thanksgiving, a
holiday which celebrates a myth of colonialism and white proprietorship of the
United States. This Land is Their Land shows that it is time to rethink how
we, as a pluralistic nation, tell the history of Thanksgiving. Read more

Features:

Product Details:

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bloomsbury Publishing (October 13, 2020)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 528 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 163286925X
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 58
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.38 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.15 x 1.4 x 9.25 inches
• Best Sellers Rank: #53,656 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #55 in U.S. Colonial Period History #119 in Native American History (Books) #480 in U.S. State & Local History
• #55 in U.S. Colonial Period History
• #119 in Native American History (Books)