On Nov 21, 10:49�am, "Eisboch" wrote:
"Chuck Gould" wrote in message

...

The original feast would not have been possible without the natives,
(or at least would not be the event memorialized in history) and none
of them were thanking the European understanding of God. Most of them
likely felt they were receiving thanks for helping the new colonists
survive in the strange environment and for allowing the new colonists
to remain, largely unmolested, in their territory.

Every year at Plimoth Plantation �(about 12 miles south of my house) they
re-enact the original "Thanksgiving". And every year the United American
Indians of New England (UAINE) stage a protest, sometimes with violent
results.

http://www.teachervision.fen.com/tha...tory/2558.html

Eisboch

The native Americans may not be sufficiently informed about their own
heritage. Massasoit was exploiting the presence of the European
colonists in search of an advantage over his rivals, the Narangassets.
To declare that the Pilgrims took advantage of the natives is
ridiculous.
The pilgrims were hanging on by a thread, those that survived can
thank
the native people who assisted them (as well as any religious
acknowledgments they prefer to make), but the balance of power was
held by Massasoit. He had more people, better weapons, greater wealth,
a local trading network, intimate knowledge of the terrain, etc. Had
he elected to make war on the Pilgrims it would have been a very short
battle indeed.