Part I

• I think the first reading is closest to what I learned as a child about the first Thanksgiving. All three of them had similarities and they each explained in a bit more detail other pieces of the history. The First was more traditional, the second reading was told in more of a religious tone and the third went into more detail about the couple years after the first Thanksgiving.
• The first article comes closest to my current understanding of the events that took place. The reason is because it doesn’t seem to go into as much detail as the other two and is more traditional.
• I don’t think my understanding of the events have changes as after elementary school I don’t remember learning much more about any of the events. The way I celebrate it has changed as I now celebrate it with my husband and his family. They have many traditions and are a bigger extended family than I had growing up. I also have come to enjoy family get-together’s and now that I have children of my own we have started our own traditions and I try and teach and learn with them and make memories.

Part 2

• I find these interpretations very interesting. The reason I find these interpretations interesting is because it is a different spin on the actual meaning of the first Thanksgiving. I have come to understand as an adult that as children we are sheltered from a lot of harsh realities of life and never told the “truth”. We become adults and are unprepared for how “hard” life really is, and we have to find out on our own that life is not a fairytale.
• As with anything else if you read or hear about something from multiple sources or multiple times you are bound to be influenced or believe some part of the content. I think this information did change my understanding of the post first thanksgiving time and let us know that initially the Pilgrims were contracted to try and make socialism work and they came to realize that it didn’t, so they changed to a free market and this (along with knowledge from the Native Americans) is the reason for their long term success.
• The first author was a high school professor but couldn’t find any title that would give a clear explanation of his views so he came up with his own titles and wrote his own books. He encompassed bits and pieces from other titles and names to come up with his way of looking at things. He has a libertarian perspective and writes in epistolary form. The second author is a radio talk show host who is a conservative political commentator. The third seems to be a business man, religious, served under President Bush, a professor and has written a couple of books. Looks like he is trying to bring the Christian worldview to the body of Crist. Lastly, this one doesn’t seem to have a specific author but more the website is the America Institute for Economic research and the founder was E.C Harwood. He was a military man and intensively studied economics.
• My views did not change with the research of the authors and the website but I do have reservations when it comes to reading anything anyone writes as I know their bias and agendas are part of their writings and they want you to believe what they have come to understand as their truths.

Part 3

• I found these readings to be just as interesting as the readings in step two because they looked more at the Native American aspects. It did go over some of the same information the step two presented, which was the pilgrims starting out with a socialist society and converting to capitalism because socialism wasn’t working. Then in started to bring up a new side that the pilgrims did not change to the free market because they were staving and having other problems or else they would have never had the “first thanksgiving” feast. They changed because they wanted to try something new. Also, interesting was looking at different ways to teach about the origins of Thanksgiving in the classroom.
• I do find these reading to be compelling as they bring up alternate views from the reading in step two and brought up the Native American side. I think that it makes you think how a simple story can have many different meanings, sides and versions depending on what and who you are talking about or to. These readings have changed my understanding, as now I know that the event wasn’t as simple as it seemed to be and there are different things to consider based on who is writing this information.
• The first readings author is a National correspondent at the New York Times and has done extensive coverage of the Tea Party Movement. The second audio was done by NPR’s Bob Edwards who was with NPR for 24 years before going over to Sirius XM radio to host a show. The third article was by Gary Hopkins who is the Founder, Editor in Chief at education world his responsibilities include planning the content of student and teacher editions and managing the teams that produce them. The fourth reading looks to be from Russell M. Peters who is Wampanoag and sits on several councils in the state, local and national level. Lastly, is the suppressed speech written by Frank James, who was a Wampanoag.
• Researching the authors didn’t necessarily change how I viewed the interpretations but it solidified which ones I think are factual versus political views.

Part 4

• I think that a historian would have to do a lot of reading from both first hand and second hand sources, complete fact checking with other known accounts from around that time period, have multiple discussions with other historians that are looking at the same event. Another aspect is to have many proofreaders so that it is considered from many different points of view. I do believe as with anything else that it is very hard to be objective and accurate because everyone interprets events different depending on their our own life experiences. This applies to the Governor of New Plymouth’s account, others interpretations of his account and the historians interpretations of sources.
• The average person would do a lot of Internet research and would most likely come to a conclusion based on the views that they have adapted over the years. I think for the most part these articles where all providing similar accounts of the information provided but interpreting it in a different way based on the views of the author or company they are working for.
• I think you could get a primary source about the first Thanksgiving from a historical museum, library, or from an Internet search from a reliable source.
• I feel like I would look at the library or an Internet search from a reliable source.