step 1:

Which of these readings was closest to your childhood understanding of the first Thanksgiving?

The pilgrims and Americas first thanksgiving was the closest version i remember learning as a kid. A few less facts but i remember very well learning about them fleeing religious persecution from the king and how miserably long the trip was.  I never learned about thanksgiving in a diluted fashion like a childrens thanksgiving which seems almost to childish for someone learning about a historical event.

Which article comes closest to your current understanding of that event?

i would say the National Geographic Kids article comes closest to my knowledge of the event now. I have a better grasp on the history but i still couldn’t tell you for the life of me when they landed in new plymouth or who was the first town leader/mayor.

How has your understanding of the event and celebrations of the holiday changed over your lifetime, and why?

of course my understanding has changed, i am much more aware of the racial and religious issues of the time because i’ve had a long time to develop my view of historical events.  I now know that it wasn’t just a blase eating occasion or that the Native Americans were even truly respected in relations with the pilgrims. they sat down together but they didn’t eat together.

Step 2:

1.Do you find these interpretations interesting? Explain.

very, i hadn’t known they were bound to a contract by the investors for a socialist society or that they point blank stole from the Indians so openly. I knew they stole but i thought it was a little more subtle and manipulative.

2.Do you find these interpretations compelling—that is, are they reasonable or accurate enough to change your previous understanding of Pilgrims or the first Thanksgiving? Again, explain.

definitely, it makes a lot of sense. Anyone who has read about American history and how we deal with foreign peoples to us cannot in good conscious say that it’s out of the realm of what Americans have always done/been capable of.

3.Google the authors of each piece and/or explore their websites. Who are they? Briefly summarize what you learned about them.

I learned that Richard j maybarry has written about economics for the U.S. government for several decades and that he is a well published expert in the field.  That Del Tackett, though speaking on the Christian organization behalf has spent thirty years in the economic field doing research. And Rush Limbaugh is one of the most listened to radio and t.v. personalities who speaks on political topics.

4.Does knowing more about the authors change how you view their interpretations of the Pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving? Explain why your perception of their interpretations did or did not change.

No my perception didn’t really change, all of this information is new and somewhat biased in the way that a person not from the time wrote it. Really in these first stages i feel credibility is tentative at best so it doesn’t hold much sway.

Part 3:

1.Do you find these interpretations more or less interesting than the readings in Step Two? Explain.

the sources were very interesting in that part 2 we learn about the less than pure(itan) nature of the realtionship with the native Americans, involving stealing and socalist contracts. in this reading we learn about the reflection of the wapanog people and how that time of history is a crucial memorial for them.

2.Do you find these interpretations compelling—that is, are they reasonable or accurate enough to change your previous understanding of Pilgrims or the first Thanksgiving? Again, explain.

i do find them very compelling, for as long as i’ve learned about thanksgiving it has never been with the understanding or view of the native Americans involved. which is kind of strange considering they were there, they played a crucial part and yet all i knew growing up was that “the indians taught the pilgrims to fish and grow crops of beans, corn and potatoes.” i have heard those lines a milllion times but not that the wapanog gather to mourn or that the event is still so significant to them as well.

3.Google the authors of each piece and/or explore their websites. Who are they? Briefly summarize what you learned about them.

Gary hopkins is a history teacher. Bob Edwards is a Peabody Award-winning member of the National Radio Hall of Fame he began his career in 1968 and now reports for NPR. Kate Zernike is a correspondent with the New York times, she shared a  2002 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting.

4.Does knowing more about the authors change how you view their interpretations of the Pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving? Explain why your perception of their interpretations did or did not change.

The articles by actual Native american descendants as is obvious, had more weight to their credibility. Those done by white writers were valid but not as a meaningful. They could include as many facts as necessary but it wasn’t the same. How can someone talk about the thoughts, feelings of a people that are not theirs?

Part 4:

1.How do you think an historian would make sense of the event known as the first Thanksgiving? What steps would he or she take to make sure her narrative and interpretation are as objective and accurate as possible?

I think the first step is to gather as many accounts of the event as possible. Journals and diaries would be useful for examining the pilgram side but for the native americans they would have to rely on first hand accounts. Then to get an idea of the event, if avaliable they should look at other works on the topic if not they would have to consider the dynamics of the relationships. The relationship of the pilgrims and their benefactors, pilgrams and and the king, the pilgrims and eachother and then the native americans. how do these relationships really measure up? is it plausible the relationships were based on mutual respect? or did the new americans only have there bleak survival on their minds that would lead them to desperate act. They’d have to examine the pilgrimes as a people and individual aspect to determine the direction and validity of the event.

2.How would the average 18- to 30-year-old American go about making sense of these competing articles? How do you suppose he or she would determine which interpretation is most compelling?

which ever one present the most factual looking data. People establish credibility with numbers quickly and then if they research the authors they would be likely to trust a proffesor or someone in the feild paid to know such things. Also continuity of information is important.

3.If I were to ask you to find primary sources related to the first Thanksgiving, where would you look?

i would go to the ablertons library website and go to the history section to hopefully find a specific search site for the information. If that didn’t work i’d look at JSTORE and then google scholar.

4. If I were to ask you to find reliable secondary sources on the first Thanksgiving, where would you look?

again i would probably look at a database finder but i think google scholar would work well enough in that scenario.

Part I
I felt like all of the articles were very similar, but the one that was closest to what I learned in elementary school was “The Pilgrims and and America’s First Thanksgiving” on holiday.net.  The article that is closer to my understanding of Thanksgiving now is from National Geographic, the article went on to debunk any myths that I had learned growing up and it spoke about how the peace between the two groups of people had ended.  I now know that there was ton of animosity between the settlers and the natives.  Growing up I had always seen the first Thanksgiving as complete happiness and it set the tone for good relations throughout history.  I now know that is not the case and there was turmoil between the two groups.  Instead of the holiday being about fun crafts, good food, and getting time off of school I know see it as a time to gather with my family and reflect on those who I am grateful to have.

Part II
I enjoyed reading their interpretations of the first Thanksgiving.  I don’t think they completely discredited my views of Thanksgiving but gave me a more of an understanding of what the migrants could have been feeling.  Most of the articles spoke about how collectivism was not working, and having to raise food for your own family to survive caused the people to work harder.  After having to deal with the frustration of doing work, while someone else did not do the same it would make sense that this is a reason that they wanted to show their thanks for what they had because it took awhile to get to that point.
When reading what Rush Limbaugh had said on his radio show it was apparent that he was dramatic with the way he presented what he had to say.  Upon further research of him it was obvious that he speaks about his viewpoints in a very controversial manner.  In Del Tackett’s article on the same subject, he was the only one to actually quote the Bible.  This does not steer me away from his ideas anymore than I would have been.  On Tackett’s website he speaks about God often, so it makes sense why he would be leaning towards the religious aspect of their decisions.  I think both men come up with great ideas, and as long as the reader doesn’t bindingly believe everything that has been written down then I think the articles given are very helpful.

Part II
I don’t know if I would say this set of articles were more interesting than the last set, but they were more impacting.  The articles came from a place where it spoke about how modern day Thanksgiving depiction can kind of suppress the current culture of Native Americans.  These interpretations are enough for me to reevaluate how I had celebrated the holiday in the past.  I had always known that the single depiction of Native Americans was inaccurate but I never thought about it as limiting.  By showing these large diverse group of people in one single way with one single culture is wrong and offensive to the people apart of these groups.  Knowing that the authors aren’t coming from a disrespectful sense makes me respect the writer.  The man who was asked to speak at the Thanksgiving celebration touched me the most, he had seen the many ways this generalization of his people can do to hold people back.  It didn’t completely change my thoughts on the holiday but made me step back and think about how these actions effected people.

Part IV
If a historian were trying to make sense of the first Thanksgiving I think they would try to learn about the event from all different sides of the story, not just one group of people’s accounts.  In this current time, I think it would be very important for the historian to do their research and make sure to not get stuck into any stereotype.
In order for an 18 to 30 year old to decide which interpretation of the first Thanksgiving was the most compelling would be the store they are likely to not have heard before or a story that aligns with their personal beliefs.  Personally, I find it really compelling to see a different side of a story, rather than one that I had heard many times.  But on the contrary it can lead to it being a harder time to stay interested when it is not easy to follow where the story is going.
To find primary and secondary sources on this topic I would take to the Albertson’s Library page to begin my search.  If I were not find the specific information I was needing, this would be a good starting point to gather some keywords and ideas to help me continue my search on Google or GoogleScholar.

https://www.engineeringthepast.com/731-2/