On this edition of Your Call, Professor David Silverman will discuss his new book, This Land is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving.
Americans tell themselves a patriotic story about the supposed first Thanksgiving which treats colonization as a consensual bloodless affair. The Wampanoags say this myth sugarcoats the viciousness of colonialism. Professor Silverman tells the story from their perspective.
Guest:
David Silverman, professor at George Washington University specializing in Native American, Colonial American, and American racial history, and author of several books, including Thundersticks: Firearms and the Violent Transformation of Native America and Red Brethren: The Brothertown and Stockbridge Indians and the Problem of Race in Early America
Web Resources:
The New Yorker: The Invention of Thanksgiving
The Boston Globe: 'This Land is Their Land' a sobering correction of the Thanksgiving myth
Smithsonian: The Myths of Thanksgiving Story and the Lasting Damage They Imbue