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Intergenerational Thanksgiving Service
Reverend Amy Zucker
THE WAMPANOAG STORY (Darcey)
For thousands of years before the first Pilgrim sailed from Europe, the land we now call America was home to many different nations. In these places we call Palo Alto, or Mountain View, the Ohlone people lived. In the place we now call Massachusetts, the Wampanoag, Nipmuc, Narragansett, and Pequot Nations lived. According to Ramona Peters, who is a Mashpee Wampanoag living today:
We name ourselves after the land we live with. Because, not only are we breathing in, we are also drinking from the water that is flavored by that very land. Whatever is deposited in the soil is in the water is in us. So we are all one thing, and we name ourselves after the place that is our nurturing. That sustains our life.
Four hundred years ago, at a time before the Europeans had ever heard of the them, there were 12,000 Wampanoag people living in 40 villages near Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket: a rich, sophisticated society. They "lived with this land for thousands of generations- fishing in the waters, planting and harvesting crops, hunting the four-legged and winged beings and giving respect and thanks for each and every thing taken for [their] use. [The Wampanoag] were taught to use many resources, remembering to use them with care, respect, and with a mind towards preserving some for the seven generations of unborn, and not to waste anything." (1)
The men women and children of the Wampanoag lived in round, bark-covered wigwams called wetus. Instead of driving to the Grocery Store to buy food shipped from thousands of miles away, they ate the food that grew nearby. As fruits, berries, and flowers came into their season, they were harvested and eaten while they were still fresh. Anything extra was saved for later by drying or smoking. We are used to eating chicken and turkey, but these children grew up eating roasted ducks, roasted geese, passenger pigeon, or partridge. In the same way that we eat beef that comes from cows who live on a ranch, these families ate wild animals: deer, bear, moose, elk, raccoon, rabbit, skunk, or squirrel.
Wampanoag people were used to holding thanksgiving ceremonies during every season. "There was always enough bounty for feasts throughout the year. With four distinct prolific seasons, the Wampanoag harvested different types of food each season. The animal, fish, bird, and plant relatives of the Native people have life cycles and migration patterns which make this possible. Thanksgiving is a commitment to all living things we accept as food to sustain our lives. More important than a feast or occasion, Thanksgiving is a concept from ancient times."(2)
By the time the Pilgrims' story begins, the Wampanoag people had recently suffered great losses. The three epidemics which swept across what we now think of as New England between 1614 and 1620 were especially devastating to the Wampanoag. When the Pilgrims landed in 1620, fewer than 2,000 of the Wampanoag who lived on the mainland had survived. It's hard to even imagine the sadness of losing more than half of everyone you know. How much more amazing is the story Amy will tell you in a few minutes, now that we know a little more about the Wampanoag people.
THE PILGRIM STORY (Amy)
Our second story is about the people called the Puritans. They lived in England, but they were treated very badly there because their religion was different than the officially approved religion of the country. So they moved to Holland, where they settled in the town of Leiden and were able to live the way their religion guided them.
But the times were hard there, and also, some of them felt that their children were being too influenced by Dutch life, and they also wanted to have their own government. In 1620, about half of them decided to leave Leiden. They called themselves Pilgrims because a pilgrim is someone who wanders, and also a person who travels on a spiritual journey. They arranged for a ship from England, and other Puritans who had stayed in England joined them in sailing to the American continent. Some other people also made the voyage who weren't Puritans but wanted to create a new colony far from England. The Puritans also hired a few people to come along who had skills that might be useful in making the settlement, and one of them was a soldier. They knew that there were people who already lived there, and that they might be angry about their landing there, so they brought weapons and a military advisor along.
The journey took two months. In those days there were no engines, so the boat just had sails; it was harder to steer than today's ships and it rocked back and forth with the waves much more than boats do today. Lots of people were seasick, and sometimes they were afraid that the Mayflower would tip right into the ocean and they would all drown. During one storm a man fell off the deck into the water, but luckily he was able to grab onto the rope the sailors threw him and they pulled him back aboard.
The ship was pretty crowded, because there were supposed to be two ships that sailed together, but the other one kept leaking so they all had to return to the port and load onto the Mayflower. It could be very uncomfortable and smelly, because it was very hard for the people to take baths and they were living close by the goats and pigs they had brought along. But they'd known when they left that it would be a difficult journey.
When they arrived at the far shore, there were people living there already. Every once in a while the Puritans would see a small group of Indians, who disappeared into the woods when they saw the Puritans coming. Once the Puritans found baskets of corn in a graveyard of the Nauset people, and took it, which (as they may or may not have realized) was extremely disrespectful because the corn was left in honor of the dead, the way people might leave flowers in a cemetery around here. The Nauset warriors came after them in anger and the Puritans ran back to the ship. They traveled along the shore to a different spot and finally settled in a deserted Wampanoag village. Fortunately, this was not seen as disrespectful by the Wampanoag, who were keeping an eye on what these newcomers with guns were up to. The Wampanoag just kept their distance for a while. They had enough trouble with the epidemic. Another group of natives did attack the Pilgrims with arrows in December, and were frightened off by the guns the Pilgrims fired.
Everyone was very worried. The natives worried that these new people would hurt them or steal from them; the Pilgrims worried that they would starve or be killed by the natives. No one knew whether they would be able to live peacefully or not.
The winter was much milder than most, but it still seemed long and hard to the Pilgrims. The country was cold and bare and it rained a lot. Many of them were sick. All of them were hungry. About half of them died. It was a sad time for everyone . . .
Finally, spring came. There were new leaves on the trees and flowers in woods and fields. The country was green and friendly and beautiful now. The Wampanoag, led by Massasoit, approached the Pilgrims and offered friendship. The Pilgrims and the Wampanoag signed a treaty that promised each other that they would live peacefully together. They also agreed that if either the Puritans or the Wampanoag were attacked by someone else, they would defend each other.
The Pilgrims planted all spring, using a method the Wampanoag showed them of burying dead fish in the soil as compost. When they harvested in the fall, they decided to do what they had done at harvest time back home in England, which was to give thanks to their God, who had created the world and kept them alive through hard times. They had a new home where they could pray exactly as they believed was right, with no one who would make them stop. Their Bible was full of psalms, songs of praise and thanks, and they had sung psalms before they left England. Now they gave praise and thanks again.
Let's sing the way the Pilgrims might have done. The tune of this song is the same as the one we sang earlier. It is a Dutch Folk Tune first published in 1626, and the Pilgrims would have known songs a lot like it when they lived in Holland. (Song We Gather Together, 349)
The Wampanoag and the Pilgrims had very different religions. The Pilgrims thought that the Wampanoag were "a people without any religion or knowledge of any God,"(3) and we know from what Darcey told us that is not true at all. Maybe the Wampanoag thought the same of the Pilgrims. Sometimes people's religious beliefs are so different from each other that they don't even see that the other people's beliefs are religious beliefs. But even without this understanding, the Pilgrim who said that the Wampanoag had no religion also observed that they were very intelligent, fair and trustworthy. They could all be good people without sharing the same beliefs.
The Puritans believed that each family was responsible only for itself and that God wouldn't want them to help poor people,(4) but they did eat together at special times, and now and then they ate with the Wampanoag. So now, at harvest time, about 50 Puritans and about 90 Wampanoag had a feast. The feast lasted three days, and between meals they played games, sang, and danced. Today we combine the feast, which was a big fun party, with the giving of thanks, which the Puritans did in a very serious and somber way, and together they make the holiday Thanksgiving that we have now.
For the feast in 1621, the Wampanoag sachem, Massasoit and others of his people brought five deer. The Pilgrims contributed the corn and barley they had grown and the wild birds they had killed.
In the same way, the people of our congregation bring our gifts each week to create this community we share. We also help the people beyond our congregation, not just the people we know (the way the Puritans did). On Thanksgiving we remind ourselves to help other people because we believe we are all one family.
So let us take up our offering now, to support our dreams for this congregation, to create a safe place for religious freedom, to help one another, and to reach out through Peninsula Interfaith Action to the community in which we live. (Offertory Laudate pueri Domini, Handel)
THE ALIANZA INDIGENA and UUSC STORY (Darcey)
The story of that first thanksgiving is a wonderful symbol of how people from different nations and cultures can be generous and good to one another. The Wampanoag and the pilgrims came together in a way that is an important teaching story for all of us. It shows us that we have something to learn from one another. Jessie 'little doe' Fermino writes that : "The four colors on the Medicine Wheel represent the four races of people. The reason that there are four is that the Creator created all four -- each one with a specific responsibility and special gifts. In order for people to live together on this earth, everyone has to have their place in the circle." (5)
Unfortunately, the people who came from Europe in giant boats did not always treat the people who were already here with kindness or respect. There were wars among the native nations and the settlers. People died in those wars. The native people had their land taken from them. The promises the new settlers made to the first nations here were often broken. It is one of the saddest chapters in the history of our country.
In 1675, Metacom, the son of Massasoit, said:
"The Wampanoag had been the first in doing good to the English and the English were the first in doing wrong. When the English first came, Massasoit was a great man and the English as a little child. He constrained other Indians from wronging the English and gave them corn and showed them how to plant. And was free to do them any good and had let them have one hundred times more land than now I have for my own people."(6)
Despite the many hardships the Wampanoag have suffered over these last 400 years, they still survive today. In 1928 the Wampanoag reorganized as the Wampanoag Nation. There are currently five organized bands. All have petitioned for federal and state recognition, but only Gay Head (600 members but without a reservation) has been successful (1987). The Mashpee (2,200 members) were turned down by the federal courts in 1978.
Right now, the great-grandchildren and the great-great grandchildren of these first nations are still angry about the land that was taken from their people, and about the promises that were broken. I am angry too. I can't take back the awful things that our government has done to the Native Americans, but I want to do something to support the Native Americans who are alive today, who struggle with the legacy of that violence and oppression.
Two years ago a group of women came together to talk about what their community needed. They had all different backgrounds. One of them was Apache, from Arizona. One of them was Yaqui, from Sonora, Mexico. Another was Raramuri, from Chihuahua, Mexico, and there were other women from other peoples . . . but what they all had in common was that they were indigenous people living in Southern California. And they didn't always feel welcome at the table where decisions were being made about their own lives and communities.
So these women began to organize. When people felt isolated and felt that no one else understood their culture, they could come to a Talking Circle and share their stories and sacred items. When the police harassed them or their schools treated them unfairly, they had a whole community ready to speak up for them. The group called themselves the Alianza Indigena, the Indigenous Alliance. Then they created a partnership with the UU Service Committee, which supported them in speaking up for their civil rights.
The UU Service Committee is an important part of Unitarian Universalism. It is like our helping hands. Each year at about this time we have a special fundraiser to support all the good work of the Service Committee. UU churches all around the country and UU families like you take these boxes home. Each night between tonight and January 4, you can put the cost of a meal for one guest into the box. On Thursday, at your Thanksgiving dinner, you can count the guests around your table and see if your family can contribute enough for each guest. This is our way of making everyone welcome at the table.
We have enough boxes so that every family can take home one box. While the ushers pass out the "Guest at Your Table" boxes please join me in singing Song 407, "We're Gonna Sit at the Welcome Table."
Footnotes:
What is your reaction to this sermon? Please send comments to Reverend Darcey Laine or Reverend Amy Zucker