Plimoth Plantation’s current exhibit, Thanksgiving: Memory, Myth & Meaning, like its
predecessor, Irreconcilable Differences, is a very unique experience. It accomplishes what no
other exhibit on the “Thanksgiving Story” has ever achieved. Its purpose is twofold: to peel
away layers of the Thanksgiving myth until it arrives at the truest history, and to use not just a
single author to present and interpret all aspects of that history, but to incorporate the actual
voices of historic participants in order to achieve a much more complete history.
The development and presentation of Thanksgiving: Memory, Myth & Meaning are in
keeping with Plimoth Plantation’s recently stated objective to become a bi-cultural institution.
The exhibit is manifest evidence of the museum’s work toward attaining that goal.
What does it mean to be a bi-cultural institution? It might seem as if the museum has already
achieved that goal since both English and Wampanoag educational programs reside under the
same roof. However, just having the two races under one roof does not automatically
accomplish our bi-cultural ideal. This is a gradual and ongoing process that must be consistently
maintained and monitored. It is the process and not just the end result that is important—the
process of the museum’s two cultures working collaboratively when necessary, separately if
that is what is needed, and recognizing when either is the appropriate method.
Thanksgiving: Memory, Myth & Meaning, in dealing with the Wampanoag, is much more
than just about us. Whether exhibits, books, films or learning products, there are many available
venues of information about us—always done by someone else. Sometimes these are so
inaccurate and fraught with stereotypes that they are unrecognizable to the very people that
they are supposed to be about. For example, take one of the recent Hollywood films about
Squanto. He was a Patuxet Wampanoag, Patuxet being the original name for what is now
Plymouth. I am a Wampanoag person from Aquinnah. While Aquinnah is not Patuxet, I am
also a person who has worked at Plimoth Plantation (on this old Patuxet ground) for more than
two decades. Upon first viewing the Hollywood film, I thought I was watching one of those
Natives of the South Seas Islands movies from the sixties. It was a good ten minutes before I
realized that this movie was supposed to be about my own people! While the actors were
Native People from other Nations, they did not look like the Wampanoag. Their clothing and
ornament were nothing like I had ever seen in twenty-plus years of making outfits for the
interpreters on Hobbamock’s Homesite. Some of the Native language spoken was Micmac.
Some was unintelligible to me. And the landscape looked like the rocky coast of Maine, for it
certainly was not Patuxet.
It was truly a moment to appreciate the effort that it takes to make our museum historically
accurate. And that effort is worth every second of time. Why? To me as a Wampanoag
person, that movie was a hodgepodge of inaccuracies. (Hollywood had the opportunity to
work with us for historical accuracy, but chose not to utilize that advantage.) So many of the
movie’s cultural aspects were either made up (the clothing) or borrowed from other tribes (the
language). It was the Frankenstein version of that particular piece of history. To the
Wampanoag People it was insulting and downright ridiculous. It is also very damaging. So
much of the Hollywood version is simply not plausible when placed against the yardstick for
measuring historical accuracy. However, the audience may not be aware of the implausible
content. They may accept what they see at face value—particularly if it matches other
misconceptions that they already hold.
We at Plimoth Plantation work very hard to peel away layers of inaccuracies and sift through
centuries of misconceptions and misrepresentations. Again, why is this important? Because to
represent, by whatever means, any group as accurately as possible is to show respect. It shows
respect for people—both those of the past and those of today. What is the purpose of learning
about different cultures whether past or present? So that you can know what kind of houses
they lived in? What kind of bowls they ate out of? What they made their clothes out of? How
they raised their children? Whether they kept animals? Is that kind of knowledge and
information the desired end result? NO. It most certainly isn’t. Or at least it shouldn’t be. All of
those things are just windows into the lives of people. The point of learning about other human
beings is not just to collect facts and information, but to use that learning to build respect and
understanding.
Thanksgiving: Memory, Myth & Meaning shows much respect for the Wampanoag. It is
much more than about the Wampanoag. At the very first thought of the exhibit, the
Wampanoag were included. From start to finish we were active partners in the planning,
development and execution of the project. In this case, it was not just the Wampanoag Indian
Program staff involved, but the whole community. The Wampanoag People had to buy into
Thanksgiving: Memory, Myth & Meaning or it could not have happened. The exhibit
includes many examples of our handiwork, and pictures and videos of Wampanoag People
(much of the photographic material comes from an unforgettable two-day film shoot held in
October 2000 involving 100 Native People from the Wampanoag and several other Nations).
Most importantly, however, our voice is here: the Wampanoag perspective from the
Wampanoag People. In the exhibit our presence and our voice are given equal credence to the
others represented.
We’re still here. And our history is carried through the centuries to the present day. Typically
the telling of that story has ended with the arrival of the Pilgrims or after King Philip’s War. This
omission has served to erase us from history. Since the Wampanoag were not in actuality
erased, we would simply add that which has been omitted—creating a more truthful, more
accurate and fuller view of history. Some people call this revisionist history, saying it weighs too
heavily on the “side” of the Native People or that it is too controversial. I would ask those
people to look back at the textbooks from their elementary school or high school—perhaps
even college days. There are patterns in the historical writing. One reads all about the Pilgrims
bravely crossing the ocean to found a brand new country based on freedom, then comes the
Revolutionary War, and then continued building of the new country, America. Where does one
read about the Wampanoag? Where does one find what was going on with them while
everything else was going on? Until very recently, when it came to textbooks and historical
thinking, we existed only in the 17th century—when Squanto showed the Pilgrims how to plant
corn, when Massasoit befriended the Pilgrims, and the “First Thanksgiving.” Often our
existence was only mentioned in our relation to (or in the service of) the English. Readers and
students of history have been left with the image that we went completely away.
In point of fact, we didn’t go anywhere. And most Wampanoag People still live right here in
our original homeland alongside everyone else. For us there were not always easy times or
good times. There were other epidemics (after the first most devastating one of 1616-1618 in
which the Wampanoag lost approximately half of our population, conservatively estimated at
35,000 at that time), wars, still further encroachment and loss of land, demeaning treatment by
those of other races, and systems that worked to our disadvantage and were completely the
opposite of our traditional ways. It is not always a pleasant story, but it is nevertheless a true
one. It happened. And on that basis alone, the story deserves to be told.
To tell our story—to add it back into the historical record—is seen as a negative thing by
some. Reintroducing what should always have been included is seen as “changing” history. We
are not trying to change history. It happened. Not telling what happened does not change the
fact of its happening. What we would like to change are the attitudes that keep us in that place
of omission; where one part or “side” of history is perceived as the whole. It is not just a matter
of Wampanoag People having the opportunity to tell our “side” of the story. It is a matter that
all of us see the history of the 17th century (or of any time period) holistically. There are no
sides, but only one whole story. This then is what Thanksgiving: Memory, Myth & Meaning
articulates and accomplishes with sensitivity. This is what gives the exhibit its unique qualities.
1. Tales of Rabbi Nachman Monday,...
