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The Origins of Thanksgiving, According to the Snipe Clan
Someone called “Senator Kayse Jama (He/Him)” (apparently Jama is an Oregon State Senator**) has linked–on his Twitter account–to this person:
No idea who Anessa Hartman Haudenosaunee is, but, Lord, I love the fact that she’s a member of something called the “Snipe Clan.” (It’s the pedant in me. So sorry if that’s triggering.)
And, wait…what? I thought Lincoln proclaimed the fourth Thursday of every November an official “Thanksgiving” holiday largely to commemorate Union victories in the American Civil War (particularly the one at Gettysburg). And that–actually–he was simply codifying George Washington’s original intention from the last decades of the eighteenth century.
Am I wrong? Inquiring minds (mine, anyway) would like to know.
Or, is this just another Leftist nutball who’s detached herself from reality and the facts in order to spin a comfortable narrative that suits her (I’ve not checked its pronouns) narrative?
** As described on his Twitter profile, in order of precedence: “Somali-American. Son of a Camel Herder. Father of Twins.”
Published in General
No.
Yes.
Here Snipe! Here Snipe!
Lincoln did not order 38 to be hanged. He requested all the evidence presented at the military tribunal which sentenced 303 to death, but differentiated between the ones who fought in battles versus the ones who had committed atrocities. He commuted the sentences of 264 of them. (A 39th was later spared as well.) I learned about this in a public high school. Ms. Haudenosaunee might have been out sick that day.
For the record:
President Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation:
“The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.
In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.
Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. The population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union.
“In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.
Thanksgiving is a time of reflection, to show gratitude for the things God has done in our lives and to remember His providence.
At least that is my intention. Somehow I’m doubting that Miss what’s-her-name, or the person that linked to her, knows anything about that.
Some of my classmates in my freshman year in high school were descendants of those who had been kept captive during and after the trial, who were then shipped to a place along the Missouri River in what is now South Dakota, the survivors of which were later moved to a healthier place in Nebraska, where they have a reservation now. My high school was just off the edge of the reservation.
Some think Lincoln might have pardoned even more than he did, but public pressure wouldn’t have allowed it. I believe you are correct, though, about the distinctions he tried to make. The transcripts of judicial proceedings, such as they were, that were provided to him were sketchy, so he did the best he could with the information he had.
That year in high school included the 100th anniversary of the hanging, but nothing was said about it. I didn’t even know about the connection at that time. I had once asked some of my classmates about their history. I have no recollection of just what I asked, but somebody said something about Minnesota, and since that made no sense to me I didn’t follow up. I had known about the Mankato hanging since I was a little tyke, as it’s an event my mother had often mentioned, possibly because of her school days in the area, but I didn’t know about the connection to my classmates until 35 years later.
Thirty-five years later I also learned that 1962 had been a low point in cultural self-esteem and self-assertion, if I can use those terms.
Learning about all this stuff was one of the biggest turning points in my political life. I wonder if I could ever have been a Trump supporter if not for that. (It’s not a straight line connection.)
I notice that Ms. Haudenosaunee and her daughters are dressed in Western clothing, standing in what appears to be a contemporary western-style house (if the door is any indication.) All three look to be well-fed and healthy, as are most of those who live with the benefits of Western technologies. Ms. Haudenosaunee also makes full use of the available social media to convey her “message.”
I might believe she’s something other than a hypocritical fraud if she actually lived her life (and raised her children) by rejecting the benefits and technologies gleaned from despised Western Civilization she hates so.
I suddenly have a bunch of American Indian tribes following me on Instagram for some reason (possibly due to seeing our Choctaw grandma info on a cousin’s feed and branching out, I don’t know). So I follow them back. For my trouble I had on my feed today a giant box with ‘NATIONAL DAY OF MOURNING” in capital letters. -sigh-
What I’d like to say is that the Indians were always going to be overrun and conquered by somebody. It’s the nature of things. They just were not viable for even the 17th century let alone the 19th. I mean they never even came up with the wheel, at least I think they didn’t. It was inevitable. You can’t keep living in the Stone Age and expect your surroundings to remain static, not when other humans are around. (OH wait I forgot about the Taliban) And I have enough Choctaw blood to qualify for Federal Aid so I think I can say these things. Everybody needs to get over themselves, including the La Raza Mexicans who think Texas and SoCal belong to them because it was “stolen lands.” You LOST them in WARS. Grow UP. Here is my great-grandma and she agrees with me:
1862 … Shiloh, New Orleans, the Peninsular campaign, Second Bull Run, Antietam, the Emancipation Proclamation … it would be fair to say that Lincoln was a trifle distracted.
I suspect that eventually we will either rename the holiday to something else or create a new holiday around this time to take its place and Thanksgiving will end up in the dust bin of history. I used to be angry about such things but am now resigned that this is just how the world works now and that we will end up a group of holidays nobody cares of to celebrate non white and non WASP stuff.
To be honest I was wondering if I should even mention Thanksgiving around work anymore. There is an off chance that it will offend somebody and I end up in HR. Being a White Christian Male above a certain age and assumed to be CIS any trip to HR means I lose no matter what the subject.
Reminds me of my post a couple of years ago, a few months before the Trump Wars on Ravelry, when a knitting pattern maker I’d bought a pattern from felt compelled to issue a revision because the name of the knitted slippers had proven itself offensive to those with “First Nation” status. (As with many BLM protests, and the regular hullabaloos about sports teams names when they’re references to Native Americans, I suspect that most of those yapping had little, if anything to do with African Americans or with actual “First Nations.”)
The original name of the knitted slippers was “Mukluks.” The email I received contained–among other idiocy–the following paragraphs:
The email I sent in reply contained–among other salient ripostes–the following paragraphs:
Even though I say so myself, I consider it one of my better efforts.
Definitely. He sent one of the generals (John Pope) who didn’t work out so well in the big war out west to deal with the Indian war.
We tolerate, and even encourage, many islands of non-civilization amid the civilization of America (AKA Indian reservations). They take what they want from civilization, with no gratitude for it, and hold a massive grudge from 100 years ago. My ancestors were slaves in Egypt, and expelled from many of the European countries where they settled, but I don’t bear a grudge against England, France, or Egypt. Now, I do bear a mighty grudge against Russia and Germany, because they murdered millions of my fellow Jews, but you won’t find me mistreating those of German or Russian ancestry here in America because of it. If the Indians don’t like living in America, they are welcome to confine themselves to their reservations with no contact with the wider country, and see how long they can hold out. I would prefer that they finally acknowledge defeat, disband their non-civilization tribes, and become true American Citizens, where their possibilities are essentially limitless. And they can celebrate Thanksgiving just like the rest of us.
Her name is Hartman. Her ethnicity is Haudenosaunee (Iroquois).
I grew up with images of Indians dragging their cargo on poles from the back of horses, without wheels.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travois
I imagine she was out sick for most of her history classes. Why study history when Grievance Studies are en vogue?
Bring up anything that does not suggest that non whites were peaceful people with superior technology is extremely racist. The world would be such a better if white people never existed and hunted down the non whites. This is known science.
But even the use of horses were appropriated from the Spanish. They couldn’t even invent horses. Maybe that’s not what I mean to say.
Though an atheist in his youth, I suspect that Lincoln paid attention to Christ’s treatment of the Romans in the Gospels.
Thanks for the information. So; she’s Iroquois, huh? That would make her people Algonquin, native to the Northeastern region of North America. Quite a lot to admire in the Iroquois, but they were also a no-nonsense people, colonizing other nations and driving out those who wouldn’t submit.
Considering that she now lives in Oregon, is it safe to assume she’s just renewing the traditional colonizing patterns of her Iroquois forebearers?
According to a Haudenosaunee web site, the clans in the confederacy are: Turtle, Bear, Wolf, Heron, Hawk, Snipe, Beaver, Deer and Eel. Not all tribes of the confederacy have all of the clans, but clan membership was one of things that helped hold the tribes together in a confederation. It wasn’t a simple tribal system where people had loyalties only to their tribe. There were various other identities that cut across tribes. Clan membership was one of those.
Speaking of triggering, I think Bruce Trigger has written about some of this, but I can’t just now find the book where he has written about these clans. I checked the index of the book I did find on my shelf, and it didn’t have anything to say about any of the specific clans.
People who say that our Constitution was based on that Iroquois confederation can do so only if they have no understanding of our Constitutional system or of Iroquois society. (I get angry when I see schools teaching that nonsense.) Both the Constitution and the Iroquois confederacy are worth learning about, but the only thing they have in common is that they are confederations. Confederations are historically a dime a dozen, and tend to be short-lived. Confederations that actually work are much rarer. These are two that worked, but in very different ways.
An example of how that can work in a non-governmental situation is with masonic lodges. In 2014 when I was bicycling to take photos of township halls, I came across a rural, black-majority township in Cass County, Michigan. I had known there was such a township, but hadn’t bothered to figure out ahead of time exactly which one it was. When I got to this one and started taking photos, one of the township officers came out of the office and introduced herself, and asked if I didn’t want to come in and meet people. (It was the day for handling appeals of property tax assessments, so it was a busy place that day, unlike most days at rural township halls.) She explained that the township hall used to be the masonic lodge building, back in the days when everything was segregated, but after integration the masons gave it to the township.
And that reminded my son that he had observed a situation in Detroit when he was working at a gas station, where a white guy who had no particularly fondness for black people, saw the masonic ring that a black customer was wearing and helped him with his problems. I forget the details, but it involved a level of trust. The masonic membership cut across racial lines. Things like that can help hold a society together. Clans helped do that for the tribes of the Haudenosaunee confederation. The left works hard to destroy these types of relationships, because it is jealous of all relationships other than those between autonomous individuals and the state. Where it can’t destroy them, it co-opts them.
Algonquian and Iroquois are two completely different language groups, and the cultural groupings tend to follow the language groupings (although there are exceptions). But Iroquois are not Algonquin. I can sometimes make out partial meanings of a few name-words in various Algonquian languages, including Algonquin, but am completely helpless when it comes to Iroquoian languages. In those cases I have not a clue, though the words sometimes look Finnish to me, especially Huron words. But I have not a clue about Finnish, either.
The Winnebago (Ho-Chunk) people in Wisconsin are linguistically Siouan (the 3rd major language group in North America) but culturally Algonquian. Or so I’ve heard said, but I don’t know what those cultural affinities would be. But that’s an example where cultural affinities don’t follow linguistic affinities.
A snipe is a bird, by the way.
Why study history since it is always changing to what support our current politics and future political agendas.
@thereticulator I love the level of detail you add to this discussion. How come you to know so much about this history?
Any particular books you might recommend?
Thanks, and Happy Thanksgiving!
And a McGuffin in a classic (though perhaps apocryphal?) prank.
(By the way, it’s good to see you back.)
Ah yes the fabled snipe hunt. And thank you!
To be a freemason one has to be a person of good moral fiber. This is a constant test and you will be removed from the faterinity for moral failings that are accepted in secular society but is still a big no in the masonic community. I have sat lodge with brothers of all faiths, creeds and ethnic backgrounds. Masons have been on both sides of many conflicts. We tend to stand for good moral character and were sent to the gas chambers for it during the holocaust with Jews (brothers or not) and currently have bounties on our heads in many countries that are not free.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friend_to_Friend_Masonic_Memorial
Also almost a Hogwarts Professor.