The Elegance of the Wampanoags

The Wampanoags were not the savages. The people of the dawn were near extinction from a bacterial infection carried the settlers and wars with the Micmacs and Pequots. Despite these calamities the natives living near the Plymouth supposedly invited the starving Pilgrims celebrated their good harvest in the autumn of 1621. The event is poorly documented by the colonists, but the legend lives in the minds of Americans as a cherished moment of peace between the Old America and the New.

Within forty years the thousands Wampanoags would suffer through the King Philip War. Only 400 survived the fighting. They sought refuge on Martha's Vinyard. Today the Wampanoags number almost 2000.

I know one. Big Ralph. 6-8. A big man in Fort Greene. Wampanoag and proud of it.

Happy to be alive.

And me too, because I'm half-Irish.

Happy Turkey Day.

One and all.

Glatt Thanksgiving

The Brownist English Dissenters fled their homeland in the 16th and 17th Century to escape religious persecution by the Church of England, which worsened with the return of the Catholic Stuarts' return to the throne. Leyden in Holland welcomed the refugees, but the Puritans led a precarious economic existence in the Netherlands, whose people were deemed to be libertines by the strict Separatist adherents. The leaders furthered endangered the exiled community with Scottish intrigue and the English ambassador demanded the arrest of the Church elders.

The dilemma was resolved by contracts establishing of a Puritan colony in the New World. It was a good deal for both parties. The Crown was happy to be rid of the malcontents in Holland and the Pilgrims were glad to be free of the immorality of the Old World.

In July of 1620 two ships attempted to cross the Atlantic Ocean. My relative John Howland was washed overboard, but grabbed a topsail halyard and was hauled back aboard. Upon landing on the new shores the Pilgrim set up the puritanical Plymouth Colony, which dominated the Massachusetts Bay for decades to come.

They were never known for their good times and the other day I was walking through Brooklyn's Hassidistan with a New England friend, who commented, "You know the Hassidic men dress like your Pilgrim ancestors. Weird black hats, beards, and short trousers."

"I hadn't thought of that, but you're right."

The Hassidim's attire dated back to noble fashion of 16th Century Poland.

"Maybe the Pilgrims were a lost tribe of Israel."

"I don't think so. The Puritans' prejudice against the Jews had been criticized by John Adams, the second president of the United States."

"Maybe, but the Pilgrims and Hassidim do look alike."

"In dress only."

"The Pilgrims were fundamentalist too."

"Okay, we're Jews. The secret is out. Plymouth was the first Jewish Colony in the New World."

"No reason to get all hot about it."

"You're right. That was a long time ago."

I didn't mention that one of our people had been hang by the English for his religious beliefs, mostly because I have none and it's Thanksgiving, when all the Pilgrims thanked the Native Tribes for saving them that next winter of 1621.

And Turkey is always Glatt Kosher, but rabbits never, because they don't have split hooves.