Wampanoags and Pilgrims in the Times once again!

THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 2020

A familiar type of reporting:
There they were in the New York Times again! We were alerted to the report in the list of NOTEWORTHY FACTS found on this morning's page A3 (print editions only).

Somewhat oddly, Farah Nayeri's news report carried a London dateline. Hard copy headline included, it started off like this:
NAYERI (1/23/20): A New Thread on the Mayflower Narrative

In 1970, the Native American leader Wamsutta Frank B. James was asked to give a speech at a state dinner in Plymouth, Mass.
It was 350 years since the arrival of the Mayflower, and Mr. James, a member of the Wampanoag tribe that has inhabited what is now Massachusetts for 12,000 years, was invited to participate in the commemorations.

“This is a time of celebration for you—celebrating an anniversary of a beginning for the white man in America,” his speech began. “We, the Wampanoag, welcomed you, the white man, with open arms, little knowing that it was the beginning of the end; that before 50 years were to pass, the Wampanoag would no longer be a free people.”

But that speech was never delivered. The event’s organizers had asked to see an advance copy, and proposed an alternative text. Mr. James chose not to participate. He led a protest near Plymouth Rock instead.

Fifty years have passed, and commemorations for the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower crossing are now approaching. This time, Native Americans—particularly the Wampanoag Nation—are actively shaping the programming of events in the United States and Britain.
This "new thread" wasn't necessarily new to regular New York Times readers. During Thanksgiving week, the Times ran two separate opinion columns on this very same topic.

Today, the topic was back again, this time reported from London.

For whatever reason, some British groups will be staging a 400th anniversary commemoration of the Mayflower's passage this fall. The Mayflower story has never been an especially big event in England, but this year, things will be different.

This time, the perspective of the Wampanoags will be included, Nayeri stresses in her report. With that in mind, maybe someone should tell Nayeri what that perspective is.

Nayeri began her report as shown above, quoting the 1970 speech which was never delivered, the speech about the way the Wampanoags welcomed the Pilgrims in 1620, only to lose their freedom.

It's an important part of American and world history. But just a couple of paragraphs later, Nayeri was offering this:
NAYERI: [T]he Mayflower is a more politically charged subject on one side of the Atlantic than it is on the other. In the United States, generations of schoolchildren have learned that the Pilgrims who arrived on the Mayflower signed treaties with Native Americans and celebrated the first Thanksgiving with them—a sugarcoated version of events that many historians consider a misrepresentation. In Britain, the Mayflower is barely mentioned in the school curriculum.

“In the United States, I’m having to unravel the misconceptions that are put out there in history,” said Paula Peters, a member of the Wampanoag tribe who is on the advisory committee for the American and British events and working on an exhibition of Native American belts as part of the British commemorations. “There is the myth of the Thanksgiving holiday that brings to mind for just about everybody the idea that Native Americans welcomed the Pilgrims.”
In paragraph 2, Nayeri encouraged readers to empathize with the story in which the Wampanoags welcomed the settlers. By paragraph 7, she was quoting a contemporary Wampanoag who seemed to call the welcoming story a myth.

Nayeri didn't seem to notice the apparent contradiction. Especially at orgs like the New York Times, reports of this type tend to go like this.

The Wampanoag population is very small today. It would be interesting to learn more about the contemporary lives and experiences of these people.

Do Wampanoags tend to feel like part of the American fabric? Do they tend to feel like a people set apart? We grew up in Massachusetts ourselves. We'd like to know more about this.

As she continues, Nayeri quotes an official at the British Museum saying, “It is important that groups like the Wampanoag are getting more involved in bringing their side of the story to this.”

Presumably, that is true. Nayeri then describes some of the program which is being planned in Britain, quoting an artist who's playing a central role:
NAYERI: The British arm of the commemorations, known as Mayflower 400, is a rich cultural program featuring public artworks, performances and exhibitions around England, and has been put together in collaboration with members of the Wampanoag Nation.

The program will have a strong visual component. “Settlement,” a monthlong series of displays and performances by Native American artists, will be held in a park in Plymouth, England, where the Mayflower set sail.

“The narrative of the romantic Indian on the plain with buckskin and feathers is not what we’re trying to present—and it’s what I’ve experienced every time I’ve come to Europe,” said the artist Cannupa Hanska Luger, who is leading the “Settlement” project. “There’s a prevailing notion of us trapped in an 18th-century or 19th-century experience, and then also limited to just a single vision of what that would be.”

Mr. Luger said he had learned more about the Mayflower from his research for the British project than he had growing up in the United States, where the version of history taught in school was “super abrasive, and there is a silencing.”
Luger is finally getting to learn about the Mayflower. Much later in the report, we learn that he grew up on a reservation in North Dakota—that he himself doesn't hail from the Wampanoag tribes.

Then again, do modern Wampanoag members know the history of those unfortunate distant years any better than anyone else? We found ourselves wondering about that last fall. Nayeri lets the question slide past.

It's possible that this all makes sense, though it's also possible that it doesn't. In theory, it's a good idea to teach America's tragic, frequently brutal history with more accuracy and more clarity.

It's also true that revisionist history may sometimes tend to misstate, as we saw the Times' Charles Blow clownishly do back at Thanksgiving. Heartfelt enthusiasm will sometimes undermine accuracy although, on the brighter side, it may also tend to excite.

Meanwhile, in this morning's New York Times, the Wampanoags welcomed the Pilgrims, except that story's a myth. This is the way these stories tend to get told in the Times, one of the most caring and thoughtful upper-class newspapers found anywhere on the earth.

23 comments:

  1. "one of the most caring and thoughtful upper-class newspapers found anywhere on the earth"

    Whoa, what a depressing thought. I hope you didn't mean it, dear Bob.

    Although, since The Weekly World News is not published anymore, for all I know this may very well be true...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nice to hear from you, Mark.

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  2. Charles Mann said the Wampanoags may have come uninvited go the feast and that their tribe had been decimated by disease for two years prior.

    ReplyDelete
  3. “We grew up in Massachusetts ourselves. We'd like to know more about this.”

    Surely it must have been possible for a man of 70+ years old to have found the time and devoted the effort to learning about this, assuming he had the inclination to begin with.

    Of course, Somerby’s stated ignorance actually illustrates the problem that is being described: he doesn’t know because *it has never been taught.* Instead, only the myth gets taught.

    ReplyDelete
  4. “In paragraph 2, Nayeri encouraged readers to empathize with the story in which the Wampanoags welcomed the settlers. By paragraph 7, she was quoting a contemporary Wampanoag who seemed to call the welcoming story a myth.”

    “Nayeri didn't seem to notice the apparent contradiction.”

    There isn’t actually a contradiction.

    In paragraph 7, Peters says:
    “There is the myth of the Thanksgiving holiday that brings to mind for just about everybody the idea that Native Americans welcomed the Pilgrims.”

    She says “Native Americans”, not Wampanoag. There were other, more hostile tribes in New England at the time.

    She suggests, correctly, that the Thanksgiving myth gives people a false impression about Pilgrim-Indian relations.

    Wamsutta James, in his 1970 speech, described the decimation of his tribe by disease brought by Europeans, and the capture of Massasoit and his forced removal to Europe, all occurring prior to the arrival of the “Pilgrims.” He also mentions the depredations of the Pilgrims on Wampanoag land. He says, despite Massasoit knowing all this, he welcomed the settlers with open arms.

    It’s easy to learn more about this, unless you’re mainly interested in superficial reactions to newspaper stories, nitpicks, and the political calculations that worry about how some ill-defined group of “others” might feel aggrieved.

    ReplyDelete
  5. "Luger is finally getting to learn about the Mayflower. Much later in the report, we learn that he grew up on a reservation in North Dakota—that he himself doesn't hail from the Wampanoag tribes."

    The Settlement art project wasn't described as being solely for Wampanoags, nor was it described as being solely about East Coast Indians. Nor does his own birthplace negate the fact that much art showing Indians is plains Indians on horseback wearing buckskin, with feathers in hair and colorful blankets. We've all seen such art. Mr. Luger's birthplace doesn't dictate that he himself produces such art, nor that he would select such art as curator of this project.

    So why does Somerby go to lengths to mention Luger's birthplace -- as if Luger had any control over where he was born. Somerby perhaps wants to imply that only Wampanoags are permitted to ask for inclusion of other tribes in European art projects? Or maybe he just wants to hint that Luger is some kind of fraud for trying to include a wider group of Indian artists in his project when he is no Wampanoag himself (a group that Somerby admits is small).

    Is Somerby accusing Luger of cultural misappropriation? Or is he trying to say that Indian art as a whole is farcical?

    Whatever his point (he never clearly states what it is), his intent is clearly meanspirited and he has a tiny raisin of a heart. I don't believe he truly wants to understand anything about any group of Indians. He only wants to scoff at the British for being taken in by woke American cultural con artists wearing feathers and riding plains horses.

    ReplyDelete
  6. "Then again, do modern Wampanoag members know the history of those unfortunate distant years any better than anyone else? We found ourselves wondering about that last fall. Nayeri lets the question slide past."

    I've heard that every Wampanoag has to pass a test before he or she can represent themselves as members of the tribe. It is much akin to the test every Irish person must pass before being allowed to celebrate St. Patrick's day with green beer.

    ReplyDelete
  7. "In theory, it's a good idea to teach America's tragic, frequently brutal history with more accuracy and more clarity."

    How about if you just start by teaching with more inclusivity. No one insists that those representing the Pilgrim side of things be experts, so why is Somerby so obsessed with making sure the Wampanoags are experts on their own participation in these historical events? Both sides can turn to historians (yes, Indian tribes have them too) and let them duke it out over the details while getting the main points substantially right, and both should be participants.

    Yes, it is true that the victors write history, but if we want to include the descendants of aboriginal people in our present society, we need to be careful how we describe the past events that formed our society. That means acknowledging past wrongs and not perpetuating hurtful myths.

    If Somerby cannot understand why we care about other people's feelings, he is not fit to be writing daily about human beings. It is too easy to exclude Wampanoags (among others) by insisting on a narrowly defined historical reading whose main purpose is to maintain white pride and to keep the wrong kind of others (e.g., minorities) in their place, outside mainstream society.

    It sounds to me like this is Somerby's goal. If that isn't what he intends, he should write more directly, so we get his point and can know that he isn't actually giving aid to bigots who would exclude Wampanoags from British art pageants.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 'so we get his point and can know that he isn't actually giving aid to bigots '

      That is Somerby's point, he believes in giving aid and comfort to the likes of Donald Trump, Roy Moore and other such racists, like all Trumptards

      Delete
  8. Charles Mann said a prerequisite for a successful scientific career is an enthusiastic willingness to pore through the minutiae of subjects that 99.9 percent of Earth's population find screamingly dull.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Charles Mann said like a painting, we will be erased.

    ReplyDelete
  10. From The Wire by Taegan Goddard:

    "Said Soros: “I think there is a kind of informal mutual assistance operation or agreement developing between Trump and Facebook. Facebook will work together to re-elect Trump, and Trump will work to protect Facebook so that this situation cannot be changed and it makes me very concerned about the outcome for 2020.”"

    But beyond this, I think Facebook is working both sides of the street. Zuckerberg also seems to be supporting Pete Buttigieg, including placing several people on his staff, and perhaps there is a similar expectation that Buttigieg will not pursue regulation of Facebook once elected too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Zuckerberg is free to help get Trump re-elected using FaceBook, just as we (as a nation) are free to take away FaceBook's libel protection.

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