Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Wednesday 21 november 2018
400 years later, natives who helped Pilgrims gain a voice

By WILLIAM J. KOLE and stolen their corn and
Associated Press beans," the speech reads.
PLYMOUTH, Mass. (AP) — Dusty Rhodes, who chairs a
The seaside town where separate state commission
the Pilgrims came ashore working to ensure the com-
in 1620 is gearing up for a memoration has a global
400th birthday bash, and profile, said she hopes it
everyone's invited — es- all helps make amends for
pecially the native people centuries of "mishandled
whose ancestors wound up and misrepresented" his-
losing their land and their tory.
lives. "The Pilgrims were the first
Plymouth, Massachusetts, immigrants," said Plymouth
whose European settlers 400's Pecoraro. "We're in
have come to symbolize a place in this country
American liberty and grit, where we need solidarity.
marks its quadricentennial We need to come togeth-
in 2020 with a trans-Atlantic er. We need to be talking
commemoration that will about immigration and in-
put Native Americans' un- digenous people."
varnished side of the story Plymouth, nicknamed
on full display. "America's Hometown," is
"It's history. It happened," sure to draw a crush of 2020
said Michele Pecoraro, ex- presidential candidates
ecutive director of Plym- who will use its monuments
outh 400, Inc., a nonprofit In this Thursday, Nov. 15, 2018, photo, Mashpee Wampanoag Kerri Helme, of Fairhaven, Mass., as campaign backdrops.
group organizing yearlong uses plant fiber to weave a basket while sitting next to a fire at the Wampanoag Homesite at With President Donald
events. "We're not going to Plimoth Plantation, in Plymouth, Mass. Trump,
solve every problem and Associated Press Queen Elizabeth II and
make everyone feel better. bers who staged a National The commemoration their ancestors once trod. other heads of state on the
We just need to move the Day of Mourning, a somber known as Plymouth 400 will There are also plans to in- invitation list, state and fed-
needle." remembrance that indige- feature events throughout vite relatives of the late eral authorities already are
Organizers are understand- nous New Englanders have 2020, including a maritime Wampanoag elder Wam- busy mapping out security
ably cautious this time observed on every Thanks- salute in Plymouth Harbor sutta "Frank" James to plans.
around. When the 350th giving Day since. in June, an embarkation publicly read that speech Wampanoag tribal leader
anniversary of the Pilgrim This time, there's pressure to festival in September, and he wasn't allowed to de- and activist Linda Coombs,
landing was observed in get it right, said Jim Peters, a week of ceremonies liver in 1970 — an address who's helped plan the
1970, state officials disinvit- a Wampanoag who directs around Thanksgiving. that includes this passage: commemoration, is skepti-
ed a leader of the Wampa- the Massachusetts Com- The Mayflower II , a replica "We, the Wampanoag, cal that anything mean-
noag Nation — the Native mission on Indian Affairs. of the ship that carried the welcomed you, the white ingful will change for her
American tribe that helped "We'll be able to tell some settlers from Europe to the man, with open arms, little people.
the haggard newcom- stories of what happened New World four centuries knowing that it was the be- "It's a world stage, so we'll
ers survive their first bitter to us — to delve back into ago, will sail to Boston in the ginning of the end." have more visibility than
winter — after learning his our history and talk about spring. That autumn, it will "The Pilgrims had hardly we've had in the past,"
speech would bemoan the it," Peters said. "Hopefully it head to Provincetown, at explored the shores of she said. "We'll see if it's
disease, racism and op- will give us a chance to re- the outermost tip of Cape Cape Cod for four days enough. It'll be a measur-
pression that followed the educate people and have Cod, where the Pilgrims before they had robbed ing stick for all that has to
Pilgrims. a national discussion about initially landed before con- the graves of my ancestors come afterward."q
That triggered angry dem- how we should be treating tinuing on to Plymouth.
onstrations from tribal mem- each other." Events also are planned in
Britain and in the Nether-
lands, where the Pilgrims
spent 11 years in exile be-
fore making their perilous
sea crossing.
But the emphasis is on high-
lighting the often-ignored
history of the Wampanoag
and poking holes in the
false narrative that Pilgrims
and Indians coexisted in
peace and harmony.
An interactive exhibit now
making the rounds de-
scribes how the Wampano-
ag were cheated and en-
slaved, and in August 2020 In this Thursday, Nov. 15, 2018, photo, Mashpee Wampanoag
In this Sunday, Nov. 18, 2018, photo, visitors to Plimoth Planta- tribal members will guide Phillip Wynne, pours water to control fire and temperatures
tion, a living history museum village where visitors can get a visitors on a walk through while making a mishoon, a type of boat, from a tree at the
glimpse into the world of the 1627 Pilgrim village, walk among Wampanoag Homesite at Plimoth Plantation, in Plymouth,
buildings, in Plymouth, Mass. Plymouth to point out and Mass.
Associated Press consecrate spots where Associated Press