I loved our discussion about the American Thanksgiving ritual and all of the commonplaces we identified that are embedded in the holiday. I dug a bit this morning and found a great LA Times article  that sheds some light on Angela’s insightful comment about the horrid Thanksgiving in which the Puritans celebrated the killing of Metacomet (known by his English name, King Philip), the Wompanoag chief who led his tribe’s resistance effort against the Puritans. He was slaughtered in 1676 and his head was mounted on a pole where it was likely the centerpiece of that year’s Thanksgiving feast.

(courtesy of Yale University Art Gallery)

In 1997, the year this article was written, Indian rights activists continued a tradition of attempting to bury Plymouth Rock with sand. The author, Jill Lepore concludes her article: “If protesters sink their spades into the sand at Plymouth today, they will not bury racism, because burying the past can never be the answer. No matter how deep the pit, we can never really bury Plymouth Rock.” And maybe we never should–perhaps we all need a heavy reminder of our less-than-honorable past, especially on a day when we are supposed to be giving thanks.