This Land Is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving

Abstract

While the title includes the word Thanksgiving, David J. Silverman primarily uses that term as a hook to reel the reader into a study of New England’s Wampanoag Indians. Most of the book focuses on what happened after that legendary event and reminds readers that despite sustained efforts to eradicate them, Wampanoags still exist today. Silverman acknowledges the many difficulties associated with recovering Wampanoag voices, a challenge that all historians of Native peoples face, but he believes that “imperfect histories of Indian life are better than no histories” (18). Silverman’s book is also imperfect in places, but it does much to enlighten his readers about the Wampanoags and recover their side of this misunderstood era of history.The strength of this text lies in its detail about the Wampanoag people, whom it puts at the center of the story while using more familiar episodes and personalities to frame that story. Silverman begins with a basic review of Wampanoag history and culture, as is customary for studies of this sort, and narrates their earlier encounters with other Europeans, which taught them to proceed with caution when the Pilgrims arrived in 1620. Interactions with the English caused much internal political strife among the Wampanoags, which Silverman carefully details throughout his text to inform his readers about Wampanoag perspectives on and complex reactions to famous historical events. The celebrated “Thanksgiving” was merely a social gathering of English and Wampanoags to share their bounty from the fall harvest. It proved the exception rather than the rule when it came to their dealings with each other. Relations between the two deteriorated with continued English expansion into Wampanoag territory, which caused the second generation of Wampanoag leaders to ally with other Native peoples in the area to protect their interests. Silverman glibly blames King Philip’s War in 1676 for “Ruining Thanksgiving” (299), and while the chapter title seems contrived, the conflict itself was complicated and had brutal results. After the war, the English forced many Wampanoags into servitude, and after the creation of the United States, negative stereotypes about and harsh discrimination against Wampanoags continued. They endured this prejudice by banding together into small communities where they kept their culture alive through the centuries and into the present day.Silverman delivers on his promise to provide an overview of the Wampanoags, and he starts each chapter with a sliver of conventional history as a way to ground his readers in the known before revealing the more unfamiliar side of the story. This methodology requires him to jump around both in chronology and subject matter, which his audience will either like or dislike depending on personal preference. Moreover, the majority of his text addresses history before and after the famed Thanksgiving, despite its inclusion in the title, which may further confuse readers. The author may invite some criticism for not taking a more academic tone with his writing style, but his book will help those unfamiliar with the Wampanoags, and indeed any Native society, gain a better understanding and appreciation of their history and of their influence on everyone’s history.