A Native American Perspective on Thanksgiving: A New Way of Thinking

Join the Bradford Area Public Library for an informative and engaging presentation that will offer an alternative perspective on the history of Thanksgiving on Thursday, November 9 at 6PM. Using a quiz-style format, participants will learn about the only primary source document that chronicles the “First Thanksgiving” and gain insight into the English settlers at Plymouth and the Wampanoag, the Native people who inhabited the area.

This program will delve into the actual events of 1621 in Plymouth, the relationship between the English settlers and the Wampanoag, and how this story became the holiday we know today. The presentation will emphasize the concept of Thanksgiving as held by many Native Americans throughout.

Although he wasn’t present in Plymouth in 1621, Perry Ground, a Turtle Clan member of the Onondaga Nation of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy, will discuss connections to the Haudenosaunee concepts of Thanksgiving. Perry has been a master storyteller and cultural educator for over 25 years and enjoys working with people of all ages to teach about the history and culture of Native Peoples. His presentations are lively, engaging, inclusive and filled with cultural and historical information that audiences young and old will enjoy.