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Jean Leon Gerome Ferris | Wikimedia Commons
Pilgrims and Native Americans, Giving Thanks to Different Gods November 17, 2017
When the Puritans arrived on the shores of Massachusetts in the early 1600s, they brought with them a concept of God totally alien to their new neighbors, the Wampanoag people. For the Puritans, the divine was an all-powerful Father figure. For the Wampanoag, God was a multi-dimensional force of nature, found in the trees, rocks and fields. This Thanksgiving, we explore the faith of the early Native Americans with two guests: a direct descendant of the Wampanoag Nation, and an historian of Native American religious traditions. From 2010. 

Ramona Peters, director of historic preservation for the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe
Clara Sue Kidwell, former director of the American Indian Center at UNC Chapel Hill and pioneer in the field of Native American studies




The classic depiction of the first Thanksgiving, painted around 1915 by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris. His paintings were often historically inaccurate, and this one was no exception. Among other things, the Wampanoag did not wear feathered war bonnets and would not have been sitting on the ground.