In Episode 98 [20] of the CounterVortex podcast [11], Bill Weinberg discusses the book Thanksgiving: The Holiday at the Heart of the American Experience [12] by Melanie Kirkpatrick [13]. A work of Thanksgiving boosterism, it nonetheless recognizes the dissidents who reject the holiday as a celebration and sanitization of genocide, and even call for replacing it with a day of atonement [14]. The idealized portrayal the first Thanksgiving in 1621 belies the bloody realities of the Pequot War [15] and King Philip's War [16] that shortly followed. Perversely, the Wampanoag indigenous people, who shared in that first Thanksgiving and were later defeated in King Philip's War, were the target of a new attempt at "termination [17]" by the Trump administration, which sought to disestablish [18] their reservation at Mashpee [19], on Cape Cod just 30 miles south of Plymouth Rock. Listen on SoundCloud [20] or via Patreon [21].
Note: Please forgive audio interference from approximately 13 to 24 minutes. We are a shoestring operation.
Production by Chris Rywalt [24]
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