Native Dishes : Professor Notes That Thanksgiving Feasts Preceded the Pilgrims

As families prepare for their Thanksgiving feasts, a Chapman University sociology professor reminds celebrants that one of today’s most popular American holidays was founded on the blood, land and history of Native American peoples.

“Thanksgiving is a happy time for sharing. But we need to remember there is a dual reality . . . when reflecting upon the origins of this holiday,” said Professor Paul Apodaca, himself of Navajo, Mexican and Spanish descent.

During the earliest colonial encounters, Apodaca said, there was both a willingness to give and the determination to conquer.

Today’s Thanksgiving dinner traces its origins to the Iroquois’ annual Green Corn Dance, which the pilgrims joined in celebration of the harvest. It was a tradition established long before the settlers began to observe a Thanksgiving ritual in 1621, and is still practiced in some Native American communities.

But there was also the often ignored Pequote War at Block Island, R.I., where 600 to 700 Pequote Indians were massacred in 1637 by colonists, who marked the conquest with a victory feast that colonial leader John Endicott decreed the official Thanksgiving Day in Massachusetts.

As traditions evolve through generations, Apodaca said, the bad is frequently forgotten.

“We Native Americans are usually the only ones who remember the tragedies,” Apodaca said.

Margaret Sarracino, a member of the Creek Seminole tribe, spent the lunch hour Tuesday teaching Newport Beach elementary school pupils about what types of food that actually graced the tables at the first Thanksgiving dinner.

Speaking to 35 Mariners Elementary third-graders dressed in beaded T-shirts and feathered headdresses, Sarracino explained that food was the crucial link between the newly arrived settlers and agriculturally rich indigenous peoples during the colonial period.

While children tasted dishes cooked with venison, duck and leeks, ingredients used in the original Thanksgiving meal, Sarracino debunked the widely held idea that roasted turkey and mashed potatoes were served at the 1621 dinner.

The culinary experience was quite a surprise for some youngsters.

“I didn’t know they didn’t have glasses and Sprite back then,” said 8-year-old Jennifer Grummerman.

Wearing traditional Indian garb, Sarracino told the children her family sometimes cooks turkey for Thanksgiving, but stews and breads commonly used by all 500 Indian nations usually adorn the table.

Referring to the Green Corn Dance, which takes its name from the light green husks of the newly harvested corn, Sarracino said corn was a native American foodstuff that was a very important staple in the diet of Native Americans, and remains an important element of the world’s food consumption.

Apodaca said that because many European foods were based on cereals such as wheat and barley, plants vulnerable to wind and hail, the European continent was frequently stricken by famine. But foods native to the Americas, such as potatoes, chilies and beans, are heartier and have higher nutritional value, Apodaca said.

“Native American foods created the Europe that we think of,” said Apodaca, attributing Europe’s population growth during the 17th to the 20th centuries to foods imported from the New World.

Comparing European and African population growth during that 300-year span, Apodaca said the better nourished Europeans increased sixfold in number, while population growth in Africa only doubled.

With the largest Native American population in the country (more than 242,000 according to the 1990 U.S. Census), California has a special reason to cherish Native American history, Apodaca said.

“Native Americans are true patriots, carrying alone both negative and positive memories in American history,” he said.