To add to the discussion, El Paso, Texas, celebrates the Don Juan de Onate
Thanksgiving every April to commemorate the April 30, 1598, (predates both
James River and Plymouth) event  held along the banks of the Rio Grande
during which a proclamation was read claiming the land for the King of
Spain, a play was performed and the over 400 men (including 130 with
families) gave "thanks" for the bounty.  You can find information on this
at http://www.cibola.net/missions/ft_origin.html or read a delightful
children's book by Bea Bragg (illustrated by Antonio Castro) entitled "The
Very First Thanksgiving:  Pioneers on the Rio Grande."  April 25 and 26,
1998,  will be the 400th year commemoration.

 >The first "government" thanksgiving commemoration on  US soil was on the
>James River, Virginia....1615?.....at what is now Berkeley Plantation.  The
>settlers gave thanks for their safe arrival, as ordered to do in a document
>to be unsealed upon their arrival.  The native Chickahominies joined them
>in preparing the feast and celebration.
>
>----------
>> From: Paul Apodaca <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Re: Thanksgiving during the 1830's to the 1860's in New Orleans
>> Date: Sunday, October 26, 1997 4:20 PM
>>
>> Thanksgiving began in two distinct ways. One was an actual dinner that
>> took place between the Plymouth folk and Massasoit and a few of his group
>> who joined into a joint celebration of the native fall ceremonial
>calendar
>> and Puritan happiness at having survived. This is recorded in the Puritan
>> chronicles. Within approx. 50 years, the same Puritan group cut the heads
>> off both King Charles I of England and off a person they named King
>> Phillip, who was the son of Massasoit. King Phillip's head was kept on a
>> stake by the Puritans at Plymouth for over a decade. Cromwell and the
>> Puritan Army did not display Charles I head as long.
>>
>> The second beginning was John Endicott's declaration of a general day of
>> thanksgiving for successful massacre of the Niantic Indians on Block
>> Island in the Connecticut River as the opening salvo in the Pequot War
>> which was ordered by the Puritan hierarchy for the expansion of New
>> Israel.
>>
>> George Washington tried to implement a national day of thanksgiving,
>> taking his cue of a legal holiday from the still continuing Plymouth
>> tradition started by Endicott, but could not gain enough popular support
>> and so abandoned the idea.
>>
>> Lincoln resurrected Washington's idea and created the national holiday.
>>
>> Franklin Roosevelt moved the holiday and met with such resistance that he
>> was forced to move it back.
>>
>> So, the imagery of thanksgiving comes from an actual occurence that was a
>> brief moment before the onslaught of the American Holocaust.
>>
>> The idea of a legal holiday is rooted in Endicott's declaration following
>> the massacre at Block Island.
>>
>> The notion of a national holiday was Washington's but was implemented by
>> Lincoln and experimented with by FDR and our celebration this November is
>> FDR's final resolution as to date.
>>
>>
>> Paul Apodaca


Florence Schwein, Director ([log in to unmask])
Centennial Museum at The University of Texas at El Paso
Phone:  (915) 747-5565     FAX:  (915) 747-5411  E-mail:  [log in to unmask]
Visit our web page at http://www.utep.edu/~museum/home.html