Shade_of_Gray wrote:He didn't invent it, he just picked a date. Different states observed it differently before.<br><br>It doesn't follow that, because Lincoln made it a federal holiday, it had nothing to do with Native Americans and Pilgrims. Otherwise you'd have to also conclude that Columbus Day had nothing to do with Christopher Columbus since it was only made a federal holiday in 1934.
maybe it's better said this way: the traditional "pilgrims-landed-at-plymouth-rock-and-the-native-americans-graciously-received-them-and-rescued-them-during-their-most-difficult-hour-bestowing-lavish-gifts-of-wild-game-veggies-popcorn-which-they-all-enjoyed-together-rather-cozily" is completely made up and embellished bullshit....
what really happened is that the native americans by this point had already suffered plenty in the way of robbery rape and disease at the hands of the so-called pilgrims (which remember, these people were considered barbaric, oppressive, and radical even by the citizens of the countries they were emigrating here from) by the time the plymouth rock event happened in the early 17th century, the natives in an attempt to avoid further destruction offered them plenteous gifts in the hopes that they would take the best they had to offer and leave without causing further damage....well we see how that turned out

peace
mooka