Tisquantum, Friend to the Pilgrims?

We all have heard the story of Squanto, "friend of the Pilgrims" but what do we really know about this Native man from the village of Patucxet (modern day Plymouth). The story of his kidnapping at the hands of Thomas Hunt, his trip to England and Newfoundland and finally his return to New England to interact with the colonists at Plymouth is even more exciting and interesting than Disney made it. And how much of that Disney movie is true anyway? (Sorry to say he never made popcorn or rode a horse and most of the Pilgrims and many Natives probably did not like him). Tisquantums (Squanto) story is told through the use of the primary sources, the actual written records from the seventeenth century that tell us about him, as we separate fact from fiction. We also discuss what Tisquantums life was probably like before he ever saw his first European.

This adult lecture explores Tisquantums world including where he lived, what was expected of him as an adult male in Wampanoag society and what he ate. His story is then recounted using seventeenth century primary sources such as Governor William Bradford and Edward Winslows writings. Did you know that the man who showed the Europeans how to fertilize cornhills with fish lived in Cornhills in London? Or that there is even a debate about whether the use of fish as fertilizer was a Native practice or one that he learned from Europeans and then taught to the Pilgrims? Was Tisquantum really the "friend of the Pilgrims" that he has been portrayed, or was there a darker more self-serving side to him? And what eventually happened to him? These are all questions that this one-hour program explores and seeks to answer.