The First Real Thanksgiving

                                             
                                             What was the Truly First Thanksgiving?

         The event of the first thanksgiving in this land is not that which was celebrated by the Pilgrims in 1621 as the vast majority of Americans have been taught. There was a thanksgiving feast celebrated by the Jamestown settlers some tens years before and another one by the same in December of 1619. However, the real first thanksgiving to the one true God was celebrated eighty years before the Pilgrim’s feast! It occurred during the expedition of the Catholic Conquistador Francesco Vazquez de Coronado.

     Beginning in 1539, Francisco Coronado organized a large expedition from Mexico, which included five Franciscan missionaries. He brought with him 336 soldiers and settlers, 100 native Mexican Christians, 552 horses, 600 mules, 5000 sheep, and 500 cows, pigs and goats. (This expedition marked the introduction of these animals into the south-western United States.) The expedition arrived in what is now Arizona and found Indian pueblos. After establishing a base in Arizona, Coronado headed east to establish a base-mission near present-day Albuquerque, New Mexico. When they crossed the river which is now called the Rio Grande, they named it Rio de Nuestro Senora (River of Our Lady). This is its original name as it appeared on the first maps of this region.

       Though no supposed cities of gold were found in this region, Coronado continued to send out expeditions and send missionaries with them. That there were missionaries on every expedition should tell us that the search for supposed “golden cities” was not the primary reason for the explorations of Coronado. (The gold was needed to fund expeditions, and was not sought for personal gain.) Spreading the one true Faith among the pagan native Indians was of primary importance.

        In April of 1541, Coronado, with a group of soldiers and some missionaries, left Albuquerque, New Mexico and headed north-east and crossed a section of northwest Texas (the Panhandle). In encountering some of the local Indians the missionaries found that the natives were immediately open to receiving the Gospel of Jesus Christ. After a few weeks of instruction, members of the Jumano Indian tribe converted and received Baptism. The expedition then arrived in Palo Duro Canyon where, on May 29, Father Juan Padilla, O.F.M., offered the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. (Father Padilla would eventually become the very first martyr of the Faith in America when he was martyred in 1542 in what is now Kansas.) A thanksgiving feast followed. It consisted of game that had earlier been caught. The feast was celebrated in thanksgiving to God for His many blessings and for the recent converts. This event is the first actual Thanksgiving Day celebrated in America by Christians.

      There was another Thanksgiving celebration which also occurred years before the Pilgrims landed. In 1598, Catholic explorer Juan de Oñate led an expedition from Mexico City into New Mexico. The expedition included over 200 soldiers and colonists, the soldiers being headed by Captain Gaspar Perez de Villagra. Many had their families with them. A number of Christian Indian converts with their families from Mexico were also in the party. With the group were several thousand head of livestock, including cows, horses, mules, sheep, goats, and pigs. Eighty three wagons carried provisions, ammunition, tools, plants, and seeds for wheat, oats, rye, onions, chili, peas, beans and different nuts.

      On the expedition were two Franciscan priests and six Franciscan friar brothers. The party experienced many hardships. Soon after entering New Mexico, just across what is now called the Rio Grande River (originally named Rio de Nuestro Senora -River of Our Lady) near present-day El Paso, Texas, they were attacked by hostile Indians. A number of wagons and numerous head of livestock were lost. But no person from the expedition was killed, though a number Indians were killed in the attack. After moving much farther north along the river, Juan de Oñate and the Franciscans erected a large cross and Oñate took possession of the land. He declared:

                  I want to take possession of this land today, April 30, 1598, in honor of Our 

                  Lord Jesus Christ, on this the Day of the Ascension of Our Lord.

        Immediately afterward a High Mass was offered in thanksgiving. Then the entire group gathered for a banquet of thanksgiving to God for protecting them and for allowing them to arrive at the place after so many hardships along the way. The festive meal consisted of fish, game, fruits and vegetables. After this first thanksgiving banquet, the expedition headed further up along the river and by June had established the mission-town of San Juan (still populated to this day).

    Though there was a thanksgiving feast celebrated in 1541, as we earlier saw, it was never commemorated afterwards. In contrast, for some years after the Thanksgiving Feast of 1598, a feast was celebrated by the Spanish and Christian Indians of New Mexico in thanks to the true God for bringing them through many hardships and for His blessings. Today this thanksgiving feast is commemorated every thirtieth day of April in San Juan, New Mexico.

        It is only now that we can turn to the story of the Pilgrims and their thanksgiving. After a long and harsh winter, the Pilgrims received help from the friendly Wampanoag Indians in planting crops during the spring of 1621. They worked hard and in autumn had a very good harvest. In November of 1621 they invited the local Indians, who were still pagan and worshipped false gods, to feast with them to give thanks to God for the blessings of a successful harvest. The Catholic student of history should recognize that it is impossible to give thanks to the same God together, let alone the true God, when those involved believe in different gods. But this didn’t apparently bother anyone. (Recall, the Indians who took part in the true first thanksgiving were converts.) It should also be pointed out that the Pilgrim's thanksgiving was more of a (successful) harvest celebration than a religious thanksgiving observance.

       This event was not celebrated yearly by the Pilgrims, as many think and have been taught (they had done so only for a couple more years), nor by anyone in the original thirteen colonies for years. Though George Washington  called  for a day of  Thanksgiving  while  he  was President, it was only in response to the  successful  ratification of the Constitution, and was not some attempt to continue a supposed custom begun by the Pilgrims. In fact, the “Thanksgiving” proposed by Washington was not celebrated as a yearly holiday feast. The annual event did not occur until Abraham Lincoln established Thanksgiving Day as a holiday in November, 1863.

       So now you know that the Pilgrims did not celebrated the first Thanksgiving in America. The first Thanksgiving feast was celebrated back in 1541, and the first annual feast in 1598 in New Mexico by Spanish-Catholic colonists and Indian converts to the Faith. They thanked the true God for bringing them safely through many troubles and dangers and that the seed of the Gospel of Christ was beginning to take root in this land. Because of the often anti-Spanish and anti-Catholic prejudice of English-Protestants (whose text books dominated the American educational system), generations of Americans have never learned these facts of our history.

                                                                                                                -Adam S. Miller

 (This article was first published in a slightly abridged version in the magazine, “From The Housetops,” Serial No.55, Fall, 2002) 

Arrival of the Precious Blood

      When Catholics first came to this land that would become the United States, whether Irish (6th century), Norse (11th century), Scottish (14th), Spanish and French (16th), they came first with a missionary motive, and second as explorers and settlers. Though the leaders of numerous expeditions were themselves of the latter two categories, they always brought missionary priests/religious with them, primarily Franciscans, Dominicans, and members of the Society of Jesus (commonly known as Jesuits).                                                                                              When Catholic explorers came here they would always claim the land for Christ the King and His Blessed Mother and plant a cross demonstrating such. For example: the monks with the Prince Henry St. Clair expedition did such in 1398 after they landed at today's Louisberg Harbor in Cape Breton Island; Ponce de Leon with his missionary Dominican Friars on the Gulf Coast side of Florida in 1521; Esteban Gomez with his missionary priest in 1525 near today's White Haven, Maryland (he gave the original name to the Chesapeake Bay: Immaculate Conception Bay at that time); Lucas de Ayllon with two Dominican priests and one lay brother near today's Georgetown, South Carolina in 1526 (and then proceeded to establish the first European settlement in America following Columbus' expeditions: San Miguel de Guadalupe); Jacques Cartier in 1534 on today's Prince Edward Island, which he originally named St. Jean Island; Father Marcos de Nizzo with his missionary expedition in 1539 in today's New Mexico, who after erecting his large cross, then built an altar and offered the first known Holy Sacrifice of the Mass west of the Mississippi; Hernando de Soto's expedition (including twelve missionary priests) in 1540 along today's Florida panhandle, and many more after.                                                                                                                        But even more significant than planting a cross and claiming the land for Our Lord was when the very Sacrifice of Our Lord and Savior was sacramentally made present  in this land we call America. When this occurred, then the redeeming Precious Blood of Christ was made present in this land. In a number of today's states it is not known when exactly the first Mass was offered. For example, when St. Brendan and his monks came to America in the 6th century (sometime during the reign of Pope John III, 561-574)  and landed in New Hampshire, it is certain Holy Mass was offered, since at least St. Brendan was himself a priest. But when exactly, we do not know. Also, in Florida there were a number of attempts to establish missions in the early 1520s, but the local natives were too violent and hostile and those missions were either left unfinished or abandoned. Did any of the missionary priests offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass on land before the mission was completed, or did they continue to offer Mass on the ship as was the custom until the mission was completed? We are not sure.                                                                                         Another example is Louisiana. It also is not know whether or not missionary priests with the Cabeza de Vaca expedition offered Mass while traveling west along the coast through Louisiana, for some sacred vessels were lost when their ship was wrecked. If they were able to, then the first Mass there would have been offered sometime around 1529-30. If they did not (other than a "dry Mass"), then the first Mass was most likely offered a century and a half later in 1682. Nevertheless, this listing is provided for those states where we do know when the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was first offered. As will be clearly shown, this was a land of Catholics long before any Protestant -English or French- established any settlements.    
       
 STATE                    YEAR           WHO                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Rhode Island:          1398            Monk with the Prince Henry St. Clair settlement              Alabama:                1519            Missionary priests on the Alonso de Pinada Expedition            Maryland:                1525            Chaplain for Estaban Gomez expedition                                    Virginia:                  1526            Fr. Antonio Montesino, O.P. (De Allyon expedition)                    South Carolina:        1526            Fr. Montesino (St. Michael de Guadalupe)                      Mississippi:             1529            Priests on Cabeza de Vaca expedition                                Florida                    1539            Missionary priests on De Soto expedition                                Arizona:                  1539            Franciscans on Coronado expedition                                    New Mexico            1539            Fr. Marcos de Nizzo, O.F.M.                                                Texas                     1540            Fr. Juan Padilla, O.F.M. (Coronado expedition)                        Kansas                   1542            Fr. Juan Padilla, O.F.M.                                                        North Carolina         1566            Fr. Sabastian Montero (Carolina missions)                                  Maine:                    1570            Fr. Andrew Thevet, O.F.M.                                                  California                1602            Carmelite friars on Vizcaino expedition                                    Tennessee:             1607            Fr. Francesco Parejo (from San Joseph de Sapala mission)        Vermont                  1615           Franciscan missionary from Quebec                                          New York                1620s          Jesuit missionaries under direction of Fr. John de Brebuf. S.J.      Michigan                 1660            Fr. Rene Menard, S.J.                                                            Wisconsin               1660-01       Fr. Rene Menard, S.J.                                                              Illinois                     1673            Fr. Jacques Marquette, S.J.                                                      Minnesota               1680            Fr. Louis Hennepin, O.F.M.                                                      Louisiana                1682            Fr. Zenobius Membre (La Salle expedition)                                Indiana:                   1686            Fr. Claude Allouez, S.J. (near present site of Notre Dame)          Missouri:                 1702            Fr. John Mermet, S.J. (near mouth of Ohio River)                      Oregan                    1775           Fr. Miguel Campa, O.F.M.                                                      Kentucky:                1776            Fr. Stephen Badin (Bardstown)                                                Utah                        1776           Fr. Silvestre de Escalante, O.F.M.                                            South Dakota           1795            Missionary priest on John Mackey expedition                        North Dakota            1795-96       (same as above)                                                                  Iowa:                        1832           Fr. John McMahon (Dubuque mission)                                      Wyoming                 1840           Fr. Pierre de Smet, S.J. (July 5th, at mouth of Laramie River)

Catholic Foundations, Part I

Catholic Foundations, Part I

     We do not limit our view of history to a nationalist one (whether English, Spanish, French, etc), but to a confessional one (i.e., Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Free-masonic, Socialist, etc). You see, other than the inclinations resulting from man's fallen nature, it is beliefs that more fundamentally drive men to do what they do, not their blood or nationality. So even if an English man does something, saying he does it because he is English, is still doing it firstly because of his belief in his concept of England, or his English blood, or whatever. Actions reveal (or expose) one's beliefs much more so than one's nationality or blood-line. 

     The real history of America tells us a story different from the national mythology that has been and still taught in our schools, text books, the "History Channel," etc. It is a story of a land that, before any Protestant came -English or otherwise- was solemnly consecrated to Christ the King and His Blessed Mother by Catholic explorers and missionaries. In fact, Catholics had arrived on these shores nearly one thousand years before Protestantism even existed!
     America was a land with Catholic activity from east to west and from north to south long before the Pilgrims came (1620), long before Jamestown was settled in 1607; and even long before the failed Roanoke settlement in 1587. It was a land in which many Catholic missionaries would overcome great odds and dangers and convert countless native American Indians to the True Faith, and where, by 1776, more than one hundred of these missionaries had shed their blood for Christ and His Kingdom at the hands of either the natives, or English Protestants, or Huguenots.
     
     Here are some quick facts to whet your appetite in preparation for this blog-series.

                                                DID YOU KNOW...

•  that when Lief Ericson and his crew landed in Nova Scotia around the year 1002 (I presume you already knew this, right?) that he brought two missionary monks with him? (Ericson converted to the Catholic Faith in the year 1000 during the reign of Pope Silvester II.) And did you know that the local native Indians he encountered had told them of white, bearded men in the interior, who wore black robes and carried beads and crosses in procession telling them that "God had visited men"? Ericson wrote about it for our prosperity in his work the Vinland Saga. 
• that before Jamestown was settled in 1607 there were already more that 60 (yes, that's SIXTY!) mission/settlements by Catholics established in not only what is now Florida and New Mexico, but in Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia, and New England? (See this map of early settlements in Georgia.)
• that by the time the Pilgrims landed in 1620 there were more than 85 mission/settlements established by Catholics in what is now the United States? This includes almost half-dozen settlements in New England before the Pilgrims came.
• that by the time the Pilgrims came more than 50,000 (yes, that's fifty-thousand!) American Indians had converted and been baptized in the Catholic Faith?
• that before Jamestown was settled more than two-dozen Catholic missionaries had already been martyred for the Faith? The first being Fr. Juan Padilla in 1542 in.... Do you know where? ... In what is now Kansas. Yes, he was that far in the interior proclaiming the Gospel to the locals and paid for it with his life. (We will cover the details of this and other martyrdoms in future articles.)

         Mission/Settlements Before Jamestown (1607)

Florida: 27 - Apalachee Mission, 1539, to San Francisco Patano, 1607 (eight more by 1620) 
Alabama: 1 - Santa Cruz, 1560  (one more by 1620)    
Georgia: 20 - Mission of Guale, 1568, to Mission of Yoa, 1606  (four more by 1620) 
South Carolina: 4 - San Miguel de Guadalupe, 1526, to Mission of Escamacu, 1570
North Carolina: 2 - Mission of Guatari, 1566, and Mission of Joada, 1574
Virginia: 1 - Mission Axacan, 1570   
Maryland: 1 - temporary settlement (three months) by the Esteban Gomez expedition, 1525
Rhode Island: 1 - Prince Henry Saint Clair settlement at today's New Port, 1398
New Hampshire: 1- St. Brendan expedition, circa 565
Maine: 2 -  French settlement under Fr. Andrew Thevet, 1570, to St. Croix, 1604 (one more by 1620: Holy Savior, 1612)
New Mexico: 14 - Albuquerque, 1541, to San Miguel de Santa Fe, 1605 (seven more by 1620)


            FACT:   Catholics were the first to establish settlements on more than three times as many states as Protestants (35 to 13 - Alaska and West Virginia not included).

                                                Where Catholics Settled First

State                                Settlement                                 Year    Catholic           Protestant

New Hampshire         St. Brendan expedition          c. 565        *         1626-Rye (Portsmith)
Rhode Island              Name Unknown(New Port)    1398         *         1636-Providence
Maryland                     Estaban Gomez expedition     1525        *         1631-Kent Island
South Carolina           San Miguel de Guadalupe        1526        *         1670-Charleston
Florida                          Appalachee Mission                  1539        *         1565-Pirate Base
Alabama                      Nanipacna (Santa Cruz)            1559        *         1763
North Carolina          Guatari                                            1566        *         1587-Roanoke)
Georgia                        Guale                                                1568         *         1733-Savanna
Virgina                         Axacan                                           1570         *         1607-Jamestown
Maine                            Fr. Thevet                                     1570         *         1625-Pemaquid
New Mexico               San Juan                                        1590          *         1846
Arizona                        San Bernadino                             1619          *         1850
Illinois                          Utica Mission                               1639         *         1763
Michigan                      Sault Ste. Marie                          1660         *         1759
Wisconsin                    Holy Ghost Mission                   1665        *         1783
Vermont                      Isla La Motte                                1666         *         1690-Addison
Texas                            Sacramento Mission                  1675         *         1821
Tennessee                   Fort Prudhomme (Memphis) 1682         *         1735? (1769)
Indiana                        South Bend Mission                   1686         *         1763
Minnesota                   Fort Frontenac                           1686         *         1783
Louisiana                     Mississippi Mission                   1699        *         1803
Arkansas                     Little Rock                                     1699        *         1804
Mississippi                  Biloxi                                              1699         *         1763
Missouri                      St. Louis (trading post)             1699        *         1783
Nebraska                    Posts on South Platte                 1718        *         1820-Fort Atkinson
Ohio                             Sandusky                                        1751         *         1788-Marietta
California                     San Diego                                      1769        *         1812-Bodega Bay
Nevada                        Beatty Mission                             1774-5    *         1849-Genoa
Colorado                      San Pablo                                      1774        *         1859-Denver
Iowa                             Dubuque                                         1788         *         1830
South Dakota              Pawnee House                             1794        *         1807
Oklahoma                    Chouteau Post                              1796        *         1817-Fort Smith
Montana                      James Mackey trading post    1796        *         1809-Fort Union
North Dakota              Pembina (trading post)            1797        *         1851
Idaho                            Pend d'Oreille Post                      1809       *         1810
            
    
                                                         Where Protestants Settled First

State                                Settlement                              Year      Protestant   Catholic
Massachusetts             Plymouth                                 1620           *              1750
New York                     Fort Orange                              1623            *              1655
New Jersey                  Fort Nassau                              1625            *              1672
Delaware                       Near today's Lewes                1631            *             1750
Pennsylvania              Post on Delaware River        1633            *             1710
Connecticut                 Hartford (or Wethersfield)  1634           *             1755
Kentucky                      Harrodsburg                             1774           *             1775 
Washington                  Spokane                                      1810            *             1839
Oregon                           Astoria                                         1811            *             1839
Hawaii                            Missions                                      1820           *             1824
Kansas                           Fort Leavenworth                    1827           *             1836
Wyoming                      Fort Laramie                              1834           *                -
Utah                              Goodyear (Ogdon)                     1841           *                -               
                            

    In Catholic Foundations, Part II, we will continue with some more "trivial" facts before we really get to the meat of our historical examination.

In the Beginning...

Introduction

     This is an unabashedly Catholic blog. I accept entirely the claim made by the historical man, known in English as Jesus the Christ, that He, and He alone, is The way, The truth, and The life, and that no one can come to God the Father in Heaven except through Him (cf. The Gospel of St. John, Chapter 14, verse 6ff); that He is equal to the Father (John 10:30)), for He is God made man (Matthew 1:23); that He established His Church, structured upon His heavenly kingdom (Matthew 6:10; Ephesians 2: 19-21),  as the instrument of salvation (Acts 2:47) to teach with His authority (Mat. 18:18), and that to reject this church is reject Christ Himself (Luke 10:16); that His One True Church is the Catholic Church, with its seat of teaching and governing authority in Rome (for biblical and historical proof of this, go here and obtain my small book, The Roman Catholic Church). 

  

     Yet, this is a blog on history, particularly, American history and the often suppressed facts of this land's Catholic foundation -long before the pilgrims and the establishment of Jamestown. Can one (Catholicism) compliment the other (American history)? Absolutely! You see history itself began with an act of God the Creator: "In the beginning [of time -of history] God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1). Therefore, not only are religion, theology, and faith concerned with God, but so is authentic history -since the Almighty Himself got it started, often intervened, and then actually entered it and set it on a new course.

     Even more specific, authentic history centers on Christ our Lord: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... All things were made by Him and there is nothing that was not made by Him... and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:1, 3, 14). The real nature of history will be completely misunderstood (and its presentation mortally distorted) if it is separated from Our Lord Jesus Christ, for we must  "have the mind of Christ" (1 Corinthians 2:16) when studying it. 

     Therefore, for a properly formed Catholic, history is understood as the unfolding of God's will in time and the record of how men and nations conformed to that will or resisted it. It is thus seen as the unfolding in time of the war between the Kingdom of God on earth, which is found only in the Catholic Church, and the kingdom of Satan. Though spiritual in nature, this war has as its battle ground the very hearts and minds of us mortals here on earth and is manifested in numerous ways in and through religious movements, philosophical movements, social movements, political movements, revolutions, etc. Thus we will examine American history, its civilized origins, its political origins, major events, including its wars, in light of the Catholic Faith and Catholic principles.

History Basics

     Let me start with the fact that history affects each and every one of us to varying degrees. This includes both the events themselves, and their consequences, as well as what has been recorded, written, published, and handed down to succeeding generations in classrooms everywhere. The latter has as much an effect upon our sentiments, sympathies, prejudices, and loyalties as much, if not more, than the actual consequential results of historical events. The truth of this last sentence proves that history is involved in not simply passing on facts of the past, but the actual formation of both one's mind and emotions/affections/feelings, etc., because it results in some form or another of sentimental and/or intellectual loyalty. Loyalty to what? Well, to what ever the historian, author, teacher, publisher, school union, government, or whoever, wants to promote and propagate - a particular world-view, or philosophy, a political school of thought, a political party, a sociological school of thought, etc. Thus, history (and "social studies") has been used as a tool to garner, or we could even say, "evangelize," children and adults to come to some type of mind-set, or some position. This can be either positive or negative. It's function in schools definitely involves social conditioning.

     Ask any American (or yourself)  what he believes to be the greatest virtue, and, like any "good" American, he will answer -"freedom." Now, check your catechism and look up "virtues."  I'll tell you what... I'll save you the time and effort and inform you now that no catechism, no manual of dogmatic or moral theology anywhere lists freedom as a virtue. Why not? Because freedom is no such thing. Freedom is a condition, or a status; it is a consequence or a result. But it is not a virtue. If you, Dear Reader, are a Catholic, and thought that "freedom" was the answer, then recognize that you have been conditioned to think more as an American than as a Catholic. If this just happened to you, hopefully you are disturbed by this fact.

We Have Been Cheated

     You see, much of the American history that has been taught in the vast majority of schools and common texts came from a Protestant-English viewpoint. To be more exact, American history had been primarily taught from a White Anglo Saxon Protestant (WASP) viewpoint. And this has more often than not been anti-Catholic. Yet today, or rather, for the last generation or more, much history being taught comes from a blend of Marxism (or Naturalism -condemned by the Church in the 19th century), and it's child known as "political-correctness," and the viewpoint of a new paganism that appears to worship nature and holds that the beliefs of all pagan cultures are equal to, if not better than, Christianity. These erroneous views reject the truth concerning Original Sin, the Fall, and thus man's fallen nature, and therefore are blinded to the proper understanding of man's nature and the nature of politics. Unfortunately, these view points have permeated even the history texts used for Catholic schools since at least the 1950s, but even earlier in pockets of progressive regions (i.e. California, New York, New England, etc).

     Most unfortunate is the fact that Catholics in American have been cheated from knowing the true history of this land by being given false notions as to its origins and false notions concerning the reasons for, and forces behind, major historical events. We have even been taught myths about major events such as what is popularly known as the "Civil War," and the causes of the two World Wars. This means that Catholics (all Americans, in fact) have received for the most part a distorted and even false history of their American past. The real heroes, and the real villains, have often not been properly identified, some being left out completely. We've been taught a national mythology of supposed great deeds by adventurous pilgrims and courageous forefathers. All of whom rejected the social Kingship of Christ and the One Church He established to teach all nations all that He taught. This blog, as I have done in a number of books, sets out to correct such myths and distortions of American history. 

      Details provided here will most likely result in some "eye-opening" and "jaw-dropping" moments for you, my dear readers. Stay tuned...