Massasoit was the sachem, or political and military leader, of the Wampanoag confederation, a loose combination of villages in southeastern Massachusetts. About five years before the Pilgrims arrived, Massasoit’s people had been decimated by diseases brought by earlier European traders. Entire villages had been depopulated—including a Patuxet village that the newly arrived Pilgrims settled into and named New Plymouth.
As Mann explains, Massasoit was in a bind. The epidemic that had hit the Wampanoag hadn’t touched their longtime enemies to the west, the Narragansett. Massasoit feared his weakened people would be overrun, so he decided to gamble and let the Pilgrims stay. European traders had been visiting New England for at least a century, but Indian leaders always forbid them from establishing permanent settlements. The relationship was strictly transactional. Far from seeing the Europeans as superior, writes Mann, the Indians had good reason to take advantage of these strange newcomers.
via Instapundit.
and in today's world, this would probably be banned:
.........
and my friend in Albuquerque posts that even McDonald's is serving traditional Native American food this week:
recipe here.
and because of the high rate of diabetes, the IHS used to encourage the healthy version of this delicious dish, using canola oil instead of lard, and whole wheat flour for the bread and more veggies in the stuffing:
Recipe.
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