First Thanksgiving

Hi Fellow Eaters!

Well, I mean eaters in the Good sense. :)

Balance is a good thing to cultivate -especially looking at the next few weeks ahead. The National months of winter fattening- from Thanksgiving to New Years, we Americans really do enjoy our meals. But it hasn't always been this way.

For the prairie chicken film, I am struck by the images of our ancestors. There are so many tall and lean people. I mean LEAN. I'm heading to museums soon gathering historical photos for the film so you are likely to see some of them here- coming up.

When many of our ancestors first touched the soils of North America, they had most often completed a voyage of many days. If you read the book Mayflower, the conditions were confined and rather horrid, especially compared to the last trans-Atlantic flight I took. Well maybe not... But, at least my last flight from Italy lasted only 10 hours. No one got sea sick.

For 17th or 18th century boat travelers, food was often old, spoiled or bug infested. So imagine having taken this crossing on a small, crowded boat with - no modern plumbing- and you have been there for about a month. Not so pleasant is it?

Suddenly, and Thankfully, you are on dry land in a world filled with game but you are from a culture which has realistically, already left the hunter-gather model generations before. You and your shipmates are now learning skills you have never used - and your lives depend upon it.

Native Americans greet you and treat you well. Perhaps pitying the fools (as Mr T says.) But somewhere nearing the end of a long summer, when the rocky soils of New England did bear fruit for at least those who were in tune with the land, and the rhythms of the seasons, a meal of gratitude was planned. Probably by the Native Americans. Those Puritans were pretty austere, traditional folks and I kinda doubt they just decided to have a feast.

But the Native Americans had spent around eight hundred generations cultivating and harvesting the the land. They knew quohogs and heath hen, multitudes of fish including Atlantic Salmon, deer, elk moose, grouse and turkey. Simultaneously, we know that a variety of squash, corn, beans, nuts quinoa, sunflower and many other adapted herbs and even medicinal plants abounded naturally or were specifically cultivated. I suspect that for the culture our ancestors found, there was a pretty good life going on, but we really came loaded with baggage. In the psychological sense...

As I gather data for the film, I read about the alleged contracts between indentured servants and the "employers". The Smithsonian Institution states "the servants actually sought in their labor contracts to limit their having to eat heath hen to only two days a week instead of daily." I am eager to film a copy of one of these.

But what this does tell us about is a factor of abundance. The last Heath Hen walked into the scrub oak barrens near West Tisbury in March of 1932 and never was seen again. What had we done to eliminate a species once so incredibly abundant?

From the perspective of a lifetime, it is easy to see change. How simple it is to look back to the early history of our country- now only - reaching 400 years since that landing and the feast we still celebrate.

For the purposes of this blog- just be certain that the subspecies of the Greater Prairie Chicken known as the Heath Hen was a certain part of the first Thanksgiving and for our ancestors for decades after- until we wiped them out.

So this year- 2010, let's give thanks that we have not wiped out the entire population of many of our native species. Let's give thanks that even a few of our ancestors had foresight and wisdom enough to begin to preserve natural wonders. Then the animals that lived there. Be Thankful that so many of us are now waking up.

As we slice and serve our processed factory farm Turkey- Let's be Thankful that today there are millions of us who are genuinely concerned about the environment- which gives us life and sustains millions of birds, and all the life they too depend upon. We are going to find a way to achieve a better balance and respect for the earth -our Mother. Resolve to make 2011 a great year for Conservation.