Native American history
The Pilgrims celebrated a Mayflower Christmas in 1620 with holly, ivy, plum pudding and a gift exchange with Indian children – at least according to a romanticized version written by suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton of all people.
The preposterous Christmas on the Mayflower story was published by Woman’s Journal in 1900. Stanton had done plenty of writing by then — speeches, books, documents and letters, all serious stuff. But in 1900 she was an 85-year-old grandmother, perhaps ready to move on from diatribes to treacly tall tales.
Mayflower Christmas
In the story, Stanton got around the Puritan hatred of Christmas by inventing “Dutch foremothers” (the Pilgrims were all English) who had a “love for festive occasions.”
As they sailed up Plymouth Harbor, wrote Stanton, the Pilgrim mothers prepared for Christmas. They brought a box of beads which they strung for the little Indians. The mothers also made wreaths from a barrel full of ivy, holly, laurel and immortelles to decorate their log cabins. (One wonders if they left their Martha Stewart Living magazines in England.)
Elder William Brewster and several Pilgrims went ashore to explain the meaning of Christmas to the Indians through an interpreter who had magically joined them on the voyage. Never mind that Brewster viewed Christmas as an unnatural ideological marriage between the Roman Catholic Church and pagan Rome. Or that people then celebrated Christmas with drunken merrymaking, licentiousness and hooliganism. Or that Brewster would have called it Foolstide.
Stanton then wrote a charming but wildly improbable scene. She described how Massasoit, a “splendid specimen of manhood,” came on board with two squaws and six little boys and girls.
The children were “all in their ornaments, paint and feathers, the children in bright scarlet blankets, and caps made of white rabbit skins, the little ears standing upon their foreheads, and squirrel tales hanging down their backs.” They brought small baskets with nuts and wintergreen berries. Then they presented them to the English children, who the interpreter taught to say, “Happy to see you,” “Welcome” and “Farewell” in the Indian tongue.
The English children then gave the Indians little tin pails with “fried cakes, almonds and raisins, some bright English pennies, a horn and a drum.” Exactly the kinds of things the Pilgrims had room for in the tiny Mayflower.
Brussels Sprouts?
The Indians didn’t stay for dinner, wrote Stanton, because Massasoit feared the children didn’t understand English table manners. They paddled away in their canoes, and the Pilgrims enjoyed a feast that included plum puddings, gooseberry tarts, salt fish, bacon and Brussels sprouts, all of which somehow survived the 66-day voyage.
Then, wrote Stanton, the Pilgrims sang God Save the King. Not likely, though, since the song first appeared in 1619, a decade after the Pilgrims left for the Netherlands. They didn’t like King James much, either.
Then the children took their baskets to their berths and fell asleep, according to Stanton.
The Real Mayflower Christmas
What really happened on the Mayflower on Dec. 25, 1620? The men went ashore to cut down trees for their cabins.
There was no friendly gift exchange with the Indians, according to the Pilgrims’ Journal.
…towards night some, as they were at work, heard a noise of some Indians, which caused us all to go to our muskets, but we heard no further.
There was also no pudding, no tin horns, no bright English pennies, no singing and no rest. But they did have one thing.
…we had divers times now and then some beer.
* * *
The Christmas holiday actually began in ancient Rome — and so did Italian cookies. The New England Historical Society’s book, Italian Christmas Cookies, tells you how to make those delicious treats. It also bring you the history of the Italian immigrants who brought them to New England. Available now on Amazon; just click here.
This story was updated in 2022.
Early American history is inextricably linked with maritime history, and there’s no better way to get a feel for it than to take a summer cruise on one of New England’s many waterways.
The islands off New England were the site of some of the first settlements and fortifications. Wars were fought and commerce flourished along the region’s rivers, lakes and harbors. Lighthouses alone have a rich history, as do the fishing villages that became thriving cities and summer resorts.
We offer suggestions for 6 historic boat rides, one for each state, from Lake Champlain to the Long Island Sound.
Schooner Mystic Whaler
Visitors to the 107-ton schooner Mystic Whaler will get a look at what a 19th Century coastal cargo schooner was all about.
Coastal schooners were extremely profitable investments for their owners during the age of sail, supplying the cities up and down the eastern seaboard with cargo and passenger service.
The schooner Mystic Whaler is a reproduction built in 1967 and refitted in the 90s. And for comfort it has some modern amenities, including showers and comfortable cabins for overnight trips.
Each cruise offers a tour of the Thames River’s historic waterfront, including its famous forts and lighthouses, and passengers are invited to help raise sails, sing along with an old sea chantey and even take a turn steering the boat.
The ship offers regular 3-hour sailing trips in Fishers Island Sound as well as longer multi-day excursions.
All cruises sail from City Pier in New London, Conn. For more information, click here.
Maine Maritime Museum
A trip to the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath, Maine, offers a fascinating look at what the Percy & Small (P&S) Shipyard was like during the heyday of the coastal schooner era.
From 1894 to 1920, the yard built 45 vessels; 42 were four-, five- or six-masted schooners, including Wyoming, the largest wooden sailing vessel ever built.
For a water’s-eye view of the scene, the museum offers regular cruises that explore the lighthouses of Merrymeeting Bay, complete with some history about the lighthouses that guided the vessels coming in and out of the Kennebec to Bath.
For more information, click here.
Schooner Adventure
For a taste of what fishing the Grand Banks was like in the age of sail, you can book a trip on the schooner Adventure out of Gloucester, Mass.
The Adventure measures 121.6 feet and was built at the John F. James and Son Shipyard in Essex, Mass. She was a fishing vessel from 1926 to 1953 hauling in more than $4 million worth of fish in her day before she retired as the last American dory fishing trawler in the Atlantic.
Following a refit as a windjammer operating in Maine, the Adventure returned to Gloucester to be restored. With the restoration almost complete, the ship hosts regular sails and visitors will learn about life aboard a Gloucester fishing vessel as well as the history of the ship and her restoration.
For more information, click here.
Star Island Walking Tour
The remote and beautiful Isles of Shoals are barely inhabited today, but they have a long and fascinating history. They are an archipelago of nine islands, eight miles off the coast of Maine and New Hampshire.
In the early 16th century, Basque, French, English and Portuguese fishermen fished the waters off the North American coast. So did Native Americans. By 1623, French and English fisherman lived on the islands seasonally to take advantage of the teeming schools of cod. It was fully incorporated as the town of Appledore in 1661. By the mid-19th century, the fisheries had fallen off, but a new hotel built by Thomas Laighton attracted tourists and 19th century celebrities. His daughter, Celia Thaxter, was the most popular female poet of the era, hosted an arts community that included Nathaniel Hawthorne, Oliver Wendell Holmes and Childe Hassam.
Now, the islands are privately owned. UNH and Cornell have a marine lab on Appledore, and Star Island is home to a religious and educational conference center. It’s owned by the Star Island Corporation, affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Association and the United Church of Christ.
The Isles of Shoals Steamship Company, operating out of Portsmouth, N.H., offers day trips and walking tours to Star Island. The islands’ history is narrated on the cruise and by a guide on the island. For more information, click here.
Rhode Island Bay Cruises
In 1776, the guns of Fort Adams drove British warships from Narragansett Bay. By the 19th century, Newport became an ostentations summer resort for America’s super rich.
Rhode Island Bay Cruises takes passengers past some of the most beautiful and historic coastline of Narragansett Bay on a state-of-the-art catamaran.
The sightseeing cruise of Narragansett Bay features 10 historic lighthouses, 10 islands, Fort Adams and Hammersmith Farm, where John F. Kennedy married Jacqueline Bouvier. The rich history and folklore of Narragansett Bay will be narrated by local historian Arthur Strauss.
Rhode Island Bay Cruises leaves from North Kingstown, R.I. For more information, click here.
Spirit of Ethan Allen
Spirit Of Ethan Allen, a 363-passenger cruise ship, cruises Lake Champlain past historic sites among the Adirondack and Green Mountain ranges. The ship sails along water highways used by Native Americans and unique geographic formations such as the Champlain Thrust Fault and Rock Dunder.
The captain will tell the story of Ethan Allen’s adventures, recount Indian lore, point out sights of historic shipwrecks and describe famous battles fought on the lake during the American Revolution. Passengers may also get a glimpse of Champ, the lake’s elusive monster.
The Spirit Of Ethan Allen leaves from the Burlington Boathouse in Downtown Burlington, Vt. For more information, click here.
Photos: New London from the waterfront, by By Iracaz at the English language Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17470662; Maine Maritime Museum, By Maine Maritime Museum CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21493216;; Annisquam Harbor Light by By User:Magicpiano – Own work, GFDL, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23028235; Gosport Chapel, By The original uploader was Shoaler at English Wikipedia – Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by Howcheng using CommonsHelper., CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11338999; Newport, R.I., By MVASCO – Aerial Photo From Robinson R44 Helicopter by Michael Kagdis, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28626105; Lake Champlain lighthouse By Nagaraju.ramanna – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19728487.
Sometime around 1645, William Pynchon wrote down the names given to each full moon by a tribe of Abenaki Indians.
Pynchon, an English colonist, founded Springfield, Mass. He lived near and traded with Abenaki tribes. A fragment from his account book, probably written in late 1645, lists the names of the moons in an Abenaki dialect from a tribe he doesn’t specify. They may have been from the Agawams or the Woronocos.
English colonists would adopt the practice of naming each full moon, creating some of their own names or using traditional European names such as ‘Milk Moon’ or ‘Mother’s Moon’ The Maine Farmer’s Almanac started to publish a list of the full moon names around 1930, and the Old Farmer’s Almanac does it to this day.
Full Moon Names
The year started with the spring moon, according to Pynchon. It was known as Squannikesos, “When they set Indian corne’ in part of April and part of May.”
The second month, in late May and June, was Moonesquan Nimockkesos. Pynchon described it as :when women weed theire corne.”
The rest of the months are as follows, with Pynchon’s notes:
3. Towwakesos–when they hill Ind[ian] corne (pt of June & pt of July)
4. matterl lawawkesos–when squashes are ripe & Ind[ian]beans begin to be eatable
[5.] micheeneekesos — when Ind corne is eatable
6. pah[?]quitaqunkkesos–ye middle between arvest & eating Ind corne
7. pepewarr–bec: of white frost on ye grass & grain
8. quinnikesos
9. papsapquoho, about ye 6.th day of January or, Lowatannassick: So caled bec: they account it ye middle of winter.
10. Squo chee kesos–bec ye sun hath strength to thaw
11. Wapicummilcom–bec ye ice in ye river is all gone (pt of February & pt of March)
12. Namassack kesos–bec of catching fish (pt of March & pt of April)
Other Indian tribes had other names for the moon.
The Abenaki tribe lived in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and eastern Quebec. Anthropologists today divide the Abenaki into eastern tribes in Maine and western tribes in Vermont.
In colonial New England, the French called them Abenaqui or Oubenaqui; the English called them Eastern Indians. Eventually the Europeans drove many of them to take refuge at Saint Francis (Odanak) and Becancour (Wolinak), French mission villages on the St. Lawrence River. English and Americans often called all the Western Abenaki the St. Francis Indians.
They called themselves Wabanaki, though the Wabanaki Confederacy includes the Passamaquoddy, Maliseet and Micmac of northern Maine and the Canadian Maritimes.
English Full Moon Names
Here is the Old Farmers Almanac’s list of the English full Moon names.
January: Wolf Moon (or Old Moon)
February: Snow Moon (or Hunger Moon)
March: Worm Moon (or Crow Moon, Crust Moon, Sugar Moon, Sap Moon)
April: Pink Moon (or Sprouting Grass Moon, Egg Moon, Fish Moon)
May: Flower Moon (or Corn Planting Moon, Milk Moon)
June: Strawberry Moon (or Rose Moon, Hot Moon)
July: Buck Moon (or Thunder Moon, Hay Moon)
August: Sturgeon Moon (or Red Moon, Green Corn Moon)
September: Harvest Moon (or Corn Moon, Barley Moon)
October: Hunter’s Moon (or Travel Moon, Dying Grass Moon)
November: Beaver Moon (or Frost Moon)
December: Cold Moon (or Long Nights Moon)
These days we have a new name for the full moon when its closest to the earth: a supermoon. The supermoon looks brighter and bigger than an ordinary full moon. In 2020, moongazers could watch two supermoons, on March 9 and April 7.
Photo of the full moon by By Michael Gil – originally posted to Flickr as Howling at the Moon, CC BY 2.0, wikimedia commons. This story about the full moon names was updated in 2023.
Like so many New England sports traditions, the Boston Marathon is surrounded by lore and legend.
What Bostonian doesn’t know about Heartbreak Hill, Johnny Kelley and Rosie Ruiz?
But a few things can escape a fan’s attention, especially when the event has hosted hundreds of thousands of runners since it started in 1897. Here are seven things you may not know about the big race:
1. Boston Marathon Entry Fee
Tarzan Brown wouldn’t have run the 1939 Boston Marathon if someone hadn’t given him a dollar. The chronically unemployed runner showed up in Hopkinton without the $1 entrance fee. Walter Brown, who fired the starting gun, gave the Narragansett the dollar. Tarzan Brown won the race.
The eccentric, mercurial Brown had won the race before, in 1936. He dominated the sport of long-distance running in America along with John A. Kelley and Les Pawson throughout the 1930s.
Between races he worked as a stonemason and a shell fisherman, but sometimes had to sell his trophies and medals to feed his wife and four children. He died in 1975 when a van hit him outside a tavern.
Today the entry fee is $225 for U.S. residents, $235 for those who live outside the United States.
2. Two Johnny Kelleys
There were two Johnny Kelleys, Johnny Kelley the Elder and John J. Kelley the Younger. Johnny Kelley the Younger, born in Norwich, Conn., in 1930, won the Boston Marathon in 1957. He became a successful running coach at Fitch High School in Groton, Conn., where he coached the 1968 Boston Marathon winter, Amby Burfoot.
Burfoot roomed with Bill Rodgers, four-time Marathon winner, at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn. Rodgers, born in Hartford, invited runner Greg Meyer to move to Boston, where Meyer won the Marathon in 1983.
Johnny Kelley the Elder, born in 1907, won the marathon in 1935 and 1945, came in second seven times and ran the race 61 times. He ran his last full marathon in 1992 at the age of 84. For the next two years he ran the last seven miles.
A statue of Johnny Kelley the Elder stands near Newton City Hall near Heartbreak Hill, so named because of something he did in 1936. He overtook Tarzan Brown on the hill, and gave him a conciliatory pat on the shoulder as he passed him. That aggravated Brown, who then speeded up and beat Kelley. Hence the name “Heartbreak Hill.”
At 65, 19 years before his last marathon, Johnny Kelley said, “For me, the race these days is to try to beat the girls to the finish and to wave to all my old friends along the course.”
3. Winningest Boston Marathon Runner
Clarence DeMar won seven Boston Marathons despite a five-year layoff on his doctor’s advice. He won more of the men’s open division than any other runner. DeMar won in 1911, 1922-24, 1927-28 and 1930.
His doctor detected a slight heart murmur and advised him to stop running because, he believed, running weakened the heart.
DeMar’s doctor wasn’t alone in believing that running was dangerous. For many years the marathon required a pre-race physical, and doctors decided whether runners were fit to race. In 1958, three runners declared unfit finished in the top 10. Medical science has advanced since then.
One competitor has won more races than DeMar, though: Ernst van Dyk has won 10 times in the wheelchair division.
4. The Prizes Got Better
Prize money wasn’t awarded until 1986, due to the sponsorship of John Hancock Financial Services. But over the past 20 years, runners have received more than $20 million. Winners of the open division get $150,000, and competitors who set a course record in both the open and wheelchair divisions will receive $50,000 bonuses.
5. A Small Broad
Roberta ‘Bobbi’ Gibb was the first woman to run the entire Boston Marathon. She was a spiritualist who discovered inner peace while running up to 40 miles a day. In 1966 she put on a black bathing suit and her brother’s big Bermuda shorts and hid in the bushes near the start. She finished in three hours, 21 minutes and 40 seconds, ahead of two-thirds of the runners.
The crowd cheered her wildly along the way, but not everyone approved. Celtics coach Red Auerbach was perplexed. “I can’t get guys to run around the floor and a small broad goes out there and runs a marathon,” Auerbach said. “I don’t know what the world is coming to.”
And for those who don’t know about Rosie Ruiz, she was proclaimed the winner of the female category until it turned out she’d jumped into the race midway. Race organizers grew suspicious because she didn’t have especially muscular legs, hadn’t sweated much and explained her unusually fast time by saying she woke up with a lot of energy that morning.
6. Choice Epithets
The Boston Marathon for many years was run by two old friends, Will Cloney, a sportswriter, and Jock Semple, a trainer for the Celtics and Bruins. Semple had a penchant for physically attacking non-serious runners. In 1959 he chased a runner wearing a clown mask, tackled him from behind and beat him until police pulled him off.
“He hurls not only his body at them, but also a rather choice array of epithets,” Cloney said. “Jock’s method of attack is apt to vary.” In 1967, before women could run officially, Kathrine Switzer evaded Semple’s radar by entering under “K. V. Switzer.” When he discovered a woman running the marathon, he tried to rip her number off. “Get the hell out of my race and give me those numbers,” he shouted, according to Switzer. Her boyfriend shoved Semple out of the way, but photos of Semple grabbing Switzer’s numbers made world news. He and Switzer later became friends.
In a 1968 Sports Illustrated interview, he complained about the runners he didn’t like. “These screwballs! These weirdies!” he said. “These MIT boys! These Tufts characters! These Harvard guys! They write me askin’ should they put on spiked shoes for the marathon!”
7. One Beer, One Cigar
Gerard Cote, the “fabulous Frenchman,” wouldn’t talk to reporters immediately after winning the race in 1948. He told them, “Gentlemens, gentlemens! One beer! One cigar! Then we talk about the race, eh!” He won three other Boston Marathons, in 1940, 1943 and 1944.
BONUS ITEM: Thanks to reader Don Mathesen, we’re adding “The Run for the Hoses.” One hour before the noon start in 1976, the temperature reached an unseasonable 100 degrees. Race fans sprayed water from garden hoses on the runners to cool them off. Jack Fultz, a Georgetown University graduate student, first crossed the finish line — sopping wet — that year.
This story about the Boston Marathon was updated in 2023.
Image: Bobbi Gibb By HCAM (Hopkinton Community Access and Media, Inc.) – HCAM News Focus: 26.2 Foundation Hosts Bobbi Gibb at approximately 50:30, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=73403151. Ernst van Dyk By Gr5 – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32311476. Jock Semple By unknown – Original publication: unknownImmediate source: http://www.carlyjyll.com/2018/05/the-first-women-to-finish-boston_2.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63615160. Johnny Kelley in 1996 By unknown – Original publication: unknownImmediate source: https://archive.boston.com/sports/specials/obituaries/kelley/kelley_pictures?pg=9, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=68969198. Boston Marathon at the halfway mark, By Anonymous – [1], CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25296916
Buffy Sainte-Marie was a rising star in the 1960s until her activism on behalf of her Native-American people put a lid on her career.
She was born Feb. 20, 1941, on the Piapot Plains Cree Nation Reserve near Craven, Saskatchewan. Her parents abandoned her as an infant. Known only as Beverly, she was adopted by a Wakefield, Mass., couple, Albert and Winifred Sainte-Marie, both of Mi’kmaq descent.
Buffy Sainte-Marie
She grew up in Massachusetts and Maine, but felt she didn’t fit in. “I wanted above all to be a blonde,” she told a Boston Globe reporter. “My ambition was first to be a cheerleader and then an airline stewardess–you know, like the average girl. Then I realized that as the average girl I was a failure, so I decided to be myself.”
She was nicknamed Buffy.and played piano and guitar by the time she went off to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
At UMass she studied French and Hindi. She also began to write songs about Native-American rights, addiction, incest and war. Still, she thought she’d become a teacher back on her reservation. She earned a degree in teaching and Eastern religion in 1962, and later a Ph,D, in Fine Arts from UMass.
But she had been playing with success on the Boston coffee house scene, where Joan Baez and Bob Dylan had played. Like other folk singers before her, she moved to Greenwich Village, where she wowed the New York City folk crowd with defiant protest songs and a skintight red snakeskin dress. She also played in Toronto coffeehouses, college campuses and Indian reservations.
Her songs emerged from her own experience and were daring for their day. One night in 1963 she was waiting in the San Francisco airport for a flight to Toronto when she saw U.S. soldiers carrying their buddies on stretchers. She talked to the soldiers and learned they were returning from Vietnam – at a time when the United States was denying involvement in the war. It inspired a protest song, Universal Soldier, that the English singer Donovan made a hit. In 1963 she also recorded Cod’ine, about her recovery from her addiction to codeine.
Spunky and Sexy?
In 1970, she was sending $300 a week to buy water for the Indians who seized Alcatraz Island the year before. She’d also set up a foundation to send young Indians to law school.
That year, Boston Globe writer Herbert Kupferberg described her in a way that wouldn’t get published today:
The best-known fighter for the American Indian since Geronimo is a spunky, sexy, 100-pound girl named Buffy Sainte-Marie.
Buffy, who’s a full-blooded Cree Indian herself, fights for her people with her voice, her personality, and her money. She’s got plenty of each, because she’s one of the most successful folk singers in the business, with particular appeal to the campus crowd and other young people.
It seemed during the ‘60s that she would rocket to the top along with fellow Canadian performers Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. Billboard Magazine named her Best New Artist, she played at the Newport Folk Festival and appeared on national television programs like The Johnny Cash Show and The Tonight Show.
Blacklist
But her 1964 debut album, It’s My Way, did poorly in the United States. The recording included bold songs such as Now That the Buffalo’s Gone and The Incest Song along with Universal Soldier and Cod’ine. It did well in Canada, however.
Starting in the 1990s, Buffy Sainte-Marie came out and said she’d been blacklisted in the 1960s because of her activism. She claimed the Johnson Administration ordered her records seized and pressured radio stations not to play her music.
“I was put out of business in the United States,” she said. She discovered letters that Lyndon Johnson had written on White House stationery 10 years earlier. They praised radio stations for suppressing her music.
Buffy Sainte-Marie on Sesame Street
Her career took a twist in 1975. Sesame Street producer Darcy Singer called to ask her to make a one-time appearance on the show. She refused at first, but then realized the opportunity for Native-American programming. Buffy Sainte-Marie then appeared on Sesame Street for the next five years.
She is still best known for her songs. They including 1960s protest anthems, like Universal Soldier, love songs like Until It’s Time for You to Go, and rock anthems like Starwalker. A song she co-wrote, Up Where We Belong, became a hit when Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes sang it for the soundtrack to An Officer and a Gentleman.
Here’s Buffy Sainte-Marie singing Universal Soldier.
This story last updated in 2022.
Images: Buffy Sainte-Marie performing in Northampton By Michael Borkson – https://www.flickr.com/photos/protestphotos1/9053598741/, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27093234.