third blog post: Squanto.

At Plymouth Rock, Squanto became a friend to the pilgrims. In his own language, he was called Tisquantum. When the pilgrims first arrived, Squanto was living in a nearby village. By now, he had already been agross the ocean three times. At this point, Squanto, from the Patuxet village, was already a world traveler. He first traveled when he was around twenty and his curiosity took him to Captian Weymouth's ship where other natives were being held captive. He was employed at Weymouth's household in Plymouth England for nine years. Weymouth taught him English for he wanted to know all he could about native life in North America.

In 1614, Squanto set sail for North American with Captain John Smith. Squanto left Smith and was temporarily employed by Captain Thomas Hunt, who sold Squanto and twenty other Indians from the Cape Cod area to a Spanish trader who took human cargo to spain. Squanto, luckily ended up at a home of some Spanish Friars who took good care of the New England Native. He was taught the Christian way here.

In two years, Squanto was back on his way to London. He took his second trip across the Atlantic as a guide and intrepreter for John Slaney. This voyage was not very successful so by the end of 1617, Squanto was back to England.

In 1619, Squanto returned to the New World. He visited his original village during this voyage. He discovered that the whole settlement had been wiped out by the plague. He went to live in a nearby indian willage and never returned to the British Isles. It was after this that the pilgrims arrived and Squanto began to be an invaluable intrepreter to them. Samoset the Indian was there the first winter of the pilgrim arrival, and ask Squanto to come with him to an English Settlement because his English was much better.


It is obvious to me that Squanto was a very well rounded man. He had traveled many places but did not get boastful about this. He was very helpful to the Indians and many other people before them.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/453236/thanksgiving_story_of_squanto_the_indian_pg2.html?cat=37

second blog post.

This week in American Literature, we have been discussing and reading through journals. For my journal entry, I will be looking at a innacurate picture of Jamestown.

This picture is supposed to show the settlement at Jamestown. I believe it is innacurate. One reason I say this is because, even though it was a triangle, the fort had circular portions on each corner. This circular parts housed cannons and one of them is thought to be the powder house. They served many purposes and are not shown here. This picture also shows there being two entry ways that look very open to me. The fort at Jamestown was built to keep others out. I do not think that the fort would be kept open in two spots like the picture shows. The fort had to have an opening, but I do not feel as if it would be this open. James town is also now thought to be much bigger than I expected. This picture shows it fairly small with a few large buildings. In diagrams I have seen from excavations, there was much space, and many big and small buildings. I do not feel that this picture is accurate and I also do not understand why it is on a site that when you enter the exhibit, is a History Channel website.

http://jamestown.invioni.com/

its official.

I think that I have finally managed to "follow" everyone on the seemingly never-ending list of class blogs to follow. I wish this was more exciting.



So this week in American Literature, we have been studying origins and stories that were passed down through Native American tribes. I think that this is interesting to see how all of the stories relate in some way, shape, or form. Right now, the stories we are reading all have to deal with creation. Every tribe views nature in a very strong way and that is shown in their stories.

Another thing that I find interesting is that each tribe believes so strongly in one thing that they only heard from someone. I feel that the trust each person has in the stories they hear shows a lot about the tribes. These tribes were very close knit and believed in each other very much. I wonder what America would be like today if everyone believed in each other like the Native Americans did.