The first Thanksgiving was more than a story that ended well. In fact, the first Thanksgiving has more to teach us today than at any time in our history. Why? Because we're a people that can no longer take care of ourselves. We're a people so dependent on the corporate entities that feed and clothe us that we're like babes in the woods when it comes to self-sufficiency.
Can you grow a garden? Can you slaughter a chicken or hog? Do you know how to smoke meat or preserve food so that, even without refrigeration, you'd have food stores to feed your family? If the grocery stores were suddenly empty, would you know enough to make flour out of cattails or potatoes, or would you be able to provide meat for the family dinner table?
The sad fact is that most of us could not. Not even those of us in rural areas. Talk to any ten men gathered in a barbershop or sitting on a bench in front of the local tire store and ask them how to castrate a calf and see what answers you come up with. Ask any group of women if they know how to can meat or darn a sock and watch the blank stares you get.
I imagine that "overwhelmed" is how the Pilgrims felt when they encountered an environment unlike any they had known. They had made some mistakes, yet Providence provided them the means to survive. An Indian named Squanto (not unlike the Israelite Joseph) had once been captured by the English, sold into slavery and taken across the pond. He eventually made his way back to the North American continent, and by the time the Pilgrims were in dire straits, he was in a position to help them out.
Squanto is still in a position to help us modern day pilgrims out as well. Through the free eBook offered by Solutions From Science, Squanto's Garden, you'll learn about the history surrounding the Pilgrim's arrival in the New World and their interactions with the Native Americans. You'll discover the planting techniques of the Native Americans and how these techniques insured the survival of the English colony.
The methods that Squanto and the Native Americans employed to raise crops was a rudimentary system based on personal responsibility over one's own plot. The collective garden the colony tried to raise the first year, a model they brought with them from England, could not be sustained in the Plymouth colony. When the Pilgrims took Squanto's advice and broke the land up into individual family plots, using the Native American "Three Sisters" companion planting model, their crops thrived and their harvest was bountiful.