Tisquantum (Squanto)

Born: 1585

Died: November 30, 1622

Squanto remains trapped by the image we have invented for him. In the romanticized Thanksgiving narrative that began developing a century and a half after the actual feast, Squanto has been reduced to a two-dimensional supporting character that appears only to the degree he selflessly gifts sovereignty over Native land. Understandably, this stereotype makes some Natives suspicious, seeing Squanto as a Benedict Arnold-type traitor.

Squanto deserves more or, at the very least, a fair reading. Squanto was nothing if not a survivor. Despite his kidnapping and permanent homelessness, he clawed his way back from exile and, in the process, became America’s first truly global citizen. The world before the collision of continents was not coming back, but Squanto did.

Thanksgiving and we who celebrate it need the real Squanto. The value of his witness does not come from a kind of purity or righteousness that he found himself on the right side of history. Rather, it stems from his tenaciousness in the face of the intractable mess in which we all find ourselves.

—Damian Costello