Does an accurate account of Squanto exist?

Today I have a guest post for you! It comes from my dear friend Christie who is a book lover and home school mama. We often spend lots of time talking about books and she shares a great review of a VERY hard to find book, though thankfully her library had one for her and her children to read! I think you will have the answer to the question by the end of her post.

Growing up I always felt like Squanto was an addendum to the story of the Pilgrims’ landing in the New World – a kind of bright spot after a horrific winter of starvation and death; so it was with some surprise that I noted our curriculum reading guide recommended a rare biography called “Squanto” or “Dark Pilgrim” by Feenie Ziner. Because it was so difficult to obtain and a replacement book was recommended I was going to forego the book altogether but after seeing so many glowing reviews I tracked it down through my library and I am SO glad I did.

I wish I still had it so I could provide excerpts of the gorgeous language in the book and the way Ziner masterfully wove her story, but unfortunately I was late getting it back so I’ll have to content myself with highlighting what I believe are the reasons why you should track it down if you’re able!

This book, based on meticulous research (the bibliography is exhaustive), is a serious attempt to reconstruct the peculiar chain of events in which he was trapped and to guess at his feelings. The final notes spell out what can be accepted as fact, what has been reconstructed from circumstantial evidence, and what is pure invention (details like a beautiful Indian maiden don't really twist the facts at all, and the dialogue is readable and perfectly convincing in fictional terms.) Squanto's odyssey begins when he is a boy, visiting with a neighboring tribe, and smuggled with four other Native Americans to England where he is educated and learns to speak like a gentleman. He is finally returned to America as Captain John Smith's pilot but is then captured and sold as a slave to a Spanish monastery. He manages to escape to England and is sent to assist in a troublesome settlement in the bleak area of Newfoundland until he is finally rescued and used as translator in his home territory. The Mayflower lands where his tribe, now extinct, lived, and he finally manages to affect a peaceful relationship between the two groups of people he has known. The book offers a great deal of information about the English colonists in the early 17th century. It is also an excellent conception of the feelings of a man in unusually disjointed circumstances.

Often I find books written about Native Americans or Western Civilization around that time period kind of gloss over the ugliness and cataclysmic change that took place after Columbus landed (or only focus on one side) but I found "Squanto" to be a fair treatment of both sides. Here are some of the good points I see in it:

- It makes a point of both showing in circumstances and conversation that not all Native Americans were peace-loving/good people and not all Englishmen/Spaniards were bad. All the men who are involved in Squanto's capture and release are, in general, men out to either make a name for themselves or make a profit, but I believe that's accurate.

- It shows a real juxtaposition between Native American life and English life -- one of the differences being that (for example) each tribe had territory, but they were welcome to fish, hunt, and live anywhere in that territory. Whereas in England, Squanto is surprised to learn that things and land belong to individuals. No moral commentary is made on that -- just his surprise.

- It shows Squanto's development from an idealistic boy to a jaded, hate-filled man, and then to a man filled with purpose. At the darkest time in his life where he's walking the ruins of his old village a vision comes to him (one he's been waiting for since he was a boy) and fuels him with purpose moving forward.

- You really get a sense as to why the Wampanoag were so distrustful of the Pilgrims when they arrived and what happened prior to them arriving that made it so dangerous for both sides -- the Wampanoag fearing capture/illness that had nearly wiped them out; the Pilgrims fearing the fierce reputation of the Wampanoag who hadn't allowed Englishmen to land on their shores for quite a bit.

- You get to see the distaste of England for the separatists which I think is great to see. The Puritans were truly expendable to the British crown and a "cheap" way to both get rid of a problem and try out another colony after so many failures.

- You get to see that the English (as a whole -- but certain individuals in the book don't feel this way) clearly considered Indians inferior to themselves and subjected them to hard labor and humiliating circumstances. But we also see that when Squanto returns to his land, the Native Americans also viewed the French/English as clearly inferior to themselves.

It has so many facets I could probably write a book myself. Paired with the gorgeous imagery and masterful storytelling this is a definite must-read.

Overall, I found that the story of Squanto provides balance to my kids’ predominately Western-centric education. I loved that it had another point of view, allowed my kids to be upset when Squanto is captured, then returned, then captured again. I loved that beyond the racial commentary it showed a man who lost everything that might have defined him, be stuck between two cultures, and find his own place as a leader without a tribe. If nothing else it opened the doors of conversation about racial equality, slavery, and other conversations that are so important.

-by Christie Russell