As Thanksgiving approaches, many Americans are gathering to reflect on gratitude, family—and of course—food.
It’s the time of year when we may think about the so-called “First Thanksgiving” and imagine scenes of Pilgrims and Native peoples gathering in Massachusetts to share in the bounty of their fall harvests.
But how much do we really know about the food systems and agricultural knowledge of the Indigenous peoples of North America? In what ways were the Wampanoag people able to contribute to this harvest celebration—and what have we gotten wrong about their story?
Michael Wise, Associate Professor of History at the University of North Texas and author of Native Foods: Agriculture, Indigeneity, and Settler Colonialism in American History, joins us to challenge four persistent myths about Indigenous food practices. Discover how Native communities shaped and stewarded the land and its agriculture long before European colonists arrived, and why this history matters more than we might think.
About the Show
Ben Franklin’s World is a podcast about early American history.
It is a show for people who love history and for those who want to know more about the historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our present-day world.
Episode Summary
Michael Wise is an Associate Professor of History at the University of North Texas. His research expertise is in environmental history, food and agricultural history, animal-human relationships, and the history of the American West. He’s the author of two books, Producing Predators: Wolves, Work, and Conquest in the Northern Rockies, and his second book, Native Foods: Agriculture, Indigeneity, and Settler Colonialism in American History.
During our exploration, Michael reveals:
1. How Indigenous agricultural systems like those of the Wampanoag and Cherokee sustained communities for generations.
2. Why early American landscapes looked and functioned very differently than we’ve been taught.
3. How myths about Native people being “hunters” rather than “farmers” served to justify White dispossession and erasure of Indigenous peoples from Native lands and our histories.
What You’ll Discover
- How we view early American landscapes in Jeffersonian terms
- Four myths about early American landscapes
- Gendered roles of agricultural and food production in early America
- Wampanoag culture and foodways at the turn of the 17th century
- Wampanoag cultivation of corn during the Little Ice Age
- Wampanoag creativity with corn cultivation and dishes
- Wampanoag agroforestry
- Cherokee agriculture during the 17th and 18th centuries
- Why Whites created a myth that the Cherokee were hunters, not farmers
- How history contributes to land dispossession for Native peoples
Links to People, Places, and Publications
1776 in Context Question
Michael, how do you think your research into Indigenous agriculture and foodways helps us better understand the American Revolution and its impact?
Complementary Episodes
🎧 Episode 131: Thomas Jefferson’s Empire of Liberty
🎧 Episode 189: The Little Ice Age
🎧 Episode 278: Polygamy: An Early American History
🎧 Episode 290: The World of the Wampanoag, Pt 1
🎧 Episode 291: The World of the Wampanoag, Pt 2
🎧 Episode 323: American Expansion and the Political Economy of Plunder
🎧 Episode 404: How Black Chefs Shaped Early America
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