In Search of the American Dream: Acknowledging Our Past

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The Traveling Writer Takes You Back

By Norma Jaeger Hopcraft

For Thanksgiving, I'd like to take you back to my bus journey circumnavigating the continental U.S.  I ended that seven-week trip on Thanksgiving Day, with a visit to Plymouth Rock.

Statue of Massasoit, Chief of the Wampanoags, the tribe that enabled the Pilgrims survive their first winter, on Cole's Hill, overlooking Plymouth Harbor.
More pics at the links underlined below.

Every year, Native Americans gather at the Rock to protest the theft and murder by which the Europeans turned this country into America. It's sponsored by United American Indians of New England (UAINE). I met Native Americans at the protest who came all the way from Montana to attend.

You can see pics from the event here. 

While I was at Plymouth Rock, I visited a replica of the Mayflower. It's a very small ship. When it landed in 1620, it wasn't the first time Europeans set foot on North America, but the colony founded at Plymouth turned out to be the only one that lasted -- and grew. See pics of the ersatz Mayflower here.

Making a New American Dream

Now that we're here in North America, with the damage done to the native peoples, let's each help a disadvantaged person this Thanksgiving weekend. Or how about just helping with the dishes? You'll be helping someone's American Dream come true -- of a chance to relax and stop working on Thanksgiving!

I hope you have a great Thanksgiving!

American Dreams from Rome and Serbia

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The American Dream of Justice and Freedom of Religion

Some people define the American Dream as justice for all, and freedom of speech and religion.

Keep your eyes open in New York City (and everywhere else, for that matter) and you see weird and wonderful things.  Many of them are related to the American Dream.

A Roman centurion sits guard over the Appellate Courthouse near Madison Square Park.  "Justice for all" in in our Pledge of Allegiance. According to our Judeo-Christian heritage, we need to provide it to Native Americans, African Americans, Hispanics, Muslims, aliens on our shores.

The doorway to St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Cathedral on West 25th Street in the historic Chelsea district.  See interior views at nyc-architecture.com  Learn about its fabulous organ.

When do you plan to visit NYC again? Tell me in the comments section, and I'll try to meet you!

Delightful Indigenous Folks We Met

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Indigenous Peoples, aka Native Americans in Central America

We hired a guide, Jackie, and explored territory near Cahuita where the indigenous BriBri peoples live out their lives in simplicity, tending cocoa plants for cash, raising chickens, living in palm-thatched huts as their ancestors did.  Jackie taught us some BriBri words, and I only remember "Evishkena," which is "hello."

A BriBri chief talked about ancient spiritual practices.

A puppy owned by an indigenous family greeted my sister the traditional way.

Lying in the hammock is "Abuelo," or "Grandfather," a 111-year-old BriBri man.  He asked Jackie, our guide, sitting on the floor next to him, to send him someone to teach him English.  The walls of his hand-made thatched hut come only to the waist.  The house is open to the wind and rain, but the temperature is always moderate.

Abuelo was only reachable via this handmade bridge.

A BriBri woman, Abuelo's daughter, ground up the cocoa on this concave rock.

After the roasted cocoa is ground up, she makes little round balls of it, wraps them individually in cellophane, and sells them to the people that guides like Jackie bring to them.  It was the most delicious chocolate I ever tasted.

Be Careful Which American Dream You Choose

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The American Dream -- In Search of More Stuff

The simplicity in which the BriBri lived their lives was stunning.  A child we saw had one toy -- Elmo on a string that dangled from the palm-thatched rafters.  Do children really need much more than that?  Do we?  I'm surrounded by stuff that I have to take care of.  I want to resist the urge to keep up with friends and relatives and be content with what I have.

As we drove to the BriBri village, we passed just a few yards from a river that forms the boundary line between Costa Rica and Panama.  This is by far the farthest south I've ever been.

On the way home from the BriBri, Jackie took us to a waterfall for a swim.  The water was the perfect temperature.  I got out when some fish started nibbling on me.

National Day of Mourning, aka Thanksgiving Day

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Since Thanksgiving Day 1970, the town of Plymouth, Massachusetts has hosted the National Day of Mourning, when Native Americans from all over the country demonstrate against all that happened after they kept the Pilgrims alive during the first winter.

Statue of Massasoit, Chief of the Wampanoags, the tribe that enabled the Pilgrims survive their first winter, on Cole's Hill, overlooking Plymouth Harbor.

The plaque reads, in part:  "To [Native Americans], Thanksgiving Day is a reminder of the genocide of millions of their people, the theft of their lands, and the relentless assault on their culture.  Participants in national Day of Mourning honor Native ancestors and the struggles of Native peoples to survive today...It is a protest of the racism and oppression which Native Americans continue to experience.  Erected by the Town of Plymouth on behalf of the United American Indians of New England."

The United American Indians of New England (UAINE) sponsor the event annually.  In spite of the fact that it was held on Thanksgiving Day, it was well attended by a diverse crowd.

This was the last official day of my America bus trip.  But my blog is not over!  I had the opportunity to travel further, not in America but in "the Americas," Costa Rica to be exact.  My son is an expat there, teaching ESL and loving all the Costa Ricans who are just like him, happy and not riddled with angst.  Businesses in CR accept dollars, so that makes it official, my travels there were American.  Stay tuned.