Nov 22, 2022
Today's movie : The search for a THANKSGIVING film : Squanto, a Warrior’s Tale, by Disney, 1994.
It takes an hour and 36 minutes to get to the unadulterated truth contained in “Squanto, a Warrior’s Tale”, and it’s in the form of a title card in the final shot of the movie. But perhaps it’s a truth worth waiting for because embedded here — within the sensitive, convoluted and polluted history of North American natives and European settlers — is the real and truthful nut of the historical matter.
Squanto was the real life person who, having been abducted by slave traders, was freed from slavery by monks in Europe, sheltered and taught to read before being sent back to Cape Cod. He was on hand, then, speaking fluent English when the Pilgrims arrived. He saved them from certain starvation. Squanto’s contribution to the real and significant understanding of peace between cultures cannot be over-estimated.
And so, the best historical accuracy of the film — and most significant — is in the final title card at the end which reads,
“The peace treaty established in 1621 between the Native Americans and the Pilgrims lasted for two generations. Over the years, as new settlers arrived, Squanto’s wisdom was gradually forgotten.
The treaty was broken in 1675 and the tribes were driven from their homelands.”
This is about as good as it gets in films — and this film in particular — when it comes to information from 1621 and what really happened between the Pilgrims (not to be confused with Puritans further north) and native peoples.
Peace actually lasted in good faith for more than 50 years until “new settlers” arrived who did not share the Pilgrim’s vision of honest and contractural co-existence. Then, it says, the peace was broken.
This singular thought should provide enough reflection for tears, but also for imagining what could have been if the faith foundations set at Plymouth had been sustained for hundreds of years, instead of just 50. Imagine how different America’s history could have been, perhaps negating much of today’s current restitution movements towards North American tribes, as unnecessary. Being married to a Caddo tribal member whose people were removed during the Trail of Tears, I would have appreciated that.
There are many spiritual analogies one could glean from the film, one being the story of the tares in the wheat, but suffice to say that the grand experiment of a cultural co-existence worked well in America for two generations, and could work once again, if the Pilgrim roots and principles are once again reapplied. Those principles are left for us to rediscover on our own in this movie, or wait for an honest film to explain it further.
The body of the film, however, cannot be watched as anything historically accurate. It is an unintentional Disney parody similar to say, Peter Pan, Captain Hook or the Pirates of the Caribbean. In that sense, “Squanto” is not a bad movie if you think “Mr. Gibbs and Capt. Jack Sparrow” — but not nearly as good. Costumes, languages, and fanciful imagining make “Squanto” tolerable, even fun, to watch. And there is a genuine heart-warming moment in the depiction of the the first Plymouth Thanksgiving at the end of the film.
At that Thanksgiving feast, Squanto narrates, “…and so began a time of harmony between people whose ways were so different from one another. We who knew the land taught those who had come from far away, how to plant and to hunt. At harvest we came together to give thanks.”
Pilgrim leader Willam Bradford prays:
“Brothers and sisters, new friends, please let us rise and pray. Heavenly father, we thank thee for this bountiful harvest and for bringing so many of us together on this joyous day. We humbly as thee for thy blessing”, and followed by an Algonquin prayer at the same moment.
The film’s Squanto says out loud to the gathering, “In the world there are many people, with all kinds of customs and beliefs, speaking many languages. But there is only one moon, one sun, one mother earth, and there is only one tribe. Let’s live together in peace.
But you’re going to have to wait in this movie for that spiritually provoking moment to occur. The rest is Disney’s fantasyland.