Edward Winslow wrote that in the Pilgrims'initial exploration of Cape Cod, they followed a path that led to "certain heaps of sand, one whereof was covered with old mats, and had a wooden thing like a mortar whelmed on the top of it, and an earthen pot laid in a little hole at the end thereof. We, musing what it might be, digged and found a bow, and as we thought, arrows, but they were rotten. We supposed there were many other things, but because we deemed them graves, we put in the bow again and made it up as it was, and left the rest untouched, because we thought it would be odious unto them to ransack their sepulchres." In the second expedition they dug up another "place like a grave," although this contained the remains of a blond European sailor (in his sailor's cassock and with European sewing equipment) and his child, besides various utensils. The Pilgrims took "sundry of the prettiest things away with us, and covered the corpse up again." As this was obviously a European's grave, the removal was not considered desecration of an Indian grave. In the third exploration, the Pilgrims followed a path that took them to a palisaded graveyard. Winslow reported that "Within it was full of graves, some bigger and some less; some were also paled about, and others had like an Indian house made over them, but not matted. Those graves were more sumptuous than those at Cornhill, yet we digged none of them up, but only viewed them and went our way. Without the palisade were graves also, but not so costly." This is the only historical evidence there is about the Pilgrims' attitudes towards Indian graves. They consciously did not go around digging up Indian graves. The Pilgrims' attitude was relatively sensitive to the likely reaction of the Indians. The Pilgrims did not rob Indian graves. The self-styled historians of Plimoth Plantation (actors who have gotten together to think about how things might have been) have in recent years published the exact opposite of the truth about this, and their view has been repeated by authors who think that some expertise can be assumed for the anonymous "historians of Plimoth Plantation." It would be quite revealing if the "historians of Plimoth Plantation" were to identify themselves and indicate exactly what their training is that makes them historical experts. Just making it up doesn't ordinarily count. When I learned that the producer of this film was intending to give a platform to this nonsense it was one reason I had for not participating further. Jeremy Bangs [email protected] wrote: >I have a question about Desperate Crossing. WHY did they rob the Indian >graves? I have thought about that and not quite clear as to what they >found? I know they found buried corn in some places but what else? Robbing >graves seems rather barbaric. I hope Richard Warren, Francis Cooke and >Stephen Hopkins didn't rob the graves. :) > > > >------------------------------- >To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >