Happy Thanksgiving! Our American Ethnic Holiday - Director's Note

What We're Thankful For

The Thanksgiving Story goes something like this: After a winter of terrible hardship, the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians sat down together to celebrate the Pilgrim’s first harvest.

The settling of America was intense. My favorite book on this is The Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick which beautifully recounts the intense drama against the elements and the relationship between the English and the Indians – a tenuous balance between war and cooperation for survival.

The Westward expansion was no picnic either. I grew up vacationing at Cape Lookout on the Oregon Coast which is just down the beach from Cape Disappointment. My brother and I thought this was extremely amusing, and my father explained to us that it gets its name from Lewis & Clark.