Speaker 1: Now one you're putting. I got a string going on here.
Speaker 1: Something just killing my dog. Something killed your dog, my dog.
Speaker 1: We're flying through the or over the tree. I don't
Speaker 1: know how it did it, okay, damn, and I'm really confused.
Speaker 1: All I saw was my dog coming over the fence,
Speaker 1: and he was dead once you hit the ground.
Speaker 2: Like.
Speaker 1: I didn't see any cars. All I saw was my
Speaker 1: dog coming over the fence. Say, what are you putting?
Speaker 1: We got some wonder or something crawling around out here.
Speaker 1: Did you see what it was?
Speaker 2: It was?
Speaker 1: It was seeing enough. I'm out here looking through the
Speaker 1: window now and I don't see anything. I don't want
Speaker 1: to go outside. Jesus quiet, you better, Hello, get the
Speaker 1: Boddy out here. Quin, I'm out there. I thought of
Speaker 1: a mention about Tech nine. I don't know easy out there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm right.
Speaker 3: Happy, Thanksgiving everyone. I hope wherever you are right now,
Speaker 3: you're surrounded by good food, good people, and maybe a
Speaker 3: little bit of that trip to fan drowsiness that makes
Speaker 3: the afternoon nap feel so well deserved. But before you
Speaker 3: settle into that food coma, I want you to think
Speaker 3: about something. We all know the story, right The Pilgrims
Speaker 3: the Wampanoague Plymouth Rock Squanto, teaching the colonists how to
Speaker 3: plant corn. It's the version we learned in elementary school,
Speaker 3: the one that shows up on greeting cards and in
Speaker 3: school pageants every November. But what if I told you
Speaker 3: that's not the whole story. What if there was someone
Speaker 3: else at that table, someone the history books don't mention,
Speaker 3: someone that the colonists themselves decided to keep secret, asking
Speaker 3: the truth down through families for four hundred years. What
Speaker 3: if the first Thanksgiving wasn't just a meeting between two
Speaker 3: peoples but three. Now I know what some of you
Speaker 3: are thinking. Here we go another wild theory. But stick
Speaker 3: with me here, because this isn't just speculation. This is
Speaker 3: a story that's been whispered in certain families since sixteen
Speaker 3: twenty one, a story about ancient agreements, about guardians of
Speaker 3: the forest, and about a promise that's been kept for
Speaker 3: four centuries. Today, on this special holiday edition of the show,
Speaker 3: we're going deep into a tale that will make you
Speaker 3: look at Thanksgiving in a whole new way. This is
Speaker 3: the story of the first guest. The morning mist rolled
Speaker 3: across Plymouth Harbor like a living thing, thick and heavy
Speaker 3: with the promise of an early winter. It was late
Speaker 3: November sixteen twenty one, and the small settlement of English
Speaker 3: colonists had barely survived their first year in this strange
Speaker 3: new world. Half their number had perished during that brutal winter,
Speaker 3: and those who remained looked more like scarecrows than the
Speaker 3: brave adventurers who'd crossed the Atlantic just fourteen months before.
Speaker 3: William Bradford stood at the edge of the settlement, his
Speaker 3: weathered hands gripping his musket as he surveyed the tree line.
Speaker 3: The forest was different here than anything he'd known in England.
Speaker 3: It was older, deeper, and it held secrets that made
Speaker 3: even the bravest men whisper prayers under their breath. The
Speaker 3: trees themselves seemed to watch, their ancient trunks twisted into
Speaker 3: shapes that looked almost like faces in the dim morning light.
Speaker 3: Edward Winslow approached, his boots crunching on the frost covered ground.
Speaker 3: Governor Bradford Squanto has returned from his journey to Massasoit's village.
Speaker 3: He brings word that the Wampanoag will attend our harvest celebration.
Speaker 3: Bradford nodded his eyes still fixed on the forest. How
Speaker 3: many will come? Ninety souls, perhaps more Massasoid himself will
Speaker 3: lead them. The Governor's eyebrows rose. That was far more
Speaker 3: than they'd expected. Their own number was barely fifty three,
Speaker 3: including women and children. We'll need more food, send men
Speaker 3: to hunt. We cannot appear weak or unprepared before our guests.
Speaker 3: Winslow hesitated. There was something in his expression, a mixture
Speaker 3: of uncertainty and fear that seemed out of place. Winslow
Speaker 3: had faced starvation, disease, and the unknown terrors of this
Speaker 3: new world without flinching. What could unsettle him?
Speaker 1: Now? What is it?
Speaker 3: Edward speak plainly? Squanto mentioned something else. He said the
Speaker 3: Wampanoag would bring someone special, someone they call the first guest.
Speaker 3: He wouldn't explain further, only said that we must show
Speaker 3: proper respect and prepare extra food, much extra food. Bradford frowned.
Speaker 3: The first guest? Is this some chief from another tribe?
Speaker 3: A spiritual leader? I asked the same. Squanto only smiled
Speaker 3: and said we would understand when the time came. But Governor,
Speaker 3: I've never seen Squanto nervous before, not one facing hostile tribes,
Speaker 3: not one translating difficult negotiations. But when he spoke of
Speaker 3: this first guest, his hands trembled. The two men stood
Speaker 3: in silence for a moment, the weight of the unknown
Speaker 3: pressing down on them like the morning missed. Bradford squared
Speaker 3: his shoulders. We faced the impossible before edward. We crossed
Speaker 3: a nocean, survived a winter that should have killed us all,
Speaker 3: and made peace with people we cannot fully understand. Whatever
Speaker 3: this first guest may be, we will face it with
Speaker 3: faith and courage.
Speaker 4: But even as he spoke.
Speaker 3: These brave words, Bradford couldn't shake the feeling that they
Speaker 3: were about to encounter something beyond their understanding, something that
Speaker 3: would challenge everything they thought they knew about this new world.
Speaker 3: Three days passed in a blur of preparation. The colonists
Speaker 3: worked from dawn to dusk, wild turkey and deer, gathering
Speaker 3: shellfish from the shore, and preparing what vegetables they'd managed
Speaker 3: to grow in their first successful harvest. The women, led
Speaker 3: by Susannah White and Eleanor Billington, worked miracles with their
Speaker 3: limited resources, turning corn meal and dried berries into dishes
Speaker 3: that almost reminded the colonists of home. Young John Howland,
Speaker 3: who nearly drowned falling overboard during the Mayflower's crossing, had
Speaker 3: become one of the settlement's best hunters. He spent his
Speaker 3: days in the forest with Miles Standish and John Alden,
Speaker 3: tracking deer through the underbrush and learning the ways of
Speaker 3: this wild land. But on the morning before the feast,
Speaker 3: something strange happened that would haunt him for the rest
Speaker 3: of his days. He was tracking a particularly large buck
Speaker 3: through a grove of ancient oaks when the forest went silent,
Speaker 3: not the normal quiet of animals hiding from a hunter,
Speaker 3: but a complete absence of sound that made the hair
Speaker 3: on his neck stand on end. Even the wind seemed
Speaker 3: to hold its breath. The buck he'd been tracking stood
Speaker 3: frozen in a small clearing ahead, its entire body rigid
Speaker 3: with fear. Holand raised his musket, But before he could fire,
Speaker 3: something moved in the shadows beyond the deer, something massive.
Speaker 3: At first he thought it was a bear standing on
Speaker 3: its hind legs, but bears don't stand that tall, bears
Speaker 3: don't have arms that long, and bears certainly don't have
Speaker 3: eyes that gleam with an intelligence that seemed almost human.
Speaker 3: The creature stepped partially into the light, and Howland's musket
Speaker 3: fell from nerveless fingers. It was covered in dark reddish
Speaker 3: brown hair, standing at least eight feet tall. Its face
Speaker 3: was neither man nor beast, but something in between, with
Speaker 3: deep set eyes that regarded him with what looked like curiosity.
Speaker 3: For a moment that stretched into eternity, hunter and creature
Speaker 3: stared at each other across the clearing. Then the thing
Speaker 3: did something that nearly stopped Howland's heart. It raised one
Speaker 3: massive hand, palm outward and what was un unmistakably a
Speaker 3: gesture of peace, the same gesture he'd seen the wampanoagues.
Speaker 3: The deer bolted, crashing through the underbrush, and the spell
Speaker 3: was broken. The creature melted back into the shadows with
Speaker 3: a grace that seemed impossible for something so large. By
Speaker 3: the time Howland fumbled his musket back into his hands,
Speaker 3: it was gone, leaving only massive footprints and the memory
Speaker 3: of those intelligent eyes. He ran back to the settlement,
Speaker 3: his heart pounding, his mind racing, But when he tried
Speaker 3: to tell the others what he'd seen, the words died
Speaker 3: in his throat. How could he explain, how could he
Speaker 3: make them believe. Captain Standish would think him mad. Governor
Speaker 3: Bradford would worry he'd been sampling too much of the
Speaker 3: beer stores. Only Squanto, when Howland finally worked up the
Speaker 3: courage to approach him, seemed unsurprised. The Ptuxi guide listened
Speaker 3: to his halting description with a knowing smile. You have
Speaker 3: seen the first people, the ones who were here before
Speaker 3: all others. My people call them by many names. When
Speaker 3: to go to some though that name carries fear. Others
Speaker 3: say Genosqua or when Digo. But the oldest name, the
Speaker 3: truest name, is Saskets, the wild men of the woods.
Speaker 3: But what are they, Howland asked. Squanto was quiet for
Speaker 3: a long moment, looking toward the forest. They are our
Speaker 3: elder brothers. They walk this land when the ice covered
Speaker 3: the world. They taught the first humans how to survive,
Speaker 3: how to hunt, how to respect the forest. Most of
Speaker 3: your people would call them demons or monsters, but they
Speaker 3: are neither. They are the keepers of the old ways,
Speaker 3: the guardians of the wild places. Will they come to
Speaker 3: the feast, Squanto's smile widened. The first guest always comes
Speaker 3: to important gatherings. It is tradition older than memory Massasoit
Speaker 3: would not dare hold such a feast without inviting them.
Speaker 3: And you English, whether you know it or not, have
Speaker 3: settled in a place they protect. They have been watching
Speaker 3: you since your ship arrived. Howland felt a chill run
Speaker 3: down his spine watching us. How else do you think
Speaker 3: you survived that first winter? How many times did your
Speaker 3: hunters find deer exactly where they needed them? How many
Speaker 3: times did storms that should have destroyed your houses suddenly
Speaker 3: change direction? The Saskets helped you, just as they once
Speaker 3: helped my people. You are guests in their land, and
Speaker 3: they have chosen to let you stay. That night, Howland
Speaker 3: barely slept. He lay on his rough straw mattress, listening
Speaker 3: to the sounds of the forest, wondering if those sounds
Speaker 3: included footsteps too large to be human. The morning of
Speaker 3: the feast dawned clear and cold. The colonists rose early,
Speaker 3: stoking fires and making final preparations. The long tables had
Speaker 3: been set up outside despite the chill, because there simply
Speaker 3: wasn't room in any building for the number of guests
Speaker 3: they expected. Around midday, a cry went up from the watchman.
Speaker 3: The Wampanoagu were approaching they came through the forest like
Speaker 3: a river of humanity. Ninety warriors and their families, dressed
Speaker 3: in their finest deer skins and adorned with feathers and beads.
Speaker 3: At their head walked Massasoit, himself tall and dignified, his
Speaker 3: face painted in ceremonial colors. Beside him walked his brother Quadequina,
Speaker 3: and several other important men of the tribe. But it
Speaker 3: was the figure walking behind them that drew every eye
Speaker 3: and stopped every conversation. He was a giant of a man,
Speaker 3: standing nearly seven feet tall, wrapped in a massive bear
Speaker 3: skin cloak that covered him from head to toe. His
Speaker 3: face was hidden in the shadow of a deep hood,
Speaker 3: and he walked with a strange rolling gait that seemed
Speaker 3: almost awkward for someone of his size. The Wampanoagu gave
Speaker 3: him a wide berth, treating him with a deference that
Speaker 3: exceeded even what they showed to Massasoit. Governor Bradford stepped
Speaker 3: forward to greet the sachem, but his eyes kept drifting
Speaker 3: to the cloaked figure. Massasoit noticed and spoke rapidly to Squanto,
Speaker 3: who translated, the great Sachem says you honor his people
Speaker 3: with this feast. He brings his finest warriors to celebrate
Speaker 3: the harvest and the peace between our peoples. And he
Speaker 3: brings a special guest, one who must be shown the
Speaker 3: highest respect. This is the speaker for the first people.
Speaker 3: He comes to observe and to judge whether the peace
Speaker 3: will hold. Bradford, Ever, the diplomat, despite his inner turmoil,
Speaker 3: bowed deeply. All who come in peace are welcome at
Speaker 3: our table. The cloaked figure began to speak. From within
Speaker 3: the hood came a voice unlike anything the colonists had
Speaker 3: ever heard. It was deep, resonating, like distant thunder, and
Speaker 3: though the words were in the Wampa Noag tongue, they
Speaker 3: seemed to carry meaning beyond language. Squanto translated. He says,
Speaker 3: he smells honesty in your words, but also fear. Fear
Speaker 3: is wise and the forest, but honesty is wiser. He
Speaker 3: will sit at your feast. The next few hours passed
Speaker 3: in a blur of activity. The colonists and Wampanoag worked
Speaker 3: side by side preparing the feast. The native warriors had
Speaker 3: brought five deer, which they expertly butchered and prepared for roasting.
Speaker 3: The colonial women found themselves learning new ways to prepare
Speaker 3: corn and squash from the Wampanoague women, while the men
Speaker 3: competed in games of skill and strength. Through it all,
Speaker 3: the cloaked figure sat apart watching the children. Both English
Speaker 3: and natives, seemed drawn to him, despite their parents obvious nervousness.
Speaker 3: Little Peregrine White, barely a year old and the first
Speaker 3: English child born in New England, toddled toward the giant
Speaker 3: figure with the fearlessness of the very young. His mother, Susannah,
Speaker 3: gasped and started forward, but the cloaked figure raised a
Speaker 3: massive hand and she froze slowly. Gently, the figure reached
Speaker 3: out to the child. Emerged from the cloaked sleeve was
Speaker 3: a hand covered in thick, reddish brown hair, with fingers
Speaker 3: longer than any human should be, but the touch was
Speaker 3: gentle as a summer breeze. Peregrine laughed a pure sound
Speaker 3: of joy and grabbed one of the massive fingers with
Speaker 3: his tiny hands. For a moment, the clearing was absolutely silent.
Speaker 3: Then from within the hood came a sound that might
Speaker 3: have been laughter, deep and rumbling, like distant thunder. The
Speaker 3: tension broke. If a baby could accept this strange being,
Speaker 3: perhaps they all could. As the sun began to set,
Speaker 3: the feast was ready. The tables groaned under the weight
Speaker 3: of roasted deer and turkey, bowls of corn and squash,
Speaker 3: platters of fish and shellfish, and bread made from the
Speaker 3: colonist's precious wheat stores. Massasoit stood and spoke at length
Speaker 3: in his own language, with squanto translating, we gather here
Speaker 3: as two people's becoming one people. The earth has provided
Speaker 3: for us. All the deer gave their live so we
Speaker 3: might live, and stay tuned for more Sasquatch ott to see.
Speaker 3: We'll be right back after these messages. The corn grew
Speaker 3: tall so we might eat. The English have shown courage
Speaker 3: in coming to this land and wisdom in seeking peace.
Speaker 3: But there is older wisdom here, older even than the Wampanoag.
Speaker 3: Tonight we honor that wisdom. He nodded to the cloaked
Speaker 3: figure who stood. The colonists held their breath as massive
Speaker 3: hands reached up and pulled back the hood. What was
Speaker 3: revealed was a face from the dawn of time. It
Speaker 3: was covered in hair, yes, but the features were noble,
Speaker 3: almost human, but not quite. The eyes were deep brown,
Speaker 3: filled with an intelligence and sadness that seemed to hold
Speaker 3: the weight of millennia. The nose was broad and flat,
Speaker 3: the mouth wide, with lips that seemed ready to smile
Speaker 3: or snarl with equal ease. Several of the colonial women gasped.
Speaker 3: A few of the men reached for weapons they weren't carrying.
Speaker 3: But Governor Bradford, showing the courage that had carried him
Speaker 3: across an ocean, stepped forward and extended his hand. You
Speaker 3: are welcome at our table, friend. The Sasquatch looked at
Speaker 3: the extended hand for a long moment, then, with careful deliberation,
Speaker 3: it reached out and took Bradford's hand in its own.
Speaker 3: The Governor's hand disappeared entirely in that massive grip, but
Speaker 3: the shake was gentle, almost delicate. And then the creature spoke,
Speaker 3: not in the Wampanoagu tongue, but in broken halting English. Friend,
Speaker 3: long time we watch you different from others who came before.
Speaker 3: You stay, you learn, you respect the land. The colonists
Speaker 3: were stunned. Winslow was the first to find his voice.
Speaker 3: You speak our language. The Sasquatch's mouth curved in what
Speaker 3: might have been a smile. We learn, always learn. Listen
Speaker 3: to your words in the forest, Watch you struggle, watch
Speaker 3: you survive, Watch you choose peace over war. It turned
Speaker 3: to address both groups, switching between languages, with squanto translating
Speaker 3: when needed. Long ago, when ice covered the land, we
Speaker 3: helped the first humans who came here, taught them to hunt,
Speaker 3: to build, to survive. When the ice went away, we
Speaker 3: retreated to the deep forests, the high mountains. We became legend, story, myth.
Speaker 3: But we never left, never stopped watching, never stopped protecting
Speaker 3: the land and those who respect it. The creature moved
Speaker 3: to the table, its movement surprisingly graceful for something so large.
Speaker 3: Tonight we feast together, three peoples as one. This is good,
Speaker 3: This is how it should be. As the feast progressed,
Speaker 3: the initial fear and awkwardness began to fade. The Sasquatch,
Speaker 3: who told them to call him by the name his
Speaker 3: people used among themselves, yah Yell, which meant standing tall,
Speaker 3: proved to have an appetite that matched his size. He
Speaker 3: consumed enormous quantities of food with obvious relish, particularly enjoying
Speaker 3: the colonist's bread and the Wampanoag's special preparation of venison.
Speaker 3: But it was when the storytelling began that the evening
Speaker 3: truly became magical. It started with Massasoit sharing the story
Speaker 3: of how his people came to this land. Then Elder
Speaker 3: William Brewster, his voice strong despite his advanced years, told
Speaker 3: of the colonist's journey across the sea and their reasons
Speaker 3: for leaving England. But when Yahiel began to speak, everyone
Speaker 3: fell silent. I tell you now of the first Thanksgiving,
Speaker 3: not this one, the first one, when my people and
Speaker 3: the humans first shared food in peace. He spoke of
Speaker 3: a time when the world was different, when I stretched
Speaker 3: from horizon to horizon, and massive beasts walked the land.
Speaker 3: His people, the Sasquatch, had lived here for countless generations,
Speaker 3: adapted to the cold, living in harmony with the great
Speaker 3: mammoths and dire wolves. Then came the humans, small, weak, freezing,
Speaker 3: They followed the animals across the ice bridge from the
Speaker 3: old world. Many died. We watched from the forests, curious.
Speaker 3: These new beings were like us, But they had no
Speaker 3: fur to keep them warm, no great strength to hunt
Speaker 3: the large beasts. But they had something else. They had innovation.
Speaker 3: They made tools, they made fire, They worked together in
Speaker 3: ways we had never seen the Wampanoa ignited, knowingly this
Speaker 3: was a story their eldest Shamans told, though most believed
Speaker 3: it to be myth. My ancestor, the one we call
Speaker 3: first Speaker, made a choice. He approached the humans like tonight.
Speaker 3: There was fear at first, but hunger and cold make
Speaker 3: strange allies. He taught them which plants were safe to eat,
Speaker 3: how to track and snow, how to find shelter. In return,
Speaker 3: they taught us about fire that could be carried, about
Speaker 3: tools that cut better than claws. Yahiel stood and walked
Speaker 3: to the fire, his massive form casting strange shadows. That
Speaker 3: first shared meal, that first Thanksgiving was seal meat and roots,
Speaker 3: eaten in an ice cave while a blizzard raged outside.
Speaker 3: But it began something, a partnership, a promise. My people
Speaker 3: would guard the wild places, keep the ancient knowledge. The
Speaker 3: humans would grow, spread, build, but always we would be connected.
Speaker 3: Young John Howland, emboldened by ale and amazement, asked, but
Speaker 3: why do you hide? Why don't more people know about you?
Speaker 3: Yahelle turned to him, and Howland was surprised to see
Speaker 3: sadness in those ancient eyes. Because humans changed. As you
Speaker 3: grew numerous, you grew fearful. You forgot the old agreements.
Speaker 3: You started to see us not as elder brothers, but
Speaker 3: as monsters. We became the thing in the dark that
Speaker 3: steals children, when in truth we often saved lost children
Speaker 3: and returned them to their tribes. He gestured to the Wampanoag.
Speaker 3: These people remember, they keep the old ways. They leave
Speaker 3: offerings in the deep forest. They teach their children respect,
Speaker 3: not fear. But others come with fire and steel, cutting
Speaker 3: down the ancient trees, killing without need. We learned to
Speaker 3: hide deeper, to become shadow and story. William Bradford spoke up,
Speaker 3: and what of us, the English? You said we were
Speaker 3: different from others who came before? Yahel studied him for
Speaker 3: a long moment. Spanish came to the south, they sought gold, slaves,
Speaker 3: They brought disease and death. French came to the north,
Speaker 3: they wanted furs, trade. Some were good, some bad. But
Speaker 3: you came to stay to build homes, not just trading posts,
Speaker 3: to plant seeds, not just take This is interesting to us,
Speaker 3: but we've cut down trees, Winslow protested. We've built houses,
Speaker 3: planted fields where forests stood. Yes, yeah, yell agreed, but
Speaker 3: you cut what you need not more. You plant food,
Speaker 3: not just take it. You sought peace with the Wampanoague
Speaker 3: when you could have tried war. These are good signs,
Speaker 3: but there will be tests ahead. More of your people
Speaker 3: will come. They will want more land, more trees, more
Speaker 3: of everything. The question is will you remember tonight? Will
Speaker 3: you remember that this land is shared? Will you teach
Speaker 3: your children about the first people? Or will we become
Speaker 3: monsters in your stories too? The question hung in the
Speaker 3: air like smoke from the fire. It was Governor Bradford
Speaker 3: who answered, I cannot speak for all who will come after,
Speaker 3: but I can promise that we will remember. We will
Speaker 3: write this down, make it part of our history. Our
Speaker 3: children will know that we were not the first here,
Speaker 3: that we were welcomed, that we have obligations to both
Speaker 3: the native peoples and to you. Yahiel nodded, writing, yes,
Speaker 3: this is powerful magic. You have stories that don't change
Speaker 3: with telling. Perhaps this will help. The night grew deeper
Speaker 3: and more stories were shared. The Wampanoague warriors told of
Speaker 3: hunting expeditions where they'd glimpsed the Sasquatch, always at a distance,
Speaker 3: always watching. One warrior, a young man named Hobamock, told
Speaker 3: of being saved from a bear by a sasquatch when
Speaker 3: he was a child, though his parents hadn't believed him.
Speaker 3: The colonists shared their own stories of mysterious happenings. Mary
Speaker 3: Chilton told of seeing massive footprints near the stream where
Speaker 3: she gathered water. John Alden spoke of tools that went
Speaker 3: missing and then reappeared, repaired and sharpened. Stephen Hopkins mentioned
Speaker 3: finding when built around their shelters during the worst storms
Speaker 3: of winter, construction too massive for any colonists to have
Speaker 3: built in secret.
Speaker 1: That was us.
Speaker 3: Yahyel confirmed you were dying. The land had not accepted you.
Speaker 3: Yet we helped, as we helped the first humans long ago.
Speaker 3: As the moon rose full and bright, Yahiel stood and
Speaker 3: made a gesture to mass Asoit, the sachem nodded and
Speaker 3: spoke to his people. Several warriors brought forward large bundles
Speaker 3: wrapped in deer skin gifts. Yahiel announced, from my people
Speaker 3: to yours, to seal the friendship. The bundles were opened
Speaker 3: to reveal treasures beyond imagination. There were pelts from animals
Speaker 3: the colonists had never seen, So soft and warm, they
Speaker 3: seemed to hold the heat of summer. There were stones
Speaker 3: that gleamed with inner fire, crystals that caught and held
Speaker 3: the moonlight. Most remarkably, there were tools made from a
Speaker 3: black stone that was sharper than any steel the colonists possessed.
Speaker 3: These are from the old time, Yahel explained, made by
Speaker 3: my people when the world was young. Use them well.
Speaker 3: They will never break, never dull, if used with respect.
Speaker 3: The colonists were overwhelmed. They had little to give in
Speaker 3: return that seemed worthy of such gifts. But young Peregrine
Speaker 3: White's mother, Susannah, had an idea. She went to her
Speaker 3: house and returned with something wrapped in cloth. This was
Speaker 3: my mother, she said, unwrapping a small mirror in a
Speaker 3: decorated silver frame. It came from London, from my family
Speaker 3: for generations. She offered it to Yahyel, who took it
Speaker 3: with surprising delicacy. When he looked into it, his eyes
Speaker 3: widened with wonder. I see myself truly, not in water's reflection,
Speaker 3: but clear perfect. He looked at the colonists with new respect.
Speaker 3: This is powerful magic, to see oneself as others see you.
Speaker 3: This is a gift of great wisdom. The feast was
Speaker 3: supposed to last one day, but it stretched into three.
Speaker 3: During that time, extraordinary things happened that would change both
Speaker 3: communities forever. On the second day, Yahiel began to teach.
Speaker 3: He showed the colonists and Wampanoague together secrets of the
Speaker 3: forest that even the natives had forgotten. He demonstrated how
Speaker 3: to find medicine plants that grew deep in the woods,
Speaker 3: roots that could cure fever, and leaves that could heal wounds.
Speaker 3: He taught them to read the signs of coming weather
Speaker 3: in ways more subtle than any farmer's almanac. See how
Speaker 3: the squirrels build their nests, he said, pointing to the trees.
Speaker 3: When they build low and thick hard winter comps, when
Speaker 3: they build high and loose mild winter. The animals know,
Speaker 3: they always know. He showed the hunters both English and
Speaker 3: Native tracking techniques that seemed almost supernatural. With his massive hands,
Speaker 3: he could point out disturbances in the forest floor that
Speaker 3: were invisible to human eyes, could smell deer paths from
Speaker 3: impossible distances. But, perhaps most remarkably, he began to teach
Speaker 3: them about cooperation. You, he said, pointing to the colonists,
Speaker 3: You know, building, making things that last, you know, writing,
Speaker 3: keeping knowledge, forever you, He turned to the Wampanoagg. You
Speaker 3: know the land, the seasons, the ways of plants and animals. Apart,
Speaker 3: you both struggle together, you thrive. He orchestrated work groups
Speaker 3: that combined both peoples. Colonial blacksmith John Turner worked with
Speaker 3: Wampanoag tool makers to create implements that combined European metalwork
Speaker 3: with Native design. The result was tools stronger and more
Speaker 3: efficient than either culture had produced alone. The women, led
Speaker 3: by Susannah White and a Wampanoag matriarch named Singing Crow,
Speaker 3: combined their knowledge of food preservation. The natives techniques for
Speaker 3: smoking and drying meat merged with the colonist's knowledge of
Speaker 3: salt curing and root sellers, methods that would help both
Speaker 3: communities survive the harsh winners ahead. But it was with
Speaker 3: the children that Yaquiel seemed happiest. They showed no fear
Speaker 3: of him after the first day, climbing on him like
Speaker 3: a great tree, listening with rapt attention as he told
Speaker 3: stories of the ancient world. He taught them games that
Speaker 3: both colonial and native children could play together, games that
Speaker 3: required cooperation rather than competition. One game involved the children
Speaker 3: forming a circle, holding hands with one child in the
Speaker 3: middle trying to break out. The lesson was simple but profound.
Speaker 3: The circle was only as strong as its weakest link,
Speaker 3: and everyone had to work together to succeed. This is
Speaker 3: how it must be, Yaiell explained to the watching adults.
Speaker 3: The young ones, they don't see difference like you do.
Speaker 3: Teach them now, while their hearts are open, they will
Speaker 3: be the bridge between worlds. On the evening of the
Speaker 3: second day, something unexpected happened. More Sasquatch arrived. They came
Speaker 3: out of the forest as the sun set, three of them,
Speaker 3: each as large as yah Yell, but clearly younger, Two
Speaker 3: males and a female, their hair ranging from deep black
Speaker 3: to russet brown. The columnist's first instinct was fear, but
Speaker 3: Yahielle raised his hand for calm my children. They wanted
Speaker 3: to see for themselves to understand. The younger Sasquatch were
Speaker 3: more shy than their father, hanging back at the edge
Speaker 3: of the firelight, but the children, both English and Native,
Speaker 3: immediately ran to them with the fearlessness of youth. Within minutes,
Speaker 3: they were playing together, The young Sasquatch gentle as lambs
Speaker 3: despite their enormous strength. The female who Yahiel said was
Speaker 3: called Miska, meaning little Brook, seemed particularly interested in the
Speaker 3: colonial women's activities. She watched with intense fascination as they
Speaker 3: spun thread and wove cloth, her large fingers surprisingly delicate
Speaker 3: as she attempted to copy their movements. Elder Brewster's wife,
Speaker 3: Mary took it upon herself to teach Misca and stay
Speaker 3: tuned for more sasquatch otta see, We'll be right back.
Speaker 3: After these messages, Despite the language barrier and the vast
Speaker 3: difference in their sizes, the two females bonded over the
Speaker 3: simple act of creation. By the end of the evening,
Speaker 3: Miska had managed to spin a crude thread from plant fibers,
Speaker 3: her face lighting up with joy at the accomplishment. The
Speaker 3: two young males, called Taka meaning buck and Chayden meaning falcon,
Speaker 3: gravitated toward the warriors and hunters. They demonstrated feats of
Speaker 3: strength that left everyone amazed, lifting logs that would take
Speaker 3: four men to move, jumping distances that seemed impossible, but
Speaker 3: they also showed themselves eager to learn, watching with intense
Speaker 3: concentration as Miles Standish demonstrated European sword techniques and the
Speaker 3: Wampanoag warriors showed their bow skills. On the morning of
Speaker 3: the third day, the atmosphere changed. Yahiel seemed troubled, spending
Speaker 3: long periods staring toward the eastern horizon, where the sea
Speaker 3: met the sky. He called for a council of leaders,
Speaker 3: both colonial and native. I must speak truth now, my people.
Speaker 3: We see patterns, We sense the flow of what you
Speaker 3: call time. What I see coming troubles me. He stood
Speaker 3: and began to draw in the dirt with a stick,
Speaker 3: creating a map that showed the coast and inland territories.
Speaker 3: More ships will come, many more your people. The colonists
Speaker 3: will spread like water across the land. Within seven generations,
Speaker 3: you will outnumber the native peoples ten to one, within
Speaker 3: twelve generations, one hundred to one. The Wampanoag stirred uneasily
Speaker 3: at this Massasoid's face was grim. There will be war,
Speaker 3: not this year, not next, but soon. The piece you
Speaker 3: have made here is good, but it is like a
Speaker 3: small flame and a great wind. It will be tested.
Speaker 3: Some will try to keep it alive, others will try
Speaker 3: to extinguish it. He looked directly at Governor Bradford, Your
Speaker 3: son and his son and his son's son. They will
Speaker 3: face choices. Each generation will decide whether to honor the
Speaker 3: promise of tonight or to forget it. Some will remember,
Speaker 3: many will forget. And what of your people, Bradford asked,
Speaker 3: We will retreat deeper, The forest will shrink, the mountains
Speaker 3: will be climbed, the wild places will become small islands
Speaker 3: in a sea of civilization. We will become legend, then myth,
Speaker 3: then forgotten entirely except by a few who keep the
Speaker 3: old stories alive. The sadness in his voice was profound,
Speaker 3: like the morning of the earth itself. But this does
Speaker 3: not have to be only tragedy. You here now you
Speaker 3: plant seeds, not just corn and wheat, but seeds of understanding,
Speaker 3: seeds of cooperation, seeds of respect. He turned to the
Speaker 3: Wampanoagu massasoit your people must also choose. You can resist
Speaker 3: all change and be swept away, or you can adapt, learn,
Speaker 3: take what is useful from the newcomers, while keeping your
Speaker 3: own ways alive. To the colonists, he said, you must
Speaker 3: remember that you are not conquerors but guests. This land
Speaker 3: does not belong to you any more than it belongs
Speaker 3: to us, or to the Wampanoag. We all belonged to it.
Speaker 3: Teach this to your children. Yahyale then did something unprecedented.
Speaker 3: He called for materials to write. John Alden brought out
Speaker 3: paper and ink, items precious and rare in the colony,
Speaker 3: with surprising delicacy for such massive hands. Yah Yale took
Speaker 3: the quill and began to draw. What he created was
Speaker 3: not words but symbols, pictures that seemed to move with life,
Speaker 3: even as still images. He drew the forest with its
Speaker 3: secret paths, the mountains with their hidden caves, the rivers
Speaker 3: with their sacred spots. He drew his people, the Sasquatch,
Speaker 3: not as monsters, but as guardians, teachers, elder siblings to humanity.
Speaker 3: Keep this, he said, handing the papers to Bradford. When
Speaker 3: your people forget, when they say we are only legend,
Speaker 3: show them this, Tell them of this thanksgiving. Tell them
Speaker 3: that once, for three days, three people sat together in peace.
Speaker 3: He created another set of drawings for Massasoit, These on
Speaker 3: deer skin with pigments the natives provided. They showed the
Speaker 3: same scenes, but from a different perspective, emphasizing the continuity
Speaker 3: between past and future, the eternal cycle of the seasons
Speaker 3: As the sun reached its zenith on that third day,
Speaker 3: Yahiel stood and called his children to him. The time
Speaker 3: for parting had come. We go now back to the
Speaker 3: deep forest the high places, but we do not disappear.
Speaker 3: We watch, we remember, and sometimes, when the need is great,
Speaker 3: we help. He moved through the crowd, touching heads and
Speaker 3: blessing colonial and native alike. When he came to young
Speaker 3: Peregrine White, still toddling on unsteady legs, he knelt down,
Speaker 3: his massive frame, folding until he was at eye level
Speaker 3: with the child. You you are the future, born between worlds.
Speaker 3: You will understand both. Remember us when you are old
Speaker 3: and others say we were never real. Remember. He placed
Speaker 3: something in the child's hand, a small stone that seemed
Speaker 3: to hold light within itself. For your children's children's children,
Speaker 3: they will need to remember. Standing. He addressed the entire
Speaker 3: gathering one last time. In the Old language, the first language.
Speaker 3: There is a word kitchi manitoud. It means the great
Speaker 3: spirit that connects all things. You call it God, Providence, Creator.
Speaker 3: The names do not matter. What matters as you remember
Speaker 3: that we are all connected. The English, the Wampanoag, the Sasquatch,
Speaker 3: the animals, the trees, the stones, the water, all one.
Speaker 3: When you forget this, suffering comes when you remember, peace
Speaker 3: is possible. As the Sasquatch prepared to leave, the entire
Speaker 3: settlement gathered to bid them farewell. It was a moment
Speaker 3: heavy with significance, everyone sensing they were witnessing something that
Speaker 3: might never happen again. The colonial women, led by Mary
Speaker 3: Brewster and Susannah White, had worked through the night to
Speaker 3: prepare gifts. They presented Miska with cloth. They had woven,
Speaker 3: needles made of bone, and most precious of all, a
Speaker 3: small pair of scissors, one of only three in the
Speaker 3: entire colony. Miska's eyes so human despite their setting in
Speaker 3: that massive hair covered face, filled with what could only
Speaker 3: be tears. She embraced each of the women, her strength
Speaker 3: carefully controlled to avoid harm, and spoken broken English she
Speaker 3: had learned over the three days. Teach daughters make beautiful things.
Speaker 3: I teach my daughter same. The warriors, both English and Wampanoague,
Speaker 3: presented Taca and Chatin with weapons, not for war, but
Speaker 3: as symbols of respect between warriors. Miles Standish offered his
Speaker 3: own knife, its blade bearing his family crest. The Wampanoag
Speaker 3: gave arrows blessed by their shamans, each one decorated with
Speaker 3: feathers and beads that told stories of courage. The young
Speaker 3: Sasquatch accepted these gifts with grave dignity, understanding their significance.
Speaker 3: Taka spoke in the Wampanoag tongue, which Squanto translated, we
Speaker 3: will remember the brave ones who do not let fear
Speaker 3: rule them when your descendants walk in our forests. If
Speaker 3: they carry courage and respect, they will be safe. But
Speaker 3: perhaps the most moving farewell came from the children. They
Speaker 3: had spent three days playing together, learning each other's games,
Speaker 3: creating a bond that transcended species and culture. Now they
Speaker 3: clung to their new friends, crying at the separation. Yah
Speaker 3: Yell knelt among them, his massive frame somehow not intimidating
Speaker 3: at all. Listen, little ones, you think we leave forever,
Speaker 3: but we are always near. When you walk in the
Speaker 3: forest and feel watched but safe, that is us. When
Speaker 3: you are lost and suddenly find the path home, we helped.
Speaker 3: When winter is hard and you find wood stacked by
Speaker 3: your door that no one claims to have cut, think
Speaker 3: of us. He looked at the adults. This is my
Speaker 3: promise sealed by this feast. As long as your people
Speaker 3: remember us with respect, not fear, we will help when
Speaker 3: we can. Not always, not obviously, but in small ways
Speaker 3: that matter. A storm that turns away from your ships,
Speaker 3: a child found before the cold claims them, A path
Speaker 3: through the forest when you need it most. Governor Bradford
Speaker 3: stepped forward on behalf of place, colony. I accept this
Speaker 3: promise and make one in return. We will keep your
Speaker 3: secret when you wish it, share your truth when the
Speaker 3: time is right, and always always remember that we were
Speaker 3: not the first, and will not be the last to
Speaker 3: call this land home. Massasoit added his own promise. The
Speaker 3: Wampanoague will keep the old ways alive, the stories, the respect,
Speaker 3: the understanding that some things must remain wild. When your
Speaker 3: people are ready to remember, we will help them remember true.
Speaker 3: As the sun began its descent toward evening, the Sasquatch
Speaker 3: moved toward the forest, but just before they entered the trees,
Speaker 3: Yahiel turned back one more time. There is something else,
Speaker 3: something for the far future, generations from now, when machines
Speaker 3: fly through the air and voices travel without bodies, when
Speaker 3: the forests are small and we are only stories. Some
Speaker 3: will begin to search for us again. They will use
Speaker 3: new tools, leave offerings of their own, seek to prove
Speaker 3: we existed, he paused, seeming to look through time itself.
Speaker 3: When that time comes, we will begin to show ourselves again,
Speaker 3: not to all, but to some, to those who approach
Speaker 3: with respect, who understand that the wild must be preserved,
Speaker 3: who know that not everything should be explained or captured
Speaker 3: or owned. Tell your descendants, when they are ready to
Speaker 3: see us, not as monsters, but as teachers, we will
Speaker 3: return with that. They melted into the forest, their massive
Speaker 3: forms disappearing among the trees with impossible grace. The gathered
Speaker 3: people stood in silence for long moments, straining to catch
Speaker 3: one more glimpse, But the Sasquatch were gone, leaving only
Speaker 3: footprints and memories that would burn bright for years to come.
Speaker 3: In the days following the departure of the Sasquatch, the
Speaker 3: colony was subdued, as if waking from a vivid dream.
Speaker 3: But the evidence of their visit was everywhere. The tools
Speaker 3: of blackstone that never dull, the pelts that kept their
Speaker 3: wearers warm even in the bitterest cold, the drawings that
Speaker 3: seemed to move when viewed by candlelight, Governor Bradford called
Speaker 3: a meeting of all the colonists. The question before them
Speaker 3: was momentous. How much should they share with the wider world.
Speaker 3: Should they write to England about what they had witnessed,
Speaker 3: should they include it in their official records. The debate
Speaker 3: was intense. Some, like Edward Winslow, argued for full disclosure.
Speaker 3: We have witnessed something miraculous. To hide it would be
Speaker 3: dishonest our sponsors, our families back home. They deserve to
Speaker 3: know the full truth of this land. Others, led by
Speaker 3: miles standish counseled caution. They'll think us mad, or worse,
Speaker 3: they'll send ships full of hunters seeking to capture these beings.
Speaker 3: We gave our word to protect their secret. It was
Speaker 3: Elder Brewster who proposed the solution they ultimately adopted. We
Speaker 3: write too account, one for the public, one for ourselves.
Speaker 3: The public account tells of our feast with the natives,
Speaker 3: and of the peace we've made, of the bounty of
Speaker 3: this land, all true, but not all of the truth.
Speaker 3: The second account, the full truth, we keep among ourselves.
Speaker 3: We share it with our children when they're old enough
Speaker 3: to understand. We make it a sacred trust pass down
Speaker 3: through families, and so it was decided. William Bradford wrote
Speaker 3: his official account of the First Thanksgiving, speaking of the
Speaker 3: Wampa Noag, the feast, the games, and the alliance formed.
Speaker 3: It became the version history would remember. But he also
Speaker 3: wrote a second account, Sealed and Hidden, telling of the
Speaker 3: first guest and the promises made. Each family head was
Speaker 3: given a copy of Yahiel's drawings to keep and protect.
Speaker 3: They were told to share the story with their children
Speaker 3: when the time was right, to keep the memory alive,
Speaker 3: even if the world was not ready to believe. The
Speaker 3: Wampa Noag, for their part, incorporated the three day feast
Speaker 3: into their oral traditions. They already had stories of the Sasquatch,
Speaker 3: but now they had witnessed proof that the English too
Speaker 3: could be trusted. With such knowledge, it created a bond
Speaker 3: deeper than any treaty. In the weeks that followed, subtle
Speaker 3: changes occurred in the colony. Hunters reported better luck, as
Speaker 3: if the game presented itself at just the right moments.
Speaker 3: Guards on night Watch spoke of feeling protected of shadows
Speaker 3: that moved with purpose but brought no threat. When little
Speaker 3: Peregrine White wandered off one December morning. He was found
Speaker 3: hours later, warm and safe in a shelter made of
Speaker 3: branches that no colonist had built, clutching the glowing stone
Speaker 3: Yahael had given him. The winter of sixteen twenty one
Speaker 3: to sixteen twenty two was milder than the previous year,
Speaker 3: but when storms did come, they seemed to bend around Plymouth,
Speaker 3: spending their fury elsewhere. The colonists had enough food, enough word, warmth,
Speaker 3: enough hope to not just survive, but thrive. The Wampa
Speaker 3: noag too, noticed changes. Their hunters found new trails through
Speaker 3: the forest that shortened travel time between villages. Children who
Speaker 3: went mushroom picking in dangerous areas always seemed to return safely,
Speaker 3: sometimes with stories of large gentle hands guiding them away
Speaker 3: from poisoned plants or unstable ground. Spring of sixteen twenty
Speaker 3: two brought ships from England, including the Fortune and the Anne.
Speaker 3: With them came new colonists, eager for land and opportunity.
Speaker 3: Among them were some who viewed the natives with suspicion
Speaker 3: and contempt, who spoke of conquest rather than cooperation. A
Speaker 3: man named Thomas Weston led a group of these newcomers.
Speaker 3: He scoffed at the treaties with the Wampa. Noag called
Speaker 3: the colonists weak for sharing their feast with savages. He
Speaker 3: brought guns and men who knew how to use them,
Speaker 3: speaking openly of taking what they wanted by force if necessary.
Speaker 3: The original Plymouth colonists tried to counsel patience and respect,
Speaker 3: but Weston's men laughed at them. They set up their
Speaker 3: own settlement at Vesgust, ignoring native territories and customs, and
Speaker 3: stay tuned for more Sasquatch ott to see.
Speaker 4: We'll be right back.
Speaker 3: After these messages, within weeks, tensions were rising. It was
Speaker 3: John Howland who decided to take action. He remembered Yahiel's
Speaker 3: words about tests to come about choices each generation would face.
Speaker 3: One night, he slipped away from Plymouth and went to
Speaker 3: the place in the forest where he had first seen
Speaker 3: the Sasquatch. He stood in the darkness, feeling somewhat foolish,
Speaker 3: and spoke.
Speaker 4: To the trees.
Speaker 3: I don't know if you can hear me, but if
Speaker 3: you can, we need help, not for us, but for
Speaker 3: the promise. There are those who would break it before
Speaker 3: it has a chance to grow strong. They will bring war, death,
Speaker 3: the very things you warned against. If you can have help,
Speaker 3: now is the time. For long moments, nothing happened. Then
Speaker 3: from the darkness came that familiar rumbling voice. We know
Speaker 3: of these new ones. We have watched them. They have
Speaker 3: darkness in their hearts, greed instead of need. But this
Speaker 3: is your test, not ours.
Speaker 4: What will you do?
Speaker 3: Howland was taken aback. He had expected, hoped that the
Speaker 3: Sasquatch would simply solve the problem. We are few, they
Speaker 3: have more guns, more men. If we oppose them directly,
Speaker 3: there will be bloodshed. Yes, direct opposition brings direct conflict.
Speaker 3: But there are other ways. Think what did we teach you?
Speaker 3: Howland considered? Then understanding dawned cooperation the Wampanoague and Plymouth together.
Speaker 3: Now you begin to see. But even more you must
Speaker 3: make these new ones understand that this land itself opposes them,
Speaker 3: that their way brings only failure. Over the next weeks,
Speaker 3: a subtle campaign began. The original colonists and the Wampanoague
Speaker 3: worked together, guided by occasional glimpses of massive figures in
Speaker 3: the forest. They did not attack Weston's men directly. Instead,
Speaker 3: they made their lives impossibly difficult game fled from Weston's hunters,
Speaker 3: Warned away by signals passed between Native scouts and colonial woodsmen,
Speaker 3: fish seemed to avoid their nets. Their crops, planted without
Speaker 3: regard for local conditions or native advice, withered and died.
Speaker 3: When they tried to take food by force from native villages,
Speaker 3: they found the villages empty. Warned in advanced by a
Speaker 3: network of cooperation. But it was what happened at night
Speaker 3: that truly broke their spirits. Strange sounds surrounded their settlement,
Speaker 3: breathing like giant bellows, footsteps that shook the ground, tree
Speaker 3: branches breaking at impossible heights. They would wake to find
Speaker 3: massive footprints circling their buildings out right up to windows
Speaker 3: and doors, but never entering. Tools would go missing and
Speaker 3: reappear bent or broken. Their gunpowder was repeatedly found scattered
Speaker 3: and useless. Though no one could explain how it happened,
Speaker 3: The men grew paranoid, fighting among themselves. They spoke of
Speaker 3: demons in the forest of cursed land. Some claim to
Speaker 3: have seen giants watching them from the trees, creatures that
Speaker 3: couldn't possibly exist. Weston himself lasted until July. One night
Speaker 3: he woke to find a massive, hair covered face looking
Speaker 3: through his window. The scream he let out was heard
Speaker 3: throughout the settlement. The next morning, he announced they were leaving,
Speaker 3: returning to England on the next ship. The land was cursed,
Speaker 3: he said, it would never accept them. As they left,
Speaker 3: Governor Bradford met with Weston one last time. The land
Speaker 3: is not cursed, but it does have guardians, and they
Speaker 3: judge whether newcomers are worthy. You came with conquest your heart.
Speaker 3: We came with cooperation. That made all the difference. Weston
Speaker 3: stared at him, understanding dawning in his eyes. The stories
Speaker 3: the natives tell they're real. Bradford neither confirmed nor denied.
Speaker 3: I will tell you this, respect the land and its
Speaker 3: first peoples, all of them, and you will find welcome.
Speaker 3: Seek to conquer and dominate, and you will find only failure.
Speaker 3: After Weston's departure, Yahiel appeared once more to Howland, this
Speaker 3: time in full daylight, though deep in the forest where
Speaker 3: none but them would see. You did well. You found
Speaker 3: a way without bloodshed. This is wisdom. But know this
Speaker 3: test was small compared to what comes. More ships arrive
Speaker 3: even now, thousands will come than tens of thousands each
Speaker 3: group will bring their own ideas, their own prejudices. You
Speaker 3: cannot stop this flood, only guide it when possible. Will
Speaker 3: you continue to help, Alan asked, when we can, when
Speaker 3: those who remember ask with proper respect. But our time
Speaker 3: in the open is ending. We must become more careful,
Speaker 3: more hidden. The world is changing and we must change
Speaker 3: with it or perish. He handed, Howland, something wrapped in
Speaker 3: deer skin for your children when they face their tests.
Speaker 3: This will help them remember. Inside was a piece of
Speaker 3: crystal that seemed to hold starlight, similar to the stone
Speaker 3: given to Peregrine White, but uniquely different. How will we
Speaker 3: find you if we need you, Holland asked, You won't,
Speaker 3: We'll find you. Keep the old promises. Teach your children
Speaker 3: respect for all beings, protect the wild places when you can.
Speaker 3: That is how you call to us, not with words,
Speaker 3: but with actions. As Yahiel had predicted, more ships came,
Speaker 3: the Massachusetts Bay Colony was established. Town spread along the
Speaker 3: coast and slowly inland. The original Plymouth colonists, aged had children,
Speaker 3: watched their small settlement become just one of many. But
Speaker 3: those who had been at the first Thanksgiving kept the
Speaker 3: secret and the promise they taught their children privately showing
Speaker 3: them the drawings, the tools, the stones that held light.
Speaker 3: They maintained especially close relationships with the Wampanoagu families who
Speaker 3: had been present, creating bonds that lasted generations. There were sightings,
Speaker 3: of course. New colonists would return from the forest with
Speaker 3: tales of giants covered in hair, of impossible footprints, of
Speaker 3: feelings of being watched. Most were dismissed as imagination or
Speaker 3: too much drink, but occasionally someone would tell such a
Speaker 3: story in the presence of one of the original families,
Speaker 3: and they would see a knowing look, a subtle nod,
Speaker 3: though nothing would be said publicly. The children who had
Speaker 3: played with the young Sasquatch grew up different from others.
Speaker 3: They were more likely to befriend natives, to argue for
Speaker 3: peaceful solution, to respect the forest and its mysteries. Peregrine
Speaker 3: White became a noted interpreter and peacekeeper, always wearing the
Speaker 3: glowing stone on a leather cord around his neck, though
Speaker 3: he told no one where it came from. John Howland's
Speaker 3: children became known as exceptional trackers and woodsmen, seeming to
Speaker 3: have an uncanny ability to find their way in the
Speaker 3: deepest forest. His daughter Hope, claimed she once became lost
Speaker 3: as a child and was led home by a kind giant,
Speaker 3: though adults assured her it was just a dream. Mary Chilton,
Speaker 3: who had been a teenager at the feast, grew up
Speaker 3: to marry John Winslow and raised children who were known
Speaker 3: for their unusual tolerance and wisdom. She kept Yayelle's drawings
Speaker 3: hidden in a wooden box, taking them out only on
Speaker 3: special occasions to show her family and remind them of
Speaker 3: their obligation. As King Philip's War erupted in sixteen seventy five,
Speaker 3: the descendants of the original feast tried desperately to prevent it.
Speaker 3: Some claimed to have sought help from the forest, performing
Speaker 3: rituals their grandparents had taught them. While the war was devastating,
Speaker 3: Plymouth itself was notably spared the worst of the violence,
Speaker 3: and several stories emerged of colonial families being mysteriously warned
Speaker 3: before attacks, or of Native families finding safe paths through
Speaker 3: hostile territory. One account, never officially recorded, but passed down
Speaker 3: through families, tales of a group of children, both colonial
Speaker 3: and native, who became trapped between opposing forces during a battle.
Speaker 3: They fled into the deep forest, certain they would die. Instead,
Speaker 3: they found themselves herded by unseen hands into a hidden cave,
Speaker 3: where they waited out the fighting. When they emerged, they
Speaker 3: found food and water left for them, and clear trails
Speaker 3: leading to safety. All they ever saw of their rescuers
Speaker 3: were footprints three times the size of a man's foot.
Speaker 3: As the eighteenth century dawned, the Sasquatch retreated deeper into myth.
Speaker 3: The original witnesses of the First Thanksgiving had all passed away.
Speaker 3: Their children kept the stories alive, but their grandchildren began
Speaker 3: to doubt. The Age of Enlightenment was beginning, and tales
Speaker 3: of forest giants seemed increasingly like superstition. Still, certain families
Speaker 3: maintained the tradition. The stones that held light were passed
Speaker 3: down as heirlooms, though few remembered their true origin. The
Speaker 3: blackstone tools, which never dulled or broke, became family treasures.
Speaker 3: They're making a mystery. The drawings were carefully preserved, though
Speaker 3: some began to claim they were merely artistic interpretations of
Speaker 3: native legends, not depictions of real events. But in the
Speaker 3: deep forests of New England and later in the mountains,
Speaker 3: as settlers pushed westward, people continued to have encounters they
Speaker 3: couldn't explain. A pioneer family in Vermont, descendants of John
Speaker 3: and Mary Chilton Winslow, told of surviving a brutal winter
Speaker 3: when mysterious gifts of firewood and fresh meat appeared at
Speaker 3: their cabin door during blizzards. The footprints in the the
Speaker 3: snow were quickly covered by new snowfall, but not before
Speaker 3: the family saw them and remembered the old stories. During
Speaker 3: the French and Indian War, a group of colonial soldiers,
Speaker 3: including a great grandson of John Howland, became separated from
Speaker 3: their unit in the wilderness of what would become New Hampshire.
Speaker 3: They were lost, out of food, certain to die. On
Speaker 3: the third night, one of them remembered a song his
Speaker 3: grandmother had taught him, a song she said came from
Speaker 3: the first Thanksgiving. He sang it into the darkness, feeling
Speaker 3: foolish but desperate. In the morning, they found a clear
Speaker 3: trail marked with stacked stones, leading them to safety. One
Speaker 3: of the men swore he saw a figure watching them
Speaker 3: from a ridge, impossibly tall and covered in dark fur,
Speaker 3: but when he looked again, it was gone. As the
Speaker 3: Revolutionary War approached, some families who knew the old secrets
Speaker 3: gathered to discuss whether the knowledge should be shared more widely.
Speaker 3: The world was changing rapidly. Science was explaining me mysties
Speaker 3: that had been attributed to magic. Perhaps it was time
Speaker 3: to reveal the truth about the Sasquatch. But an incident
Speaker 3: in seventeen seventy changed their minds. A naturalist from England,
Speaker 3: having heard rumors of wild men in the American forests,
Speaker 3: organized an expedition to capture one. He brought nets, cages,
Speaker 3: and men with guns. The expedition disappeared entirely. Their equipment
Speaker 3: was found scattered through the forest, but of the men,
Speaker 3: no trace was ever discovered, except for a journal with
Speaker 3: a final entry that read, they are real, they are watching.
Speaker 3: We should not have come with chains. The families took
Speaker 3: this as a sign the world was not ready. The
Speaker 3: secret must be kept longer. As America became a nation
Speaker 3: and began its westward expansion, the descendants of the original
Speaker 3: Thanksgiving spread across the continent. They carried with them the
Speaker 3: family stories, the mysterious artifacts, and the obligation to remember.
Speaker 3: But with each generation, with each move further from place,
Speaker 3: the stories became more distant, more like fairy tales than history.
Speaker 3: Yet the Sasquatch had not forgotten. In eighteen hundred and four,
Speaker 3: when Lewis and Clark were exploring the Louisiana Purchase, they
Speaker 3: recorded in their journals encounters with native tribes who spoke
Speaker 3: of giant hairy men in the mountains. What wasn't recorded
Speaker 3: in the official journals, but was written in private letters,
Speaker 3: was that one member of their expedition was a descendant
Speaker 3: of Peregrine White. He carried with him the stone that
Speaker 3: held light, a family heirloom he didn't fully understand. One night,
Speaker 3: camped along what would later be called the Columbia River,
Speaker 3: this man, Jonathan White, wandered away from camp, drawn by
Speaker 3: something he couldn't explain. In a clearing lit by moonlight,
Speaker 3: he met a Sasquatch, not Yahiel, who had presumably passed on,
Speaker 3: but one who knew the story, who recognized the stone.
Speaker 3: Through a combination of gestures and broken words in multiple languages.
Speaker 3: The creature communication that his people had spread across the
Speaker 3: continent long before humans, that they watched over the land
Speaker 3: from the Arctic to the desert. They had hoped that
Speaker 3: the new American nation would be different, would honor the
Speaker 3: wild places. But they saw the signs, the hunger for land,
Speaker 3: the disregard for native peoples, the belief that everything could
Speaker 3: and should be owned and used. The Sasquatch gave Jonathan
Speaker 3: a warning to carry back the western lands had their
Speaker 3: own guardians, their own agreements with the native tribes there.
Speaker 3: The mistakes of the East should not be repeated. But
Speaker 3: he also gave a promise those who carried the light stones,
Speaker 3: who remembered the First Thanksgiving would find help if they
Speaker 3: sought it with pure hearts. During the California gold Rush,
Speaker 3: numerous miners reported seeing giant, hairy figures in the Sierra
Speaker 3: Nevada Mountains. Most of these stories were dismissed as tall tales,
Speaker 3: but a few miners, those who happened to be descendants
Speaker 3: of the Plymouth colonists, told differentes Privately. They spoke of
Speaker 3: being warned away from unstable mine shafts, of finding fresh
Speaker 3: water when dying of thirst, of being guided to gold deposits,
Speaker 3: but only enough for need, not greed. One family, the
Speaker 3: Aldens of Massachusetts, had moved to Oregon Territory in the
Speaker 3: eighteen fifties. They settled in the deep forests of what
Speaker 3: would become the Pacific Northwest, the region that would later
Speaker 3: become most associated with Sasquatch sidings. They built their homestead
Speaker 3: with unusual features, offering platforms at the forest edge, certain
Speaker 3: trees that were never to be cut, paths that seemed
Speaker 3: to lead nowhere, but were carefully maintained. Their neighbors thought
Speaker 3: them eccentric, but the Aldens prospered where others failed. Their
Speaker 3: crops grew when others withered. Their livestock never disappeared to predators.
Speaker 3: Their children could play in the forest without fear. They
Speaker 3: knew they were being watched over, honoring an agreement made
Speaker 3: two hundred years and three thousand miles away. Stay tuned
Speaker 3: for more Sasquatch ott to see. We'll be right back
Speaker 3: after these messages. As the nineteenth century gave way to
Speaker 3: the twentieth, America transformed from a rural nation to an
Speaker 3: industrial power. Forests were cleared, mountains were mined, rivers were dammed.
Speaker 3: The wild places shrank, and with them the spaces where
Speaker 3: the Sasquatch could exist openly. But they adapted as they
Speaker 3: always had. In nineteen twenty four, a group of miners
Speaker 3: in Ape Canyon Washington, claimed to have been attacked by
Speaker 3: epe men after shooting at one. What the newspapers didn't
Speaker 3: report was that one of those miners, Fred Beck, later
Speaker 3: privately admitted to descendants of the Thanksgiving families that the
Speaker 3: attack only came after they had violated clearly marked sacred grounds,
Speaker 3: ignoring warnings both from local natives and from signs that
Speaker 3: someone who knew the old stories would have recognized. The
Speaker 3: Sasquatch had become more defense more protective of their shrinking territory,
Speaker 3: but they still honored the old agreements when they could.
Speaker 3: During the Great Depression, families across America struggled to survive,
Speaker 3: but certain families, those who had carefully maintained the old
Speaker 3: stories and artifacts, reported mysterious help. Gardens that should have
Speaker 3: failed produced food. Children found berries and nuts in places
Speaker 3: that had been barren. Firewood appeared stacked by homes of
Speaker 3: the elderly and infirm. In rural Vermont, an elderly woman
Speaker 3: named Faith Howland, great great great granddaughter of John Howland,
Speaker 3: lived alone in a cabin at the forest's edge. She
Speaker 3: had maintained the old ways, leaving out offerings, singing the
Speaker 3: old songs her family had preserved. When the bank came
Speaker 3: to foreclose on her property, the men sent to a
Speaker 3: victor reported that they couldn't approach the cabin. Every time
Speaker 3: they tried, they became disoriented, lost, ending up back at
Speaker 3: their vehicles. Trees seemed to move, paths disappeared, and terrible
Speaker 3: sounds came from the forest. Faith lived in that cabin
Speaker 3: until she died peacefully in her sleep in nineteen forty one.
Speaker 3: The local native tribes, who had always respected her, said
Speaker 3: she had been protected by the old Guardians. When the
Speaker 3: cabin was finally entered, investigators found dozens of journals filled
Speaker 3: with accounts of regular visits from beings she called the
Speaker 3: first people, detailed drawings of Sasquatch families, and linguistic notes
Speaker 3: on what appeared to be a complex language of wood
Speaker 3: knocks and calls. World War II brought its own stories.
Speaker 3: Several American soldiers, descendants of Plymouth families, reported inexplicable survivals
Speaker 3: in Pacific Island jungles and European forests. One private from
Speaker 3: Massachusetts claimed that, while lost behind enemy lines in the
Speaker 3: Ardennes Forest, he was guided to safety by following massive
Speaker 3: footprints in the snow that appeared just for him, leading
Speaker 3: him around German patrols. In nineteen fifty eights, something significant happened.
Speaker 3: A man named Jerry Crwe found massive footprints at a
Speaker 3: construction site in northern California. He made plaster casts of them,
Speaker 3: and the story went national. The term Bigfoot was born,
Speaker 3: and suddenly the Sasquatch were no longer just a local legend,
Speaker 3: but a national phenomenon. For the families who had guarded
Speaker 3: the secret for over three hundred years, this was both
Speaker 3: a crisis and an opportunity. The secret was out in
Speaker 3: a way, but distorted, commercialized, turned into a joke or
Speaker 3: a monster movie plot. They held a gathering, the first
Speaker 3: in decades, bringing together descendants from across the country. The
Speaker 3: meeting was held appropriately in Plymouth, in a church built
Speaker 3: on land that had been part of the original settlement.
Speaker 3: About forty people attended, each bringing their family artifacts, the
Speaker 3: stones that held light, the tools of black stone, copies
Speaker 3: of Yahael's drawings, journals and letters that had been preserved.
Speaker 3: The debate was intense. Some argued it was time to
Speaker 3: reveal everything, to show the world the evidence they had guarded.
Speaker 3: Others feared that doing so would lead to exactly what
Speaker 3: Yahyelle had warned against exploitation, hunting, the final destruction of
Speaker 3: the wild places where the Sasquatch still survived. The decision
Speaker 3: they reached was a compromise. They would not publicly reveal
Speaker 3: their evidence, but they would quietly support serious researchers, those
Speaker 3: who approached the subject with respect and scientific rigor rather
Speaker 3: than sensationalism. They would also work to preserve wilderness areas,
Speaker 3: understanding that protecting the land meant protecting the Sasquatch. One attendee,
Speaker 3: a professor of anthropology named Margaret White Standish, descendant of
Speaker 3: both Peregrine White and Miles Standish, proposed creating an informal network.
Speaker 3: Families would stay in contact, share information about sightings and encounters,
Speaker 3: and pass on the responsibility to the next generation more
Speaker 3: form normally than before. They also decided to reach out
Speaker 3: to native tribes who had their own Sasquatch traditions. Many
Speaker 3: of these tribes had maintained continuous relationships with the Sasquatch,
Speaker 3: never having forgotten or doubted their existence. The Plymouth descendants
Speaker 3: had much to learn from them. When Roger Patterson and
Speaker 3: Bob Gimlin filmed what appeared to be a female sasquatch
Speaker 3: in nineteen sixty seven. The Plymouth descendant families watched with
Speaker 3: particular interest. Several of them privately confirmed that the creature
Speaker 3: in the film moved exactly as their family stories had
Speaker 3: always described, with that distinctive rolling gait that Yachiel had
Speaker 3: demonstrated at the first Thanksgiving. Margaret white Standish, now elderly
Speaker 3: but still sharp, managed to interview Patterson before his death.
Speaker 4: Off the record.
Speaker 3: He told her something remarkable. Just before the filming, he
Speaker 3: had felt compelled to leave an offering at a particular tree,
Speaker 3: some food and a small mirror. He couldn't explain why,
Speaker 3: said it just felt right. Margaret recognized this as one
Speaker 3: of the old protocols her family had maintained, though Patterson
Speaker 3: claimed no knowledge of it. The nineteen seventies brought an
Speaker 3: explosion of sasquatch interest. Researchers, both serious and otherwise, flooded
Speaker 3: the Pacific Northwest. Most found nothing, but a few those
Speaker 3: who approached with genuine respect and often guided by cryptic
Speaker 3: hints from Plymouth descendant families or native tribes, had encounters
Speaker 3: that changed their lives. Doctor Grover Krantz, the anthropologist who
Speaker 3: risked his career studying Sasquatch, received anonymous packages containing detailed
Speaker 3: anatomical drawings that helped inform his theories about the creature's physiology.
Speaker 3: He never knew these came from families who had been
Speaker 3: secretly documenting Sasquatch anatomy for three centuries. John Green, another
Speaker 3: prominent researcher, was mysteriously guided to the best locations for
Speaker 3: finding footprints, receiving unsigned letters with specific coordinates and optimal
Speaker 3: times to serve. Many of these tips came from a
Speaker 3: network of Plymouth descendants who had learned to recognize Sasquatch
Speaker 3: territorial markings and travel patterns. But the most significant development
Speaker 3: was happening quietly in the background. Children and grandchildren of
Speaker 3: the Plymouth families were becoming wildlife biologists, park rangers, conservationists.
Speaker 3: They used their careers to protect Sasquatch habitat without ever
Speaker 3: mentioning the true reason. They knew that preserving wilderness was
Speaker 3: the best way to honor the old agreement. As the
Speaker 3: twenty first century began, the world had changed in ways
Speaker 3: that neither the Plymouth colonists nor Yahael could have imagined.
Speaker 3: The Internet connected people instantly across the globe cameras were everywhere.
Speaker 3: DNA analysis could reveal secrets hidden in a single hair.
Speaker 3: The wilderness that had once seemed infinite was now mapped
Speaker 3: by satellites. For the Sasquatch, hiding became nearly impossible. The
Speaker 3: sightings increased not because there were more so Asquatch, but
Speaker 3: because there were fewer places for them to remain unseen.
Speaker 3: In two thousand and three, a remarkable meeting occurred. It
Speaker 3: was arranged through intermediaries, taking years to coordinate. Three representatives
Speaker 3: of the Plymouth descendant families met with three Sasquatch in
Speaker 3: the Olympic National Forest. It was the first direct contact
Speaker 3: in over a century. The Sasquatch who spoke for his
Speaker 3: people was ancient, claiming to be a great grandson of
Speaker 3: Yachiel himself. His English was perfect, learned, he said, by
Speaker 3: listening to generations of humans speaking in the forests. His
Speaker 3: message was sobering. We are dying, not quickly, but surely
Speaker 3: each generation. We are fewer. The forests are islands now,
Speaker 3: not the ocean they once were. We cannot travel between
Speaker 3: our groups without crossing human lands. Our genetic diversity fails
Speaker 3: within one hundred years, perhaps less.
Speaker 4: We will be gone.
Speaker 3: The humans asked what could be done. You must decide
Speaker 3: whether our secret is worth our extinction. You have honored
Speaker 3: the agreement made at your first Thanksgiving, but that agreement
Speaker 3: was for a different world, one where we could live
Speaker 3: apart that world no longer exists. He proposed something radical,
Speaker 3: gradual disclosure. Selected scientists would be allowed to study them
Speaker 3: under strict conditions. Conservation efforts would be increased with the
Speaker 3: secret knowledge of protecting sasquatch habitat Most importantly, the public
Speaker 3: perception would need to be shifted from seeing sasquatch as
Speaker 3: monsters or myths to understanding them as an endangered fellow
Speaker 3: primate species deserving protection. The families were divided. The weight
Speaker 3: of three hundred and eighty years of secrecy was not
Speaker 3: easily set aside, But they also understood that maintaining the
Speaker 3: secret while the sasquatch went extinct would be the ultimate
Speaker 3: betrayal of the first Thanksgiving promise. Now, in the third
Speaker 3: decade of the twenty first century, the situation has reached
Speaker 3: a critical point. Environmental DNA studies have found unknown primate
Speaker 3: genetic material in areas of known sasquatch activity. Thermal drone
Speaker 3: footage has captured images that are increasingly difficult to dismiss.
Speaker 3: The secret is unraveling on its own. The Plymouth descendant families,
Speaker 3: now numbering in the hundreds and spread across the world,
Speaker 3: have made a decision. They are beginning carefully and gradually
Speaker 3: to release information a journal here, a photograph there, each
Speaker 3: piece adding to the mounting evidence that Sasquatch are real
Speaker 3: and have been known about by certain groups for centuries.
Speaker 3: Museums in Massachusetts have begun displaying certain artifacts with new context.
Speaker 3: Items previously labeled as ceremonial objects of unknown purpose are
Speaker 3: now being identified as gifts exchanged between colonists and unidentified
Speaker 3: indigenous groups at the first Thanksgiving. The Blackstone tools, which
Speaker 3: modern analysis shows are made from a type of obsidian
Speaker 3: that shouldn't exist in New England, are generating intense scientific interest.
Speaker 3: Wildlife corridors are being established in the Pacific Northwest, officially
Speaker 3: for known endangered species, but actually designed using centuries of
Speaker 3: accumulated knowledge about sasquatch migration routes. Conservation groups quietly directed
Speaker 3: by Plymouth descendants and native tribes are purchasing land in
Speaker 3: key areas, creating connected habitats that might allow Sasquatch populations
Speaker 3: to interact and maintain genetic diversity. Some indigenous tribes, with
Speaker 3: the permission of their elders, have begun sharing their own
Speaker 3: Sasquatch knowledge more openly. They speak at conferences, consult with scientists,
Speaker 3: and help reshape the narrative from one of monster hunting
Speaker 3: to one of species preservation and cultural respect. The stones
Speaker 3: that hold light those gifts from Yahiel at the first
Speaker 3: Thanksgiving have been submitted for scientific analysis. They appear to
Speaker 3: be a type of crystal that exhibits unusual properties, storing
Speaker 3: and releasing electromagnetic energy, and patterns that suggest they might
Speaker 3: have been used for communication. Some theorists believe the Sasquatch
Speaker 3: have always been able to sense these stones, using them
Speaker 3: to identify friends across the centuries. This year, on Thanksgiving,
Speaker 3: something unprecedented is planned. Representatives from the Plymouth descendant families,
Speaker 3: members of various native tribes, and selected scientists and conservationists
Speaker 3: will gather at a location in the Olympic National Forest.
Speaker 3: They have spent years preparing, following the old protocols, making
Speaker 3: the proper offerings, sending the ancient signals. If their hopes
Speaker 3: are realized. For the first time in four hundred years.
Speaker 3: The first guest will return to a Thanksgiving feast not
Speaker 3: in secret, not in shadow, but witnessed, documented and protected.
Speaker 3: The meal will be simple, traditional foods, prepared in traditional ways.
Speaker 3: There will be there no cameras at first, no instruments
Speaker 3: beyond human eyes and hearts. The first meeting will be
Speaker 3: as it was in sixteen twenty one, beings of different
Speaker 3: species sharing food, building, trust, making promises. But this time
Speaker 3: the promise will be different. Not to hide but to help,
Speaker 3: not to separate, but to coexist. The Sasquatch will gradually
Speaker 3: reveal themselves to a world that desperately needs to remember
Speaker 3: that there are still mysteries, still wonders, still connections to
Speaker 3: the wild that technology cannot replace. The families who have
Speaker 3: kept the secret for four centuries will become bridges, translators,
Speaker 3: ambassadors between two intelligent species trying to find a way
Speaker 3: forward in a world that belongs to neither and both.
Speaker 3: Scientists will learn that the Sasquatch possess knowledge about forest ecosystems,
Speaker 3: about medicinal plants, about survival and adaptation that could benefit humanity.
Speaker 3: The Sasquatch will receive protection habitat, preservation, and perhaps most importantly,
Speaker 3: recognition as fellow travelers on this planet, deserving of respect
Speaker 3: and rights. The story that began at Plymouth in sixteen
Speaker 3: twenty one is not ending, but transforming. The first Thanksgiving
Speaker 3: was about survival, about different peoples coming together to share
Speaker 3: resources and knowledge. This new Thanksgiving will be about something greater,
Speaker 3: the recognition that humans are not alone, have never been alone,
Speaker 3: and that the indigenous peoples of this land include beings.
Speaker 3: We are only now ready to acknowledge. As the sun
Speaker 3: sets on this new gathering, as it's set on that
Speaker 3: first feast four hundred years ago, the same truth remains.
Speaker 3: We are all connected, the colonists, the native peoples, the Sasquatch,
Speaker 3: the land itself. The promise made by Jahael standing tall
Speaker 3: echoes across the centuries. When humanity is ready to see
Speaker 3: the Sasquatch not as monsters but a teachers, they will return.
Speaker 3: That time is now. The first guest is coming home,
Speaker 3: and somewhere in whatever realm, the spirits of the departed dwell.
Speaker 3: Yahayel watches and approves. The seeds planted at that first
Speaker 3: Thanksgiving have taken four centuries to flower, but they have survived,
Speaker 3: the promise has been kept. The sacred trust continues as
Speaker 3: families across America gather for their own Thanksgiving feasts. Most
Speaker 3: will not know the true story of the first Thanksgiving,
Speaker 3: but for those who do, for those who have guarded
Speaker 3: the secret and kept the promise, this year's gratitude runs
Speaker 3: deeper than ever before. They give thanks not just for
Speaker 3: the harvest, not just for surviving another year, but for
Speaker 3: the privilege of living in a world where wonder still exists,
Speaker 3: where ancient promises still matter, and where beings as different
Speaker 3: as Pilgrims, Native Americans and Sasquatch can still gather in peace,
Speaker 3: sharing food, stories and hope for the future. Feast continues,
Speaker 3: the story goes on, and the first guest, patient and
Speaker 3: enduring as the forests themselves, reminds us that some things
Speaker 3: are worth waiting centuries to reveal, and that the greatest
Speaker 3: thanksgiving of all is for the connections that bind us
Speaker 3: to each other and to the wild heart of the
Speaker 3: world itself. Now, look, I can't sit here and tell
Speaker 3: you that everything you just heard actually happened. There's no
Speaker 3: secret society of Plymouth descendants guarding four hundred year old
Speaker 3: drawings there's no glowing stones passed down through generations, and
Speaker 3: as far as we know, there was no eight foot
Speaker 3: tall forest guardian named Yahyel sitting at that first Thanksgiving table.
Speaker 3: This was a story fiction, a what if scenario, spun
Speaker 3: out of holiday spirit and a love for the unexplained.
Speaker 3: But here's the thing. Wouldn't it be something if it
Speaker 3: were true? Wouldn't it be remarkable to live in a
Speaker 3: world where there are still genuine mysteries out in those forests,
Speaker 3: where not everything has been cataloged and captured and explained away,
Speaker 3: Where somewhere in the deep woods of the Pacific Northwest
Speaker 3: or the remote hollows of the Appalachians, there might be
Speaker 3: something ancient and intelligent watching us, waiting to see if
Speaker 3: we finally learn to approach the wild places with respect
Speaker 3: instead of conquest. I've spent nearly forty years researching sasquatch
Speaker 3: encounters and interviewing close to one thousand people who claim
Speaker 3: to have seen something they couldn't explain. And what strikes
Speaker 3: me most about those conversations isn't the footprints or the
Speaker 3: vocalizations or the blurry photographs. It's the way these experiences
Speaker 3: change people. Almost everyone I've talked to comes away with
Speaker 3: a deeper respect for the wilderness, a sense of humility
Speaker 3: about humanity's place in the natural order, and a genuine
Speaker 3: hope that there's still room in this world for mystery.
Speaker 3: Maybe that's the real gift the Sasquatch gives us. Whether
Speaker 3: they're flesh and blood or folklore, they remind us that
Speaker 3: we haven't figured everything out. They give us permission to wonder.
Speaker 3: They suggest that the forests might still hold secrets worth protecting,
Speaker 3: even if we never fully understand what those secrets are.
Speaker 3: So this Thanksgiving, as you sit with your family and friends,
Speaker 3: maybe take a moment to think about what kind of
Speaker 3: world you want to live in. One where every shadow
Speaker 3: has been illuminated and every question has been answered, or
Speaker 3: one where there's still something out there in the darkness,
Speaker 3: something old and wise and patient, waiting for us to
Speaker 3: be ready. I know which world I choose. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone,
Speaker 3: stay curious, stay humble, And if you're ever deep in
Speaker 3: the woods and the forest goes silent, maybe leave a
Speaker 3: small offering at the base of an old tree. You
Speaker 3: never know who might be watching until next time. Take
Speaker 3: care of yourselves, take care of each other, and take
Speaker 3: care of the wild places. They might be taking care
Speaker 3: of us too.
Speaker 4: They say, you want to go.
Speaker 2: Home, but you can't stay, and I don't want to
Speaker 2: be a world out it.
Speaker 4: S try this chart, that chart everything. Call me right back,
Speaker 4: right back, joy for me, enjoy, stay right there, come
Speaker 4: in right away, Still start stats, s st st state stills, games, still, states,
Speaker 4: states things, US News, h