Every Thanksgiving in America, there are televised parades and millions gather to share a large calorically dense meal. The origins of this popular tradition supposedly date back to the arrival of European settlers to Plymouth. Their survival through a troubled first year is credited to Squanto, a Wampanoag Indian who served as a guide, teacher and interpreter for the colonists. But who was he? There is the Disney and Charlie Brown approved version of him as a friend of the white man, but scholar Andrew Lipman delves into the historical documents giving a much more rounded and complex view of this figure.

Lipman presents the narrative chronologically, discussing Squanto/Tisquantam early years, through an ethnographic approach, an important approach not reliant on non-existent records. Readers learn of seasonal life, communal focused culture and how the Patuxet Native American navigated political life with neighboring peoples. A looming threat that grew in prominence was the arrival of European explorers, some of them kidnapping indigenous peoples and taking them to Europe. It is here the exploration through written records excels showing the slave trade and education methods in Europe, as well as Native American reactions to European life.

The mix of peoples had far worse consequences, as the outbreak of diseases in North America drastically reduced the population, making it appear open for colonization. Squanto/Tisquantam's life at this transition time shows the power of an individual, but that there are still limits that should not be surpassed.

Recommended to readers of American History, Native Americans and biographies of notable people.

A fascinating study of Squanto, which largely succeeds in unsettling the stock image this figure has developed in the popular imagination. My full review can be found on Open Letters Review.

★★★★

As an American, I can’t believe how little I truly know about Native Americans in general and our own relationships with them in particular. In school it was always “colonists brought disease and enslaved the natives” and “Squanto was a nice man who helped us not starve.”

True. But not entirely.

What we’re taught in school is a watered-down history, made palatable and simple for schoolchildren. Along the way, *a lot of* the true story gets lost.

This book explores the lives and cultures of Native Americans in the Dawnlands (current-day New England) of the United States by reconstructing a hypothetical— but thoroughly grounded in the historical record— account of the life of Squanto. Because Squanto was captured and taken to England for a few years, we also glimpse the realities of European-Native relations on both sides of the Atlantic.

We learn of Europeans who assimilated into Native societies and were even buried in accordance with Native tradition (with tools to bring into the next life). We learn of camaraderie among the Natives and Europeans. We learn of tensions among the different Native tribes as they sought power. We learn of adult Squanto’s true nature of conceit and deceit when he tried to become the pseudo-sachem (Native leader) of Plymouth.

Also I can’t believe I had never heard Epenow’s story until this book! He was captured and taken to England, then returned to Noepe (his home in the Dawnlands) only when he convinced his captors that there was a secret gold mine in the hills. He spent the rest of his life laughing and bragging about having tricked the English, telling the story whenever he got the chance.

There were a few sections where the writing got a bit ramble-y, but overall it was cohesive, giving the perfect amount of context.


Thank you NetGalley and Yale University Press for the e-ARC!

This is a very informative novel about native history. I enjoyed the illustrations and learned a lot while I was reading it. I would recommend this to any of my friends that are interested in history to help them learn more about indigenous history. It was full of details and well researched. It learned a lot from it.

As a long time history buff, major, and teacher, I'm embarrassed to admit how little I really knew about Squanto going into this book. How much? Let's see, he helped the Pilgrims. He somehow magically knew how to speak English. He had something to do with the First Thanksgiving. That's about it. Typical kid, I never really questioned how he knew English from prior encounters with the English, not to mention why he'd even want to help them. It wasn't like they were exactly friendly to the Native Americans they would encounter. And, as for that day of thanksgiving, well, let's just say it wasn't planned as an annual event.

Author Andrew Lipman goes a long way toward answering these questions and more. Let's just say, this book was superbly researched and sometimes the facts seem to almost stumble over each other, perhaps narrowing its audience. Hence the rounded up 4.5 star rating. Despite that and the academic air it has, it was a relatively easy read and, for the most part, kept my attention. It's as much about the times as it is Squanto which wasn't his true name. You'll learn more about the language, culture, family structure, customs and rituals that Squanto grew up with as you get to know the man behind the legend. I mean, did you know he lived in England during Shakespeare's time? That was during his captivity. Not only that, but once resided only 300 yards from where another rather famous Native American, Pocahontas, stayed in England? He even had an earlier encounter with another famous explorer, one John Smith, albeit this one on the New World soil. Having, like millions of others, ancestral roots to the Pilgrims, that era of Squanto's life, of course, held the most interest for me. It brought him to life for me, imagining my own anscestors rugging elbows with him at that first Thanksgiving, that's for sure.

Bottom line, despite occasionally getting lost in the details, and there are many, many of them shared, I found this an intriguing book and highly recommend teachers and librarians get it on their shelves asap. Needless to say, even history buffs or those wanting to know more about Native American roots and contributions to what would become the American colonies, will find it intriguing. Thanks #NetGalley and #YaleUniversityPress for allowing me to time travel back in time via an early peek at this book. History buffs everywhere should find it of great interest.

This is more of a reference/educational book full of deep historical facts and dates, which is great if you want something true and well researched for your work or research. I enjoyed reading this as I enjoyed this time period/subject!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me review this book. This book was well researched in telling about Squanto and his tribe along with a bit about the various other tribes in the region. The drawings were a nice touch as well.

Thank you to Yale University Press and NetGalley for the digital ARC of this book; I am leaving my review voluntarily.

Like many American children growing up, I had the Squanto: Friend of the Pilgrims book that was available through the Scholastic book fair. I always remembered the story and even bought the Disney movie based upon the book when it came out almost 30 years ago. But, as someone who reads a lot of history, I know that my perceptions about Squanto/Tisquantum are shaded by white people’s writings. This book attempts to peel away the layers of the myth of Squanto and get to the historical fact.

This textbook-like book was very interesting, but I’m not sure it will find a wide audience. I enjoyed reading more about the Wampanoag people and what the lily-white American history books left out. I learned a lot, including the fact that while in England, Squanto/Pocahontas lived very close to one another. Maybe they met? I also learned that Tisquantum was not the first Indigenous person to have been captured and then returned. His popularized story is actually an amalgamation of several other people who were enslaved and brought to other countries for years before being sent home.

I sure hope libraries and academic institutions add this volume to their collections; Squanto’s story, and that of his people and their times, is being told in the most accurate light possible.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Yale University Press, for an advance copy of this biography of a man who has unfairly been delegated to the role of bit player in the history of what was to become the United States of America.

The one bit of history we learned every year up until high school was always about the Pilgrims landing at Plymouth Rock and the Native American Squanto who helped the Pilgrims survive. Which gave us Thanksgiving. Every year was the same lesson, and I hate myself for never asking hey, how did this Squanto speak English. I think I remember being taught he learned it from early English explorers, but that always confused the narrative about the Pilgrims great struggle, early explorers and more. History in America is weird. More time is spent hiding history rather than teaching it. I never learned about the man Squanto, or as he was also known Tisquantum, a life that was more fascinating, exciting and heartbreaking than I ever thought. Andrew Lipman, educator, historian and writer in the book Squanto: A Native Odyssey discusses the history of the time, how Tisquantum learned about Western culture, and the short time he dealt with the colonists who lived happily in the village full of ghosts.

Lipman starts the book by discussing that the early life of Tisquantum is not well known. Exact times, places and such and more based on research of the time. Combined with that a lot of information about Tisquantum has been either made up, combined with others, or put out into the world to cloud or influence the narrative. Tisquantum was born a member of the Patuxet tribe of the Wampanoags, in a summer village of the same name. At the time many English explorers were trying to make their fortunes in the area, and one way to do this was to capture prisoners to question, exhibit, or sell as slaves. Tisquantum was of a group of twenty who were imprisoned and brought to the Old World, the country of Spain, where he was sold. Tisquantum was educated by monks in hopes of bringing him over the one true faith something that is still questioned. Eventually Tisquantum travelled to England, where he lived on the same block as Pocohantes, who was also in England at the same time. Tisquantum soon after a few more travels found his way home. A home he found decimated by disease, probably from Europeans. Soon a sail outside his deserted village brought him into contract with a group of people searching for a home, and the story of Squanto began, at least in high school around America.

A very interesting book, not only about the man Tisquantum, but about the era, and the history that is not really taught in schools. I have read a few books recently about the fact that many natives from the America's were brought to Europe, most of this stories do not end well. Lipman is a very good writer, and a funny writer talking about different aspects of the Squanto story and how many historians confused the story in many ways. The book talks quite a bit about other Native Americans who traveled to Europe, some dying in far places with no hope of returning. Lipman is also pretty honest about Squanto, some of the odd things Squanto was a part of. However one is not sure if the story was told right, and without malice. Another part I did not know is that the Pilgrims, took over the dead town of Tisquantum's people, as why let something not be used. I think if I was plotting things, this would give me plenty of reasons.

A very well-written history about a time and place that seems that if one saw it in a movie, one would go, "Oh and he speaks their language, come on." That must have been a magical moment, one I would like to have seen. Fans of history, early American history, and people who love a good biography will quite enjoy this book.

When I read one of these books through the ARC review process, I will occasionally find a GEM, one that I wish everyone would read. . .but it isn't on the media marketing path - it's academic and specific and full of details. Oh, how I wish libraries would pick this one up! Oyez, Oyez Librarians of these North American lands. . . this is a book that clarifies, that tells more of the Other Side of The Story than we've gotten since 1623.

This is a book about Tisquantum. You've known him by another name, Squanto. He's that super helpful only surviving citizen of Patuxet - we call it Plymouth, MA - when religious immigrants just looking for a home claimed his. It was mostly deserted anyway, was their reasoning. Decades, centuries pass, Plymouth blooms in all directions, soon we have a government, a White House, a holiday to celebrate how glad we are to have been led to an empty place that needed taking care of - a gift, you could say (and we do - and we'll do it again in November). Blinders on every eye so we can see what we need to see to do what we are determined to do. . .Thanksgiving. That original feast where everyone collaborated and had such a good time was real - but it was not really a happy thing it was serious diplomacy, intentional acts to "Get Along." It only happened once. A year later, Plymouth was hungry, the indigenous peoples were wary and hungry, and not particularly inclined to bring a bunch of meat to share because it had been a year of tits for tats, and on all sides time to keep your people close, in large groups and weaponed up, especially after dark.

When I come across this kind of book, I like to share the table of contents to give an idea of the goodies promised, and this one is so good - about this powerful, fallible, clever, sad, abandoned man. Only in his thirties when he died, had only spent 2 years with the Plymouth folk, and they were not all easy years. How did he know English? He'd actually been around, this guy. He'd been kidnapped, enslaved, met celebrities while working. He even possibly met Pocahontas (she lived there with her English husband) during his time in London - they were there during the same time and lived within walking distance of each other.

Here's your goodie list:

PART I - HOME
* Infancy (Samuel de Champlain visits his village in 1605!)
* Education (He was good at languages - tribes had different dialects and languages that arose out of the Algonquian family)
* Manhood (Coming of age in a Wampanoag society)
* Dawnlands (Relationship of peoples to the lands upon which they lived long before Europeans turn their faces westward)
PART II - AWAY
* Sassacomoit and Epenow (Trade, strangers land and the struggle commences)
* Capture (an English Explorer needing funding captured over 20 Wampanoag men to sell into the Mediterranean slave trade)
* Spain (Malaga Spain, kept by a Catholic priest)
* England (sold off to London, then back across the pond to Newfoundland, and maybe Jamestown, where he made his way back home to Patuxet)
* The Angry Star (The Great Comet of 1618 - worldwide troubles to it are attributed)
PART II - HOME AGAIN
* Homecoming (1619 - his village has been devastated by disease - he's a lone man on his side of the river)
* The Treaty (They got out of the boat, you see. . .the Mayflower, and made themselves at home)
* Patuxet Reborn (He welcomed them, caught eels and tenderized them with his feet (as he'd been taught) and roasted them up - the pilgrims were impressed. . . )
* Downfall (He gets full of himself and tries to set himself up as a man of power - it all goes south - his people are not happy with him, and the immigrants are caught in the middle - have come to need him - so a spy is sent to keep an eye on him)
* Death (Remember the pandemic? they had one in 1622 - Captain Standish had the fever, and Our Man wasn't masked and soon was downed by it, too.)
* Afterlives (Very interesting wrap up - What Happened to Who, Where Did they End Out, and Why Didn't We Ever Get Taught Any of This?)
* Epilogue (Don't miss the wonder of story holes - memorials of noteworthy happenings)
(Fabulous Endpapers!)
Bonus: maps, illustrations, drawings, historical art from the period - very helpful, and ones I haven't before seen.

Am so impressed with this book - answering our need to have the other side of the story. All of our stories sum up to something closer than truth than any one of our stories can get us. Thank you Andrew Lipman for the time and effort spent in providing interested readers another direction from which to read.

*A sincere thank you to Andrew Lipman, Yale University Press, and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review independently.*

This book by Andrew Lipman sums up Squanto's legacy comprehensively, I'd say. From Squanto's years of infancy to manhood, to his capture and the interim years until his return to his native turf and the ensuing years. I found it of good interest and that it should be to anyone curious about his name and history and that of his fellow Wampanoag peoples. Their interactions with the French and English colonists, their agendas and even that of those Mi' kmaw from Nova Scotia, who wished to expand their maritime territory.

Eunice C., Reviewer/Blogger
July 2024

Disclaimer: This is my honest opinion based on the complimentary review copy sent by Netflix Galley and the publisher.

I’m not quite sure who the audience is for this book, but I’ll assume it will be used as reference material for high school and college students. It’s very thorough and well researched. There are times when it’s almost too detailed and we lose track of our subject, but I thought it was interesting.

My apologies, I clicked the "read now" button on this book before I realized it wasn't available in Kindle format, which is the format I use because I've found it most comfortable given my visual impairment.

This sounds like a fascinating topic and brilliant read.

I'm giving the book a 4, since that's my best guess of what I might have given it—and NetGalley won't let me send this in without a star rating. I will do my best to remember not to request/download Yale titles since they aren't available in a format I can comfortably read.