Thanksgiving may seem like a straightforward holiday to many people, but it has complex meanings. The often-told story of the first Thanksgiving makes it seem like the Pilgrims and the American Indians were best friends. You rarely hear about the subsequent violence between them - or the subsequent vicious displacement of native peoples across the continent. In fact, after Miles Standish had several Indians brutally murdered, John Robinson, a pastor, prophesied that his actions would influence the way others would treat native peoples in years to come.

Still, many rightfully say that the story of the peaceful first Thanksgiving shows that people of different cultures can interact with respect and good will.

The settlers who celebrated Thanksgiving in the mid-1890s in Brown's Park didn't think about these complexities. They had helped to permanently displace the Shoshones and Utes from the valley (located where Utah, Wyoming and Colorado meet). Native peoples had used Brown's Park for thousands of years, but they were not invited to this Thanksgiving dinner.

In some ways the feast did demonstrate mutual respect and good will. Brown's Park included an eclectic mix of Americans, European immigrants, African Americans, Latinos, ranchers, merchants and outlaws. On this Thanksgiving, it was the outlaws who extended the good will: They hosted a spectacular dinner for 35 of their neighbors.

The feisty "Queen Ann" Bassett, friend of Butch Cassidy, later wrote about the celebration. Butch and other outlaws put on a grand spread (using other people's money, of course). Wearing their finest, the guests gathered at one of the homes. The rough ranching men waxed their mustaches and wore dark suits, vests, white shirts with starched collars and bow ties. The rough ranching women wore corsets and tight-fitted dresses with mutton-leg sleeves, with their hair styled in French twists or buns. The teenage girls wore their dresses a little shorter and curled or braided their hair. Ann, herself a teenager who loved clothes dearly, remembered that she wore a powder-blue dress with pleats and a Peter Pan collar, puffed sleeves, and a wide sash tied in a big bow in back. Her special black stockings cost $3 a pair.

Wearing aprons over their dress clothes, the outlaws served several courses, including roast turkey, chestnut dressing, giblet gravy, cranberries, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, creamed peas, tomatoes and lettuce, celery, olives, walnuts, pickles, hot rolls, pumpkin pie, plum pudding, mints, salted nuts and more. At least, that's how Ann remembered it 50 years later.

She also wrote of this endearing detail: "Butch was pouring coffee, poor Butch he could perform such minor jobs as robbing banks and holding up pay trains with out a flicker of an eye lash but serving coffee at a grand party that was something else. The blood curdÂling job almost floored him, he became panicky and showed that his nerve was completely shot to bits."

When somebody told him not to reach across people's plates for their cups, "The boys went into a huddle in the kitchen and instructed Butch in the more formal art of filling coffee cups at the table. This just shows how etiquette can put fear into a brave mans heart."

After dinner, the guests danced all night, accompanied by guitar, fiddle and zither. Ann says that, "after being coached by Mr. Jarvie for a couple of weeks," she presented a short reading on the meaning of Thanksgiving.

And what was that meaning? Perhaps Ann said that we can change the negative patterns of the past and truly embody the mythical meaning of the first Thanksgiving by peacefully "sitting down" with members of different cultures, in respect and good will.

---

* KRISTEN ROGERS-IVERSEN can be reached at kristenri@yahoo.com.

The letter is that of Ann Bassett Willis to Esther Campbell, 23 April 1950, copy held at Regional Room Uintah County Library, Vernal, Utah. Ann was a teenager at the time of the Outlaws' Thanksgiving and attended the event with her family.