If the name Squanto doesn’t ring a bell, ask an 8-year-old. The story of the Native American who helped the Pilgrims survive their first desperate year in what is now Plymouth, Mass., has become a staple of elementary-school curricula. The laudable objective is to give the Wampanoag people their due in the often-misrepresented Thanksgiving story.
Andrew Lipman accomplishes this task and more in “Squanto: A Native Odyssey,” a captivating, elegantly written biography of the man Plymouth Gov. William Bradford declared “a special instrument sent of God.” Mr. Lipman, who teaches history at Barnard College, reconstructs the remarkable life and times of the Pilgrims’ interpreter, teacher, counselor and diplomatic go-between while drawing a portrait of the Wampanoag culture that shaped him. It appears that “Squanto” is the first book for adult readers on this intriguing figure in early American history.
Read the full article in The Wall Street Journal.
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