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Thanksgiving first American multi-cultural holiday

Thursday's Thanksgiving holiday is truly the first American multi-cultural holiday, according to a University of California, Davis historian.

"This was a new environment for the English because of the differing nature of American wilderness," said Clarence Walker, an authority on the history of American race relations. "England had been farmed for centuries, and the land was not heavily forested. In the New World, because of the Indian slash-and-burn agriculture, land had reforested itself and it would have to be cleared," Walker added.

The Laboratory is closed on Thursday and Friday (Nov. 27-28) in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday.

To read a UC, Davis news release click here.

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