AS the story goes, Squanto — a Patuxet Indian who had learned English — took pity on the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony who had managed to survive that first brutal winter, and showed them how to plant corn, putting a dead fish in each hole where a seed was planted. But before that, before the ground had even fully thawed, he taught them a perhaps more valuable skill: how to catch a fatty, nutritious fish that would sustain them in the worst of winters.
Bullshit. And, Prosek, whose tagline notes that he's an author of a book about eels, shouldn't sacrifice the truth to hoary myths.
Wikipedia notes eels are eaten all over northern Europe. In fact, since Prosek uses the myth of Squanto to segue into eels being endangered, as well as a valued food fish, let's add, from Wiki, that their food value is why some northern European species are among the endangered ones.
More proof that Ye Olde Pilgrims needed little to no help from Tisquantum, aka Squanto, to be eelers? "Eel" comes from the Old English "ael."
Unfortunately, the columns on the NYT, at least guest columns, as opposed to news stories, doesn't allow for on-page commentary to call Prosek on his bullshit.
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