What is the true history of Thanksgiving?

The “first Thanksgiving,” as a lot of folks understand it, was in 1621 between the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony and the Wampanoag* tribe in present-day Massachusetts. While records indicate that this celebration did happen, there are a few misconceptions we need to clear up.

Was Thanksgiving a massacre?

The Thanksgiving Day Celebration Originated From a Massacre In 1621, though Pilgrims celebrated a feast, it was not repeated in the years to follow. In 1636, a murdered white man was found in his boat and the Pequot were blamed. In retaliation settlers burned Pequot villages.

Do Native Americans celebrate Thanksgiving?

The so-called first Thanksgiving has been celebrated and taught to schoolchildren as the origin story of what would later become the United States. But many Native Americans say Thanksgiving Day is a reminder of the slaughter of millions of Indigenous people and the theft of their lands by outsiders.

What did the Pilgrims do to the natives?

What they found when they arrived was a village that had been decimated by disease. While the Wampanoags considered the site a cursed place of death and tragedy, the Pilgrims saw the deaths of the natives as a sign from God that this was where they should settle. And so began Plimoth Plantation.

Why is it called Thanksgiving?

The event that Americans commonly call the “First Thanksgiving” was celebrated by the Pilgrims after their first harvest in the New World in October 1621. This feast lasted three days, and—as recounted by attendee Edward Winslow— was attended by 90 Wampanoag and 53 Pilgrims.

Why is Thanksgiving a day of mourning?

National Day of Mourning plaque To them, Thanksgiving Day is a reminder of the genocide of millions of their people, the theft of their lands, and the relentless assault on their cultures. Participants in National Day of Mourning honor Native ancestors and the struggles of Native peoples to survive today.

What did the Native American eat on Thanksgiving?

There are only two surviving documents that reference the original Thanksgiving harvest meal. They describe a feast of freshly killed deer, assorted wildfowl, a bounty of cod and bass, and flint, a native variety of corn harvested by the Native Americans, which was eaten as corn bread and porridge.

How many Native Americans are left?

Today, there are over five million Native Americans in the United States, 78% of whom live outside reservations: California, Arizona and Oklahoma have the largest populations of Native Americans in the United States.

Why do we eat turkey on Thanksgiving?

For meat, the Wampanoag brought deer, and the Pilgrims provided wild “fowl.” Strictly speaking, that “fowl” could have been turkeys, which were native to the area, but historians think it was probably ducks or geese. …

Why should we not celebrate Thanksgiving?

They hate Thanksgiving and don’t celebrate it because they view it as religious or a holiday where the pilgrims stole the land from the Native Americans. As mentioned before, most people that don’t celebrate Thanksgiving do so because it is viewed as a national day of mourning, according to Independent.

What 3 foods were eaten at the first Thanksgiving?

Why are natives called Indians?

American Indians – Native Americans The term “Indian,” in reference to the original inhabitants of the American continent, is said to derive from Christopher Columbus, a 15th century boat-person. Some say he used the term because he was convinced he had arrived in “the Indies” (Asia), his intended destination.

What’s the history of Thanksgiving in the United States?

See Article History. Thanksgiving Day, annual national holiday in the United States and Canada celebrating the harvest and other blessings of the past year. Americans generally believe that their Thanksgiving is modeled on a 1621 harvest feast shared by the English colonists (Pilgrims) of Plymouth and the Wampanoag people.

Why did the pilgrims have a Thanksgiving feast?

It’s a tradition that pulls on a history passed down through the generations of what happened in Plymouth: local Native Americans welcomed the courageous, pioneering pilgrims to a celebratory feast.

Who was the chief of the Wampanoag at Thanksgiving?

Our popular understanding of the history of Thanksgiving is flawed. Tensions grew between the Wampanoag and the English settlers years after the Plymouth Thanksgiving. Massasoit, the sachem, or paramount chief, of the Wampanoag, proved to be a crucial ally to the English settlers in the years after the establishment of Plymouth.

Why did the colonists celebrate Thanksgiving in 1621?

As the story goes, friendly local Native Americans swooped in to teach the struggling colonists how to survive in the New World. Then everyone got together to celebrate with a feast in 1621.