Unraveling Truths Behind Thanksgiving

Jimena Ham

Halloween has come and gone, and we are now anticipating Christmas festivities. But some have forgotten about a holiday that takes place between Halloween and Christmas. It’s a time when we eat mounds of mashed potatoes with gravy, turkey, corn, and many more delicious foods. This holiday is Thanksgiving, a time when we consider the things we are thankful for—that is if you celebrate it. 

In this piece, I will share not only the origins of this holiday but also some of the dark history that surrounds that first Thanksgiving meal. After all, it’s important to be knowledgeable about the truth behind the holidays we celebrate. 

This holiday is annually celebrated in the United States and Canada (although they celebrate on a different day in Canada), commemorating the autumn harvest and setting aside time to focus on gratefulness. But even if you aren’t a US or Canadian citizen, I'm sure you've heard of the first-ever Thanksgiving, specifically here at AST, a school that fosters friendship between Honduras and the US. 

It all started with a group of people called the Pilgrims, who traveled for 66 days by sea to America with the purpose of creating their own colonies and civilization. During those days at sea, many of the Pilgrims fell ill, and many even lost their lives from sickness. On December 26, 1620, they arrived at what they would soon call their home. What they didn’t expect was the harsh winter they would face. Most stayed on their ship, the Mayflower, during that harsh winter, and many more died. Then, that spring, they found the perfect place to build—it was a clearing that used to belong to the Wampanoag indigenous tribe. They had, sadly, left that place behind after 90% of them were killed by a deadly disease. By the time the Pilgrims got to America in 1620, this event was known as The Great Dying, caused by disease that was accidentally brought over by European settlers. 

One day, as the Pilgrims were dying inside the Mayflower ship from sickness, hunger, and extreme temperatures, a Wampanoag tribe member known as Samoset decided to introduce himself to the Plymouth Pilgrims. He knew the English language, which made it easy to communicate with them. After a long night of talking with the settlers, he brought another English-speaking Wampanoag tribe member. His name was Tisquantum (he was also known as Squanto). Tisquantum had previously been abducted by European sailors and later sold into slavery. Sometime later, he was able to return home after being liberated from his job as an interpreter for a sailor. Following this meeting, the Pilgrims were able to get an audience with the tribe’s leader, Massasoit. Massasoit and the settlers were able to make a treaty and establish peace between the two groups. Massasoit and his tribe showed the Pilgrims how to hunt, plant, and harvest their own food so that they could survive in America. But this wasn't a one-sided relationship, nope! The Pilgrims actually helped the Wampanoag by fighting in their battles against other native groups. However, this alliance wasn’t the greatest since it was based on mutual interest, or what they could get from each other. 

Because of this agreement with the Massasoit, the Pilgrims were able to have their first successful autumn harvest in 1621, and they decided to celebrate their success with a big festivity, one that would last for three days. Here's where the story gets a little murky: The traditional tale is that the Pilgrims invited 99 members of the Wampanoag tribe, to the celebration, for a total of 143 people at the celebration. However, in more contemporary times, a Wampanoag side of the story has gained more recognition. According to this account, the Native Americans were not initially invited to the celebration and arrived by mistake. In this story, rewritten in Indian Country Today by Michelle Tirado, the Wampanoag heard the Pilgrims shooting off rifles in celebration and rushed to their aid, thinking that they could be under attack. Upon their arrival, the Pilgrims invited them to stay, and they killed a few deer to make sure there was enough food for everyone. Either way, this feast became known as the first Thanksgiving ever. 

However, that's not the complete story. Most of use aren’t taught about the blood that would be shed in the years to come, and perhaps most importantly, how Native Americans are still suffering the repercussions of colonization today. 

In the years from 1630–1642, around 25,000 European colonizers moved to Plymouth, where the Pilgrims lived, taking over more land and leaving the indigenous tribes with nowhere to live. This caused tension in the alliance that the Wampanoag had with the Pilgrims. Not only that, but the Wampanoag continued to die from another disease called the Indian Fever. This disease reduced them to only half their population. Then came a dreadful day: Massasoit passed away in 1661, so his oldest son Wamsutta took over. This caused additional tension, and suddenly he also passed away mysteriously in 1662 while visiting the Puritans to talk about some urgent business. At last, Massasoit's youngest son Metacomet was given power over the Wampanoag tribe (nicknamed King Philip by the Pilgrims). During his time as leader, he feared that his people would lose more and more land to the colonizers, so he decided to create a coalition of various native tribes to protect themselves and their land. 

In 1675, three Wampanoag men were executed for the murder of the Punkapao interpreter and Christian convert John Sassamon. This angered the Wampanoag, who responded with raids. These actions led to King Philip’s War, which was declared in 1675 by the Confederation of Colonies. This war was nasty; blood was shed, which stained the hands of many and led to the deaths of numerous innocent people. Around 30% of the English population perished, but half of the Native Americans died. Metacomet was beheaded and dismembered, and his head was put on display on a stick for over 25 years. This war is considered one of the deadliest wars in American history, a war that led to the deaths of thousands of Native American people, brought about their enslavement, and took even more land from them.

401 years later, Native Americans are still affected by these tragedies, yet to this day, a romanticized version of the Thanksgiving story is taught. Every year, children learn that the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag people lived happily ever after, but this is far from the whole story. After the killing of many of their people and the loss of miles upon miles of land, Native Americans were still facing discrimination in 1970 when Wamsutta, also known as Frank James, who was the leader of the Wampanoag at the time, was invited to the 350th anniversary of the Mayflower’s landing in Plymouth. He was invited to make a speech to mark the occasion, and he wanted to talk about the truth behind Thanksgiving and the tragedies that came after that first celebration. Wamsutta didn't want to make a speech about the misleading and romanticized story that Americans liked to tell. So, he was censored. His speech was deemed inappropriate and inflammatory. Instead, the event organizers gave him a speech containing lies, and he refused to say it, vowing that the Wampanoag and other native people would regain their rightful place. This caused him to be uninvited from the ceremony, but it didn’t stop Wamsutta from telling his original speech. He did so at Cole’s Hill, next to the statue of former Wampanoag leader Ousamequin. That day is now remembered as the first official National Day of Mourning. 

The National Day of Mourning, on the same day of Thanksgiving in the United States, is a day that Native Americans honor their ancestors and the struggles they faced in the past and have to face nowadays because of discrimination.

To conclude, we should acknowledge that not all holidays come from a pretty and sugar-coated history. Being aware of these facts is important, and recognizing the entire story of Thanksgiving is an important step to acknowledging the often covered-up horrors committed against Native Americans.