DID YOU KNOW?
The True Story Behind the First Thanksgiving
Article by LIZZ SCHUMER Updated:
SEP 18, 2023 5:59 PM EST,
more complicated, not to mention a lot less kid-friendly.
In reality, the peace that brought the Wampanoag and the settlers together at that historic table wasn't as easy to come by as we'd like to believe. A lot of bloodshed took place both before and after that first feast, and mistreatment of Native Americans continues to this day. That's why many Native Americans and others mark Thanksgiving as a solemn day of remembrance instead of celebration.
If you're cooking for a crowd this year, take comfort in the fact that more than 100 people were in attendance that first Thanksgiving – and they didn't even have running water, never mind a dishwasher. At least 90 Native men and 50 Englishmen came to the feast, Plimoth Plantation colonial foodways culinary expert Kathleen Wall told Time. The Native people dined sitting on the ground, like they did at home, and the English ate at the table, like they did at theirs.
The group likely played marksmanship
Ah, Thanksgiving: Time to dive face-first into mountains of mashed potatoes, count our blessings and if we're feeling really ambitious, get up a friendly game of toss the pigskin with the cousins (or watch our favorite team do the same). But before we all descend into food comas, it's important to reflect on the real history of Thanksgiving — and the first one wasn't all peace, love and pass the gravy. While the settlers at Plymouth and their allies from the Wampanoag tribe really did get together in 1621 for a table-groaning, three-day feast to celebrate the settlers' first harvest, that's far from the whole story.
In elementary school, most of us probably learned that English religious exiles began establishing civilization in what they called "the new world," winning over the local Indigenous people already living there with promises of friendship. Then, the Native Americans taught the new arrivals how to grow crops to sustain their growing society and everybody lived happily ever after. Well, not quite. The real story is far