The Fictitious Thanksgiving
The dark legacy behind the festive tradition
Thanksgiving is perhaps the busiest and most important holiday in the United States. Cities across the country organize parades, presidents pardon turkeys, schools have holidays, and families gather together at the dinner table on the fourth Thursday of every single November. Images associated with this tradition include colorful autumn leaves, a full-course meal, flowers, and the joy of harvest.
Many Americans associate the celebration of Thanksgiving to the English Puritan settlers at Plymouth, where they shared a cordial relationship with the Wampanoag Indian tribe. When they arrived on a ship named Mayflower in 1620, they spent a year harvesting with the help of Squanto, a member of the local Wampanoag tribe. In the following year, according to folklore, the settlers celebrated their harvest with other Native Americans. A common version of what happened during this period is succinctly summarized in U.S. history textbooks in phrasings similar to this one, in a 1986 textbook titled The American Tradition:
After some exploring, the Pilgrims chose the land around Plymouth Harbor for their settlement. Unfortunately, they had arrived in December and were not prepared for the New England winter. However, they were aided by friendly Indians, who gave them food and showed them how to grow corn. When warm weather came, the colonists planted, fished, hunted, and prepared themselves for the next winter. After harvesting their first crop, they and their Indian friends celebrated the first Thanksgiving.
Since that first celebration of Thanksgiving, we’ve created a mythology about the holiday. We no longer remember the facts.
For example, a well-known sign on a historical landmark in Plymouth, Massachusetts claimed that it was the rock the Mayflower landed on, but such mentions are nowhere to be found in the records of the settlers themselves. There’s also no proof that during the celebration occurred on the fourth Thursday of November, nor is there any proof that turkeys were featured on the table during that celebration in 1621. There is little proof that the feast was even called “Thanksgiving.”
Whether this myth is based in fact or not is far less important than a crucial problem that Americans have failed to confront for centuries: We celebrate a myth created by white settlers in which Native Americans play only a subordinate role. The fact is that the white settlers would not have survived had it not been for the kindness of the Native Americans they encountered during their first winter in America.
