Hearing a great amount of gunfire coming from the Pilgrim’s village, Ousamequin (Massasoit), the Pokanoket Wampanoag leader, and 90 of his warriors rushed to their aide. Instead of a battle though, the Wampanoag came upon a festival, as the Pilgrims were celebrating the harvest of their first crops. What would then transpire was the beginning of one of the most beloved American holidays: Thanksgiving.
When the Pilgrims had arrived at Plymouth on Dec. 16, 1620, the Wampanoag village of Patuxet, where the Pilgrims would eventually settle, was once a thriving area. Just four years earlier, the Wampanoag occupied 69 villages, scattered throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island, housing between 50,000 to 100,000 individuals.
As Europeans traders began appearing in 1616, so did the plague, which would claim the lives of up to two-thirds of the Wampanoag. With many of the survivors later being captured and sold as slaves, those who remained watched with apprehension as the Mayflower arrived and its passengers came ashore.
Seeing that women and children were also present, the Wampanoag did not see the Pilgrims as a threat, as they didn’t think that they would have brought their women and children into harm, but nevertheless the Wampanoag kept their distance. During the first winter, they would not be seen by the Pilgrims. Instead, they appeared as shadows.
Squanto
Tisquantum, or Squanto, as he has famously become known to history, was a member of the Pautuxet band of Wampanoag. Not much is known of his early life, but in 1605, events would begin to unfold that led to Squanto becoming integral to the survival of the Pilgrims.
Being captured, along with four other members of his tribe, Squanto was taken to England by Captain George Weymouth. Squanto would be taught English, and trained as a guide.
Nine years later, Squanto made his second, of what would be six trips, across the Atlantic. As a part of Captain John Smith’s expedition, he found himself once again near his home.
Trying to return to Patuxet, Squanto was abducted by Thomas Hunt, who tried to sell him into slavery in Spain. However, before Hunt was able to succeed, local friars discovered what was happening, and took Squanto, as well as the remaining American Indians, and instructed them in the Catholic faith.
Squanto yearned to get back to his home though, and eventually convinced the friars to allow him to do such. Reaching London, he lived with a shipbuilder by the name of John Slany, who Squanto worked for for a few years. Over the next few years, Squanto would travel back and forth over the Atlantic four more times, before finally boarding John Smith’s ship, in 1619, to return to his homeland.
When he arrived though, there was nothing left waiting for him. His home had been decimated by a plague. Squanto was the last remaining member of his tribe.
Helping the Pilgrims
Three years after Squanto returned to his former homeland, he was introduced to the Pilgrims by Samoset, the Abenaki paramount chief. Squanto was once again at his former village, but now Europeans occupied it.
Befriending the Pilgrims, Squanto taught them how to plant corn, fish and gather berries and nuts. Squanto would become appointed as liaison to the Pilgrims, by Massasoit, and helped procure diplomatic relations between the two, even though the Wampanoag would begin to distrust him.
With the knowledge of how to grow their own crops, and live off the land, the Pilgrims began to thrive. In September/October of 1621, their hard work, during the previous spring, had paid off. Their first crop had produced a good yield.
It was this harvest that spurred the Pilgrims into a celebration, which involved them firing their guns. When the Wampanoag showed up, coming to what they believed was the Pilgrims’ aide, they were invited to join the feast. There was hardly enough food to feed the chief and his 90 warriors, so in turn, they set out and brought back five deer. What began as a harvest celebration, turned into something much more, with ceremonial gift-giving, that lasted three days.
A year later, Squanto would become sick with a fever, and began bleeding from the nose, which was taken as a symptom of death. A few days later, he would die.
Legacy
The first Thanksgiving between the Pilgrims and Wampanoags would also be a unique occurrence. While American Indians would observe harvest celebrations, they were not occasions in which Europeans were generally invited to.
Relations between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag would remain peaceful, if not rocky, for the next five decades. However, European and American Indian relations in general were not so promising.
In 1836, after the Pequot tribe was blamed for the death of a European, settlers reacted in retaliation by burning down Pequot villages and killing the inhabitants, men women and children. The day would be honored by the Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, as a day of celebration, of thanksgiving.
For some then, Thanksgiving has become a time of mourning. It stands as a day of that marks atrocities and broken promises in which the American Indians have endured.
However, for many others, it has truly become a time of Thanksgiving and hope. A time to recall the history of relations between Europeans and American Indians, both the good and bad, and learn from the past.