The legend of Thanksgiving goes back more than 350 years. Is the story how the Pilgrims (Fred and Ethel?) spent Thanksgiving with the Natives and ate fully, really true?

There are many John Wayne impersonators all over the Internet at this time with impressionists saying things like, “Well Pilgrim, I see you’re still protecting the ladies” and “Hey, Pilgrim, hand me those mashed potatoes won’t you?”

Another story doing the rounds is, the first Thanksgiving was held in 1621 on a big rock on the east coast and was highlighted when a Native American drove the first Plymouth into the middle of the festivities?

Some older accounts of Thanksgiving history state that Pocahontas joined Captain Myles Standoffish for the first Thanksgiving celebration, but revisionist history states this isn’t so as Pocahontas actually died just a few short years before the first celebration. According to new data in regards to the history of Thanksgiving, it is now known that the body of Pocahontas was dug up for the celebration and propped up at the end of the table. She was regarded as the wise old aunt who barely spoke a word and probably had a buzz on as she was smiling the whole time.

Again in 1621, Governor William Bradford declared Thanksgiving Day as a national holiday, but since the Revolutionary War had yet to take place, no one knew what this meant. It wasn’t until George Washington was President in 1789, that he had the power, after the Revolutionary War to declare Thanksgiving as a national holiday. After doing so, George promptly bit into a huge turkey leg and split in two his fine wooden teeth!

The true story is this:

The Wampanoag Indians were descendants of the Iroquois who had spent their time in New England for thousands of years. The tribe lived off the land by hunting deer and other animals in the summer and early fall, fishing salmon and herring in the spring and then moved farther inland during the winter to seek shelter from the storms.

The group lived along the coastal region in round-roofed houses called ‘wigwams’ unlike the Midwest Indians who used teepees in order to travel quickly. The people were friendly and hospitable towards strangers.

However a group of English travellers had saddened villages across the region by bringing disease and capturing many to be sold on the slave market. One of the villages, Patuxet, demolished by the English was one of a famous Native American, Squanto.

Squanto was a Native American who befriended John Weymouth (an English Explorer) and headed back to England in order to learn their customs speak English and become Christian. During his stay, a British Slaver captured Squanto and sold him to the Spanish in the Caribbean. Luckily a Spanish Franciscan priest helped Squanto back to England where he would pay Weymouth to bring him back to his homeland.

On his return home Squanto had realised his village was deserted and left with skeletons. The neighbouring tribe of Wampanoag took Squanto in and treated him as their own.

In September 1620, a small ship called the Mayflower left Plymouth, England, carrying 102 passengers—an assortment of religious separatists seeking a new home where they could freely practice their faith and other individuals lured by the promise of prosperity and land ownership in the New World. After a treacherous and uncomfortable crossing that lasted 66 days, they dropped anchor near the tip of Cape Cod, far north of their intended destination at the mouth of the Hudson River. One month later, the Mayflower crossed Massachusetts Bay, where the Pilgrims, as they are now commonly known, began the work of establishing a village at Plymouth. Throughout that first brutal winter, most of the colonists remained on board the ship, where they suffered from exposure, scurvy and outbreaks of contagious disease. Only half of the Mayflower’s original passengers and crew lived to see their first New England spring. In March, the remaining settlers moved ashore.

As the weeks went on the Pilgrims grew weaker and couldn’t survive much longer. Luckily, the Wampanoag came to the rescue. The Wampanoag brought food and hospitality towards the people. Since Squanto spoke English he easily communicated with the Pilgrims and showed them how to cultivate corn, extract sap from maple trees, catch fish in the rivers and avoid poisonous plants. The two groups then spent three days together talking about the land and eating food. There is no record of what type of food was on the menu. As the Pilgrims did not have an oven I am not sure my earlier article on the subject suggesting they ate pies is therefore correct.

As the years passed, more Pilgrims came and forgot about the friendly Natives. They stole land, tortured and enslaved the Wampanoag while the rest were left foodless and with disease.

For many, Thanksgiving is a time for rejoicing and thankfulness for what our ancestors had endured during the early years, but for the Wampanoag it is a time they would like to forget.

For more than two centuries, Thanksgiving days have been celebrated by individual colonies and states. In 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day to be held each November.