The First Thanksgiving: What Really Happened

The first Thanksgiving. American schools generally teach a conventional story

about the meeting of Pilgrims and Indians that finished with an amazing

dinner. The end. But there's more to the tale. This video will explain the events

around the first Thanksgiving and how it's not the image ingrained in

tradition. At the start of the 17th century, southern New England was home to

a variety of busy communities within several confederations. These were the

People of the First Light and they called their home the Dawn Land.

Political leaders were known as sachems and had been trading with Europeans for

over 100 years before the pilgrims. Relations soured only after deceitful

Europeans kidnapped locals to sell as slaves. Permanent European settlement was

impossible due to the already high population of native occupants. But in

1616 tradesmen introduced a disease to the Dawn Land, whose inhabitants died in

droves from a lack of immunity. In three years up to 90% were wiped out in

several Confederations, including the Wampanoag. Their head sachem, Massasoit,

was aware of how close they were to being subjugated by their untouched

enemy, the Narraganset. He was determined to save his people from such

a fate. This was the political world the pilgrims were about to enter.

The pilgrims were not called pilgrims by their contemporaries. They were known as