History in American schools has for years taught that the pilgrims and the Indians sat at a table and enjoyed the feast of turkey as celebrated as Thanksgiving. This is all wrong. The truth is that the pilgrims settled in an area that was abandoned by the Wampanoag Indian tribe because plague had killed many people in the Plymouth area. The Wampanoag actually ignored the pilgrims at first. They didn’t consider them a threat because there were women and children among them. Come spring the following year, Squanto, a Wampanoag Indian befriended the pilgrims and showed them how to plant corn and squash. He also showed them how to fish and gather berries. The Pilgrims and these Indians entered a treaty of mutual protection. At harvest time the Pilgrims enjoyed a good yield. They sent men out to go fowling. The Indians heard the gun shots and thought they were under attack.
The Indians thought to give aid to the Pilgrims. The Pilgrims invited them to share in their food but there wasn’t enough to feed the Indian leader and his 90 warriors. The leader had his warriors shoot 5 deer and water fowl to the feast. There may have been turkeys along with it too.
clawingmywayin 