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Learn how the Wampanoag people’s role went beyond helping pilgrims and explore ways to honor indigenous perspectives today. Growing up in suburban Massachusetts, Thanksgiving always meant my mom’s slightly burnt turkey, awkward family gatherings, and elementary school pageants where I once played a pilgrim with a paper hat that kept falling off my head. I cannot remember a single lesson about actual Native Americans during those childhood Thanksgiving celebrations they were background characters in our national mythology, not real people with their own perspective on this complicated holiday.
It was not until college that I started questioning the narrative I had been taught. Now, as we approach another Thanksgiving season, I find myself reflecting on how incomplete our understanding of this holiday often is.
The Wampanoag People: Forgotten Partners in the First Thanksgiving Story
When most Americans picture the “first Thanksgiving,” they imagine friendly Native Americans teaching desperate pilgrims how to survive. But this simplified version glosses over the complex reality of what actually happened in 1621. The Wampanoag people, led by Massasoit, did indeed help the Plymouth colonists but their reasons were deeply political and strategic.
The truth is, by the time Europeans arrived, the Wampanoag had already endured devastating epidemics that killed approximately 75% of their population between 1616-1619. These diseases, brought by earlier European explorers, had catastrophically weakened their position against rival tribes. Forming an alliance with the newcomers was not simply an act of kindness but a calculated diplomatic move.
How have Native American voices been excluded from Thanksgiving narratives?
For generations, Native Americans have been portrayed as one-dimensional helpers in the Thanksgiving story, not as people with their own complex societies and political motivations. The standard narrative conveniently skips over what happened in the decades following that peaceful meal.
Have you ever wondered why we rarely discuss what came after that famous feast? Within a generation, relations between colonists and Native peoples deteriorated dramatically. King Philip’s War (1675-1678) devastated Native populations throughout New England. The descendants of those who helped the pilgrims survive were later killed or displaced from their ancestral lands.
My friend Mark, who has Wampanoag ancestry, once told me that Thanksgiving feels like celebrating the beginning of the end for his people. His family observes the National Day of Mourning instead, held on Thanksgiving Day in Plymouth, Massachusetts since 1970.
Rethinking Thanksgiving Through an Indigenous Lens
Thanksgiving celebrations do not need to perpetuate historical amnesia. Many Native Americans do celebrate the holiday, though often with different emphasis. For many indigenous families, it serves as an opportunity to honor ancestral traditions of harvest celebrations that predate European arrival.
The concept of giving thanks for Earth’s bounty was not something Native Americans needed to learn from Europeans. Many tribes held (and still hold) multiple thanksgiving ceremonies throughout the year, connected to planting, harvesting, and seasonal changes.
Last autumn, I attended a community dinner where local Native American speakers shared their perspectives on Thanksgiving. What struck me most was not resentment but a desire for acknowledgment recognition that indigenous peoples are still here, with living cultures that continue despite centuries of attempted erasure
Thanksgiving does not need to be abandoned, but it does require honest examination. The holiday can evolve into something that honors historical truth while celebrating genuine gratitude and community across cultural boundaries.
Reference
Calloway, C. G. (2019). The Indian world of George Washington: The first president, the first Americans, and the birth of the nation. Oxford University Press.
DeLucia, C. (2018). Memory lands: King Philip’s War and the place of violence in the Northeast. Yale University Press.
Lipman, A. C. (2015). The Saltwater Frontier: Indians and the Contest for the American Coast. Yale University Press.
Mt. Pleasant, J., Wigginton, C., & Wisecup, K. (2018). Materials and methods in Native American and Indigenous Studies. William and Mary Quarterly, 75(2), 207–236. https://doi.org/10.5309/willmaryquar.75.2.0207