EAST LONGMEADOW – Thanksgiving is a traditional time for family and feasting throughout most of the United States, but this Thanksgiving is particularly of note as it is the 400th anniversary of the historical meal shared by English settlers and the natives of the land in what is now Southeastern Massachusetts.

This fall, patrons of the Pleasant View Senior Center in East Longmeadow were shown live a five-part lecture series, presented by Richard Pickering, deputy director and chief historian at the Plimoth Patuxet Museum, which detailed the English settlers’ first year at Plymouth Plantation. The fourth lecture in the series, “400 Years Ago: A Look Back at the Fall of 1621,” explored the events leading up to the now famed feast.

Two Peoples

Historians know from documents of the time that the English had been living in modern-day Massachusetts since a settler expedition in November 1620. Only 52 of the original 102 settlers survived the first winter. Of them, half were under the age of 16, four were married adult women and the rest were men.

Pickering explained the settlement of Plymouth was situated in the territory of the Wampanoag confederacy, a group of native peoples led by the inter-tribal chief, Ousamequin, also known by the title Massasoit. Pickering described how the English lived on the north bank of a brook, within visual range of the Pokanoket people on the south bank. He said the two communities would have seen each other daily.

In March 1621, Ousamequin created a peace treaty with the English. Upon seeing the English farming practices of the time, which Pickering said were not suitable for growing the unfamiliar crop of corn, Ousamequin told them they will return in eight days to help them plant. Pickering said the archeological record confirms the story of native people teaching the settlers how to plant corn using fish as fertilizer.

In August, the settlers made two trips to the Ousamequin. The first was for negotiations. Pickering said firsthand accounts show the leader was embarrassed that he did not expect the visitors and could not feed them. When the English returned to their settlement and found that a boy had gone missing, they returned to Massasoit to retrieve him. Pickering said the child was returned to the English peacefully, draped in traditional shell beads, known as wampum.

The Feast

Between late September and early October, nine leaders of native peoples, along with 10 men from each tribe, were brought to Plymouth by Ousamequin. These 90 people and the 52 settlers spent three days together in what has come to be known as the first Thanksgiving. The people ate venison, fowl, corn and other crops they recently harvested.

According to documents, during the harvest celebration, the chiefs signed a letter declaring themselves to be the subjects of King James. Pickering noted that the signatories may not have known the meaning of what they were signing.

Misconceptions

Pickering spent time dispelling misunderstandings about the first Thanksgiving. He pushed back on the idea that the invitation to feast was an attempt by the English to entrap the Wampanoag tribe.

“To native people,” Pickering said, [the English] were like gnats. When the English came, and there were only 52, they were the ones that were vulnerable.”

Another theory, that the Wampanoag came because they heard gunfire, was discounted by Pickering. He said they would have often heard gunfire when the English were hunting. Instead, the historian said, autumn was traditionally the time when Wampanoag leaders would travel between tribes to strengthen trade relations.

In a recounting of the event by pilgrim Edward Winslow, he described the relationship between the communities, “We have found the Indians very faithful in the covenant of peace with us; very loving and ready to pleasure us; we often go to them, and they come to us.”

From the real-life interactions between people sharing a harvest meal in the early 17th century, the idea of communities spanning a vast cultural gulf has become romanticized into the legend that is the American Thanksgiving.

To learn more about the Wampanoag and the Pilgrims, visit https://plimoth.org.