Thanksgiving is one of the most important holidays in the United States and marks the beginning of the holiday season. It is typically a holiday for spending time with family, giving thanks, and feasting.

Let's Explore!

The story of Thanksgiving starts in Massachusetts in 1614. English explorers settled in Plymouth in 1620. The English had previously tried to establish a colony at Roanake (RIP) in North Carolina, but that attempt was....unsuccessful.

History of the Puritans

In 1534, the King of England, Henry VIII, made changes to the church, and to the law, which were unpopular with some English people. The English who disagreed with him wanted a new government that followed their own religion. They also wanted more wealth. These were the English colonists who sailed aboard the Mayflower.

Who was on the Mayflower?

More than 30 million people can trace their ancestry to the 102 passengers and approximately 30 crew aboard the Mayflower when it landed in Plymouth Bay, Massachusetts, in the harsh winter of 1620.

On board were men, women and children from different walks of life across England and the city of Leiden in Holland.

The Mayflower passengers are listed after the below interactive map which shows where each of the Pilgrims originally came from and where they lived.

Click on the map’s pins to see information about each of the Mayflower passengers and crew. Click anywhere on the map to activate it and then zoom in to see the individual village and sometimes street level where people were born.

The blue points are Pilgrims and their servants, the green represents the paying passengers and their servants and the red is the crew.

https://www.mayflower400uk.org/education/mayflower-passengers-list-an-interactive-guide/

Land Ho!

The Mayflower took 66 days to cross the Atlantic – a horrible crossing afflicted by winter storms and long bouts of seasickness – so bad that most could barely stand up during the voyage.

Due to bad weather and navigational challenges, the Mayflower reached Cape Cod, instead of their intended destination, Virginia. The Puritans decided it was safest to settle in Cape Cod rather than continue.

Native Lands

The Puritans found many advantages to the location they found, including a good harbor, fresh water, and farm fields. Before the Puritans arrived, this land had been home to the Patuxet tribe of the Wampanoag. But a few years earlier, some of the Patuxet had been kidnapped and taken away to England, and most of the others died from disease they caught from English kidnappers (probably smallpox). As a result, the Puritans found a good place to live and no army there defending it.

The First Winter

During the first winter, almost half of the Puritans died due to inadequate food and shelter. Then they were found by Squanto. He was a Paxtuxet who survived his kidnapping and escaped back from England to North American. Squanto helped the Purigans sign a treaty with the other Wampanoag tribes. Squanto and the other Wampanoag helped the Puritans find food.

Winter in Plymouth

With passengers and crew weakened by the voyage and weeks exploring Cape Cod, the Mayflower anchored in Plymouth harbor in late December 1620. After ferrying supplies to land, the Pilgrims began building a common house for shelter and to store their goods. The weather worsened, and exposure and infections took their toll. By the spring of 1621, about half of the Mayflower’s passengers and crew had died.

Do answer the next questions take a look at the two different websites for live webcams of Cape Cod.

https://www.pilgrim-monument.org/web-cam-3/

https://masswebcams.com/cape-cod-webcams/

If time allows: https://nebraskapublicmedia.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/americanexperience27p-soc-firstwinter/wgbh-americanexperience-the-pilgrims-the-first-winter/

Edward Winslow

In spring, the surviving English planted the field that had belonged to the Patuxet. With Squanto and the Wampanoag's continued help, the Puritans were able to grow food. Around October, the Puritans had a three-day celebration to give thanks for their first harvest. Everything we know about that feast comes from this letter by an Englishman:

Friends or Foes?

Traditional depictions of the first Thanksgiving feast show the Puritans and the Wampanoag socializing as friends. However, no one is sure if the Wampanoag people were actually invited, or if they arrived to investigae the gunfire. In any case, most historicans agree that these communities were never more than strategic allies against other, more violent tribes

Day of Mourning

Some native American groups protest Thanksgiving as a Day of Mourning. They claim that the arrival of European explorers and settlers is not a cause for celebration, because it began the ill treatment and deaths of millions of Native Americans. For them, Thanksgiving marks the beginning of a long period of violence and discrimination.

Conflict

While these early years of settlement reflect strategic alliances between the English and the Wampanoag, it was only a few decades later the English and Wampanoag went to war. Many Wampanoag were killed or sold into slavery.

Canadian Residential Schools

If you need to refresh about the residential Native American Schools use the links below:

Canada: 751 unmarked graves found at residential school

Remains of more than 1,000 Indigenous children found at former residential schools in Canada

Researchers identify 102 students who died at Native American school in Nebraska

The school was operated by the federal government between 1884 and 1934 and was known for brutal punishments and hard labour.

Researchers say they have identified more than 100 students who died at a harsh residential school for Native Americans in Genoa, Nebraska. The search for the cemetery where many are believed to be buried continues.

• Flashback Friday: The Tragedies and Successes of the Genoa Indian School

• The Genoa Indian School Digital Reconciliation Project

Memorial Site

On the following slide, we're going to explore a memorial site.

The Yontocket Indian Village Memorial is located in California. It marks the site of the Yontocket Massacre, where 500 Tolowa Indians were massacred by white American settlers in 1853, part of the ongoing California genocide aimed at ridding Native Americans from the westward expansion of settlers.

https://www.360cities.net/nl/image/yontocket

Thinking Critically

Now you will watch a video in which Native Americans are asked to give their associations with the word Thanksgiving. After what you've learned today, think about why they may say some of these things.