A story of the first Thanksgiving - by LuAnn
It was the year of 1620, hoping to escape from religious persecution from the Church of England, a small group of people were attempting to start a new life in a new world. The people we now call Pilgrims, started to America with about 102 people on a boat called the Mayflower. They landed on a territory, which we now known as Plymouth Rock.This area was inhabited by the Wampanoag Indians. These Indians lived in villages along the coast of what is now Massachusetts and Rhode Island. They lived in houses called wigwams. These Indians respected the forest and animals as equals. Whenever a hunter made a kill, he was careful to leave behind an offering, to help other animals survive. Not to do so would be an act of selfishness. The Wampanoags also treated each other with respect. Any visitor to a Wampanoag home was offered a share of whatever food the family had. It was their custom was to help visitors, and they treated the Pilgrims with courtesy.
It was mainly because of the kindness of the Wamponoag's that the Pilgrims survived. The Pilgrims were ill prepared for the winter ahead of them. Wheat the Pilgrims had brought with them to plant would not grow in the rocky soil. They needed to learn new and different ways to survive. The man who came to help them was called "Tisquantum" or "Squanto".
Squanto was originally from the village of Patuxet. Before the Pilgrims arrived, the people of Patuxet were visited by English Slavers. When he and others returned from their voyages, the village was deserted and there were skeletons everywhere. Everyone in the village had died from an illness the English slavers had left behind. Squanto and Samoset went to stay with a neighboring village of Wampanoags.
One year later, in the spring, Squanto and Samoset were hunting along the beach near Patuxet. They were startled to see people from England in their deserted village. For several days, they stayed nearby observing the newcomers. Finally they decided to approach them. Samoset walked into the village and said "welcome," Squanto soon joined him. The Pilgrims were very surprised to meet two Indians who spoke English.
The Pilgrims were not in good condition. They were living in crude shelters, there was a shortage of food, and nearly half of them had died during the winter. They obviously needed help and the two men were a welcome sight. Squanto, who probably knew more English than any other Indian in North America at that time, decided to stay with the Pilgrims for the next few months and teach them how to survive in this new place. He taught them how to hunt, build housing and what crops to plant.
By the time fall arrived, things were going much better for the Pilgrims, thanks to the help they had received. The corn they planted had grown well. There was enough food to last the winter. They were living comfortably in their Indian-style wigwams and had also managed to build one European-style building out of logs. This was their church. They were now in better health and they knew more about surviving in this new land. The Pilgrims decided to have a feast to celebrate their good fortune.
Captain Miles Standish, the leader of the Pilgrims, invited Squanto, Samoset, Massasoit (the leader of the Wampanoags) and their immediate families to join them for a celebration. As the feast began, the Pilgrims were shocked at the large turnout of relatives that Squanto and Samoset brought with them. The Pilgrims were not prepared to feed a gathering of people that large for three days. Seeing this, Massasoit gave orders to his men to go home and get more food. Thus it happened that the Indians supplied the majority of the food.
Captain Standish sat at one end of a long table and the Clan Chief Massasoit sat at the other end. For three days the Wampanoags feasted with the Pilgrims. It was a special time of friendship between two very different groups of people. A peace and friendship agreement was made between Massasoit and Miles Standish giving the Pilgrims the clearing in the forest where the old Patuxet village once stood to build their new town of Plymouth.
We would like to tell you that the Indians and settlers stayed friends for many years to come. But we all know that didn't happen. More and more people were coming to the New World and didn't know what good the Indians had done for the first settlers. The Pilgrims didn't understand the Indians religion or customs. Many Indians were killed because of this, in what was called the King Philips war. The settlers also brought many diseases that ravaged the native people, who had no resistance to the new illnesses.
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