The First Thanksgiving

Contrary to popular belief, the Plymouth settlers didn't invite the Indians over for a Thanksgiving Feast. Neither did they even call the feast they had “Thanksgiving”. So, what really happened?

After their first successful harvest, the settlers decided to make a feast for themselves to celebrate the fact that they had survived this harsh land and prospered, building 11 buildings and gathering in their first crop of corn.

The colonists did NOT invite the Indians over for a big happy party in fact, it is doubted whether Indians actually came, but in William Bradford's (the governor of the colony) book “Of Plymouth Plantation”, it says they did. In any case, the Indians did not come empty-handed.

While they were with the settlers, a total of four days, not one, the Indians killed five deer to add to the colonists' supplies (presumably they had enough food for themselves). In any case, there is NO MENTION OF TURKEYS in the entire account of the first Thanksgiving feast.

During the Indians' four days stay, they played games with the settlers (how about a bloodless match of Hunger Games? Oh, wait, there's food so…), ate, and probably drank (we can only guess…).