The traditional Thanksgiving story is that some time in the fall of 1621, the settlers at Plymouth, Mass., held a feast to thank God they'd survived their harrowing first year in the New World.
They invited neighboring Indians, who had taught them agricultural skills critical to their survival. Together they celebrated their good fortune with a three-day feast.
The Connecticut Post reports that Trudy Lamb Richmond, director of public programs at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, says there is a problem with the traditional story:
No one invited the Indians.
According to Richmond, the settlers threw the party for themselves. Members of the local Wampanoag tribe arrived only after hearing the English firing their arms in celebration. This view may be historically accurate:
A firsthand account of the original Thanksgiving is provided in "Mourt's Relations," a series of letters written in 1620 and 1621, primarily by settler Edward Winslow.
He writes of a harvest celebration, "at which time amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor."
Some Indians see Thanksgiving as a day for mourning:
"To be honest with you, it's not all that nice a holiday for Native Americans," said Charlie Aspinwall, executive assistant to Chief Quiet Hawk of the Golden Hill Paugussett tribe, which has reservations in Trumbull and Colchester.
"It was the first encounter with the whites and, after that, the whites started killing and decimating Indians," said Aspinwall, a member of the Blackfeet tribe in Montana. "It's the beginning of the end of our society it was all downhill from there."
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