The Truth About The First Thanksgiving

The Truth About The First Thanksgiving Every year on November 26th, families get together and celebrate Thanksgiving. They celebrate Thanksgiving thinking about the pilgrims and how they survived in America. They think about how they grew crops and found the food, and then had a huge feast afterward. That is why they think we celebrate Thanksgiving today, but they do not know the real truth about the first Thanksgiving when the pilgrims came over. The story of Thanksgiving has been being told for centuries, some of the information in the stories is not true that is passed down from generation to generation. There are many myths about Thanksgiving that people still think are true to this day. Some of the main information that is misled is about who came to America first and what happened when the pilgrims arrived on the land. (livewiredj.net) The Native Americans were a major part in America long before the pilgrims had even thought about sailing for America. They had been in America over a thousand years before the pilgrims arrived. The Native Americans had learned how to survive through the harsh winter and hot summers. They built adobe houses that would hold heat in for the winter and would keep cool in the summer. They would plow crops into the ground and harvest them in the summer and fall. They would also hunt for food, with bows and arrows, and they would kill deer and buffalo for meat. They would use everything that they killed for food, nothing was ever thrown away. They even used the bones and hides for something. (livewiredj.net) One of the most misled stories during the Thanksgiving time period is about how the pilgrims were some of the first people to ever set foot on land in America. The truth is that the Native Americans had been there for quite some time before the pilgrims even thought about going over to America. The Native Americans had lived in America for a thousand years, and apart from them the Spanish had also settled long before the English pilgrims. People think that the pilgrims settled in Plymouth and started a country later, but the Native Americans and the Spanish had already been there for quite some time. (livewiredj.net) The Native Americans were a huge part to the development of America. They had been living in America long enough that they had learned how to build things and use materials very well to suit their lifestyle. They had their own architecture buildings that were very advanced and modern day. If someone got sick, they knew which type of plant could help them. They had people who went out and got the plants and the doctors that knew how to use it to help the person that was sick. They were very skilled in growing crops also. They had created many fields without tearing out any forests or damaging any land. They found an open area and plowed seeds into the ground and let them grow. That is where a majority of their food came from so they had to do it right. (livewiredj.net) In the story of Thanksgiving everyone tells about how the Indians helped out the pilgrims and that they were all practically one big happy family, but that is not how it happened. There was lots of fighting going on between the Native Americans and the pilgrims at this time. The pilgrims brought over diseases that the Indians were not immune to and they did not know how to cure that disease right away. They brought over various European diseases, like influenza and measles. Some of the Indians died because of the diseases that the pilgrims brought over and that did not go over well with the Indians. The pilgrims also began to take land that the Indians believed to be theirs, so they began to fight over land. Now besides the diseases, they had to watch out for each other because they would attack and try to kill each other. If a pilgrim went out to hunt or plow a field by himself he would most likely not come back because the Indians would find him and either take him hostage or just shoot him. So they had lots of problems with each other at this time period. (livewiredj.net) With all of the fighting and the problems between the pilgrims and the Native Americans, they also were fighting because the pilgrims were trying to teach them their religion and the Native Americans had their own beliefs and culture that they had been following forever. The pilgrims wanted everyone in America to have the same religion and they were trying to teach the Indians their religion, but the Indians did not want to learn it and kept practicing their own religious beliefs. They pilgrims began to get frustrated and decided that there was no hope with dealing with the Indians. So they became like to different countries, the Indians and the pilgrims. (livewiredj.net) In the stories today, people tell how the pilgrims were kind enough to introduce the Native Americans to their Thanksgiving feast and how the Native Americans had never seen such a thing before, but that is not what actually happened. The Native Americans were the ones who knew how to grow the corn, beans, and other types of various foods that were available for them at the first Thanksgiving meal. The pilgrims were the ones who had not seen such a feast before and they were amazed how much food was there. Also the Native Americans had been having harvest celebrations for centuries but Thanksgiving did not start until during the 1890s. (planetblacksburg.com) Today, we teach what is says in the text book and whatever source that it went by, but the whole truth is not in the text books and there are many things that were not in the book that need to be taught. There are many things that need to be involved in the teaching of the first thanksgiving that arenà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢t, like who was here first, the Native Americans and the Spanish, and all sorts of other things. In the textbooks it tells how Squanto was a friendly Indian who learned English and helped the pilgrims, but that is not the truth. Squanto was kidnapped as a young boy and taken to England, and he was then took by a slave holder and sold into Spain. Then Squanto escaped his slave holder and got back to England. When he finally got back to America he had realized that his entire village had been destroyed and the only people left were the British who he had spent most of his life with already. (livewiredj.net) After the British had become comfortable and started to learn how to do things on their own they didnà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢t need the Native Americans or the Spaniards that were there anymore. So the British started to force them to move further and further east, making them give up their own land and their personal lives. The British just took over what was the Native Americans at one time and forced them to have very little and made them live where it was hard to grow crops and the wildlife was scarce. Then there became less and less Native Americans, and they had to live where the British wanted them to live, without any basic needs for a good lifestyle. (planetblacksburg.com) From generation to generation the stories of Thanksgiving have been telling myths. Most of the great story that is told to kids and people during Thanksgiving is mostly made up. The Native Americans were the real ones who started America and learned how to survive. They are the people who started the country that we live in today and the basics things that we still do today like growing crops and hunting. Eley, Nicole. The Truth about Thanksgiving. Planet Blacksburg. Planet Blacksburg, 13 Jan. 2006. Web. 21 Apr. 2011. Harvey, Jennifer. The Truth About Thanksgiving. Unkown. Concordian Online Edition, 19 Nov. 2009. Web. 22 Apr. 2010. http://www.livewiredj.net/concordian/pacercms/article.php?id=1008 Sutter, Richard. The truth about Thanksgiving. Anglocatholic central. Joomla, 15 Nov. 2009. Web. 22 Apr. 2010. the-truth-about-thanksgiving>.