Most of us know some sort of barebones history about the origins of Thanksgiving, that three-day feast in 1621 at the Pilgrim colony in Plymouth, Massachusetts. It included some of the colony’s Native American allies from the Wampanoag tribe and their chief, Massasoit. Taught among other survival skills how to plant corn by English-speaking Squanto (a member of the confederation of Wampanoag tribes), the Pilgrims wanted to celebrate both their survival and their successful harvest.
“The First Thanksgiving,” circa 1912 and circa 1915, by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris. Private Collection. Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division. Public Domain
