Thanksgiving is often depicted as a peaceful feast between the native Wampanoag people and the Mayflower Pilgrims. The history, however, involves unity, exclusion and later conflict.
A new generation of historians emphasizes the need to understand the full story of how one of America’s most celebrated holidays of the year came about.
The traditional narrative
The familiar story of the Pilgrims and Wampanoag sharing a meal after a bountiful harvest in 1621 simplifies history.
According to the nonprofit Partnership With Native Americans, the feast lasted three days. It included fowl (but not necessarily turkey), and the Wampanoag attended not by invitation but on concerns over gunfire.
Conflict and exclusion
Within 50 years, relations soured between the colonists and the Wampanoag people, and war broke out. Indigenous people were subsequently enslaved.
When President Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863, it initially excluded minorities. Black Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans and Native Americans were often barred from public celebrations until the Civil Rights Movement.
Indigenous communities began observing a National Day of Mourning in 1970 to highlight the darker side of Thanksgiving, including colonization and genocide.
Modern observances
Since 1970, Indigenous communities have marked a National Day of Mourning to spotlight Thanksgiving’s darker aspects, including colonization and genocide.
Meanwhile, Thanksgiving traditions have evolved in a diverse America.
For instance, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, now the most-watched entertainment program in the US, attracts over 28 million viewers annually, offering an apolitical and carefree spectacle.