So everyone has heard about the story of the “First Thanksgiving”,  let’s go back and refresh your memory. We were all taught that Native Americans and English colonizers came together and shared a huge feast. The Native Americans showed the English people how to make their food in the new country.

Sadly, that isn’t the full story. It all started in 1619, but we were all told different dates, such as 1637, 1623, and 1621. The popular telling of the initial harvest festival lived on thanks to Abraham Lincoln. Thanksgiving came from the Native Americans trying to make peace with the English people so they wouldn’t take their land. The English colonizers still took over and stole the Natives’ land. Lots of Native Americans were killed, enslaved, and the leaders of the Wampanoag tribe were beheaded. There was an alliance made, but it was only made because the English colonizers traded disease-infested blankets for food.

The kicker is, the English people KNEW the blankets were infested with deadly diseases. The Thanksgiving we know today is very different from what we were taught in elementary and middle school.