The Thanksgiving Story You’re Never Supposed to Hearhope everybody had a happy Thanksgiving. Now, every year I hear the same two stories. One version says the indigenous people were living in perfect harmony until the dirty Pilgrims showed up, ruined everything, and that’s why you shouldn’t celebrate Thanksgiving. The other version is the Hallmark fantasy where the Pilgrims were helpless, the Natives taught them how to eat, and they all sat down for a big loving feast.
Here’s the part you seldom hear.
The Wampanoag people did help the Pilgrims, but not because they were just nice, peace-loving woodland saints. They helped because there was a deal on the table. The Pilgrims offered metal tools, blades, kettles, and the kind of goods that changed everyday life. No guns at this point in history, but iron tools were worth a fortune in power and status.
But the biggest thing on offer was not pots and knives. It was an alliance.
The Wampanoag had been hammered by a brutal epidemic before the Pilgrims ever showed up. Their rivals, especially the Narragansett, had not been hit by the disease. The balance of power had shifted, and Massasoit needed a partner. He needed the Pilgrims as a counterweight. That’s the real engine of the story.
And in return, the Wampanoag gave the Pilgrims what the Pilgrims needed most: food. Knowledge. Access. The only reason that colony survived those early years was because the Wampanoag chose an alliance that benefited them too.
This wasn’t utopia collapsing. It wasn’t saints meeting sinners. It was exactly what human beings have done for thousands of years: two groups trading what they had to survive the world as it actually was.
That’s the Thanksgiving story you almost never hear.
I hope you had a happy Thanksgiving.#ThanksgivingThrowback #BeThankful
