Think you know the history of the first Thanksgiving? Here are 5 surprising holiday facts

Thanksgiving might seem like a day with a simple message of togetherness, but the history about the holiday is vague. Much of the known information about what’s widely regarded as the first Thanksgiving in 1621 comes from two brief, limited accounts.

There are more question marks than answers about that first Thanksgiving, so McClatchy did some digging and talked with experts for a history fact check.

Here’s what we found:

The role of women at the first Thanksgiving is not well-understood

The Plymouth settlement, in what is now Massachusetts, was once known as Patuxet by the locals. This is where what is widely considered to have been the first Thanksgiving took place. It is unclear exactly how many women were present, and what their roles were.

The women among the English settlers were the few survivors of their gender from the Mayflower ship that had arrived in 1620. They made up part of the approximately 100 passengers and were listed as wives, daughters and maids on the voyage. However, by the autumn of 1621, only about half of those passengers were still alive. Most were men.

In fact, only four English women hosted that first Thanksgiving feast — cooking, cleaning and serving over 140 people — according to the New England Historical Society. That included 90 Wampanoag men and their leader, Ousamequin, and about 50 Englishmen.

It is unclear whether Indigenous Wampanoag women or children joined the gathering, or if children helped with hosting the three-day gathering.

The first Thanksgiving was largely unplanned

The surviving Plymouth pilgrims were certainly gearing up for a celebration after miraculously bringing in a harvest; that much is clear from the historical record. In fact, four men from the colony hunted every type of fowl they could find, according to the primary historical records of the event. In one day, they found enough to feed the group for a week. That was then followed by a fair amount of celebratory shooting.

In fact, it may have been the shooting by the settler’s militia, according to some historians, that alarmed the local Wampanoag tribe (known today as the Mashpee Wampanoag), who lived in and oversaw the region. The Wampanoag Chief Ousamequin (often erroneously referred to by the Wampanoag word for a high-level leader, massasoit) was among them. In fact, Ousamequin showed up to that first Thanksgiving with about 90 Wampanoag warriors.

The warriors and Ousamequin would ultimately contribute five deer they hunted, and stay with the pilgrims for three days.

Actually, a surprise visit from the Wampanoag was not unusual. Just a couple of months before that first Thanksgiving, the British had actually sent Ousamequin and his people a request to not stop by unannounced so frequently.

Patuxet, or Plymouth, was under Ousamequin’s regional authority

About six months before the first Thanksgiving, the British and Ousamequin struck a mutual agreement, a treaty, meant to govern their mutual relations.

According to experts, the wording of the treaty was likely interpreted differently by both sides. Some historians believe that Ousamequin likely saw it as confirmation of his broad regional authority. He and his people had already lived in the area for about 12,000 years.

British settlers and leadership, who carefully crafted the wording in English, likely saw it as an assertion of British authority and law that they’d brought with them from England, say some experts.

“The treaty also implies that they will answer to the King’s law, so the rule of the crown would be imposed,” said Paula Peters, a citizen of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe and an independent scholar of Wampanoag history, in an email to McClatchy News. “I’m pretty sure that if that point was made clear to Ousamequan he would not have agreed to cede his authority to that small band of wash ashores.”

Despite the convoluted communication, the Wampanoag and English were on relatively good terms at the time of the first Thanksgiving, but the perspective on the power dynamic likely differed between the two groups.

“I think the Thanksgiving feast was meant to affirm an alliance,” said historian James Adams of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Native American History, in an interview. In fact, Adams asserts that the 90 warriors and Ousamequan were out making tribute collections from residents in the region.

“The Wampanoag thought they were in charge of the colonists,” Adams said, pointing out that at Thanksgiving the Wampanoag outnumbered the British by more than double.

Just a decade later, the dynamic drastically changed with a steady influx of more European settlers.

Native Americans gather in mourning at Plymouth annually

A bronze statue of Ousamequin that stands at current-day Plymouth, Massachusetts, on what is known as Cole’s Hill is a longtime gathering place of mourning for some Indigenous peoples every year around Thanksgiving.

That mourning is partially rooted in the rapid deterioration of Wampanoag-British relations, particularly after that first Thanksgiving. The conflicts led to the near-annihilation of the Wampanoag people and their way of life.

“It was a very promising beginning that turned into one of the bloodiest wars on the continent,” Adams said about the group relations that devolved into violence.

The mourning gatherings started in 1970, on the 350th anniversary of the Mayflower’s arrival, and have continued every year since.

“Wampanoag people still gather in Plymouth on the fourth Thursday of November to honor their ancestors and remember the sacrifices made by them,” Peters said.

Most Thanksgiving history is based on two accounts

The exact details about the first Thanksgiving are very few and far between, as the two primary historical records of the event: “Mourt’s Relation,” written by Plymouth Governor Edward Winslow and others, and “Of Plimouth Plantation” written by William Bradford. Both were subject to the influence of propaganda pressures of the time, which were meant to encourage more settlers to venture into the wilderness of the new world.

In fact, “Mourt’s Relation” was part of a recruitment pamphlet published and distributed in England a couple of years after the first Thanksgiving. It was slim on details and glossed over hard realities, as was common at the time.

Section two of “Mourt’s Relation” does shed some light on the theory that Wampanoag stopped by unannounced while the English were preparing a feast. Uncertain of their fate, the English typically welcomed the visitors.

“But whereas his people came very often, and very many together unto us, bringing for the most part their wives and children with them, they were welcome,” wrote Winslow. “...yet we being but strangers as yet at Patuxet, alias New Plymouth, and not knowing how our corn might prosper, we could no longer give them such entertainment as we had done, and as we desired still to do.”