A Timeline of the REAL THANKSGIVING story: Massacres, Betrayals & Colonial Violence

1616-1619 The Great Dying : Before the Pilgrims ever showed up, European traders brought diseases that wiped out up to 90% of Native people in coastal New England. This created weakened nations and opened the door for colonial takeover. The Pilgrims interpreted this as “God clearing the land” for them. Y

1620- Pilgrims Arrive at Plymouth: This wasn’t a cheerful Hallmark landing. They found empty Wampanoag villages-because everyone had recently died from disease. They looted food stores and raves to survive their first winter.

1621- THE Thanksgiving (The Friendly Feast Story): Yes, there was a peaceful harvest meal. But it did not represent unity. It was a brief diplomatic gesture between the Wampanoag (led by Massasoit) and the Pilgrims who needed Native knowledge to survive.

THIS PEACE DIDN’T LAST

1630’s – Land Encroachment & Broken Agreements: As more Puritans arrived, colonists claimed land that wasn’t theirs, imposed English law, and treated Native nations as subjects instead of equals. The Wampanoag and other tribes quickly realized the English were not “visitors”- they were occupiers.

1636-The Spar of the Pequot War: A colonial trader named John Oldham was killed. Colonists blamed the Pequot with weak evidence. This became the pretext for war. Colonial leaders wanted the Pequots’ land, and this was their excuse.

May 26,1637- The Mystic Massacre (The Thanksgiving They Don’t Mention): This is the event most tied to the “Thanksgiving massacre story”.

* At dawn, English forces surrounded a Pequot village at Mystic River.

* They set it on fire while hundreds of Pequot families slept.

* Anyone running out was shot, stabbed, or cut down.

Between 400-700 Pequot men, women, and children were killed in a few hours. Mass colonial murder, not a battle. Governor John Winthrop the declared a “Day of Thanksgiving” for this victory. Yes-Thanksgiving was literally proclaimed to celebrate this massacre.

1638-Slavery & Divide and Conquer: Surviving Pequot people were :

• Sold into slavery in the Caribbean
• Given to rival tribes as trophies
• forced into servitude in colonial homes

Another official “Thanksgiving” celebration marked the “end” of the Pequots as a people.

1640s-1670s- Expansion, Violence & Broken Promises:

Colonists continued:

• Seizing land
• Forcing religious conversion
• Pushing English law over Native sovereignty
• Using diplomacy as a backdoor for domination

Every peace treaty was eventually violated.

1675-1676-ing Philip’s War: Led by Metacom (Massasoit’s son), New England tribes finally pushed back and colonists responded with brutal force. Thousands of Native people were killed and many survivors were enslaved and native resistance in New England was crushed. After Metacom was killed, colonists declared yet another “Day of Thanksgiving”, again celebrating the death of Native people.

Late 1600s-1800s-Thanksgiving Becomes Sanitized: Over generations the violent origin story was softened, Christianized, rewritten and turned into a cozy myth of “unity” Indigenous suffering? Erased. Colonial brutality? Rebranded as “Gods’ Providence”.

1863- Lincoln Nationalizes Thanksgiving: Abraham Lincoln declares Thanksgivng a national holiday- not because of Pilgrims, but to boost morale during the Civil War. By this point, the myth was fully cooled, served, and sweetened with sentimentality.

Today-Indigenous National Day of Mourning

Since 1970, many Native communities have observed Thanksgiving as a Day of Mourning honoring ancestors lost to genocide, disease,slavery and cultural destruction. THE BOTTOM LINE IS Thanksgiving didn’t start as a sweet harvest dinner. It was formalized during a massacre, reinforced during another massacre, and nationalized during a war.

The myth is cozy.

The truth is not.