In September 1620, 102 men, women and children sailed from England to America. Some of the emigrants were Puritans and they were leaving to escape religious persecution. They left the port of Plymouth in England on a ship called the "Mayflower". The ship was old and the voyage was stormy. Two months later, the Mayflower landed at Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The travelers found a site nearby and settled there. They called it Plymouth Colony. At first, life was very hard. It was winter the ground was frozen. They had very little farming equipment and not enough food. Half the colonists died. But the others survived, thanks to help from local native Americans. The native Americans showed the colonists how and where to plant corn (maize), pumpkins and beans. They showed them how to catch fish and hunt deer and turkeys. The next year, after their first harvest, the colonists invited their native American friends to a great feast to thank God for their survival. This was the first Thanksgiving. Today, Thanksgiving is still a national holiday in the United States. The colonists became know as the Pilgrims.

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    When the Pilgrims crossed the Atlantic Ocean in 1620, they landed on the rocky shores of a territory that had been previously inhabited by the Wampanoag (Wam pa NO ag) Indians. The Wampanoags were part of the Algonkian-speaking peoples, a large group that was part of the Woodland Culture area. These Indians lived in villages along the coast of what is now Massachusetts and Rhode Island. They lived in round- roofed houses called wigwams. These were made of poles covered with flat sheets of elm or birch bark. Wigwams differ in construction from tipis that were used by Indians of the Great Plains. The Wampanoags moved several times during each year in order to get food. In the spring they would fish in the rivers for salmon and herring. In the planting season they moved to the forest to hunt deer and other animals. After the end of the hunting season people moved inland where there was greater protection from the weather. From December to April they lived on food that they stored during the earlier months.

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    The Wampanoags also treated each other with respect. Any visitor to a Wampanoag home was provided with a share of whatever food the family had, even if the supply was low. This same courtesy was extended to the Pilgrims when they met. We can only guess what the Wampanoags must have thought when they first saw the strange ships of the Pilgrims arriving at the shore. But their custom was to help visitors, and they treated the newcomers with courtesy. The kindness of the Wampanoags helped the pilgrims to survive. The wheat the Pilgrims had brought with them to plant would not grow in the rocky soil. They needed to learn new ways for a new world, and the man who came to help them was called "Tisquantum" (Tis SKWAN tum) or "Squanto" (SKWAN  toe). Squanto was originally from the village of Patuxet (Pa TUK et) and a member of the Pokanokit Wampanoag nation. Patuxet once stood on the exact site where the Pilgrims built Plymouth.

    In 1605, fifteen years before the Pilgrims came, Squanto went to England with a friendly English explorer named John Weymouth. He had many adventures and learned to speak English. Squanto came back to New England with Captain Weymouth. Later Squanto was captured by a British slaver who raided the village and sold Squanto to the Spanish in the Caribbean Islands. A Spanish Franciscan priest became his friend and helped him to get to Spain and later on a ship to England. Squanto then found Captain Weymouth, who paid his way back to his homeland.

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    Squanto was hunting along the beach near Patuxet. He was afraid to see people from England in his deserted village. For several days, he stayed nearby observing the newcomers. Finally he decided to approach them. He walked into the village and said "welcome", The Pilgrims were very surprised to meet someone who spoke English. The Pilgrims were not in good condition and they obviously needed help. Squanto, who probably knew more English than any other Indian in North America at that time, decided to stay with the Pilgrims for the next few months and teach them how to survive in this new place.  He pointed out poisonous plants and showed how other plants could be used as medicine. He explained how to dig and cook clams, how to get sap from the maple trees, use fish for fertilizer, and dozens of other skills needed for their survival.

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Captain Miles Standish, the leader of the Pilgrims, invited Squanto, Samoset, Massasoit (the leader of the Wampanoags), and their immediate families to join them for a celebration, but they had no idea how big Indian families could be. As the Thanksgiving feast began, the Pilgrims were overwhelmed by the number of relatives Squanto and Samoset brought with them (about ninety). The Pilgrims were not prepared to feed all these people for three days.  Thus it happened that the Indians supplied the majority of the food: five deer, many wild turkeys, fish, beans, squash, corn soup, corn bread, and berries . Captain Standish sat at one end of a long table and the Clan Chief Massasoit sat at the other end. For the first time the Wampanoag people were sitting at a table to eat instead of on mats or furs on the ground. The Indian women sat together with the Indian men to eat.

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