Thanksgiving commemorates one of the strongest early alliances established between indigenous American tribes and European settlers. Intertribal Chief (Sachem) Massasoit of the Wampanoag (Pokanoket or Wôpanâak) and Governor John Carver of the Plymouth settlers famously adopted this historic peace treaty in 1621. The treaty called for non-aggression between the two peoples (including approaching each other unarmed), the return of stolen property, a guarantee of mutual aid in any wars, and if anyone committed crimes against the other group, the offenders would be remanded to the legal process of the other. The pilgrims held a harvest festival in the fall, giving thanks for their survival, and it was attended by ninety of the Wampanoag.
It was a significant milestone for the two peoples. By 1620, Massasoit’s confederation was imperiled by the larger and stronger Narragansett tribe; and had suffered significant losses from an unknown disease (most likely leptospirosis or smallpox). At the same time, the Plymouth colony had lost half of their members due to starvation, scurvy, and contact with untreatable new diseases, as well. Both leaders consulted their religious advisors, fearing that the deaths were a supernatural punishment for some sin. However, both the Christian and animist holy men, after much prayer and divination, could find no clear spiritual signs of either a cause or potential course of action for their troubles. Reluctantly, both Massasoit Sachem and Governor Carver turned to diplomacy, seeking a temporal and secular solution to their deteriorating positions. Noting the presence of women and children among the pilgrims, Massasoit correctly intuited that they planned to live as permanent settlers, rather than being a military party forming a temporary garrison, and decided to approach them.
Massasoit Sachem sent Samoset, an Abenaki-tribe sagamore who had learned English from White fishermen, to feel out the intentions of the pilgrims. He entered the settlement, famously offering greetings and asking for beer. After this tentative encounter had gone well, Massasoit later dispatched Squanto (probably a nickname for Tisquantum), a Patuxet who spoke both Algonquian (the language of the Wampanoag) and fluent English after he had been kidnapped and taken as a slave to Spain in 1614, subsequently escaping to England and finally returning to his homeland. Negotiating through Squanto, Massasoit and Carver adopted their formal treaty on March 22, 1621. It was a peace that would last more than fifty years after Squanto’s death.
Their alliance offered substantial protection for the Wampanoag from the much stronger Narragansetts; giving them access to firearms and allies and giving Massasoit’s confederation relative regional safety. It also imbued the Plymouth settlers with the skills they desperately needed to farm America-native crops, particularly corn, and hunt native eels. All contemporary sources credit this alliance with the Plymouth colony’s survival in the face of impending starvation. Later in the year, the signatories participated in the first Thanksgiving feast. The fifty surviving pilgrims threw a multi-day harvest festival, and ninety Wampanoag (including Massasoit himself) joined them. There is some disagreement whether they had been explicitly invited, if they had overheard the pilgrim’s celebratory gunfire and came to investigate, or if they came as a routine diplomatic envoy and happened on the celebration. Regardless, they were welcomed to the feast and contributed food of their own. The Wampanoag brought five deer for the meal, which also included wild turkeys, geese, ducks, eels, shellfish, cornbread, succotash, squash, berries, wild plums, and maple sugar. The festivities included games and prayers. Whether the harvest festival had originally been intended to give thanks for each other, that was its result.
The treaty the two powers had signed was more than a formality, and much more than a non-aggression pact. Late in 1621, the Plymouth colonists heard a rumor that Massasoit himself had been kidnapped by Corbitant, an upstart Wampanoag leader; and a war party under Myles Standish immediately marched to rescue (or at least avenge) him. Massasoit had actually evaded Corbitant, but Squanto was among the captives, who Standish rescued. In the winter of 1623, Massasoit fell ill, and the pilgrims sent their doctors to treat him. Even the governor at the time, Edward Winslow, personally brought him broth until he recovered. Later, the Wampanoag gave the pilgrims forewarning of a war party of Massachusett warriors led by Pecksuot, who were advancing to destroy the Plymouth colony. With the Wampanoag’s critical intelligence, the colony was successfully defended. And most famously, in the Pequot War of 1636-38, the Wampanoag had made an uneasy alliance with their old foes the Narragansett, to resist the aggressive expansion of the Pequot. When they declared war the pilgrims, including Standish, marched with them and helped obliterate the Pequot tribe. The perhaps two hundred Pequot survivors were taken by the Wampanoag and Narragansett as slaves, and today there are less than 2,000 of their descendants left.
Eventually, after the deaths of the long-lived Massasoit Sachem and Governor William Bradford, subsequent conflicts, abuses, tensions, and disease caused the five-decade peace to deteriorate, and the former allies went to war, with disastrous results for the Wampanoag. Today, only about 4,500 Wampanoag descendants remain, most of whom live on Martha’s Vineyard.
Given the extended period of cooperation, the language of the Wampanoag is particularly well preserved compared to those of other tribes; it is an offshoot of Algonquian. Although no indigenous society had a written language before European contact, several began to develop, and the Wampanoag quickly saw the advantages of creating their own lasting written language and records. By the 1640s, documents, mostly of a religious nature, were being published by European settlers in Wampanoag Algonquian for native consumption, eventually leading to the first native language Bible (translated and printed in 1663). The people under Massasoit also realized writing was a way to improve their own intratribal lives, separate entirely from communication with European settlers. During the time of the peace treaty, Wampanoag peoples began to write their own internal civil documents, including wills and deeds. These documents, some of the earliest created by indigenous peoples, have been instrumental in preserving their dialect and culture. The innovation allowed natives to better assert their rights, both to settlers and among themselves.
The library offers many resources for the study of indigenous peoples – from tribes and their customs, to peace and war, to friendships and betrayals. Databases like Early Encounters in North America, Sabin Americana: History of the Americas, 1500–1926, and Colonial America offer articles, essays, primary sources, maps, and more. Major reference works like Handbook of North American Indians include in-depth explorations of every tribe, by region.
Books that explore the Wampanoag, Chief Massasoit, the first Thanksgiving, and indigenous culture at the beginning of European contact include Good News from New England by Edward Winslow (Scholarly Edition), The Columbia Guide to American Indians of the Northeast by Kathleen Bragdon, Massasoit of the Wampanoags by Alvin G. Weeks, On Plymouth Rock by Samuel A. Drake, Subjects unto the Same King: Indians, English, and the Contest for Authority in Colonial New England by Jenny Hale Pulsipher, and They Knew They Were Pilgrims: Plymouth Colony and the Contest for American Liberty by John G. Turner.
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