Most Americans think of Pilgrims and Indians peacefully sitting
down to a feast. Schools recreate the event with stereotypical
Indian feathers and fake Pilgrim hats, and images of turkeys and
pumpkin pie enter people's heads. Before I continue, Virginia
disputes this scene as being the first Thanksgiving as Berkeley
plantation had a similar gathering in 1619, more than a year
before the often recreated harvest celebration in Massachusetts.
There are also a couple of places in the former Spanish colonies
that claim the first Thanksgiving in the 16th century, and those
of us who study history are generally aware that many of the
indigenous people, commonly called Indians, had feasts giving
thanks for thousands of years before the arrival of any
colonists. What most people regard as the "first" Thanksgiving
was created as an official holiday in 1863 by Abraham Lincoln
during the American Civil War. The original feast was a three-
day affair in the autumn of 1621. First off, the Pilgrims
weren't called by that nam