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400 years after 'First Thanksgiving,' tribe that fed the Pilgrims fights for survival

Federal State And Tribal Powers,Native Americans

From the Center
Analysis

Depending on where you grew up and went to school, you probably learned a different version of the first Thanksgiving.

Generally, it goes something like this: The Pilgrims were facing a rough winter in Massachusetts when a tribe of Native Americans came to their aid, showing them how to plant native crops and forging a future of peace and cooperation between the two groups. In some stories, the Pilgrims gave them something in return (the details vary).

"I think the only way forward is to understand the history the way that it happened," Steven Peters, a spokesman for the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, told USA Today. "At that point, it really changes your perspective."

In recent years, Americans' understanding of history has only begun to acknowledge the oppression, genocide and trauma Native Americans suffered at the hands of European settlers. In several states and parts of the country, Columbus Day has been renamed Indigenous Peoples' Day and dozens of Christopher Columbus statues were removed along with those of slaveholders and racists this summer.

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