Choose one thing to read, watch, listen to, do, or engage with today. Try to mix it up each day between the categories!

READ

The Real Thanksgiving Story PDF with the only two primary sources describing the events of autumn 1621 in Plymouth. Pilgrim Hall Museum (year unknown)

For analysis, read Colonists at the First Thanksgiving Were Mostly Men Because Women Had Perished by Sarah Pruitt history.com (2018)

WATCH

Everything You Know About Thanksgiving is WRONG Franchesca Ramsey shares some real history about the myth-filled US holiday called Thanksgiving Decoded (2015) 4 minutes T CC

Native American Girls Describe the REAL History Behind Thanksgiving 6 Native American girls teach us the REAL history of Thanksgiving Teen Vogue (2016) 2 minutes T CC

Justice for Aboriginal Peoples: It’s Time A short history of Indigenous life before first contact. PSAC-AFPC (2011) 6 minutes T CC

LISTEN

Morning Show On WJOP With Mary Jacobsen, Claudia A. Fox Tree (Arawak), Penny Lazarus & Brian Greenberg discuss Thanksgiving inaccuracies, history, and truths about The National Day of Mourning WJOP (2019) 60 minutes

BRING IT HOME

Order Colonization and the Wampanoag Story by Linda Coombs (Wampanoag) 4th grade chapter book (2023)

Order one of these Busting Thanksgiving Myths! books

Read and review Debbie Reese’s website for tips about Thanksgiving books

21-Day Questions

When was the “first Thanksgiving?”
Why was the myth created?

National Day of Mourning in Plymouth, MA

DO

Attend a Day of Mourning/ Remembrance on Thanksgiving Day

If you’re Indigenous, consider starting a Day of Mourning/ Remembrance on Thanksgiving Day [Massachusetts example HERE]

EXPLORE & REFLECT

Reflect on the J.L.G. Ferris p1932 painting titled

The First Thanksgiving 1621

21-Day Questions

For which period is this a primary source?
What is the difference between “origin” stories and “arrival” stories?
What happened between settlers and Indigenous
Peoples in the early 1900s in the U.S. that caused these paintings to be made?