Podcast Summary: American History Hotline Episode: "Is Thanksgiving a Feast of Lies?! Historian David J. Silverman Separates Myth from Truth"
Host: Bob Crawford
Guest: David J. Silverman
Date: November 19, 2025

Overview

In this episode, Bob Crawford dives deep into the origins and myths of Thanksgiving with historian David J. Silverman, author of This Land Is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving. Together, they unpack the common narratives, explore the real historical context of the so-called "First Thanksgiving," and consider how these stories shape American identity and the national holiday. Silverman unpacks the complex motives and experiences of both Pilgrims and Wampanoags, challenges the sentimental mythologies attached to the holiday, and discusses how the Thanksgiving story became central to American culture while often erasing Indigenous voices.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Popular Thanksgiving Narrative vs. Reality

• Common Narrative (06:13–08:09):

  • The widely taught story recounts Pilgrims seeking religious freedom, landing at Plymouth, befriending anonymous “Indians,” and hosting a peaceful, celebratory feast after a successful harvest—symbolizing peaceful colonial beginnings and progress toward American democracy.
  • Silverman: “It’s a story about bloodless colonialism … designed to make us feel proud of America and its colonial beginnings.” (07:21)

• What Actually Happened (08:12–13:30):

  • An alliance did form between the Plymouth settlers and the Wampanoags, but the feast narrative is skewed. The Wampanoags weren’t invited—they showed up, likely in response to gunfire from the colonists’ celebrations.
  • The Wampanoags had suffered catastrophic losses from an epidemic (possibly smallpox) before the Pilgrims’ arrival, making them strategically vulnerable to their rivals, the Narragansetts.
  • Silverman: “It is not a matter of the Natives just happen to be friendly. They are in a desperate position, and they're making a strategic decision for their own preservation.” (13:21)

Indigenous Agency and Strategic Decisions

• Native Strategic Thinking (14:13–16:18):
  • Native nations analyzed the potential benefits of European arrivals and sought alliances for their own aims, not as passive recipients.
  • Native polities acted independently, often seeking military or economic advantage over regional rivals via relationships with colonists.
  • Silverman: “They don't see themselves as Indians or Native Americans or indigenous people ...They are divided into hundreds of different polities, and these polities usually are no larger than 20 or 30,000 people. And they're constantly at odds with one another...” (14:58)

The Peace Treaty: Misunderstandings and Limitations

• Differing Interpretations (16:18–19:26):
  • The peace treaty between the English and Wampanoags had clauses that were alien concepts to the Wampanoags (e.g., becoming subjects to King James, which had no contextual meaning).
  • Actual Wampanoag behavior post-treaty shows they didn’t consider themselves English subjects or accept English legal authority.
  • Silverman: “The notion that they would turn over any members of their community to a foreign people's mode of justice is simply nonsense.” (18:37)

The First Thanksgiving: Closer Look

• The Context of the Feast (19:40–22:31):

  • Colonists, after a harsh first year, celebrated surviving the harvest, partly using stolen Wampanoag seed corn.
  • During their celebration, gunfire from target practice alarmed the Wampanoags, who arrived with 90 armed men—more than the settlers’ population.
  • Trust had developed to the degree that, rather than violence, a shared feast occurred, with the Wampanoags contributing venison.
  • Silverman: “In almost any other colonial context, a group of 90 native warriors showing up at a colony would have produced a bloodbath… Enough trust had been cultivated... instead of firing on one another, the Wampanoags stay and they contribute some venison to the meal and the two parties feast together. That's this first Thanksgiving.” (21:24)

• No Invitations, No Tables (05:57–06:13 & 22:15–22:43):

  • There was likely no shared table—the event more closely resembled a buffet or “lap eating.”
  • The Wampanoags’ presence wasn’t out of neighborly warmth or a formal invitation, but a pragmatic show of force and necessity.
  • Crawford: “So it'd be like if my drunk neighbor is shooting off his guns on a Sunday afternoon and I go over to his house to see what's going on and he gets out a six pack and says, come on, let's have a couple beers.”
  • Silverman: “It would be like you showing up with a gang and him feeling like he doesn't have any choice but to open the door for you.” (22:43)

The Making of a National Holiday

• Lincoln and the Civil War (27:44–30:13):

  • Thanksgiving only became a national holiday during the Civil War, partly due to advocacy by Sarah Josepha Hale, in hopes of unifying the nation.
  • Prior to Lincoln, days of thanksgiving were New England traditions or responses to specific local events—nothing tied to Pilgrims and Native Americans.
  • Silverman: “Nobody associated the Thanksgiving holiday with Pilgrims and Indians.” (30:11)

• Tourism, Myth-Building, and Primary Sources (30:13–34:45):

  • Plymouth, after the Revolution, sought to boost tourism by emphasizing its Pilgrim history, reenforcing the Pilgrim story and inventing lore like Plymouth Rock.
  • The real connection between Thanksgiving, Pilgrims, and Natives developed after an 1841 publication, when a historian’s footnote (Alexander Young declaring the feast the “first Thanksgiving”) gained surprising cultural traction.
  • The story was spread further by 20th-century school pageants reenacting the myth and embedding it in American consciousness.
  • Silverman: “Somehow this footnote took hold… So that by the time Lincoln makes his pronouncement ...the notion that Thanksgiving began with pilgrims and Indians had begun to capture the public imagination.” (33:11)

The National Day of Mourning

• Indigenous Response & Activism (34:45–39:48):
  • The mythologized Thanksgiving became the dominant story about Native Americans in U.S. education and culture, overshadowing realities of violence and dispossession.
  • Native students, including Wampanoag children, were subjected to reenactments of this myth even in Indian boarding schools, often being told by teachers, “They’re all gone,” even when Native children were present.
  • In response, Frank James, a Wampanoag activist, created the National Day of Mourning in 1970, reframing Thanksgiving as a day of loss and survival rather than celebration.
  • Silverman (on Frank James’ message): “The story that you tell as a triumph is for us, a tragedy. And we are your countrymen and women, and our experience counts, too. Furthermore, he says, recognize we're still here. We haven't gone anywhere, and we still have sovereign rights that we're trying to defend.” (38:09)

Memorable Quotes & Moments

• On the fabricated feast:

  • “There was probably no table.” (Silverman, 05:57)
  • “It's lap eating.” (Silverman, 06:09)

• On the power dynamics:

  • “Native people could have wiped out almost all these places if they had wished to do so. Generally speaking, they did not wish to do so, not at first. They would learn that these people posed an existential threat to them... at the beginning... Europeans are your advantage.” (14:33–15:19)

• On the impact of myth:

  • “It's a bedtime story. It's a fairy tale of colonists and Native people making friends and Native people conceding to their own dispossession. Right. Which is patent nonsense. Colonial America is a bloodbath, quite frankly.” (Silverman, 35:00)

• On the school experience for Native kids:

  • “Almost invariably they say it's followed up by some kid saying, well, where are the Indians? And the teacher saying, oh, well, they're all gone. Even as there's a Wampanoag kid sitting right there...” (36:40)

• On the truth about Thanksgiving:

  • “If we're going to invoke pilgrims and Indians in relation to Thanksgiving holiday, let's get the story straight. We're all grownups. We can deal with the truth, right? But I don't think we have to do that. Who wants to talk about genocide and then serve up a meal?” (41:21)

Important Segment Timestamps

• [05:44–06:13]: The myth of the “table” and the “buffet” reality.
• [08:09–13:30]: Real motivations and context for Wampanoag–Pilgrim alliance.
• [16:28–18:06]: The meanings behind the peace treaty and misunderstandings.
• [19:40–22:31]: How the actual Thanksgiving event unfolded.
• [27:44–30:13]: Abraham Lincoln, Sarah Josepha Hale, and the nationalization of Thanksgiving.
• [30:13–34:45]: The rise of the “Pilgrims and Indians” myth in American culture.
• [34:45–39:48]: The establishment of the National Day of Mourning and Native remembrance.
• [40:43–43:37]: Thoughts on modern Thanksgiving, divisions, and the challenge of reconciling history with holiday.

Final Thoughts

David J. Silverman emphasizes that Thanksgiving's familiar story is a comforting myth that masks a much grimmer reality of colonial dispossession and Indigenous strategic survival. He argues for facing historical complexities with honesty, suggesting that the holiday can still be meaningful if it focuses on gratitude—without resorting to sanitized and exclusionary narratives.

“The myth of the first Thanksgiving is just that. It's a myth. It is not true. What's more, it's an untruth that is deeply insulting to our indigenous countrymen and women. And they've suffered a lot for the creation of this country. They shouldn't have to revisit it every single year.”
(David J. Silverman, 42:59)

For further learning:

• David J. Silverman’s This Land Is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving
• Upcoming: The Chosen and the Damned: Native Americans and the Making of Race in the United States (Feb. 2026)

This summary covers the substantive content of the episode, leaving out promotional segments and focusing on the historical dialogue and analysis provided by Bob Crawford and David J. Silverman.