Ron Reiff
The beauty of accepted history is: It’s probably not true! In 1621 the Pilgrims and the native Americans did indeed meet for a feast of thanks. But….turkey probably wasn’t on the menu.
According to historians; the Natives brought a deer to the party and the Pilgrims supplied foul. More than likely the birds provided were wild geese, ducks, or pheasants.
Turkey was misnamed by the English. Back in the 1600s, anything coming from the Middle East was said to have come from Turkey. Whether it did or not!
The name simply stuck. After several millennia, who is going to bother to challenge it? Not me!
The tradition of Thanksgiving being celebrated in November goes back to a letter by Sara Hale. She wrote Abraham Lincoln encouraging him to establish a nationwide date for it. Hale was a poet. She wrote the nursery rhyme “Mary Had A Little Lamb.”
Whether you want to believe that the first Thanksgiving featured a turkey is up to you. The cold hard facts are: probably not!
