The Indigenous people who were present at the 1621 event later mythologized as the “First Thanksgiving” were primarily the Wampanoag , led by the sachem Massasoit and accompanied by an estimated 90 Wampanoag men.

Who the Wampanoag Were

The Wampanoag are an Indigenous nation whose homelands include what is now southeastern Massachusetts and parts of Rhode Island, including the area around Plymouth where the English colonists settled.

They had lived there for thousands of years before the arrival of the Pilgrims and maintained complex political, diplomatic, and trade relationships with neighboring Native nations.

What Happened in 1621

Surviving accounts describe a three-day harvest gathering in 1621 at Plymouth, where Wampanoag people and English colonists shared food and were present together.

Massasoit arrived with around 90 Wampanoag warriors and contributed much of the food, including deer and local seafood, to what later became remembered as the “First Thanksgiving.”

Beyond the Simple Thanksgiving Story

Many historians emphasize that the 1621 meeting occurred in the middle of tense power struggles, disease, and land loss that had already begun devastating Indigenous communities.

Native writers and educators point out that later violence, broken treaties, and dispossession mean the holiday’s popular story often obscures the harsh realities the Wampanoag and other Indigenous nations faced afterward.

How Indigenous Perspectives View This Event

From Indigenous perspectives, Thanksgiving is often discussed as a reminder of both long-standing Native traditions of giving thanks and the painful history of colonization that followed contact.

Some Native communities use the day to mourn, educate about Wampanoag and broader Indigenous history, and reclaim their own narratives about the 1621 gathering and its legacy.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.