The Thanksgiving Mythology (Mayflower Part II)

While the English settlers we now know as Pilgrims fought to survive the deadly first winter in New England, they were being watched.

They weren't aware they had settled on the ruins of a former Indian village that had recently been wiped out. And they didn't know their fates were being determined by an Indian chief called Massasoit.

Massasoit had no reason to trust the English and considered wiping him out, but may have been stopped by the prompting of a captive of his tribe--a young man who was sole surviving resident of the very town the Pilgrims had claimed as their own. His name was Tisquantum, or as he's more commonly known, Squanto.

Massasoit's and Squanto's decisions ultimately resulted in one of the most fateful alliances in American history and would give rise to the myth we now call Thanksgiving.

The original seal of the colony of Massachusetts.
The Indian is portrayed as saying:
"Come And Help Us."