Nov
25

Sidedoor: That brunch in the forest

Everything you know is wrong. Well, maybe not everything, but when it comes to the story of the first Thanksgiving, pretty much.

Graphic for Sidedoor 3.8

In 1621, a group of Pilgrims and Native Americans came together for a meal that many Americans call “The First Thanksgiving.” But get this—it wasn’t the first, and the meal itself wasn’t so special either. The event was actually all but forgotten for hundreds of years…until it was dusted off to bolster the significance of a new national holiday: Thanksgiving. This time on Sidedoor, we talk to Paul Chaat Smith, a curator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, to explore how much of what you think you know about Native Americans may be more fiction than fact.

Related posts:

Graphic for Sidedoor Episode 3.8The Invention of Thanksgiving How to Tell the Thanksgiving Story on Its 400th Anniversary Graphic for Sidedoor Episode 3.8That brunch in the forest Resized graphic for Americans exhibitionNot American Indians. Not Native Americans. Just Americans.

Posted: 25 November 2020
About the Author:

Jessica Sadeq has worked in the Central Office of Public Affairs since June 2007. She is the Marketing Manager for the Office of Communications and External Affairs.