The Real Story Behind the Wampanoag-Pilgrim Alliance

Thanksgiving evokes images: the Pilgrims and Native Americans together in great fellowship over a feast. However, the actual history behind the relationship between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag is a bit larger and more multi-dimensional. This was no friendly gesture but an agreement on survival during the hardships, diseases, and fluctuating power balance in New England during the 17th century. We’ll go back to the Wampanoag-Pilgrim alliance in detail: considering their motives, the main actors, and the long-term effects of this historical partnership.

The Background of the Wampanoag People and Their Land
The Wampanoag Nation was an established and thriving culture in what is now southeastern Massachusetts, including Cape Cod and the islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. The Wampanoag lived in villages ruled by a sachem, or chief, in a confederation of loosely allied tribes with an estimated population between 30,000 and 50,000. They practiced agriculture, planting crops like corn, beans, and squash, and supplemented their diets with hunting and fishing.

Up until the time right before the Pilgrims actually arrived, the Wampanoag were suffering great losses due to a mysterious epidemic-the result of contact with European traders. An epidemic like this could sweep through from 1616 to 1619, wiping out as much as 90% of the Native population around this area. During this disease, most villages were entirely vacant, denting those remaining people of Wampanoag with a feeling of vulnerability, since neighboring tribes, such as the Narragansett, were not as affected.

The Coming of the Pilgrims and First Contact
The Pilgrims arrived in Plymouth in December of 1620 and were at their most desperate stage of needing assistance. The Atlantic crossing had been grueling, and the settlers were ill-prepared for a brutal winter with food supplies limited. The first winter saw the death of almost half of the passengers who traveled on the Mayflower due to starvation, cold, and disease. As spring neared, the survivors were anxious to establish a connection that would be advantageous to survival.

The Wampanoag had regarded these newcomers with curiosity and wariness. They had kept their distance initially, apparently uncertain about what these newcomers were all about. As they watched the hardships of the Pilgrims, they began to realize a mutually advantageous partnership might be in order. The leader of the Wampanoag, Massasoit, knew the strategic advantage of forming an alliance with the new arrivals-the best counterbalance, he knew, against the Narragansett, an increasingly hostile neighboring tribe.

Key Players: Massasoit, Squanto, and Samoset
Three men were particularly instrumental in forging and maintaining the Wampanoag-Pilgrim alliance: Massasoit, Squanto, and Samoset.

Massasoit: The sachem of the Wampanoag, Massasoit, was the able diplomat who looked upon an alliance with the Pilgrims serving useful purposes. Indeed, he found them to be well-armed with powerful weaponry and with European knowledge that would come in handy in strengthening the Wampanoag defenses against hostile neighbors. What Massasoit wanted was not only to maintain peace but also to strengthen the position of the Wampanoag in the region.
Squanto: Probably the most well-recognized intermediary between the two groups, he was a Patuxet who previously had been captured by an English explorer, Thomas Hunt, and sold into slavery in Spain. He later made his way to England, where he learned to speak the English language, and afterward returned to his homeland only to find his village wiped out by the epidemic. Squanto joined Massasoit, who decisively helped introduce the Pilgrims to the Wampanoag and taught the Pilgrims some survival skills in corn planting and fishing techniques that finally led to the survival of the Pilgrims in this New World.
Samoset Abnaki from Maine Samoset was the first Indian to contact the Pilgrims. He had learned some English from previous English fishermen. This allowed him to speak directly with the Pilgrims when he appeared at their settlement in March 1621. Samoset’s friendly overture helped grease the wheels for the more complex diplomatic maneuverings to come with Massasoit and Squanto.

The Terms of the Alliance
On March 22, 1621, the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag signed a treaty that sealed a formal alliance between both parties. The treaty, by its very conditions, was premised upon mutual defense and non-aggression: to wit, that neither would harm the other and thus reserve any forms of punishment for their own.
Mutual Defense: In case one of them suffered an attack, the other would aid in defense. The term was quite vital to Massasoit, who had been trying to protect his people against hostile tribes.
Restitution for Theft: Both sides agreed to return any property stolen by either side. In this way, issues regarding property could not give rise to violence.
This necessity-born treaty represented a very rare cooperative gesture and gave way to a brief period of peace in the area. This alliance helped the Pilgrims get through their second winter and allowed the Wampanoag to strengthen their defenses against rival tribes.

The First Thanksgiving and What It Signified
In the fall of 1621, the Pilgrims invited Massasoit and about 90 of his people to join them in a three-day harvest feast. What would later be described as the “First Thanksgiving” was less a celebration than a mark of gratitude and alliance. The Pilgrims had survived, thanks in large measure to the aid of their Wampanoag allies, and the feast offered a moment of mutual goodwill and survival.

Romanticized though this feast may be, it was not a recurring yearly event, neither was considered as a legal “Thanksgiving” in the meaning we have today. It was, instead, a single harvest festival, and both groups shared in the bounty of the season, including venison provided by the Wampanoag and fowl which the Pilgrims were able to provide.

The Fragility of the Alliance
Although there was indeed an alliance between the Wampanoag and the Pilgrims that had endured for many decades, it was never more than tenuous. As more settlers came to New England, disputes began to arise between the Wampanoag and the English settlers over land and other resources. The English settlers viewed land ownership in a fundamentally different way from the Native American practice and thus, there were disputes and misunderstandings.

The settlers expanded in numbers and power, increasingly intruding upon Wampanoag lands and resources, the alliance gradually unraveled. In the 1670s this friction exploded into King Philip’s War, one of the bloodiest Native American-settler conflicts in New England. In defense of Native land and self-determination, Massasoit’s son, Metacom, traditionally known to the English as King Philip, led a rebellion against the colonists. The war ended in disaster for the Wampanoag and the other tribes involved. This effectively marked the end of Native resistance in New England.

Legacy of the Wampanoag-Pilgrim Alliance
The alliance between the Wampanoags and the Pilgrims is one of those pieces in American history that call to the fore all the complexities of the early colonial interactions. A necessity-driven alliance at first, it helped the Pilgrims survive and established a period of peace. Yet, the alliance foreshadowed the tragic conflicts and displacement that would later characterize relations between Native Americans and European settlers.

Today, that alliance is remembered in cooperation and as a cautionary tale of cultural misunderstanding and the fragility of peace. The Wampanoag endure-they are a people with a heritage and resilience that has made it through centuries of adversity. The real story of the Wampanoag-Pilgrim alliance reminds us to dig deeper into history for the hopeful moments and hardships alike that shaped America’s early days.