The true story of the First Thanksgiving 

To support the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project, visit www.wlrp.org/

It's a terrible shame that we don't have a memoir by Tisquantum. With everything he went through from slavery to being one of the first native Americans who spent time in Europe and were able to return home, to the post-apocalyptic wasteland he found when he finally got back. His was a life filled to the brim with tragedy.

The Wampanoag Nation must be congratulated on this language reclamation project and so happy to hear it being supported.

My people, the Yesásahín here in North Carolina, are also doing a language revitalization! Using words we still have, the help of our linguist cousins piecing together the words and backstory of all the words and how we can begin to speak it again! I'm so proud of our Indigenous family, from here in the state to up coast

As a Cherokee, I see this as a moment in time of peace and celebration between the Native people and the English. It was so sad it didn't continue.

As a Haudenosaunee Native American, I very much appreciate you doing this, making an Indigenous dish. While we're used to Frybread, Indian Tacos/Navajo Tacos and similar contemporary dishes, it's amazing to see a dish that was used before the settlers/pilgrims/colonizers arrived. Since it is Native American Heritage month, would it be possible to cook other Indigenous dishes to futher educate others on our cuisine? Anyways, thank you for this video. Much love Max.

Three sisters! Yes! Thank you for talking about this. People are always under the impression that the First Nations were all hunter-gatherers, when they were just as diverse and innovative as any group of European cultures.

I have to say: the hard tack joke actually never gets old😂 I still get a giggle every time!

I know so little about this area, though I’ve lived here most of my life. We were taught a bunch of hogwash as kids, the truth is so horrific! I donated to the project. My respect to them, and to you, Max.

God the hard tack jokes just slaps every. single. time. I love it.

Apparently I had ancestry on both sides here. This was great to see. Interesting and non food related anecdote: One of the Wampanoag stories indicated that, in their time living on the eastern coastline, they encountered men who "sailed down the coast in winged ships who fought with axes" long before the Europeans arrived. Combining that story with the account that one of the Wampanoag members of the tribe who married into my family was described as "Red of hair with fair skin and blue eyes". I have a good guess who they met sailing down the coast years before.

You strike such a great balance with the history and respect for the cultures you share from, acknowledging the past, without living in it in a negative way and using well-placed, gentle humor (Symbiotic Plant Complex is the band name I should’ve used, lol). I raise my tea cup to you, Sir.

To Max or anyone else interested in reading more along the lines of this video, I can only suggest "Changes in the Land" by William Cronon. It's all about the indigenous tribes in New England, Wampanoag included, and how they managed the land before and during contact, and land rights and what not. If you're feeling particularly nerdy, later editions include information on Cronon's methodology, which is cool in the sense that this was one of the first environmental histories. It's also one of the least 'brick' ish books I've had to read for my MA, which is a nice plus.

I am from Mashpee, MA, home of the "People of the First Light". Just wanted to let you know that Plimoth "Plantation" recently changed their name to Plimoth Patuxet. Thanks for doing this piece.

Thanks so much, Max, for your sharing and support of the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project. The eleventh granddaughter of Mattachiest Sachem Iyannough and I have prepared this dish and a few other Wampanoag treats for our annual day of mourning and the more celebratory harvest festival of Cranberry Day. We'll be sharing a 3 sisters salad this year along with oysters farmed at the First Light Shellfish Farm; if they arrive on time. Keep up the good work!

I'm 1/4 Potowatomi and I still remember my grandma telling us the grandkids about how she used to speak her native tongue when she was really young. I was always interested in that. I later learned that it wasn't long after she got put into the catholic boarding school they literally beat it out of the children. It's sad. I've tried to learn some words but the language is hard and is practically dead now.

one of the dishes that my mother who is fascinated with our native heritage, and an old native american historian friend have both specified that was at the first thanksgiving was actually... POPCORN! it was apparently a popular side dish

That is possibly the best Thanksgiving history I have ever seen. You were succinct you did not gloss it over and you did not make it a guilt trip great job Max

When we made this dish with my New England Native Ethnobotany professor, she made it with the cornmeal made into dumplings which were boiled in the stew when it was close to done. It was amazing that way. She also described it being sometimes thickened with acorn flour.

One thing I love about this show is that Max always gives his sources which makes me want to find them and read them myself

I've only discovered your channel somewhat recently, but both the videos and comment sections are a gift. Especially in touching upon such a difficult subject in US history, we can not ignore/simplify the past but face it in an honest and human way. Food has always been a bridge across cultures, a way in giving life, and representing food in an honest way helps us honestly face history as well. The teachings of the three sisters is essential in indigenous cultures, and I am glad people are more widely talking about the lessons that can be learned from it. I recommend for people to read Braiding Sweetgrass for an in-depth understanding into indigenous cultures, which involves food quite a bit. Bravo Max, well done and keep humanizing our history in the best way possible.

Good show with supporting the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project. As a funny, I hope they have a word for "hardtack" somewhere in their documents. And that stew looks great!

It's such a shame that so much indigenous cuisine has disappeared but I've seen a bit more of it lately on RU-vid and cooking shows. Awesome as always Max, nice choice!

How sad that their peaceful co-existence only lasted two generations (a generation being widely accepted as twenty-five years), then all heck broke loose. This was a very well-done video, Max, and the stew looks fantastic. Thank you.

Just a tip when cooking a thick stew like this: you can cook it without stirring if you layer it properly. So in this case, you'd put the polenta on top of the other ingredients. That way the thick stuff can't go to the bottom of the pot, and you'd only have to worry about it burning after you start stirring it up. So you layer it, let all the ingredients simmer, and only stir to finish it all and maybe reduce it a little if it isn't thick enough.

Thank you for making this. As a native man, thanksgiving is bittersweet and always makes me sad for my fellow natives.

This year, I'm thankful for Max always uploading around my lunch break to get me in the meal vibes 🥰

As a non American that did not know that story, it was WILD, equally moving and cruel, wow

Just thinking about the 'three sisters' it makes so much sense. I've had pumpkins (squashes) growing in the garden and they really do take over and shade out the weeds, mostly. Beans being nitrogen fixers would be good for the other 2 and corn providing something to climb for the beans ties it all together. Very cool.

I work with the Ute tribe closely. Their culture is beautiful and rich in traditional customs. I constantly urge the youth to hold onto their ancestral language and history. This country is a more amazing place when we embrace all peoples

I really appreciate you diving into the history of the first Thanksgiving, It's triumphs and tragedies. So much of our history has been colored by marketing and watered down to simple children's stories that's it's always good to get the larger picture of what actually occured without skewing the story for other ends. Thank you Max. You've found the perfect vehicle to deliver education and history and make it relatable and enjoyable.

I find the story of the first thanksgiving so incredibly sad, though inspiring all the same. It's insane that Tisquantum was able to find love in his heart for the Europeans who brought him such pain, and that the settlers and the local tribe were able to so peacefully get along and help each other for that fifty year period. Still it's heartbreaking that humans can switch up on each other so quickly. If only that pact had been maintained for longer, our nation's history might look quite different.

This dish is pretty similar to "Locro", also a common holiday food here in Argentina. It's eaten mainly in independence day (9th of July), 25 de mayo and workers day (1st of may). The main differences are that the corn used is white (although it can vary) and just cracked (not ground), the beans are a big type of lima bean called "pallares", and it uses tough cuts of cow's meat with a lot of bone and connective tissue, and it also uses pig's trotter, pig's skin and "chorizo colorado" (a cured chorizo with a lot of paprika/pimenton).

Great recipe and greater history. Even growing up mere miles from Plymouth, we aren't taught nearly as much as we should about the European/Indigenous history, just that we all became happy friends at Thanksgiving and lived happily ever after. We can all celebrate our family and heritage as Americans on Thanksgiving, but we also must remain wise to the things that happened that they avoid mentioning in "history" class.

Having grown up in Massachusetts, not much of the history part of this episode was new information for me... but I'll be damned if I didn't enjoy it anyway 😁 I'm not sure if this is still the case, since I haven't been there in about fifteen years, but the Robert S. Peabody Museum in Andover, MA used to have the Three Sisters growing in the front of the building (complete with crushed shell fertilizer) as a living example of historical Native American agriculture. If you ever get a chance to visit the Boston area, I HIGHLY recommend checking this museum out.

I descend from the Echota Alabama Cherokee tribe, who were exiled from their lands during the Trail of Tears. Thank you for bringing more Native food history to the channel! Osiyo!

We have a native Floridian of Muskogee creek descent, Jimmy Sawgrass, who teaches about the history of native Indians in south eastern US. He starts every lesson by an introduction in his ancestors native tongue. Good on you, Max, for donating to help bringing life back to a forgotten language. Jimmy Sawgrass would be proud.

This is why we need another Pokémon region based on an area in the continental US... Max is stuck with a Pikachu plush instead of a turkey Pokémon that has yet to exist.

So excited that this is another episode of ‘We don’t actually know the origins of this’ kind of episode. Such fun!

I'm thankful that North America became what it is. Its a haven for prosperity and liberty for most people that live here. It is sobering to think of the violence and lack of mercy that exists in the world, then and now. The Pilgrims and Wampanoag provided us an example of how to live side by side.

i am a 12th generation descendent of Elder William Brewster, who no doubt was present at this first thanksgiving, and i could not be happier to hear about the fact that you're supporting the wampanoag language reclamation project. i lived in plymouth for the first 18 years of my life and became intimately acquainted with wampanoag historians and if there is a people more deserving of support (given the federal government's refusal to recognize them as a legitimate native nation) i cannot think of them. they are some of the kindest people i have ever met, and it truly warms my heart to see the history of my great state and its first inhabitants being given their due diligence and being given the support they so desperately need to reclaim their mother tongue. thank you so much, max. this video truly made my day. thank God for the wampanoag people. if they had not provided for my forefathers during that cold, bitter winter of 1620, I surely would not be writing this comment.

Regarding dry beans and pre-soaking, it really comes down to humidity levels during storage. In former times, before the plastic age, beans were generally purchased in mass quantities packaged in cloth bags. That is not to say that modern plastic bags are fool-proof in every regard, but the problems presented by old cloth bags are less frequently encountered. Even the commonly seen plastic bag of dried beans can be riddled with microscopic perforations that allow humidity to damage the dried beans within. On account of this, one can buy several bags of dried beans and get vastly differing results from each bag. I, myself, have encountered grocery-bought bags of beans that never fully re-hydrated even with 10 hours of cooking. With this in mind, consider that in a warm, humid environment, such as the many-rivered East Coast of the USA (be it Florida or the Mid-Atlantic region), if not kept with great care, the outermost layer of a dried bean can become partially re-hydrated and modify the bean starches, this can later become dehydrated as weather changes, resulting in a sort of surface layer on affected beans that acts like a seal against deeper re-hydration during future use. My paternal grandmother would refer to such beans as "old". In her thinking, the only way to get around this problem was parboiling the beans in UNSALTED water, removing the pot from the heat, and leaving them to soak over night (either under refrigeration or in a cold room). Here, the heat is required to re-modify the affected starch layer sealing the bean. A superior method she found was to use a pressure cooker to cook "old" beans. The science of this is simple, the high pressure first fractures the modified starch layer and forces moisture deeper into the beans.

The three sisters, when eaten together, also provide 8 essential amino acids! Very important if access to game was sparse.

Also, thank you for taking the opportunity to feature indigenous cuisine. It's really important to celebrate their culture at every opportunity.

I grew up in Massachusetts and Thanksgiving always felt somehow like a local holiday 😂

History can be a bitter pill to swallow but its better to know of the deeds of the past so one can avoid them for the future.

Thank you, Max. This was a very sincere tribute and a very well rounded picture of history. If only those 50 years could have lasted forever.

This is a great episode. I really like the balanced approach to it. You do not shying away from some of the more shameful parts of our history but also celebrate and recognize the better parts that have similarly gone away. I am not a speaker of any of the native languages that the Wampanoag may have spoke, but the effort to try and speak their language really made this even better.

A lot of people want to ignore the negative parts of Thanksgiving because it makes them feel "uncomfortable", there's a dark side to absolutely everything, it needs to be discussed.

Actually, wild garlic just grows in my yard. When I mow my lawn it smells like a salad.

Up here in Québec, the first nations have a very similar dish called sagamité. It was a dish that was served in ceremonies to celebrate welcomed guests. It eventually became a staple meal of French Canadian settlers. It was also popular amongst Cajuns which transferred the recipe orally and was also prepared to feed slaves in Louisiana.

My great x10 great-grandfather was on the Mayflower. I don’t think they’d have done differently if they knew how it would turn out for the Native Americans who helped them, because the early European settlers seem to have been very small-minded and self-interested. But I am very grateful for the decency that the Wôpanâak showed them. It could well be the only reason my family is alive today. Those were truly good people.

Thank you, Max, I'm totally starting a prog rock group called "The Symbiotic Plant Complex" and our first album will be "Nitrogen Fixation" featuring our breakout single, "Meristem" "Guardian Cell" is the name of our experimental album of epic melodic rock with tracks including "Stomata" as a dark brooding piece featuring Gregorian chant

Wild Garlic is amazing, I pick in the spring, and salt-preserve for the winter, just gets better and better as it sits in the fridge!

I was a history teacher for 15 years, so I agree with Max that we are all lovers of lifelong learning on this channel. That's why we love Max and Jose. This channel always makes me smile, and renews my faith in humanity!

Thank you for actually telling us that the Pilgrims spend 12 years in Holland, Leiden to be precise. Yes, they fled religious prosecution in great britain and they stayed in Leiden and Amsterdam where they complained that the Dutch were 'too liberal' and thus, they had to leave for the new world because only the new world would give them religious freedom aka ... conservatism. But I'm loving this episode and your respect for the indigenous people of America. Over the years I've learned how much knowledge they had about cultivation of crops, the lands and so many complex and interesting languages.

One thing worth remembering is Plymouth is right on the ocean so probably a lot of seafood

Here in Brazil, but specifically here in the city of Belém in the state of Pará, we have the largest Christian pilgrimage in the world, o círio de Nazaré. Every year over 2 million people from Brazil and beyond come to our city to honor Mary, the mother of our lord. And on Sunday of the círio we have a Thanksgiving lunch that we eat with friends and family. Is too good!

"Lifelong subscription with 20 day money back guarantee" is the most ominous advertisement I've heard in a while.

Although it’s not clear in historical records, I always interpreted the Wampana men going out and hunting the 5 deer to be their attempt to save face for the pilgrims. They went, obviously expecting something big (as Max said, quite possibly a battle, but something that required a feast one way or another), and must have realized the pilgrims didn’t have enough food to feed them. So they went out and got some local game. This is much different than bringing delicacies for a feast.

This is my favorite show on RU-vid! For real, love you Max!!!!

So even though he used the European Kitchen Sage (Salvia officinalis), a type of sage is something that would’ve been used, because species like Nettleleaf Sage (Salvia urticifolia) and Lyre-Leaf Sage (Salvia lyrata) are native to eastern North America. And while the aromas aren’t exactly they same, they are definitely similar. Plus, Salvia officinalis could have been traded.

One thing I love about Tasting History is that these episodes really opens a window into an (almost) lost past! Thanks, Max!

Yo I forgot we were making deer stew because I was so invested in this history retelling…! Thank you for this fabulous video.

I’d really like someone to cover how Canada came to have thanksgiving as well and why it’s earlier, the focus always seems to be on the US one. Also, I did my firth three sisters garden this summer! My squash never fruited but I’m still calling is a success considering I’ve never done corn before and it’s been forever since I did beans!

The benefit (I'm told) of soaking the beans overnight is that it creates consistency in the cooking time. Commercial beans are sometimes of mixed ages and dryness, and some will cook more quickly than others. Overnight soaking is supposed to even this process out.

Thank you for talking both about the good and the bad in these historical events. So many people only want to talk about one or the other. The highs we should celebrate and the tragedies we should mourn.

The more videos I watch - and I've been watching them all, almost since the very beginning - the more I realize what a bright man you are.

Fun fact: through watching your channel I guess it made me a bit more curious about the history of food. So I'm not going home for Thanksgiving this year but I still plan on making "dressing". It's my favorite Thanksgiving meal hands down. I asked my mom a couple weeks back for the recipe and I realized it used a lot of scrap foods. Day old corn bread, gizzards, turkey necks and just talking about it we realized that it's probably from slaves getting the left over from the owners the next day. Which got me thinking and reevaluating a lot of other meals I enjoy and I can think of quite a few that are probably the result of the off-cuts or left overs

When I was little, my mother and I tried converting my childhood sandbox into a three sisters garden. Sadly, it didn't work out too well. The plants did grow but they didn't produce any vegetables.

As someone from south eastern MA who visited Plymouth Plantation every school year for field trips, this was a fun video to watch! It’s interesting how we learn all this information in school whereas others don’t! Just not something I’ve ever thought about. Also side note, the pronunciation of the names was very exaggerated for what you hear in MA! Made me giggle lol

Excellent video! "We Still Live Here: Âs Nutayuneân" is an excellent documentary on the revitalization of the Wampanoag language that people should watch, if it has not already been mentioned here!

Man,... What is better than coming home from a 9,5h shift, taking a shower, grabbing a nice cup of cappuccino and seeing a brand new video from Max in the notifications.

Max, there is a *very* important reason to soak your beans overnight, and that is that it removes a lot of the phytates that cause flatulence!

Beautiful explanation of the three sisters. Learned about this decades ago and used the knowledge in my garden to grow the best corn I ever had. Corn is a heavy nitrogen feeder, so I always planted legumes between the rows to fix more nitrogen into the soil. The only squash I planted was zucchini because my husband (ex husband now) didn't like other squashes. This was a wonderful episode. Thank you for all you do to entertain and educate us!

First Nation's People have a definite right to be angered about their injustices. I'm happy you did clarify that the Separatists did mostly enjoy peace, and promote it alongside the natives. It's a terrible thing that people before and after effed things up. Thanksgiving really was a time we should all aspire to, with peace, gratitude, and love for our fellow man no matter their creed.

1:07 Except for how Thanksgiving was more of a harvest festival to give thanks for the harvest and for surviving the year, while praying they survive the winter.

Having been on the reproduction of the Mayflower years ago when it was docked in Provincetown, MA, you are amazed at how incredibly small it was, and what a really perilous and frightening journey the Pilgrims had to make to get to America.

Glad you mentioned the three sisters. The same concepts are great for home gardens (though you can use other plants than corn for your nitrogen rich tall plant)

My step-dad is able to trace his lineage to a pilgrim on the Mayflower. He was a carpenter on the ship, who probably helped maintain it throughout the journey, the months spent on it after reaching land, and most likely helped build the first houses. I'm curious to see the family tree myself, and see if my step-dad has it right. He has a tendency to sensationalize things. His father was also very invested in Native American culture, and wrote a few graphic novel-styled books inspired by their customs. Some of the stuff that he never finished, my step-dad did. As for myself, I'm a born and raised Massachusetts gal, and I confirm that winter here can be brutal. Though, snow expectations are in flux because of climate change. We just got some last night, and rain has already washed the little that's accumulated away. And I love snow, so it's sad to see. I wonder if this will pull us out of the critical drought we've been in since the summer.

I love food and cooking, but always was bored with history....thank u for making a happy medium because this channel is 🔥

The Pilgrims really said: “Every saint has been a sinner...”

I’m so glad you’re doing things on indigenous foods and supporting the Wôpanâôk language project! I know a few words, “I love you” is Kuwámanush (or Kuwômônush)

I found this brilliant episode more relevant because 3 of my ancestors (Rev. Brewster, Thomas Rogers, and Stephen Hopkins) were aboard the Mayflower in 1620. My Grandfather Hopkins was an informal ambassador to the Indian tribes since he had been exploring New England from around 1610. He knew the area well and even logged Samoset when the later came to Plymouth to welcome the Pligrims. I am fascinated by Squanto's story and it is a shame some English literary agent did not recognize the value of this saga.

You really ought to try Tsalagi frybread! Down in the south Appalachians, it's one of the greatest Cherokee staples ever! Basic three-sisters-soup goes very well with it as well!

I like to imagine an alternate universe where the Wôpanâak and the Pilgrims were able to sustain their spirit of collaboration through to their descendants, and in the modern age there would now exists an America where the European and First Nations peoples learned to collaborate with each other, creating a new and vibrant culture combining the best aspects of each, instead of what ended up happening. I wonder what such a culture would have ended up looking like?

I love this kind of recipes! Here in South America we have a traditional recipe called locro which has the same basic ingredients (beans, corn, squash, and as many kinds of cheap meat as you can get) but the way to process and cook them are totally different, and so the final result has little resemblance to this one.

Beautiful and Tragic at the same time. Max there is a long history of grains+legumes being eaten world wide. While the earliest writings are Roman, this pairing predates Rome by millennia. The oldest pot of beans currently known, lentils, were found in the Greek cave Franchthi dating to around 13,000 years ago, which is a good 2000 years before the fall of Beringia. Grain and Legume are a journey food, would be fun to see how you interpret that journey.

Speaking of the Plymouth colony, I want to drop a comment about a book I read about the economic history of Cod. In Mark Kurlansky's over view of the history of cod, Cod: A Biography Of The Fish That Changed The World he discusses the Plymouth Bay colony. The pilgrims/saints weren't just there to escape religious persecution or to simply catch fish, but to catch cod which was a major commodity in Europe at the time. It had been long prized as a source of protein especially during Lent, and because it was so low in fat it was essentially pure white meat and could preserve very well. The quest for cod by European fishermen had pushed many to go far out at sea, and as Legends suggest discover America. The Viking voyages to North America may have been done by not only following the stars but following the cod across the north Atlantic, and the Basque of northern Spain are said to have at one point simply sailed far out over the horizon, their fishermen making them scarce for a very long time, and returning with cargo holds full for salted and dry cod. They were followed by the Bretons and I think the Cornish. At some point the Hanseatic League placed an embargo on a British city that was protesting them and they denied them cod, but the embargo ended when their own sailors disappeared passed Ireland and returned with cod of their own and the embargo was withdrawn. When the St Lawrence River and bay were explored, Cabot, Cartier, and the Corte-Real Brothers noted in their logs that the Basque we're already there and established with their fishing boats and they were not alone. By the time of the Plymouth Colony the secret of the North American cod grounds were out and so they went. What they failed to acknowledge was that cod was easier to catch in boats off the coast and aren't so great a shore fish. After a couple years of having terrible luck and just watching all the other ships of the other European fishermen catching their cod they relented and sent for London to send an actual expert and salvage their charter.

The history of the first Thanksgiving is such a testament to the work that goes into choosing and maintaining peace despite the circumstances of the past. The very little we know about Tisquantum gives us a small idea of how exceptional of a human being he was. What I shame I had to learn about him after college.

My family is from Mexico and we learned about the three sisters, I wasn't aware how far the belief went

Thank you, Max, for talking about the Saints and the Strangers. So many people are sure the Pilgrims were intolerant of anyone who did not share their religion, but more than half of the 102 were Strangers. Indeed, my ancestors, John Alden and Priscilla Mullins, had the first mixed marriage in Plymouth Colony -- she was a Saint, he was a Stranger.

There was a miniseries a while back called Saints and Strangers that does a pretty good job of telling this story as well. Thank you for this video - I would love to see more indigenous content! As an Anishinaabe who's trying to learn more about my own culture, I love seeing our collective history being shared with everyone! Maybe we could get videos on frybread or manoomin someday?

Nice to see you doing a native dish outside the preserved snacks, always nice to see some such representation, also do see Canada's Thanksgiving, having happened last month on the second Mondays.

Thank you for this one, I am a descendant of Joshua Tefft and his wife , Sara, Wampanoag. He was captured during King Phillips War, he chose to protect his wife and children. He is known as the only Englishman to be drawn and quartered by the British in this country. When his father went to claim hi remains he was beheaded

Thank you for your honesty and nuance in telling this story. The story of samoset and squanto isn't well known, and quite frankly it's almost a miracle that the pilgrams just happened to stumble across the only two native americans in the region who spoke english!

I love that you're supporting this cause! My grandma was Ojibwe and my grandpa was Algonquin and I've been trying to learn more. Basically I can say hello and thank you, and that was something i learned as a child lol.

Soaking beans is more to improve their digestability than lower cooking time…(less farts😂)

Loved this episode. Sad parts of our History with some great to come out of it. So much hardships. The symbiotic plant of the 3 Sisters is something new I learned as well as Squanto being sold & learning English from that time in captivity. Definitely do not remember this bring taught in school. Be kind, be courteous, be grateful, and have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone!

I studied and wrote about their language immersion programming as part of my master's thesis in linguistic anthropology (along with Hebrew). It's amazing what they are doing.