Where Was the First Thanksgiving?

Where was the first Thanksgiving held in North America? If you guessed Plymouth, Massachusetts, guess again. In fact, that probably was not even the second or third Thanksgiving.

On April 30, 1598, Spanish nobleman Don Juan de Oñate and a group of settlers traveling northward from Zacatecas, Nueva España (now Mexico), reached the banks of El Rio Bravo (Rio Grande). The first recorded act of thanksgiving by colonizing Europeans on this continent occurred on that April day in 1598 in Nuevo Mexico, about 25 miles south of what is now El Paso, Texas.

After having begun their northward trek in March of that same year, the entire caravan was gathered at this point. The 400-person expedition included soldiers, families, servants, personal belongings, and livestock. Two thirds of the colonizers were from the Iberian Peninsula (Spain, Portugal, and the Canary Islands). There was even one from Greece and another from Flanders. The rest were Mexican Indians and mestizos (mixed bloods).

Pauline Chavez Bent has written an interesting account of this first Thanksgiving, which you can read on the New Mexico Genealogical Society's Web site at: http://www.nmgs.org/art1stThanks.htm

Many Americans mistakenly believe that the Pilgrims were the first to settle in this new land. However, the following all preceded the Pilgrims of 1620:

• Several settlements and temporary villages were established by the Vikings and possibly by the Irish more than 1,000 years ago. None of the settlements survived. In 1559, Tristan de Luna y Arellano led an attempt by Europeans to colonize Florida. He established a settlement at Pensacola Bay, but a series of misfortunes caused his efforts to be abandoned after two years.
• Pedro Menéndez de Avilés arrived in 1565 at a place he called San Augustín (St. Augustine, Florida) and established the first permanent European settlement in what is now the United States.
• Spanish settlers mentioned earlier settled in what is now the western tip of Texas and New Mexico in the 1590s.
• In 1604, Samuel de Champlain, along with Sieur de Mont, established what is now known as the first Acadian settlement on the North American continent on the Isle-of-St.-Croix, at St. Croix River near Calais, Maine. After experiencing a harsh winter and extreme cold on this small island, they moved their settlement into the rich agricultural area of the Bay of Fundy, which subsequently became known as Acadia. The permanent French colony of Port Royal was established in 1605.
• The islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon were colonized by France in 1604. The colony survived and still exists today on these tiny islands ten miles south of Newfoundland, Canada. The islands still belong to France. Many people today are unaware that France still has territory in North America.
• In 1607, some 100 men and boys sailed from England and landed in present-day Virginia and founded Jamestown. They found a hostile environment that probably would have destroyed the colony but for the resourcefulness of Captain John Smith, who managed to organize and motivate the settlers and save them from starvation.
• In 1608 Samuel de Champlain established what is now known as Quebec City.

With several colonies already established prior to the Pilgrims' later arrival in 1620, one can assume that others also celebrated an occasional thanksgiving feast. The only surviving record of such a feast, however, is the one in 1598 by Don Juan de Oñate and his group of Spanish settlers.

Comments

[Dee Ferris]

A bit of googling shows that the first Thanksgiving was celebrated by Coronado at Palo Duro Canyon in 1541 in Texas, near Amarillo. Here are a few links I found earlier today:
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/thanksgivin g/timeline/1541.html
http://www.twtex.com/forums/showthread.php?t=217 67
http://www.texasalmanac.com/history/highlights/t hanksgiving/

Kind regards,

Dee

[Happy Dae]

Good eyes, Dee! I was about to comment the same event, although w/o the links. Very nice. Although Coronado isn't my favourite Spaniard, it is nice remember that he, too, showed gratitude to God.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!
Happy Dae.
http://www.ShoeStringGenealogy.com/ssg1.htm

[Alexis Bakeeff]

Another Thanksgiving in North America occurred in Newfoundland in 1578. It was not a thanksgiving for a harvest but for a safe homecoming. Martin Frobisher sailed for Queen Elizabeth I in search for a Northwest Passage. Knowing now how fierce Arctic winters can be, as well as the later fate of both Henry Hudson and Sir John Franklin in the Arctic, its not difficult to appreciate why Frobisher would want to give thanks in 1578 after a safe return to Newfoundland. It also followed a pattern of gratitude established by Elizabeth I herself, who often showed gratitude during her entire reign. For example, after 20 years on the thrown, she held a public thanksgiving simply because she had survived on the throne for those 20 years, which in the beginning included escaping the fate of her mother, Ann Boleyn, who was beheaded by Elizabeth's sister, "Bloody Mary" during the previous reign. For the full story go to the website below.
Alexis

http://www.canada.com/holidays/thanksgiving2005/story.html?id=74257801-d907-46e0-9bbd-c386515c6fe5

[Dunham Swift]

Does not make any difference to me where or when the first Thanksgiving was celebrated. When I honor Thanksgiving it is for today and being aware and thankful for all the many blessings I have today. You can debate this subject forever and it is transparent for this one. HAPPY THANKSGIVING

[Cheryl]

I absolutely agree with Dunham and just want us all to be thankful. What I have been dumbfounded about is that I have many middle school students who say their families are not celebrating Thanksgiving because "it's not their religion." Since when does Thanksgiving have to be attributed to one religion?

[Vera]

Two other early settlements that deserve mention were the 1562 French Huguenot settlement near present-day Jacksonville, FL and the 1585 Roanoke Colony in North Carolina, also known as the Lost Colony.
Vera
http://www.nps.gov/foca/
http://www.nps.gov/timu/planyourvisit/upload/huguenot_site_bulletin.pdf
http://www.lost-colony.com/
http://www.nationalcenter.org/ColonyofRoanoke.html

[Ed Maul]

I wouldn't give the historical credit to the Spanish first Thanksgiving. They butchered many Indians. Another step towards making illegals relevant. I stay with Plymouth for the Thanksgiving for a Christian Thanksgiving.

[Lorin Lund]

While it is good to observe that other colonization efforts also showed Thankfulness to God, I still feel that the Plymouth Plantation colonists accomplished something unique. Their precedent brought other religious groups. I firmly believe that the New England religious colonies contributed some essential ingredients without which the grand experiment of government of and by the people would never have happened.

In Spanish colonies both government and church had an interest in preserving central power and authority. The Virginia colony was a business enterprise. Virginia and the Carolina perpetuated some degree of aristocracy. Georgia was a debtor's prison and therefore lacked the education and capital for any effective leadership.

The free thinking, local education, and economic independence of the New England colonies was essential. And the (relative) success of the Plymouth Colony was doubtless an important precedent to other religious refugees daring to face the wilderness.

The New Englanders came with a religious zeal where they were willing to struggle and die to be free. Even a century and a half later there was still a trace of that zeal and determination to be free. While Patrick Henry is famous for his strong words in Virginia, the New Englanders didn't need the firey words of a rash hot-head to stir them as the Virginians did.

Yes, there were earlier groups. But the freedoms we enjoy trace quite clearly back to the passengers of the Mayflower. So I'm thankful to them, and of course to God.

[Mary W B]

In regards to the students who do not celebrate Thanksgiving; the religion they speak of could very possibly be Jehova's Witnesses who do not believe in celebrating any holidays including their own birthdays. So to celebrate Thanksgiving would be "against their religion."

[Jack Gibson]

The Coronado "Thanksgiving" in future Texas in the year 1541 can be dismissed as a thanksgiving in the sense we all think of today. Coronado was on a lustful, self serving gold seeking expedition that cost the lives of several hundred of his own men and native peoples in his searches.

The first documented (in written word and etchings) true Thanksgiving (noted in one of the comments above) was by the French Huguenots and the Timucuan Indians in La Florida near the mouth of the River of May (St. Johns River/Jacksonville today). There were actually four of them: one in 1562 & and three in 1564. The 1st was led by Jean Ribault and the others by Rene de Laudonnaiere and his officers.

The Huguenots were Political and Religious refugees from the ongoing protestant persecutions in France in the 1500s. There were looking for freedoms similar to the Pilgrims and others who landed in the New World in that and later eras. They were extremely friendly with the local Timucuan "kingdom" and developed trade and alliances. Unfortunately the La Florida Huguenots were slaughtered by the Spanish in 1565 under the lead of Pedro Menendez. The Huguenot Settlerment and Fort, La Caroline, was rebult, taken over and turned into a Spanish outpost on the river. Thus ended New France in La Florida.