The settlers themselves adapted, worked, traded, and benefited from continued transatlantic support.

Weather, disease, harvest success, and chance all played roles.

Turning the colony’s survival into the work of one Native man has two unintended effects.

First, it makes Tisquantum seem almost superhuman.

Second, it makes the broader Wampanoag political decision disappear.

The English did not survive because one unusually kind individual stepped outside his society to help them.

They survived partly because Native leaders made strategic choices about how to deal with them.

That distinction matters because it restores agency to the people around Tisquantum.

It also changes the moral shape of the story.

If Squanto alone “saved” Plymouth, gratitude can be directed toward one safe historical character while the larger Native society fades into the background.