His role in a Native political struggle made the story harder for children’s pageants.

So those elements were often removed.

What remained was Squanto the helper.

That version became culturally durable because it solved a narrative problem.

It allowed Americans to remember colonial beginnings through cooperation without dwelling on the violence that had already shaped the coast before the Mayflower arrived.

The myth does not need to be replaced with an equally simple story of pure villainy.

The better correction is complexity.

English colonists did depend on Native knowledge.

Wampanoag leaders did enter diplomatic agreements with them.

A harvest gathering did occur.