Instead of giving a sanitized version, James joined a gathering at Cole’s Hill in Plymouth that became associated with the National Day of Mourning.

The event has continued annually, offering a Native-centered counterpoint to conventional Thanksgiving celebrations.

This later history matters to Tisquantum because it shows how strongly the meaning of 1621 remains contested.

For many Americans, Thanksgiving symbolizes family, gratitude, and national beginnings.

For many Native people, the same historical setting is connected to epidemic loss, colonization, land dispossession, warfare, and cultural survival.

Tisquantum has been used heavily in the celebratory version.

Recovering his full biography does not require telling people how to feel about a modern holiday.

It requires acknowledging that the symbol was built by selecting certain parts of his life and omitting others.

The kidnapping was not central to the old holiday story.

The empty village was not central.