Although the Thanksgiving feast that is celebrated today is normally recognized as an American Tradition begun by the pilgrims, who shared it with a few "Indians", this is actually not the case at all.

Thanksgiving celebrations were actually in keeping with a long tradition of celebrating the harvest and giving thanks for a successful bounty of crops by Native American peoples throughout the Americas, including the Pueblo, Cherokee, Creek and many others. In fact it would be more correct to recognize Thanksgiving as a Native American celebration that the pilgrims were invited to join or emulate. However, for the Native American peoples they were not called Thanksgiving. That was a term established by the pilgrims and other European Settlers who had as a part of their religious belief the giving of Thanks to their God for a multitude of reasons.

For the Native Americans their harvest festivals were very spiritual, and they were a giving of Thanks, but they were also an honoring of those who helped to bring the harvest, the various spirits and father and forefathers. The Native American had a deeply spiritual connection to the land, or sea or both.

Their way of life was not a recognition of a natural habitat that they dwelled in or altered to suit their needs. They lived, felt and existed as ones who had a complete understanding and melding with nature. It may be best stated as they operated as one with nature. Nature was them, they were nature, there was no real separation. A deer was killed because the spirits provided the deer to the hunters so they could feed their families. The spirits were honored, thanked, and respected in turn. Deers were not killed when there was no need.

Thus a harvest festival was a well organized harvest festival, complete with spiritual ceremonial dances and prayers to the gods worshipped by that tribe as well as the fathers and forefathers who had passed on and helped to grant a bountiful harvest to their people.
In fact, this religious practice of the Native American people as well as other celebrations of thanks had been a very fundamental part of the various religions of the nations for centuries before the arrival of Europeans in North America.

Historians have also recorded other ceremonies of thanks among European settlers in North America, including British colonists in Berkeley Plantation, Virginia. At this site near the Charles River in December of 1619, a group of British settlers led by Captain John Woodlief knelt in prayer and pledged "Thanksgiving" to God for their healthy arrival after a long voyage across the Atlantic. It was not a harvest festival, however. It was merely the recognition by this group that their God had safely delivered them to a new land, and they in turn were giving thanks.

Whether at Plymouth, Berkeley Plantation, or throughout the Americas, celebrations of thanks have held great meaning and importance over time. The legacy of thanks, and particularly of the feast, have survived the centuries as people throughout the United States gather family, friends, and enormous amounts of food for their yearly Thanksgiving meal.