Thanksgiving is a celebration of our partnership with God. I was taught, and maybe you were too, that the first Thanksgiving was celebrated by the Pilgrims in 1621 during a feast shared with the Indians at the Plymouth Plantation. Recently I learned, through my association with Native Ministries, that the Wampanoags (members of a widespread league of Algonkian-speaking peoples) practiced some beliefs that are very familiar. They taught that others should be treated with respect, and they should provide hospitality to strangers. They shared from their own resources even if they were meager.

In addition, they began their year with a thanksgiving festival to the Creator when the maple sap began to flow, another to bless the seeds at planting, and then a strawberry festival to give thanks for the first fruits of the season. In midsummer the Creator was honored again for the ripening corn, and then a harvest festival was held to give the Creator thanks for food provided for the long winter.

When the new strangers arrived on the Mayflower, they were the beneficiaries of God's blessings expressed through the Wampanoan people. The Pilgrims were treated with courtesy and hospitality as prescribed by the beliefs of their American Indian hosts.

For centuries, the Algonkian people had recognized the Creator as the source of life and all blessings, and they believed sustenance came from the Creator's hand. So, when was the first Thanksgiving celebrated in America?

You provided that we inherit your creation

You said: I shall make the earth

on which people shall live

You said that we should always be thankful

For our earth and for each other

So it is that we are gathered here

We are your children, Lord of the Sky.

From an Iroquois (Seneca) Thanksgiving Prayer translated by Chuck Larson

Gary Burns is the Lake Union Conference communication director.