When Was the First Thanksgiving? It Might Have Been in Texas
Forget everything your elementary teachers taught you about how the first Thanksgiving in America was held in 1621 at Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts. It might be a true story, but Texas has officially claimed that the first Thanksgiving feast was held outside modern-day El Paso, more than two decades before the Mayflower pilgrims even landed. In fact, the Texas Legislature passed a resolution in 1990 that made the assertion an official part of Texas history and even formally requested that Massachusetts acknowledge Texas’ claim to fame.
Oñate’s Journey to Texas
Massachusetts hasn’t obliged. They stick to the popularly accepted origin story of Thanksgiving, which dates the holiday back to 1621 when around 50 colonists from England celebrated a bountiful harvest and the one-year anniversary of their arrival in North America. Around 100 citizens from the Wampanoag Nation joined the pilgrims in their three-day celebration, during which both groups offered prayers and thanksgiving for diplomacy and safe settlement in the New World.
But nearly a quarter century before the Mayflower even set sail from England, a Spanish explorer named Don Juan de Oñate was already leading one of North America’s first major colonization efforts. Namely, in the American Southwest through rough country that would one day be Texas. Oñate received a contract from Philip II, the king of Spain, to settle New Mexico. So, in January 1598, Oñate headed north out of Santa Barbara in Mexico at the head of a massive, four-mile-long caravan consisting of hundreds of men, women, and children; 83 wooden ox-drawn wagons; and more than 7,000 horses, cattle, and other livestock.
The colonists’ journey through the Chihuahuan Desert in Southwest Texas was far from easy. According to the resolution, Oñate and his pilgrims were forced to scrounge for roots and berries for survival in the harsh land and, on their most desperate days, were reduced to distilling water from cacti to stay hydrated. After four long months of the arduous voyage, the weary group arrived on the banks of the Rio Grande on April 20, 1598. They spent the next 10 days swimming and fishing in the cool river, resting under the cottonwood trees, and regaining their strength at the site of present-day San Elizario, about 20 miles southeast of El Paso.
When Was the First Thanksgiving?
On April 30, 1598, Oñate organized what would be Texas’ legislative grounds for the first Thanksgiving in America. The resolution says that “Don Juan de Oñate ordered the colonists to dress in their best clothes and to gather for a feast of thanksgiving” and “ate and drank and gave thanks for the welcome bounty of their new land.” According to the El Paso Mission Trail Association, Native Americans of the region joined the feast and contributed fish to the celebration.
“We built a great bonfire and roasted the meat and fish, and then all sat down to a repast the like of which we had never enjoyed before,” wrote one expedition member. “We were happy that our trials were over; as happy as were the passengers in the Ark when they saw the dove returning with the olive branch in his beak, bringing tidings that the deluge had subsided.”
The resolution also mentions that Oñate “memorialized the occasion with a proclamation (La Toma) that claimed the land for the king of Spain, and a play, the first in America, was created and presented” during the feast. The El Paso Mission Trail Association has kept this tradition going for decades, with a historical reenactment of the “first Thanksgiving” every April in El Paso.
Although New England denies this event was, in fact, the first Thanksgiving in the Americas, the feast was undoubtedly an important historical moment as it marked the onset of Spanish colonization in the Southwest. So, whichever side of the story you’re on, it’s at least a good reason to give thanks in April and November.
Texas has plenty of other unique history. Have you heard the story of the great Texas camel experiment?
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