Samoset Greets the Pilgrims

March 16, 1621

An Abenaki sagamore named Samoset walked into Plymouth and astonished the Pilgrims by saying, in broken English learned from fishermen, welcome, Englishmen. He returned days later with Squanto, who taught the colonists to plant corn with fish. The autumn harvest that followed became American folklore, the origin story of a holiday that would outlive the civilization that inspired it.