What crops did Squanto help the Pilgrims grow?
It’s likely we wouldn’t be celebrating Thanksgiving today at all if not for a saintly Native American named Tisquantum, also called Squanto, a member of the Pawtuxet tribe who spoke English and taught the colonists how to plant native crops (like corn), tap the maple trees for sap, and fish in the Bay.
What crops did the Pilgrims plant?
The Pilgrims were lucky that the Wampanoag shared more suitable crops with them, such as corn and squash. These crops are able to grow in less ideal conditions. It’s reported that a late-season rain helped boost the harvest as well. Plymouth plantation soils were also low in nutrients.
How did Squanto teach the Pilgrims plant corn?
A well-known story tells how Squanto taught the Pilgrims to plant corn with dead fish buried beneath the seeds to serve as fertilizer. This is not the whole story. Squanto actually taught the Pilgrims how to plant corn, beans, and squash together, in a Three Sisters garden, the way the Native Americans planted them.
What did Squanto teach the Pilgrims about growing pumpkins?
Squanto taught them how to hunt deer, plant pumpkins, refine maple syrup and find the best berries. He also showed them how to get the pelt of the beaver so they could develop a commercial enterprise. These pelts were in great demand in England and were used for making the popular felt hats. The Pilgrims worked hard.
What did Squanto do to help the pilgrims?
One of the things that Squanto did for the Pilgrims was arrange meetings and broker alliances with surrounding Native American tribes. This allowed the Pilgrims to engage in a trading system with the local tribes, exchanging European-manufactured goods such as guns, metal cooking utensils, and cloth for food and other necessary supplies.
Who was the Native American who taught the pilgrims to plant crops?
Many people know the Thanksgiving legend of Squanto (Tisquantum), the Native American who taught Pilgrims how to plant crops and survive in New England. But not many know that Squanto’s legend is a fish story—in more ways than one.
What did Tisquantum do for the pilgrims at Thanksgiving?
Tisquantum lived among the pilgrims in Plymouth where he acted as a sort of counselor/diplomat between the colonists and Native Americans. So the Thanksgiving legend of Squanto and the pilgrims is a “fish tale” in the sense that, like many fish stories, it is an exaggerated account.
Where did Squanto go on his trading expedition?
Squanto is shunned by the Wampanoags and he never leaves the pilgrim’s side again and doesn’t venture outside of Plymouth for months. In November, Squanto and Bradford embark on a trading expedition aboard a ship called the Swan to a native settlement called Monomoy, near what is now Chatham.