“All these events happened before the Pilgrims!”
I was going to say that very specifically, the perspective is NEW ENGLAND Protestant.
Indeed, the impression that “pilgrims” were the 1st English settlement in NA is bogus.
The 1st being the mysterious Roanoke, NC and the 2nd - 1st permanent - being JAMESTOWN, VA. Note these were both “south” - indeed, pilgrims were aiming for VA.
But people continue to think of “Plymouth”, “Salem”, etc, when it comes to “1st American...”
Which trickles into the whole “Thanksgiving” thing. Never mind other items of culture, and you’ll find New England has ultimately dominated as far as telling the story.
Indeed, as a descendent of one of the immigrants on First Supply ship to Jamestown, I keep pointing out to my friends who claim descent from survivors of the Mayflower Expedition that my family was here to welcome those poor navigators. But, they don’t care.
I’m curious to know what happened to the builders of a Spanish Mission that once was in inland VA. Were all those earlier settlers absorbed into the indigenous Indian tribes, or massacred by them?
And the Virginians had their own Thanksgiving feast at Berkeley Plantations — earlier than those poor navigators hanging out at Plymouth Rock.
I just figure that the Pilgrims had a better PR firm. After all, isn’t Madison Ave. in NY?