At Thanksgiving, let's present additional high quality coloring pages for the kids that picture more about real-life American History than they may have been taught in school. We know that there were no such things as "pilgrims" attired in black, but rather, there were people that called themselves "saints" and wore bright colors. This was the tradition of the lower classes in England at the time and they came to the New World for a better life.

The saints nearly starved to death the first winter, but the Native American man, Massasoit, and his people from the Wampanoag Nationhelped to save them with food and good instruction in agriculture. The Wampanoag's name means People of the First Light. This nomenclature might mean a number of things, but these East Coast Native Americans were some of the first on the continent to see the sun rise each morning, because they were at the eastern edge of the land.

Some of us on Hub Pages have begun to present the real picture of American Thanksgiving and I have provided the links to many of those informative and engaging Hubs in another section below. You will not be able to stop reading them once you have started!

Some of the information may be shocking - as it should be - but it can lead us into forming our own good traditions for an American Thanksgiving Holiday that we can truthfully call our own. Intelligent people can make their own rules and traditions - and so it should be.

Some of the coloring pages offered here originated at the Zwolle Elementary School in Zwolle, Louisiana - one of my favorite states.

Cursor over any of the photos in order to enlarge them and then print for coloring fun.

In 1621, there were no Modern American Turkeys (no pun intended) like the kind that are huge and take only a few to fill up a freezer case in your local grocery store or supermarket. These giant fat turkeys of today have been bred to produce abundant meat supplies that often sell for only 29¢ per pound with an additional $10 or $50 puchase in November and December. Amazingly, celery that is $3.00 per bunch the rest of the year also reduces in price to 50¢ or so. be that as it may, there were no fat turkeys and no celery at all at the first feast shared by approximately 150 English "Puritan" and other settlers and the Wampanoag Nation that sent a few over 90 after a single man of them was invited. He believed in sharing and inveited others and brought most of the food as well.  

A variety of wild game birds were abundant in Massachusetts in 1621 and these are the birds that the Native Americans normally consumed after giving thanks to them for helping them to survive by becoming food.

These wild game birds included pheasants, ducks, geese, quail, ruffed grouse, and wild turkeys as well as a few others. However, pheasants, ducks, and geese made up the majority of the fowl brought to the feast by Massasoit. 

These birds, much like the region's abundant and varied fish, grew larger than they do today, because they were not over-hunted and had more food sources for themselves in the 1600s than they do today. As human populations encroached on their living spaces, food sources dwindled and these birds became somewhat smaller as time progressed.

Today, the wild turkey is the official Massachusetts State Game Bird.

How to color a white tail deer:

• Leave these areas white: chin, behind the nose, the belly, and the underside of the tail (this is why this deer is called a White Tail Deer.
• Antlers are usually a very light brown.
• All the rest of this deer's hair is light to darker brown. The body is lighter and the back and lower legs tend to be bit darker.

Massasoit and his 90 or so Native American family and friends (called a "band") brought the English settlers 5 large deer for dinner in addition to many wild game birds. The deer were likely white tail deer, native to the area that becaem the State of Massachusetts. Elk and Moose were also abundant in the area in the 1600s and were uses for food as well, after thanks was properly given according to custom.

All parts of these animals were used and nothing at all was wasted. Bones and antlers became weapons and tools, even sewing needles. Hides became clothing and tent/wigwam walls. Each part of the animal found a use.

The Wampanoag also ate beans and squash that they were successful in growing, hunted the black bear and caught a variety of fish in what is now Massasachusetts. The State Fish today is the Atlantic Cod and it might have been consumed by the Wampanoags in the 1600s, but other possibilities, especially inland or fresh water types, include several dozen different varieties of fish.

Native Americans caught fish all over the Western Hemisphere. The coloring page below came from a group of students studying Native Americans in Lousiana.

Native American Harvest Feasts Before Thanksgiving

There Was No Pie on Thanksgiving

No Thanks Thanksgiving - by Jerilee Wei