After landing at Plymouth, Mass., in 1620, a group of English colonists struggled to survive the harsh elements. And as the story goes, the Wampanoag Native Americans helped them, and, in the fall of 1621, shared a large meal with them in a three-day celebration of their harvest.

That is the gist of the origin story of the American Thanksgiving tradition, which has continued to evolve over the centuries into the annual holiday that we will celebrate on Thursday. Compared with the first Thanksgiving, food and fellowship are just about the only similarities that remain.

After that first celebration, any peace and goodwill between the Native Americans and colonists would soon erode as more colonists arrived, intent upon settling on Native Americans' lands. By 1636, a major war between the N

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