It's Your (Thanksgiving) Week. Let's get prepared.

Alex Connor and Kristina Bravo, USA TODAY
·2 min read

The true story of Thanksgiving, as immortalized in American mythos, is not one of cold and seasick Pilgrims stepping off the Mayflower in 1620 and onto Plymouth Rock.

Nor is it one of the Pilgrims and the native Wampanoag, a year later, sitting together to celebrate their first successful harvest and a long, harmonious relationship to come.

It's Alex and Kristina, and this is Your Week. In this edition, we're diving into our archives to tell you the historically accurate version of Thanksgiving's controversial past.

In all, it's a 3-minute read.

But first, tell us your thoughts! We want to make Your Week the best weekly letter to subscribers. This quick survey will help us evolve and ensure we're hitting the mark.

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The true story of Thanksgiving

Last year, USA TODAY Network journalist Eryn Dion examined the history of Thanksgiving. Below is an excerpt from Dion's story, which gets right to the root of the holiday's origins.

In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln declared a Thanksgiving Day on the last Thursday of November, looking to reconcile a country in the throes of the Civil War.

On a parallel track, the story of the Pilgrim forefathers coming to the New World and founding America for religious freedom gained steam, as New England Protestants wielded the myth to gain the top spot in the country’s cultural hierarchy, above Catholics and immigrants, according to historian David Silverman in his book “This Land Is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving.”

As Americans looked for an origin story that wasn’t soaked in the blood of Native Americans or built on the backs of slavery, the humble, bloodless story of the 102 Pilgrims forging a path in the New World in search of religious freedom was just what they needed, according to Silverman. Regardless of whether it was rooted in historical fact, it became accepted as such.

It's, of course, more complicated than this summation. Ahead of Thursday, we encourage you take the time to read the story in full.

Just the headlines (holiday edition)

News to watch: Terror at a Christmas parade

Flags across the state were flying at half staff Monday as authorities tried to determine why an SUV hurtled through a barricade and slammed into a Christmas parade in suburban Waukesha, Wisconsin, on Sunday, killing at least five people and injuring more than 40.

The city's livestream captured video of the crash, and dozens of witness videos appeared to show the vehicle hitting members of the Waukesha South High School Blackshirt Band, the Milwaukee Dancing Grannies and a children's dance group. This story is developing. Follow the latest here.

Outside the courthouse where Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted, people stood feet apart, shouting at each other. What happens when we stop listening and talking?
Outside the courthouse where Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted, people stood feet apart, shouting at each other. What happens when we stop listening and talking?

What happens when we stop talking?

Cartoonist Mike Thompson was in Kenosha, Wisconsin, for the Kyle Rittenhouse trial. This is a conversation he overhead, as told in graphics.

Read USA TODAY's coverage of the trial that found Kyle Rittenhouse, who killed two and wounded one during a 2020 protest, not guilty of any charges:

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: It's Your (Thanksgiving) Week. Let's get prepared.