Most history classes teach that the first Thanksgiving took place at Plymouth Colony in Virginia in 1961. However, the accuracy of that story is debatable, particularly since the Library of Congress notes a similar ceremony held decades earlier – in Texas.
According to the Library of Congress, a feast of gratitude occurred in May 1541, nearly 80 years earlier, in what is now Texas’s Palo Duro Canyon.
In fact, Texas hosted two such celebrations before the one widely believed as the first at Plymouth: the 1541 gathering in Palo Duro Canyon and another in El Paso in April 1598.
In May 1541, Spanish explorer Francisco Va´squez de Coronado led an expedition of approximately 1,500 men through the Texas Panhandle in search of the legendary Seven Cities of Gold. After enduring months of grueling travel and harsh conditions, the group stopped in Palo Duro Canyon to hold a thanksgiving celebration, expressing gratitude for their survival and reaffirming their faith.
In 1959, a historical marker was placed at a crossing in Palo Duro Canyon commemorating the event, which was proclaimed by a day of prayer and feasting by Padre Fray Juan de Padilla for Coronado and his men – about 79 years before the Pilgrims’ iconic gathering in Massachusetts.
A similar event took place in1598, a similar event took place in the northern Rio Grand Valley by when Spanish explorer Don Juan de On~ate was granted land. Onate chose not to take a traditional route along the Rio Conchos and Rio Grande and chose Vicente de Zaldivar to form a wagon trail from Santa Barbara in southern Chihuahua to the El Paso area, according to the Texas Almanac.
On~ate chose not to take a traditional route along the Rio Conchos in present-day Mexico and then along the Rio Grande. Instead, he sent fellow explorer Vicente de Zaldi´var to form a wagon trail from Santa Barbara in southern Chihuahua to the El Paso area, according to the Texas Almanac.
Nearly a year after Zaldi´var set out to create the trail, On~ate’s expedition of around 500 people and 7,000 livestock began a dangerous crossing of the Chihuahua Desert. The 50-day march began with a week of rain before dry weather set in with its own risks. The expedition also ran out of food and water five days before reaching the Rio Grande and stopping in present-day San Elizario.
Following 10 days of recovery, On~ate declared April 30, 1598, to be a day of celebration complete with a feast and a mass. prayer and religious observance, according to Mason. Special days of religious thanksgiving were called throughout the colonial period.
Throughout the 19th century, Thanksgiving observances spread from state to state. Occasionally, special national days of thanksgiving were proclaimed by American presidents. George Washington called the first national observance in 1789.
The Texas National Day of Thanksgiving history unfolded in the Lone Star State on March 2, 1842, when Sam Houston, president of the Texas Republic, faced threats of war, financial problems and political turmoil. But he proclaimed a thanksgiving “to render evidence of national blessings” ... and a profound belief in an Almighty God. “Houston noted that “the Texan people have been the objects of the peculiar care ... of a Divine Providence” so they could “occupy a place among the independent governments of the earth.”
Later, Texas Gov. George Wood proclaimed the first Thanksgiving observance in Texas for the first Thursday in December 1849.
Abraham Lincoln initiated the tradition of a national annual day of thanksgiving with a proclamation in 1863, during the Civil War. Franklin D. Roosevelt deviated from the practice of observing the last Thursday in November as Thanksgiving in 1939. A Nov. 23 observance was recognized by 23 states, and a similar number stuck to the Nov.30 celebration. Texas and Colorado celebrated both days.
In 1941, FDR signed the law making the fourth Thursday in November the nation’s official Thanksgiving Day. However, in 1944, 1945, 1950, 1951 and 1956, November had five Thursdays, and while other states changed their observances to coincide with the national law, Texas remained the lone holdout, observing the last Thursday in 1956.
The Legislature changed the law in 1957 making the fourth Thursday in November the state’ s official Thanksgiving.
Native Americans probably introduced their tradition to the Pilgrams from Europe, embracing their new friends. Almost every Native American tribe has one or more annual celebrations of Thanksgiving, or “Feast Day” celebration, which is often held more than once a year.
In the words of Sister Joseph Hobday, Texan and Native American spiritual leader, “20,000 to 30,000 years of prayer and thanksgiving have come down to Americans in the soil of Texas and breathing through the trees.” (Thanksgiving Miracles and Myths)