Turkey, cranberries, potatoes, squash and even the pumpkin in the pumpkin pie — when it comes to the traditional Thanksgiving table, as Lancaster resident Chris Thompson points out, almost everything being set out comes not from Europe, but from American Indians in the New World.

"Regarding Thanksgiving, I think a lot of people have the misconception that it was the pilgrims who brought all the food. But the truth was, it was a meeting of cultures," said Thompson, one of the area's last remaining Susquehannocks.

"This is a holiday about much more than big black hats and buckle shoes," he said in an interview earlier this week. "We, as Native Americans, celebrate Thanksgiving too, of course … but for us I think it has a different meaning."

Thompson, a Lancaster resident and a leader of Central Pennsylvania's American Indian community, is a member of the nonprofit Native Heritage Advisory Council in York County, a group dedicated to preserving the indigenous heritage of the Lower Susquehanna River region.

"When we celebrate Thanksgiving at my house, we give thanks to our Susquehannock ancestors, but that doesn't mean Thanksgiving is a sad day for us. We're counting our blessings," Thompson said. "Also, I have to admit, I do feel a little proud. Squash, pumpkins and especially potatoes; these are Native American foods, and today they feed the world."

Though the Susquehannocks built a "city" of more than 3,000 at the present site of Washington Boro, according to Paul Nevin, president of the Lancaster-York chapter of the Pennsylvania Society for Archaeology, the group went through a series of disasters once European settlers began to arrive in the area in the 17th century.

Local history books teach that the last group of Susquehannocks was massacred in 1763 by a Harrisburg group called the Paxtang Boys at what is now the site of the Fulton Opera House in Lancaster city. Thompson said Native American oral history tells a slightly different tale.

"Twenty or 30 of the Susquehannocks weren't caught by the Paxtang Boys. Instead, the survivors fled up the Little Chiques Creek, seeking temporary refuge in Manheim," Thompson said. "They then went on into what is now New York State and Quebec, Canada, seeking permanent sanctuary with the Akwesasne tribe."

They survived as a subculture within the Akwesasne, a group on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, on what is now the St. Regis Reservation in present-day New York.

In the early 1900s, several Susquehannocks decided to return to the Susquehanna Valley, arriving, Thompson said, "in a motorcar they built themselves."

Their descendants, including Thompson's family, now live mostly on the Lancaster County side of the river, he said.

As part of his family's Thanksgiving, Thompson said, his family honors their heritage. "We already have the turkey, which is a traditional Susquehannock food, but at our Thanksgiving, we also have venison, a main staple for the Susquehannocks in the fall," he said.

"I only wish … I had the facilities to smoke the venison, so we have to make do with roasting it," he said.

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Held in the autumn of 1621 in what is now eastern Massachusetts, the first American Thanksgiving was actually an imported English tradition, according to Millersville University history professor Francis J. Bremer, a nationally recognized expert on colonial New England.

"In general, believers would have had a gathering for any number of reasons, such as to thank God for the autumn harvest. So, while the food might have been from the New World, the idea of a thanksgiving was very, very English," Bremer said. "In fact, even liturgy from the Church of England contains a fall Thanksgiving."

Decreed by then-Massachusetts Gov. William Bradford, the event included English settlers and members of the Wampanoag, a Cape Cod tribe that also settled parts of preset-day Rhode Island, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard.

"The settlers arrived in 1620, so by the fall of 1621 the English would have been at least somewhat used to New World foods by then," Bremer said. "Of course, for a real Thanksgiving, the English would have been used to deer rather than turkey."

The event probably would have included wrestling, archery contests, feats of strength and "undoubtedly shellfish from Massachusetts Bay," Bremer said. The two sides were still getting to know one another and likely felt relief that the harvest had provided enough food for them to make it through the winter.

As the colony swelled through the ensuing decades, it became a threat to Wampanoag life. The natives attempted to rise up and reverse the colonization process, which resulted in what historians call "King Philip's War" of 1675. In terms of population percentage lost, Bremer said, the conflict counts "as the deadliest war in American history."

"The English lost 10 percent of their population, destroying any long-term efforts at reconciliation, and the Wampanoags were nearly exterminated," Bremer said. "Eventually, those that remained were sent to live on reservations such as the one at Mashpee on Cape Cod."

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Today, about 3,000 Wampanoag still live in the area. After centuries of legal disputes, the Mashpee Wampanoag obtained provisional recognition as an Indian tribe from the Bureau of Indian Affairs in April 2006 and official federal recognition in February. There are even classes teaching local youth the ancient language, one preserved in letters to the Massachusetts legislature and in a 1633 Bible translated to help teach Christianity to the area's natives.

"Regardless of what eventually happened, what I think people need to remember about the 1621 Thanksgiving is that … the English had only the best intentions," Bremer said. "But perhaps the lesson here is that even when people want to do the right thing, it can still go wrong. And what appeared fair from the English point of view in the 1700s might not seem just to people of other times or cultures."

For Rob Jenkins, president of the Paradise Township-based Pennsylvania Indian Cultural Society, who is part Cherokee and Seminole, Thanksgiving is a time to focus not on the past, but on those in need in the present.

"In all honesty, my family's Thanksgiving looks a lot like anyone else's. It's a time to share food with family and to be grateful for what you have," Jenkins said. "We have a native blessing at the table, but that's about it."

Those celebrating Thanksgiving, he said, should recall the past but not dwell on it.

"There are plenty of our warriors who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan right now who are in need a few prayers for a safe return home," he said. "If anything, this Thanksgiving, we should be thinking about them, and how to make things better for the future."