fantastic article recounting the high cost to pilgrim lives that first winter in Massachusetts, and how thanksgiving came to be.

The Pilgrims’ Progress – Honoring Our Forefathers on the 400th Anniversary of the First (and Most Expensive) Thanksgiving

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/11/25/mansour-the-pilgrims-progress-honoring-our-forefathers-on-the-400th-anniversary-of-the-first-and-most-expensive-thanksgiving/

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“ During the course of the winter months, so many members of the Plymouth Colony died that they were afraid to bury their dead lest the Indians realize how thinned out their numbers had become. At one point, they propped up the corpses against the trees surrounding the settlement and placed muskets in their arms to disguise the dead to look like sentries guarding the perimeter of the colony.”