The history of Thanksgiving dates back to the early 1600’s, and you would think that the history of the turkey would date back to the same time as well. However, it does not.

The real answer to why do we eat turkey on thanksgiving is the working of both history and the media. It is true that wild turkey is native to North America, and thereby would be a large part of the Native American’s diet.

As you may already know from your history classes, the pilgrims had a very rough time adapting to life in North America, as their crops—besides barley—wasn’t producing enough to sustain their life. The Native Americans introduced the pilgrims to corn and squash as well as turkey.

The first Thanksgiving was in 1621, and the Native Americans were the guests of honor. They ate all of the food that the Native Americans introduced to the pilgrims.

However, Thanksgiving wasn’t an official holiday until 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln declared it as such. The population ate a lot of turkey, and because of the popularity, Thanksgiving began being referred to as Turkey Day.

Interestingly enough, the popularity of the Turkey nearly caused the bird to go extinct. In 1991 the Federal Government stepped in and offered relief. Now the bird can be found in 49 of the 50 states.

So it turns out that the Turkey wasn’t always tradition on Thanksgiving. It was a product of history, and the popularity of the bird amongst the general population in the early times of Thanksgiving that gave rise to the solid tradition of turkey eating on Thanksgiving that we have today!