Today, families will sit down at a Thanksgiving table where fine china brims with food, perhaps reminded of a similar scene nearly four centuries ago when Pilgrims sat among a few curious natives, sharing a turkey feast.

Though time has painted an idyllic scene of two cultures befriending one another amid care and compassion, the truth is as complex as the people who were involved. And as toasts are made to family and friends today, few know how children of those Pilgrims nearly wiped out the native population in a brutal war before the 17th century was out.

Welcome to the Thanksgiving you don't know.

EVENT DIDN'T MARK LONG PEACE WITH INDIANS

The first Thanksgiving, as detailed in "Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community and War" (Viking Adult, 2006, paperback $16) by award-winning author and historian Nathaniel Philbrick, was a less-than-glorious affair that was more harvest festival than spiritual feast, where Indians outnumbered Pilgrims two to one and even supplied the main course: five freshly killed deer.

And that traditional Thanksgiving turkey? Even if turkeys had been served, they would have been lost among the ducks, geese and fish that were a staple of Pilgrim diets, Philbrick says.

The historian never intended to write a book on the Plymouth Colony until, while researching the history of his new home on Nantucket 10 years ago, he stumbled across a curious tale: King Philip, a noted Indian leader of the late 17th century, crossed 60 miles of water to visit the tiny island.

Philbrick wondered why. The answers would eventually become "Mayflower." And in that book is the surprising true story of the first Thanksgiving in the fall of 1621, which is nothing like the scene on various greeting cards or holiday mugs.

"I had a sort of Currier & Ives image of Thanksgiving," says Philbrick. "Lots of Pilgrims at a long table with white tablecloth, turkey in the middle, hands intertwined in prayer."

He unearthed several facts that did not coincide with the Pilgrim stories he was taught in the third grade: the menu, the cultural makeup of the crowd, even the seating arrangements (a lack of furniture meant diners likely crouched around fires where meat was roasting).

Nor was it the start of sustained peace between Pilgrims and natives. Skirmishes ignited by treachery and fear marked the next 50 years until, driven by fights over land, war broke out between Indians and colonists. Though Indians once constituted almost 30 percent of New England's population, they made up only 15 percent by 1680, Philbrick writes.

"By the second generation of Pilgrims, their numbers were such they no longer needed help from the Indians," Philbrick says. "And Indians were no longer infatuated by Pilgrims' technology. Now they were threats to one another."

COMMERCIALISM FUELED IMAGE, SET THE DATE

The feast first was glamorized in the 1850s, Philbrick says, when William Bradford's journal detailing life in Plymouth Colony was discovered in an attic. "Of Plymouth Plantation," easily the most detailed narrative of Pilgrim life (and written by one of the colony's earliest governors), was a literary sensation.

In 1858, Bradford's journal inspired poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to write about the love between Plymouth Colony's Miles Standish and Priscilla Mullens, further romanticizing the period.

America was on the brink of a civil war. Brother fought against brother, and if there was ever time for a parable of compassion and understanding, this was it, Philbrick says.

Shortly after Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1861, advisers urged him to seize upon the story of Thanksgiving and declare it a national holiday, Philbrick says.

Lincoln did so (belatedly) in 1863, declaring the final Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day.

Good old-fashioned American commercialism would propel the pastoral Thanksgiving image well into the 20th century, Philbrick says. Images of Pilgrims seated at a large table heaped with food appeared on products designed for the family feast — turkeys, stuffing, biscuits and more.

Merchandising became such a fact of life (particularly during the holiday season) that near the end of the Depression in 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving to the second-to-last Thursday of November (Congress eventually set the holiday on the fourth Thursday of the month) to give merchants more time to sell goods for Christmas.

"It's astounding when you look at it how various commercial enterprises seized upon Pilgrims in a generic way, using the first Thanksgiving to push their products," Philbrick says.

Here are a few Thanksgiving myths dispelled by Nathaniel Philbrick in his book, "Mayflower."

Myth: The first Thanksgiving took place in November.

Fact: The exact date isn't known, but the feast we celebrate on the fourth Thursday in November likely occurred in late September or early October, shortly after the harvest of such summer crops as corn, beans, squash and barley. It also was not referred to as Thanksgiving by the Pilgrims, as the term applied to a time of spiritual devotion.

Myth: The Pilgrims gathered for the big feast as curious Indians looked on.

Fact: The Wampanoag tribe, led by Massasoit, dominated the proceedings, outnumbering their hosts two to one. About 100 Wampanoags arrived bearing gifts: five freshly killed deer.

Myth: Turkeys were the centerpiece of the first Thanksgiving.

Fact: Turkeys were more a side dish than main course. Ducks, geese and fish were the culinary centerpieces until the deer arrived.

Myth: The puritanical Pilgrims had an alcohol-free Thanksgiving feast.

Fact: Pilgrims loved a good beer. Ale was plentiful, thanks to a recently harvested barley crop.

Myth: The first Thanksgiving led to years of peace.

Fact: Fear and suspicion constantly stalked the Pilgrims as well as the many Indian tribes in the area. Violent skirmishes peppered the uneasy relationship among cultures, and not long after the first Thanksgiving, Pilgrims killed the sachem (chief) of a nearby tribe, putting his head on a pole outside the colonists' recently built fort.

Myth: The native people thought highly of Pilgrim intelligence since the English citizens brought with them advanced technology.

Fact: The Pilgrims' lack of survival skills earned them little respect among the natives. Massasoit considered the Pilgrims "as a little child."