Panhandle Legends: Fray Juan de Padilla and the first Thanksgiving on the High Plains

AMARILLO, Texas (KAMR/KCIT) - Thanksgiving in the United States is often considered a tradition begun by a three-day autumn feast in Plymouth Colony in 1621. However, celebrations of gratitude that contributed to the development of the holiday have roots dating back even further and even farther across the country, including in the Texas Panhandle.

Fray Juan de Padilla was a native of Andalusia in Spain in the 16th century, according to Hugh Anderson with the Texas State Historical Association, where he worked as a soldier in his early life before becoming a friar in the Franciscan Order. His order was set to the task of carrying out the crusading work of Spain in the New World, where they became the first missionaries in the Southwest.

Although Padilla may have arrived in the New World