Why do people eat turkey on Thanksgiving?

According to letters written by early American settlers, the first meals shared between Native Americans and European settlers consisted of beef and fowl, with most historians agreeing that the fowl in question was likely turkey. Added to the fact that the wild turkey is native to North America, it is deemed a more suitable meat for the traditional Thanksgiving meal than chicken or fish.

Though nobody can say for certain exactly what type of birds were eaten during the earliest shared meals between Native Americans and European settlers, a surviving letter by the pilgrim Edward Wimslow mentions a turkey hunting expedition before a meal.