PLIMOTH PLANTATION , Massachusetts ( CNN ) -- Modern-day pilgrims to Plimoth Plantation have much curiosity about life in the re-creation of an English village from the 1600s and a Native American homesite . But some of the thousands of people who visit daily to get a glimpse of how the first colonials existed and created the Thanksgiving tradition bring with them misconceptions about the Native people . Linda Coombs , left , and Paula Peters take a gentle approach to correct visitors to the homesite . Paula Peters , of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe , said one of the first things she learned when she started working at Plimoth in Massachusetts 30 years ago was : `` People will say things that will hurt you . '' A parent might reprimand their children by saying , `` If you do n't behave I am going to leave you with this Indian squaw and she will cook you for dinner , '' Peters said . Officials who run the site say they have tried to educate visitors by putting up signs asking them to avoid stereotypes and showing a short film at the beginning of the tour explaining what really happened when the Pilgrims first arrived in Plymouth . Still , `` People take a lot of liberties with Native people , '' Peters said . Some have even told her : `` I thought we killed all of you . '' Linda Coombs has heard that too . She has been an educator and interpreter at Plimoth since the 1970s . She says sometimes the ignorance can be fairly benign , such as when a visitor looks at Native food and asks , `` You 're not going to eat that are you ? '' But at other times , the misconceptions can be offensive . An adult chaperone recently asked a Cherokee , Tim Turner , `` Where do you get your alcohol ? '' Turner told the visitor that his comment was inappropriate and then walked away -- which is what Coombs trains her staff to do . `` We try to help people understand how offensive that statement is , and then replace it with truthful information , '' Coombs said . Peters likes to quote another Native American , Ella Sekatau , a Narragansett , who says `` ignorance is like a stone wall . If you try to fight it , you will end up with bloody fists . Instead you must take down each stone , gently , one at a time . '' So when a child is war-whooping and the parent says `` stop acting like a wild Indian , '' Peters said you have to `` carefully dismantle the myth . It 's a delicate procedure . '' The gentle approach appears to be working . Evelyn Hardin from Shutesbury , Massachusetts , who makes the 100-mile trek to Plimoth every year at Thanksgiving to remind herself and her family where it all started , said her family `` has learned to be more sensitive to the Native culture . '' Peters agreed that many visitors do seem to get the message . `` In a great many cases we do take a stone off the wall and sometimes you even see a light on the other side . '' The best progress is made with schoolchildren who have not been tainted by inaccurate history lessons or so many old cowboy and Indian movies , Peters said . And Plimoth , with its homesite staffed by Native Americans , is a great place for teaching , Peters said . `` We have a unique opportunity here because of our history to teach them about our culture and dispel the myths . ''
Native Americans at famed Pilgrim site work to counter misconceptions . Some visitors make hurtful remarks about alcohol or genocide . It 's a `` delicate procedure '' to dispel myths , Native staffer says .