Authors use historical facts and real scenarios to create a fictional setting for their readers. Children's authors often embed bigger, complex themes into the characters' dialogue and into the fictional world they create rather than portraying a straightforward factual account. While these themes often present themselves readily to a critical eye, children engaged in the narrative merely absorb them. Authors recognize their power to persuade children, and through the genre of children's literature, authors consciously depict historical characters to carry important messages about current world events. In the case of Squanto, they relay a message about American values of integrity and honor, and they remind Americans that in the constitution "all men are created equal." Using the children's novel, Dark Pilgrim: The Story of Squanto (1965), I will discuss the similarities in the popular American attitude toward Native Americans and African Americans during the Civil Rights decades, and how the Native Americans became a placeholder for African Americans in the novel. Comparing this novel to the primary sources of the Pilgrims' account written by William Bradford will give insight into a broader message of American value of equality for all men encompassed in the seemingly innocent story of Squanto, the Pilgrims' first Indian friend.