In the season of holidays, November holds Thanksgiving as well as Native American Heritage month. Now here in the U. S., the Christmas decorations are already up in stores and have been for a while. However, that doesn’t mean Thanksgiving is less important, or that we shouldn’t look into Thanksgiving as well, especially given the dissonance between what happened and what schools teach.
Many people get a sanitized version of the history of Thanksgiving in school. This often skips over many violent encounters and deaths associated with the pilgrims and other settlers. These are starting to become more mainstream knowledge again, however, not nearly enough people look into it.
Initially, the pilgrims were dependent on the Wampanoag to survive, since the English had no knowledge of local crop growing. Initially, there was a brokered peace between the tribes and the settlers even though the diseases the Europeans brought with them killed off whole villages. Within three years though the pilgrims wanted more.
Once the colonists knew how to survive, they began banding together with other groups of colonists to commit massacres of the native people. Frequently, the men were drawn away from the villages to be captured as slaves while the colonists slaughtered the women and children. The slaves were usually sent south. The violence continued for centuries.
For these reasons, many indigenous people chose not to celebrate Thanksgiving at all, while others devote time to being with their families. Still, others find celebrations offensive, while there are groups who hold memorial vigils too. So as the day looms near, be mindful that all is not as harmonious as it is presented to be and look into the history surrounding on the holiday.
References
Cook, Roy. THANKSGIVING: A Day of Mourning. n.d. Web. 02 November 2018.
National Museum of the American Indian. “American Indian Perspectives on Thanksgiving.” n.d. National Museum of the American Indian. Web. 02 November 2018.
Zotigh, Dennis. Do American Indians celebrate Thanksgiving? 26 November 2016. Web. 02 November 2018.