Thanksgiving and Native Americans: A Complicated History | US

There is a popular story that American students hear about the first Thanksgiving celebration: a group of friendly Native Americans welcomed the Pilgrims to the continent, taught them how to live, and sat down to dinner with them. However, David Silverman, an expert on the history of this population, claims that this Thanksgiving story is a myth. First, the tribe involved is almost never identified, and as the myth goes, “they gave America to the whites so they could create a great nation dedicated to freedom, opportunity, and Christianity for the rest of the world to benefit from.” The point is for the natives to submit to colonialism,” Silverman argues in his book This land is their land. The truth is different.

The colonists, called the Pilgrims, arrived in 1620 in what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts, a country abandoned by most of the Patuxet Indians due to a disease outbreak. After a harsh winter took the lives of half of the settlers – who could not adapt to the land – the last surviving Patuxet, Tisquantum (also known as Squanto), helped the Pilgrims by teaching them how to catch eels and grow corn. He served as an interpreter until he contracted the same disease that wiped out his tribe a year later. The Wampanoag leader Massasoit, who also lived in the area, provided food for the colonists during the first challenging winter.

The Pilgrims celebrated their first harvest in 1621, probably between September 21 and November 11, with 50 Mayflower passengers and 90 Native Americans. This holiday, not initially identified as Thanksgiving, followed the harvest and was prepared by pilgrim women and servants.

By some accounts, the harvest was intended for the Pilgrims, but Native Americans joined in the celebration after hearing the ceremonial shots and offered their own food. Paula Peters, Mashpee Wampanoag historian from Cape Cod, states the following: “These were not pilgrims, but The Wampanoag was not invited“. He points to settler accounts that the Pilgrims (also called Separatists) celebrated their first harvest by firing muskets, which caused the “90 The Wampanoag comes to war”, but when they learned that they were not going to participate in the battle, “they stayed for a tense, diplomatic meal that may or may not have included turkey“.

However, relations between the two societies later deteriorated and ended in “one of the worst”. in the history of the horrific colonial wars with IndiaAccording to Silverman, “King Philip’s War.” In the following years, settlers massacred native tribes such as the Pequot, and robbed Wampanoag graves and stole food from them to survive their first years on the continent. This is the reason why Native Americans do not view Thanksgiving as a holiday, but as a day of mourning to commemorate what some call the genocide of Native American tribes.

National Day of Mourning

The National Day of Mourning is an annual demonstration designed to educate the public about Native Americans in the United States and to dispel myths surrounding the history of Thanksgiving in the United States, as well as to raise awareness of the struggles faced by Native American tribes.

In 1970, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts held a commemorative Thanksgiving celebration to mark the 350th anniversary of the landing of the Mayflower. Organizers invited Frank “Wamsutta” James, chief of the Gay Head Wampanoag tribe and president of the Federated East Indian League, to speak at the event. However, after reviewing his speech, he was informed that he would not be able to deliver the speech in written form, so he was given another one written by their public relations team.

Instead, James gave a speech on Cole’s Hill in Plymouth, Massachusetts, next to a statue of Massasoit Sachem (also known as Ousamequin), who was the leader of the Party Wampanoag at the arrival of the Pilgrims and who formed an alliance with the colonists in the Plymouth Colony. There he described the Native American perspective on celebrating Thanksgiving. The speech included the following statement:

“We have lost our country. Our lands fell into the hands of the aggressor. We allowed the white man to hold us on his lap. What has happened cannot be changed, but today we must work for a more humane America, a more Indian America, where people and nature matter again; where Indian values ​​of honor, truth and brotherhood prevail (…) Now, 350 years later, this is the beginning of a new determination of the original American: the American Indian.”

After the event, a plaque was placed Cole’s Hill in Plymouth with the following message:

“Since 1970, Native Americans have gathered at noon on Cole’s Hill in Plymouth to commemorate the National Day of Mourning on the American holiday of Thanksgiving. Many Native Americans do not celebrate the arrival of the Pilgrims and other European settlers. For them, Thanksgiving is a reminder of the genocide of millions of their citizens, the theft of their lands, and the merciless attack on their culture. Participants on the National Day of Mourning honor Native ancestors and the struggles of Native people to survive today. It is a day of remembrance and spiritual connection, as well as protest against the racism and oppression that Native Americans continue to experience.

The annual event is organized by the American Indians of New England.

Day of No Thanks

The Indigenous Sunrise Ceremony, also known as the Day of Non-Thanksgiving, is an event held on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay. It has been observed on the same day as Thanksgiving and the National Day of Mourning since 1975 to commemorate the 1969 protest event in which the island was occupied by the Alcatraz-Red Power Movement, a social movement led by Native American youth.

In 1969, Native American members of the Alcatraz-Red Power Movement, part of the Indians of All Tribes (IAT) group, occupied Alcatraz Island under the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie, which allocated surplus government land to Native Americans. The occupation lasted 19 months, from November 20, 1969, to June 11, 1971, when it was forcibly ended by the US government. This inspired protests by the American Indian Movement (AIM). AIM members who painted Plymouth Rock red during the 1970 Thanksgiving protest, which led to the National Day of Mourning.

The event is organized by the International Indian Treaty Council.

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