What “Thanksgiving” Means to the Indigenous People of North America
What “Thanksgiving” Means to the Indigenous People of North America
For the indigenous people of North America, the Thanksgiving holiday means something different than what the most history books chronicle. It celebrates an occasion when the European settlers of this continent gave thanks after their massacre and murder of the indigenous hosts who had welcomed them to this land and saved them from starvation during their first year of living in North America. We finally have learned the truth about this holiday, the history of these United States of America, and its genocidal relationship with the indigenous people of this continent.
When one learns the truth about Thanksgiving, it’s impossible to accept the story about the friendly gathering of pilgrims and Indians that most of us have been force-fed since we were children. When my third child was taught the same conventional Thanksgiving myth in 2nd grade that I was taught as a child, I decided that I couldn’t take the lies anymore. I could not stand for another child of mine to be lied to and denied the knowledge of her true history. So I picked up and moved to what is known as Wounded Knee, South Dakota on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, but what is really the sovereign, independent Lakota Nation. There, my mother, daughter and I learned more about our ancestral history. When one starts to learn one’s true history, one can’t live with the lies anymore.
More and more Native people are learning and re-learning their true history. We are learning that the stories that have been passed down by the traditional elders are, indeed, true; stories that have been hidden from most of the world.
It is our right and responsibility to speak our truth and teach our children their true history. Hopefully, non-Natives will listen to the truth with open minds and hearts so that historical records may be set straight. One important way to set records straight is to seek out correct information via the internet, the vast repository of information that is, virtually, at our fingertips today. Thanksgiving and Columbus Day are good holidays for starting the research. Recently, a great deal has been uncovered about these two holidays and the events and people who have inspired them.
No, I can’t celebrate a Thanksgiving holiday where European invaders killed off the original inhabitants of this land, my ancestors, so that they could take over the continent. I can’t celebrate a holiday in which a group of newcomers annihilated their hosts who had helped them survive in a new and strange land. I can only give thanks for loved ones who help, support, love and respect each other. These are the values that the original inhabitants of this continent, the indigenous people of North America, have lived by for many thousands of years.
Margaux Simmons
(Shawnee/Cherokee/Lakota/African)
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