For many Americans, Thanksgiving is a time for food, family, and football. Due to the commercialism of the holiday, the truth is masked through festive colors, massive feasts and fictional stories. The truth is Thanksgiving is not a celebratory time due to the heinous treatment of the Native Americans by the early colonists.
Native people welcome foreign settlers by teaching them survival methods and introduced them to their tradition of a harvest feast. However, the feast marked the beginning of an illustrious bloody betrayal of the Native Americans. It was then, that white settlers massacred thousands of native people in an effort to achieve their ultimate goal, which was to take the land from the natives and systematically plunder their resources.
On Thanksgiving Day, I wonder how anyone can enjoy turkey and dressing with a smile. Many African-Americans know that July 4th was NOT the anniversary of our independence and as a result, we take a stand and refuse not to celebrate that holiday. So why won’t we do the same for our Native Americans who were also oppressed by white settlers? Because we are too busy stuffing ourselves with high calorie dishes and gearing up for black Friday (which has turned into Black Thursday and is now separating families because employees must report to work).
In 1970, the United American Indians of New England declared America’s Thanksgiving Day as a National Day of Mourning. This came about as a result of the suppression of the truth. Each year, there is a protest march to the area known as Plymouth Rock.
Many Americans believe that Thanksgiving is a time to celebrate your blessings, be with your loved ones and reflect on being thankful, which derives from the traditional harvest celebrations of Native Americans. This is why volunteering on Thanksgiving has become a tradition for me. However, it is important that we remember the blood that was shed, the lives that were lost, and the oppression by white colonists amongst our native people. Remember that we are descendants of the courageous survivors and owe it to them to preserve their legacy. Spending time with loved ones is one thing, but to celebrate what the white settlers did to the native Indians, the domination of one culture over another, just isn’t my style.
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