Death and Turkey

Credit: Wikipedia

In American culture, there are two different thought processes behind the history and tradition of Thanksgiving. The most prevalent of which is the school-taught story of a celebration between the Pilgrims and Indians (most likely with the Wampanoag tribe) in 1621. In this child’s version of the history, the Pilgrims invited the natives to a celebration feast at the onset of the harsh winter months that would likely ravage their settlements in the coming months. This tale reflects another old-standing tradition in which Americans feast during the winter months as a celebration of the fall harvest and a celebration of life in the face of the ever-present looming threat of death. It is for this reason that we spend the coming days gathering food and preparing it for a feast with our own families and friends to this day.

Americans feast during the winter months as a celebration of the fall harvest and a celebration of life in the face of the ever-present looming threat of death.

But history is often far more complicated than the story that we may have been told as children. In truth, Thanksgiving was not made a holiday until at least 1863 during Abraham Lincoln’s presidency. Instead, history tells us that while the fateful feast did occur in 1621 after a treaty was brokered by the American native Squanto, who was a former European slave and the last surviving member of the Patuxet tribe, between Pilgrims fresh off the Mayflower and the Wampanoag tribe, the feast was not as significant as your first grade teacher may have led you to believe.

Credit: Wikipedia

In fact, history shows us that the first feast that was named ‘thanksgiving’ happened much later in 1673 amidst a war between the Pilgrims and the Pequot tribe. This feast took place in Groton, Connecticut on the eve of the Pequots’ celebration of the green corn dance—a feasting tradition that takes place in the summer months. In the dawn, English and Dutch mercenaries ambushed the unsuspecting tribe, which resulted in the death of 700 unarmed men, women and children. Afterwards, ‘a day of thanksgiving’ was declared by the governor of Massachusetts. Likewise, many more thanksgiving days were declared in the future as all-out war continued between native tribes and settlers.

American Indians from throughout the country have been campaigning to list Thanksgiving Day as a national day of mourning

While this story is dark, it is no less important for everyone to remember on Thanksgiving Day as Americans are told to give thanks for the people and events in their own lives. And while this holiday is not lost to American Indian descendants, the bloody history of our past has transformed this into a holiday of grief, mourning and memorials for the ancestors that were lost in these violent wars. Protest for the Thanksgiving holiday picked up especially in the 1970s, as representatives from Indian tribes shared the message of the 19th century Pequot minister William Apess, who encouraged “every man of color” to mourn the day that the settlers landed on Plymouth Rock. More recently, American Indians from throughout the country have been campaigning to list Thanksgiving Day as a national day of mourning.

As an American fully of Northern European descent, It is hard to place my own thoughts on this subject. While the tradition that I have grown up with as a child has left me many great memories that I can cherish with my family, my heart also goes out to those who must consider this a day of mourning as well. Regardless of what your heritage may be, the point remains that it is important to give thanks to the sacrifices and losses that we have built our own lives upon. Perhaps for those of us who are celebrating Thanksgiving this year, the first step that we can take is to remember and appreciate the culture and heritage of others as well as our own.

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