Thanksgiving, a time to get together with your family and eat food around the table, sharing what you are thankful about. The air is full of laughter and happiness. This is quite ironic because Thanksgiving was a cover up event that happened. In reality, Thanksgiving is a holiday celebrating a mass genocide.
There are many places where historians say that Thanksgiving started, but one I wanted to highlight was in 1637 in a Massachusetts Colony. The colonizers committed mass genocide against the Pequot people briefly before the day of Thanksgiving and John Winthrop declared Thanksgiving a day of celebration for the soldiers who slaughtered those innocent individuals.
“(Thanksgiving is) A Myth that everyone can follow”-Nick Cannon
Another version of Thanksgiving was in Plymouth, where colonists and the Wampanoag Tribe “had a three day feast for their new alliance”. The day before the first feast there was a huge war. Basically, the happy-go-lucky three day feast was not a real thing. In fact, the colonizers did not even want Indigenous people at the feast, but the Native people had food and they did not. Instead of this three day feast bringing together different cultures, it just showed the separation more, for example the colonizers sat on chairs at a table and the Native Tribes would sit on the ground as they always did. The alliance was quickly strained and fights began to break out once again, after Massasoit (a tribe leader) died and his son Wamsutta quickly followed, dying mysteriously. Years later, Abraham Lincoln declared that every third Thursday of November would be Thanksgiving and he gave the holiday its name. Abraham Lincoln was no friend to Native Americans either. For example, in the Dakota War 38 Indigenous men were hung and 303 more were ordered to be hung by Lincoln’s demand. Tons of other massacres occurred against Native people under Lincolns reign. Again, it was just an act of propaganda to bring the country together and to promote nationalism and patriotism.
The reason Thanksgiving is so horrible is because this one day of peace and happiness glazes over all of the genocide and bloodshed that occurred towards Indigenous people over the years. The whole holiday started as propaganda to act like the colonizers cared throughout the years (Abraham Lincoln). Before you sit down and munch into the food your family prepared, reflect on the horrible massacres and genocides of Native peoples throughout the years and how Thanksgiving glosses over it all. Or we could just not celebrate Thanksgiving, which is the right thing to do. Be mindful of your Thanksgiving traditions and keep educating yourself about the history of this horrible “holiday.”