How Native Americans view Thanksgiving

Written by ALICIA YOUNGBLOOD

Every November since elementary school, we have heard the tale of the Pilgrims and the Native Americans gathering at the table, sharing food and giving thanks together. However, the real history behind Thanksgiving is more about national identity building than simply sharing turkey and gratitude. 

The myth that we were told as children was not told by mistake. We were told the white narrative, a strategic version of history that has been repeatedly taught in almost every textbook across the country: the story of Europeans arriving to an “empty” land and peacefully building their new home.  Yet the reality of colonization and the perspective of the Native Americans are often conveniently left out. 

According to Claire Bugos from Smithsonian Magazine, when the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth in 1620, the chief Ousamequin of the Wampanoag tribe offered the new arrivals a mutual defense treaty to protect his people against their own rivals, the Narragansetts. Over the 50 years of this relationship, however, colonial expansion, the spread of diseases and exploiting resources of Wampanoag land caused tensions to escalate into war.

This war, known as King Philip’s War (1675), devastated the Wampanoag people and unfairly shifted the balance of power in favor of the European arrivals. Although this day is now remembered as a day to give thanks, the people of Wampanoag tribe remember the Pilgrim’s entry as a day to mourn over the loved ones lost from the war and diseases spread amongst the Native Americans. According to the official Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe website, Native Americans and their allies have gathered at noon on Cole’s Hill in Plymouth  each Thanksgiving since the 1970s to observe a national day of mourning and honor indigenous ancestors, as well as the erasure of Native culture. 

In elementary schools around the country, students feel the impact of this whitewashed narrative every November. During Thanksgiving, schools hold Thanksgiving pageants, children wear headdresses colored with craft store feathers and share tables with classmates wearing black construction paper hats. Research from the Rethinking Schools, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to social justice in public schools, reveals that between both Columbus day in October and Thanksgiving in November, the false portrayal of Native Americans play a key role in the mythology of US history as taught in schools, maintaining children’s ignorance and reinforcing stereotypes about Native Americans.  

By understanding the misconceptions of Thanksgiving, as a community we can start to show respect to Native Americans by educating ourselves on the land we occupied and understand the culture of those who were there first.