Thanksgiving Day, which takes place annually on the fourth Thursday of November, is a national holiday in the United States.
While celebrating the holiday is a prominent American tradition, it is important to understand and keep in mind the entire history of colonization, which included centuries of genocide, land theft and oppression.
It’s said that in 1621, the Plymouth colonists and the Wampanoag tribe shared a feast to celebrate the year’s fall harvest, according to History.com. This is now known as one of the colonies’ first Thanksgiving celebrations.
But as George Washington University history professor David Silverman argues in his book, “This Land is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving,” most of that story is a myth filled with historical inaccuracies.
When the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth in 1620, Wampanoag chief Ousamequin offered the newcomers an agreement. This agreement would essentially serve as a way to protect the Wampanoags against their rivals, the Narragansetts, and the Pilgrims from other native tribes.
The pact was strained for half a century by infectious disease, the expansion of colonial land and the exploitation of Wampanoag resources, according to Smithsonian Magazine. Eventually, the tensions turned into a war, known as King Philip’s War.
The effects of the war devastated the Wampanoags, and “forever shifted the balance of power” in the colonists’ favor, Smithsonian reported.
Today, some Indigenous people in the U.S. recognize the day the Pilgrims arrived as a day of mourning, rather than a day to give thanks. It’s a time to remember the history of their ancestors, but also a day to reflect on and protest the racism and oppression they still experience today.
– Silverman told Smithsonian Magazine.
Long before colonists arrived, Native people celebrated many different days of thanksgiving, such as a “Green Corn Thanksgiving.”
And for over 200 years, individual English colonies and states celebrated days of “thanksgiving.” These were used as days of prayer for safe travels or abundant harvests.
Image credit: Heritage Auctions
– David Silverman
In the Wampanoags’ side of the story, the “feast” that took place in 1621 was the Pilgrims’ celebrating their first successful harvest by shooting guns and cannons into the air, and planning a day of their own thanksgiving, according to Indian Country Today.
Given their protection agreement, this alerted the Wampanoags’ lead chief Ousamequin to gather around 90 warriors and show up at Plymouth prepared to engage.
When they arrived, it was explained through a translator that the Pilgrims were celebrating the harvest, but the warriors decided to stay for a few days to make sure that was true.
It wasn’t until 1863 that President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a nationwide Thanksgiving Day every November as a way to promote unity during the Civil War.
Since 1970, there has been a gathering at the Plymouth Rock historical site in Massachusetts on Thanksgiving Day to commemorate the National Day of Mourning.
The United American Indians of New England will host the 53rd annual National Day of Mourning on Nov. 24, 2022.
Photos by: iStock/AP News/Giphy/Smithsonian Magazine Sources: The Indianapolis Public Library, History.com, Plimoth.org, Smithsonian Magazine, Indian Country Today Google Web Story by: Camille Dash