The Real History Behind Thanksgiving
By: Maia Niguel Hoskin (Forbes)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Maia Niguel HoskinContributorOpinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.Providing provocative views on racism, pop culture, and mental health.FollowingNov 24, 2022,01:00am ESTUpdated Nov 27, 2022, 11:59am ESTThis article is more than 2 years old.
Today, as millions of American families gather together in celebration of Thanksgiving, many remain unaware of the real history behind the holiday. While in school, most children are taught that Thanksgiving represents a feast celebrating Christopher Columbus' discovery of America. More specifically, after an unidentified tribe of Native people welcomed Pilgrims to America - which was their land - they taught them how to live and care for their land, voluntarily gave up their land, and then all happily gathered for a celebration dinner. After which, they disappeared into thin air as if they never existed. Most school history books teach that the Native people handed off America to white people so they could create a great nation dedicated to liberty, opportunity, and Christianity for the rest of the world to profit. The story typically taught is about Native people conceding to colonialism.
Most American children are not taught about the savage raping, killing, and pillaging that Natives endured during this time. Another criticism of many primary and secondary schools' curricula is that very little is taught in school about the history and culture of the Native community in general. In fact, around 87% of state-level history standards do not mention Native history after 1900. Let alone teaching students the tremendous impact Native people have had on contemporary US society. Due to the severe erasure of Native history, Thanksgiving has been whitewashed, and many have been taught an incomplete and, in some cases, inaccurate understanding of what happened.
The truth is that for the Wampanoag tribe —among other Native tribes —, the fourth Thursday in November is considered a day of mourning, not a day of celebration. Although the Wampanoags did help the Pilgrims survive, their support was followed by years of slow, unfolding genocide of their people and stealing their land.
Here are four vital facts behind the real story of Thanksgiving:
- Although there are records of a celebration taking place, there is no evidence to support that the Wampanoag tribe was present or invited to the feast. An account said 90 members of the Wampanoag tribe were present but does not indicate that members of the tribe were invited. Some historians believe that these 90 men were an army sent by Wampanoag leader Ousamequin at the sound of gunshots, which was a part of the celebration.
- To be clear, interactions between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag people were anything but friendly, and the Pilgrims were the aggressors. During their first encounter with the Wampanoag people, the Pilgrims stole from the tribe's winter provisions. Although later, Ousamequin formed an alliance between the groups, the alliance was only established after the Wampanoag people were ravaged by diseases brought by European colonizers during previous years. This decision was more so a measured attempt at survival than it was to ensure intercultural harmony.
- Extreme discord continued after the first harvest when deadly conflicts between white colonizers and Native people erupted. After becoming allies, the Europeans went back on their promise and proceeded to seize Native land and imprison, enslave, and execute Native people.
- Thanksgiving celebrations that took place among European settlers often followed brutal victories over Native people, like the Pequot Massacre of 1636 and the beheading of the Wampanoag leader, Metacom, in 1676.
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When Trump institutes his censorship of any history of America that is not "patriotic" enough , trying to be objective about events like the first Thanksgiving will be a thing of the past.
I like American myths of total brotherhood and generosity of spirit. They are something to aspire to. But we should not run from the truth either.
From now on I will think of the Thanksgiving turkey getting carved up and eaten at the table as a symbol of the colonists' treatment of the Native Americans. Thanks for enabling that interpretation.
Fortunately, very few people today give a shit about the historical basis for the Thanksgiving holiday. Now it is a big , sometimes uncomfortable, family gathering followed by immediately going on line to buy stuff.
Many Americans remain woefully misinformed about the killing, raping, and pillaging of Native people that serves as the foundation for what is recognized today as the Thanksgiving holiday.
This should almost be a babylon bee article. This is all the left ever talks about on Thanksgiving.
LOL. The things in this article are almost never presented as the true story of Thanksgiving. The myth is what we hear, and particularly what school kids hear.
Ok. I do not care. Sorry, but I’m not sorry.
I do Thanksgiving to cook and eat delicious food, be thankful for what I have today, and to be with my family and friends. It’s not about the specific history of Europeans and Native Americans, or anyone else. I am not responsible for the behavior of other people 3 or 4 hundred years ago, and I am not going to spend the holiday flagellating myself over it.
Same goes for Christmas, Easter, or whatever. I wish people would stop trying to “open my eyes” to the allegedly “true history” of whatever holiday I’m celebrating. The holiday is not about all that shit.
P.S. and by the way: The Pilgrims and the Indians did not invent the ideas of giving thanks or feasting at harvest time. So modern Thanksgiving isn’t necessarily about them or because of them.
Who is expecting you to self flagellate about it. ?
Please do not be coy or disingenuous about this. The theme of this article, and every other one like it, is that instead of enjoying my holiday, I should be mindful of - as expressed in this article -
So, yes, when people write these masturbatory lectures, they do expect me to spend the day - figuratively - self-flagellating.
I dont see it that way at all. The article wants to show the other side of a myth people are taught in America from early childhood.
Today I would agree few people care one way or the other about how Thanksgiving came to be, it is a reason for family gatherings with big meals. But I see nothing whatsoever wrong with showing the "other side" of the Pilgrim myth.
If you don’t think this article has a moral agenda, you haven’t read it very carefully. This article is not concerned with teaching history. Some of the claims made by this author, in furtherance of his sanctimonious agenda, are obviously untrue. Some examples:
I don’t believe this for a second. I don’t believe you could find one school in America teaching that Thanksgiving is specifically to celebrate Christopher Columbus, much less “most.”
Again, I defy the author to provide proof that the tribe was “unidentified,” or that they “voluntarily gave up their land,” or that they “disappeared, etc.”
Neither of these things is taught anywhere. The author’s whole argument proceeds from a straw man.
Thanksgiving is usually taught in the very youngest grade levels. Are we supposed to discuss “savage raping, killing, and pillaging” with 6 year-olds? This author seems to think so.
At higher grade levels - middle and high school - the militaristic advance of European peoples across America is taught in the context of World and US history classes covering the exploration and colonization by European nations and the expansion of the United States. Thanksgiving, in that context, is a footnote at best in the curriculum.
In the "patriotic" telling of Thanksgiving, is the native tribe named?
The writer of the article has a point of view, most people that write something do.
Unless someone reads detailed histories of colonial America the true picture is mostly not accurately represented, because there is a patriotic myth that has been useful for national identity and cohesion.