Does Thanksgiving Even Need An Origin Story?
Just like all of our main holidays, Thanksgiving’s history is mixed and mysterious, at best. Sure, there’s a narrative, a defined purpose and a checklist of things we should buy, but exactly where does Thanksgiving come from?
According to American mythos, Thanksgiving comes from when the Native Americans and Pilgrims shared their crops, ate together and sang kumbaya one harvest season long, long ago. Many of us grew up hearing some version of this story, or even participating in one of those Thanksgiving reenactments where our classmates wear bonnets and feathers and eat turkey for lunch.
In modern times, now that most Native Americans have been forced to integrate into larger American culture or live on reservations, Thanksgiving is a time to gather with family and be thankful. We eat too much food, share family recipes, ask relatives uncomfortable questions and take a break from homework to spend time with our chosen or assigned families.
Anyone who knows much about American history knows that at most the original Thanksgiving mythos is absolute propaganda, or at the very least it’s just very conveniently cherry-picked history. The Natives and Pilgrims did not sing kumbaya very long at all. The entirety of North America is drenched in the blood of slaughtered Native Americans at the hands of colonizers, whether by disease, murder, or forced assimilation.
And disgustingly, American culture would rather forget its relentless campaign to steal life, land, and liberty from those who were first here. Even if the original Thanksgiving was a real event, which perhaps it was, average Americans cannot celebrate that event without also respecting the tragedies at Wounded Knee, the Trail of Tears, the 1849 Gold Rush, Indian boarding schools and so, so many more. The same can be said for acknowledging the injustices and issues facing our Native American neighbors stuck in cycles of poverty and abuse on modern reservations.
There is a reason that Native American Heritage Day follows Thanksgiving and why November is Native American history month: because Thanksgiving has been so tightly knit with Native Americans. It is perhaps the only time that mainstream American culture gives Native Americans in history much attention, and that must stop. To only acknowledge the myth of Thanksgiving and conveniently forget the rest of Native American history is like remembering the one time your abusive partner got you something nice, while forgetting everything else they’ve ever done. It’s an unfair way to remember both parties and it ultimately results in further injustice.
Modern Thanksgiving doesn’t even need this myth, quite frankly. It can be about thankfulness, remembering our roots, food and gathering with loved ones without even touching the supposed first Thanksgiving. That’s a fulfilling and meaningful holiday enough without any sketchy history as backup.
So as we go about our Thanksgiving celebrations, let’s focus on the family before us and the gratitude within us rather than the half-baked history behind us. At the same time, as we finish up November, let’s make a point to learn about the original Americans on both sides.
Our understanding of history cannot be half-baked, or else our understanding of modernity will be the same way. Read a book by a Native American author, watch an educational Ted Talk or review American history from a Native American rather than a powerful white dude’s perspective. Learn to see with eyes that see people rather than myths in America’s mixed, convicting and educational history.
