We all learned about the first Thanksgiving in elementary school. The tale we’re taught as kids is simple: the Pilgrims sailed to the New World on the Mayflower in search of “religious freedom” and shared a three-day feast with the Native Americans with whom they’d established a harmonious relationship.
However, that simplistic version doesn’t provide an authentic picture of the dynamic between English settlers and indigenous peoples. It traps us in a cycle that glorifies colonizers. It’s no secret that the realities of European colonization are white-washed in the classroom, and Thanksgiving isn’t excluded from this trend.
Pilgrims are often painted in a righteous light as stewards of their faith coming to North America to practice religious freedom. However, this narrative is misleading because English settlers had already found a place free of religious persecution in the Dutch city of Leiden in 1608. The prospect of economic stability, maintaining an English identity and establishing a religious utopia were the primary factors driving their immigration.
There are other facts surrounding the first Thanksgiving that are disputable, yet we teach them as truth. Our education system fails to mention there are only two primary sources that detail the events of the first Thanksgiving, and both of those first-hand accounts were written by English settlers. It’s important to notice the inconsistencies in what we teach because of this lack of information.
Some experts believe the Native Americans weren’t formally invited to the Thanksgiving feast as is traditionally taught. Moreover, although modern paintings and illustrations of the Thanksgiving feast depict a large number of Pilgrims with only a few Native Americans, the reality is that the Native Americans outnumbered the settlers by 2-to-1.
It’s also possible that the first Thanksgiving wasn’t the “first” at all. Both the Pilgrims and Native Americans had a history of celebratory feasts for successful harvests.
Ignoring such details of Thanksgiving’s history allows oppressors to categorize themselves as the proprietors of the land they walk on when, in reality, it was never theirs.
We should also question how we celebrate Thanksgiving based on the fact that some Native American groups view the holiday as one of national mourning, considering it commemorates the arrival of oppressors and the resulting genocide.
On top of the plethora of myths and misleading information about Thanksgiving, there’s a complete disregard for the history that precedes and follows this seemingly harmonious celebration. It’s widely accepted that Squanto –– a Native American man of the Wampanoag tribe –– helped English settlers in their time of malnourishment by teaching them how to cultivate corn, extract sap from maple trees, catch fish and identify poisonous plants. Still, this alliance, according to History, “remains one of the sole examples of harmony between European colonists and Native Americans.”
Mutually beneficial relationships between Native Americans and English colonists did exist to some extent, but they were bookended by bloody conflicts. Before the 1621 Thanksgiving feast, conflicts such as the first Anglo-Powhatan war broke out between 1609 and 1614, not to mention the disease outbreaks upon European arrival that wiped out about 90% of the indigenous population.
King Philip’s War is an example of a conflict following the first Thanksgiving that contradicts the pretty picture of the holiday that is constructed with false narratives. Ongoing hostilities over land ownership culminated when Plymouth colonists executed three soldiers of King Philip, chief of the Wampanoag band, for the alleged murder of another Native American who had converted to Puritanism.
The origins of Thanksgiving that we teach kids in school and still honor in adulthood is merely a fraction of the full truth. We’ve cherry-picked the best parts of European-indigenous interactions and have romanticized wherever possible.
This isn’t to say we should abolish Thanksgiving and throw away all of our traditions. I love eating stuffing, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie as much as the next person. However, I do believe it’s necessary to reframe how we approach the holiday.
We can’t change our past, but we can certainly change how we view it.
We need to take time this holiday season to acknowledge the origins of something so integral to our national identity. A way we can pay respect to the history of Thanksgiving is by taking the time to support indigenous communities. You can purchase food, art and other goods from indigenous-owned businesses or donate to organizations like the American Indian College Fund.
Thanksgiving has become a time to gather with loved ones and share what we’re grateful for, so we should spend the holiday celebrating our families and friends. Still, make sure you aren’t using family as an excuse to overlook the realities of white-washed history and disguise the glorification of colonizers.
