Should We Celebrate The Thanksgiving Holiday?

When I was a young child, my teachers taught me a whitewashed version of the “first Thanksgiving.” We learned about a harmonious celebration between the Pilgrims and “Indians.” I remember one year we even dressed up as Pilgrims and Indians to reenact the first Thanksgiving feast.

Thankfully, most Americans are now aware that this account of the first Thanksgiving—where Pilgrims and Indians gathered around tables laden with turkey and pumpkin for a friendly celebration—isn’t particularly accurate. The history of the Thanksgiving holiday is much more complicated and much darker.

The history of Thanksgiving

According to many historians (you can see my sources at the bottom of this post), the first Thanksgiving feast occurred in Plymouth during September or early October of 1621. In 1620, colonists from England (the Pilgrims) came to the New World seeking a place where they could freely practice their faith, own land, and find prosperity. The journey across the ocean and a harsh winter left half of the Pilgrims dead. In the spring, the Pilgrims met a Native American named Squanto. He spoke English because years earlier he had been kidnapped by an English sea captain and sold into slavery. He managed to escaped London and returned to his homeland. Squanto helped the Pilgrims by teaching them how to grow corn, extract sap from maple trees, and catch fish. Additionally, he helped the Pilgrims forge an alliance with the Wampanoag, a local tribe.

The feast in 1621 occurred after the Pilgrims’ first corn harvest was successful. Though this three-day feast is now remembered as the “first Thanksgiving,” there is no evidence that the Pilgrims used the word “Thanksgiving” to describe the event. It was just a celebratory feast. There were some members of the Wampanoag tribe present, but it is unclear if the Pilgrims invited them or if they arrived (perhaps prepared for battle) to see the cause of the commotion after they heard the Pilgrims firing guns. In 1623, the Pilgrims had another celebration of thanks to mark the end of a drought that had threatened their crops.

The first mention of a “Thanksgiving” celebration occurred in 1627 as the Pilgrims celebrated their brutal massacre of a Pequot village. A decade later, the first official “Thanksgiving Day” occurred. Unfortunately, the relationship between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag had deteriorated. In one incident, the Pilgrims killed several hundred Wampanoag men, women, and children in retaliation for the murder of a man the Pilgrims believed had been killed by Wampanoags. After this massacre, the governor, William Bradford, declared that for “the next 100 years, every Thanksgiving Day ordained by a Governor was in honor of the bloody victory, thanking God that the battle had been won.”

Over a century later, President George Washington designated November 26th of 1789 as a day of thanksgiving for the nation under the new Constitution. Thanksgiving became an official national holiday in 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln, in an attempt to unify a country divided by civil war, designated it as such. In an attempt to hasten the reunification of the country, Lincoln popularized the imagery of the Pilgrims and Indians coming together in harmony.

Why Thanksgiving is controversial

As you can see, the history of the Thanksgiving holiday isn’t simple or pleasant. Many individuals feel that it is inappropriate to celebrate it. First of all, we wouldn’t have an American Thanksgiving holiday if it weren’t for Europeans coming uninvited onto the land that is now the United States. If we look beyond this, we can see some positive messages from the “first Thanksgiving” feast in 1621 (helping one another, togetherness, etc.), but focusing on these without acknowledging the other feasts that helped establish the Thanksgiving holiday ignores what really happened. It makes us feel good, but it ignores the way settlers mistreated the indigenous residents during this time and in the ensuing years (stealing land, putting Native American children in boarding schools to “civilize” them, etc.) and it ignores the way they are mistreated now (restrictions on Natives’ property rights, using caricatures of Natives as mascots, etc.).

How should we respond?

Is it okay for us to celebrate Thanksgiving or do we need to consider some alternative? It’s not my place to tell you what is right for your family, but I’m going to share some possible approaches.

The concept of setting aside a day for giving thanks didn’t originate with the Pilgrims. In fact, as a Christian, it’s interesting to note that the Old Testament references three feasts that are associated with harvest and gratitude for God’s provision. These are the Feast of First Fruits (Leviticus 23:10), the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost (Leviticus 23:16), and the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths (Leviticus 23:34). Though these feasts are not the foundation of the American Thanksgiving celebration, they are a compelling reason to set aside time to give thanks. Additionally, there are a number of other countries that have thanksgiving celebrations (for example, Kinro Kansha no Hi in Japan and Erntedankfest in Germany). These celebrations have nothing to do with an idyllic narrative of “Pilgrims and Indians” and, in many cases, their origins predate those of the American Thanksgiving.

The way I see it, the problem with our American Thanksgiving is the way it began and how we continue to use the whitewashed account of its origins to hide the history and current state of relations between European settlers/European Americans and Native Americans. What comes to mind when I think about this is a quote from Maya Angelou: “History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage need not be lived again.” We can’t undo the origins of Thanksgiving, but we can face today’s celebrations with courage.

One possibility is choosing to set aside a day of thanks that isn’t on the national Thanksgiving holiday. We haven’t done this because my husband has Thanksgiving off work as a holiday, but it may be a valid option for some families. Those of us who continue to gather and give thanks on Thanksgiving can still do our best to differentiate our celebrations from the origins of the holiday.

We can teach our children (and other loved ones who don’t know) an accurate account of how Thanksgiving came about. In other words, we need to toss out storybooks, decorations, and other items that depict a cute, harmonious gathering between Pilgrims and Indians. We need to go even further and make sure we teach our kids accurate accounts of U.S. history, including those aspects that we wish hadn’t happened.

Feasting is a traditional aspect of Thanksgiving. For our feasts, we can fill our tables with indigenous foods, such as turkey, beans, squash, corn, maple, and wild rice. We can even support Native Americans by finding ways to purchase heirloom varieties of these foods from Native growers. If you are like me and know next to nothing about Native American fare, then grab a good book on the topic such as The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen.

We can use Thanksgiving as a catalyst to change for the better. We can use it as an opportunity to actually give thanks and connect with our families, not just to eat and watch football. We can use it as an opportunity to learn more about Native American culture and the struggles facing Native Americans today. Then we can take action. We can refuse to allow our kids to dress up as “Indians” for Halloween and other events. We can stop using phrases that diminish or disparage Native American culture (“let’s have a powwow,” “he went off the reservation,” “it’s my spirit animal,” “she’s an Indian giver,” etc.). We can purchase items from Native businesses and support Native artists. Likewise, we can contemplate our upcoming Christmas celebrations. How can we give back to our communities? Can we make more fair trade purchases? Can we support small businesses? Can we volunteer time at a food pantry or soup kitchen?

I know this is really heavy stuff to be thinking about on a day when most folks just want to relax, eat, and fellowship. However, as I’ve noted previously, often the right thing to do isn’t the easy thing to do. If you’d like additional information on the history of Thanksgiving, please visit my sources:

• History of Thanksgiving
• The True Story Behind Thanksgiving
• Thanksgiving Myths, Legends and Lies
• 8 Thanksgiving Celebrations Around the World
• The Thanksgiving Tale We Tell Is a Harmful Lie. As a Native American, I’ve Found a Better Way to Celebrate the Holiday

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this! Were you aware of the history of Thanksgiving? In light of it, do you think we should celebrate the holiday? If so, how should we celebrate it?

Shared at the following:

Modest Monday, Busy Monday, Over the Moon, and Encouraging Hearts and Home.