© UnknownFirst Thanksgiving
"Thanksgiving" is a very ancient concept to American Indian nations. The big problem with the American Thanksgiving holiday is its false association with American Indian people. The infamous 'Indians and pilgrims' myth. It is good to celebrate Thanksgiving, to be thankful for your blessings. It is not good to distort history, to falsely portray the origin of this holiday and lie about the truth of its actual inception. Here are some accurate historical facts about the true origin of this American holiday that may interest you:
"Thanksgiving" did not begin as a great loving relationship between the pilgrims and the Wampanoag, Pequot and Narragansett people. In fact, in October of 1621 when the "pilgrim" survivors of their first winter in Turtle Island sat down to share the first unofficial "Thanksgiving" meal, the Indians who were there were not even invited!
There was no turkey, squash, cranberry sauce or pumpkin pie. A few days before this alleged feast took place, a company of 'pilgrims' led by Miles Standish actively sought the head of a local Indian leader, and an 11 foot high wall was erected around the entire Plymouth settlement for the very purpose of keeping Indians out! Officially, the holiday we know as "Thanksgiving" actually came into existence in the year 1637. Governor Winthrop of the Massachussetts Bay Colony proclaimed this first official day of Thanksgiving and feasting to celebrate the return of the colony's men who had arrived safely from what is now Mystic, Connecticut. They had gone there to participate in the massacre of over 700 Pequot men, women and children, and Mr. Winthrop decided to dedicate an official day of thanksgiving complete with a feast to 'give thanks' for their great 'victory.'
As hard as it may be to conceive, this is the actual origin of our current Thanksgiving Day holiday. Many American Indian people these days do not observe this holiday, for obvious reasons. I see nothing wrong with gathering with family to give thanks to our Creator for our blessings and sharing a meal. I do, however, hope that Americans as a whole will one day acknowledge the true origin of this holiday, and remember the pain, loss, and agony of the Indigenous people who suffered at the hands of the so-called 'pilgrims'. It is my hope that children's plays about 'the first Thanksgiving', complete with Indians and pilgrims chumming at the dinner table, will someday be a thing of the past. Why perpetuate a lie? Let us face the truths of the past, and give thanks that we are learning to love one another for the rich human diversity we share.
I heard these lies as a young boy, from teachers and many others... I re-told the lies unknowingly, until the day I woke up and realized how we'd been hoodwinked and bamboozled... it seems that after the first massacre, the white man couldn't take his eye off the prize... the prize being the rest of the land, and I mean ALL the land, to occupy what was inhabited by the indigenous American Indian tribes by any/all means necessary... with superior weapons, which the white man had in his possession, it was much easier to massacre your foe and thereby steal his land... and it didn't stop on this soil, as there are estimates of 50 million indigenous people slaughtered in North, Central and South America, combined... one can not scream loud enough of the injustices wraught on the indigenous peoples, and continue to this day