As some people know and choose to acknowledge, North America has a lot of history of colonization, slavery, blatant racism, you name it. As fewer people know, much of this history is left out of textbooks in American classrooms.
This is especially true in the case of Thanksgiving. Considered a "holiday" to many, Thanksgiving is actually representative of something much worse.
Most people, when they hear Thanksgiving, picture a happy scene of Native Americans sharing a meal with colonists from Great Britain. They picture some kind of peace between both groups of people that ended any animosity between them. Some might go as far to say that any and all conflict was resolved on that day, hence the name "Thanksgiving."
I'm not sure about what they taught you in school, but this is what I learned and it's completely wrong. A false story of hope and daisy picking in the sunshine that makes you think Awe, I love American History. How cute.
Frankly, I wish it were that simple. I wish it were accurate to say that colonists and Native Americans got along without any violence or stealing of land. I wish it was fiction that white people are colonizers, historically, and colonizers kill people and claim their land as their own.
But if that weren't true, I wouldn't be writing this article.
When colonists first discovered North America, they immediately started capturing Native Americans and sailing them back home to England for slavery. They even killed off most of the Patuxet tribe with smallpox when they left.
When they returned again, they were greeted by Squanto, who showed them how to plant crops on the land and survive. While this part of the story is included in most history textbooks, what follows has been taken out and replaced with a more peaceful story.
As more and more British settlers arrived to make a home for themselves in modern-day North America, more land was overtaken and more Native Americans were either captured for slavery or killed. There were even wars between settlers and Native Americans that were violent and bloody.
Then comes Thanksgiving Day, which was really the Green Corn Ceremony for the Pequot Tribe. On this day in 1637, many Native Americans gathered to celebrate and enjoy a large feast. Before any celebrations could take place, however, they awoke to their village surrounded by colonists. The colonists demanded the Pequot Tribe to step outside of their homes. Those who did were brutally murdered by colonists and those who didn't were burned alive.
Yes, there was a big feast on Thanksgiving Day. No, it was not to celebrate peace among settlers and Native Americans. Instead, it was to celebrate having killed roughly 700 innocent people.
What's even worse is that the settlers didn't start there. Feeling good about their success, they raided many other villages and took many more Native Americans for slavery. Many innocent men were brutally scalped or beheaded as signs of victory on the settlers part.
So no, Thanksgiving does not represent a day of "peace" or "giving thanks." Thanksgiving represents a day of murder, slavery, brutality, colonization, and much more.
It's not surprising to learn that this Holiday has been whitewashed and shifted to make British settlers appear innocent, just like most of America's history. It's not shocking that most of America doesn't know the true history of Thanksgiving. But what is the most disturbing, in my opinion, is the number of people, especially white Americans, who have learned the truth and choose to ignore it.
Don't be one of those people.
If you choose to sit down and share a meal with people this Thanksgiving, at least acknowledge the past. At least recognize the many innocent lives that were lost on such a "peaceful" American holiday. If you're up for it, let your friends and family members know. There isn't anything we can do to erase or change the past (although we really have tried by changing the story presented in textbooks and taught in schools) but at the very least we can choose not to ignore it.
