The True Origins of Thanksgiving

I spent one year in Girl Scouts.  During that year, I was afforded the opportunity to play an American Indian in a play.  I was totally excited about it until I found out I was to play a squaw.  My past life had been an Indian chief, and a squaw was so beneath me, or so I thought at the time.

My ideas about being a squaw have changed from that time, but the honor I hold for the American Indians has not.  This blog is about truth, so when I thought to make a post about Thanksgiving, I had to take my brothers and sisters into account.  As I've discussed with another native named Spider Cloud, the white man has lied.  Not only about the history of Jesus, the killing of the Jews or the captivity of slaves, but also about the story of Thanksgiving itself.  I cannot help but know what they must feel every Thanksgiving when the Americans celebrate this holiday.  For their history is quite different than the history portrayed and fed to us in the mainstream.

Below is the account of Thanksgiving as told by a Native American:

Mistakes, Lies & Misconceptions 

about American Indian people

The Thanksgiving Myth 

(Written by John Two-Hawks)

Let me begin by stating that thousands of years before the 'official' 

Thanksgiving Day was proclaimed by Governor Winthrop of the 

Massachussetts Bay Colony in 1637, North American Indigenous 

people across the continent had celebrated seasons of 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.

http://www.nativecircle.com/mlmthanksgivingmyth.html