First Thanksgiving?

First Thanksgiving?

Isn't it ironic that there is little coverage of whether November is Native American Heritage Month or that November 23rd is Native American Heritage Day? Wow, one whole day!

"First Thanksgiving" was celebrated by the Pilgrims after their first harvest in the New World in October 1621. This feast lasted three days and was reported by Edward Winslow, who wrote that it was attended by 90 Wampanoag Native Americans and 53 Pilgrims.

What wasn't being written were the massacres of Native tribes like the Pequot that took place in the years that followed the so-called "First Thanksgiving." It seems no one mentioned that English settlers robbed Wampanoag graves and stole food from their storage to survive their first years on the new continent, America. The same Wampanoag greeted them with food for three days in November 1621.

It's possible but unlikely that there was a turkey on the first Thanksgiving. More than likely, it was deer (venison) because the turkey was not a typical food then as Pilgrims grew onions and herbs. They probably ate waterfowl, ham, lobster, clams, berries, fruit, pumpkin, and squash. But no gobble. Thanksgiving didn't become a national holiday until good old President Abe Lincoln granted the fourth Thursday in November as a national holiday in 1865.

It's important to know that for many Native Americans, Thanksgiving is a day of mourning and protest since it commemorates the arrival of settlers in North America and the centuries of oppression and genocide that followed. It is a reminder of the genocide of millions of Native people, the theft of Native lands, and the relentless assault on Native culture. "Participants in National Day of Mourning honor Native ancestors and the struggles of Native peoples to survive today. It is a day of remembrance and spiritual connection as well as a protest of the racism and oppression which Native Americans continue to experience."

Some Native Americans mourn publicly and openly, while some simply refrain from participating in this national holiday.

Long before settlers arrived, Native Americans celebrated the autumn harvest and the gift of Mother Earth's abundance. Native American spirituality, both traditionally and today, emphasizes gratitude for creation, care for the environment, and recognition of the human need for communion with nature and others.

In Vine Deloria, Jr.'s book The World We Used to Live In: Remembering the Powers of the Medicine Men, "One can see that there were powers that lived and breathed in the people. From a long time of oppression to the possibilities of today". In his book Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto, Deloria, Jr. addressed stereotypes of Indians and challenged white audiences to take a new look at the history of the United States western expansion, noting its abuses of Native Americans.

"So there is, in fact, a minimal historical record of the first Thanksgiving, which is why Thanksgiving wasn't really celebrated as a holiday until the 19th century," says Charles C. Mann, author of 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus. "To historians, it seems funny that the celebration … now seems more important than the treaty itself."

The idea of giving thanks is central to Native heritage and culture; this way, Thanksgiving is simply a chance to appreciate the good things of life like family, community, and the riches of the land. Even though this time is set aside for only one weekend a year, let us still say thank you.

Happy Thanksgiving.

JoAnn