Thanksgiving & National Day of Mourning
Today I wrote this email for my colleagues at Benton County. I wanted to share on here too. Thank you for reading.
Thanksgiving & The National Day of Mourning
Hello Benton County!
I hope you are all doing well as you prepare for the Thanksgiving holiday and the extended weekend. Many of us are traveling for the holiday, and for many people it is the first major gathering since the pandemic began. I hope you and your family and friends are safe in health and travel and get to enjoy some much deserved rest.
As we prepare for the Thanksgiving Holiday, I wanted to engage with you all about the history of the holiday, address misinformation about it, and some tips for learning more and addressing some of the challenges Thanksgiving has for people throughout the country. I know some of you are already on vacation, so no worries if you read this later on. But I encourage you to save this email so you can review it when you have the time, since a lot of the history covered here is not accurately taught to us.
Content Warning: This email contains information about the history of Thanksgiving including the violence Native Americans faced and the erasure of that history. This is critical history of us to know. Please engage and learn with it.
Preface
Before I begin, I want to preface this with piece to get you in a learning mindset. There is a lot of history we are taught in our lives that is one-sided, partially inaccurate, or just downright false narratives. It can be infuriating, embarrassing, saddening, and many other things to learn the truth of the matter. There’s also a chance that you will not believe me. But I am not lying to you. And I am not here to make you feel guilty or ashamed. You cannot control the past. I’m also not here to say don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, there are many people who use this day to be with family and other loved ones. But I am asking you to critically look at the history you were taught, and prevent others from being lied to in the future. While we cannot control the past, we can control our futures. We can address the wrongs that have been done, and work towards equity. I hope you learn something new from this email, and are able to apply it to your life and your work.
What did you learn?
Growing up, I was taught Thanksgiving was a friendly exchange of meals and other items between “the pilgrims and the Indians” when the pilgrims arrived in 1621. In elementary school we’d make turkeys out of our handprints, write short stories, and make crafts depicting either the pilgrim hat or a Native American headdress. We’d watch shows like the A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (1973). It was all fun and joyous before we would have a few days (or a whole week) off to visit family and partake in our own Thanksgiving.
Unfortunately, I was taught a revisionist history of these events.
What were you taught? Did you learn differently over time?
In high school and college I learned more about the history of violence, genocide, and assimilation the Native Americans faced. In graduate school I returned home and watched A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving with my twin Emily like we used to growing up. We were horrified to see how inaccurate the story being told was. I was disappointed in my schooling. Disappointed I didn’t know better before. But I was determined to learn more, and help others learn more as well. So this is why I am emailing you today. I’m learning alongside with you, thank you for joining me on this journey.
Not everything about Thanksgiving is inaccurate. A meal was exchanged, there was engagement between Native Americans and English settlers, and it became a holiday. ?But this shortened and inaccurate depiction of the true events is incredibly damaging because it erases the Wampanoag people and their stories. It depicts settlers are peaceful, rather than acknowledging their violent acts. There are various accounts of some recognition of Thanksgiving since 1622, primarily in 1789 with a proclamation from George Washington. But it wasn’t a commonly recognized celebration until Abraham Lincoln made it official during the Civil War.
The Wampanoags
“The Wampanoags, whose name means “People of the First Light” in their native language, trace their ancestors back at least 10,000 years to southeastern Massachusetts, a land they called Patuxet.”
In the 1600s they had 69 villages each with different leaders and other roles such as “message runners” who would deliver oral messages to neighboring villages.
They would care for and harvest from the land and water: deer, elk, herring, trout, and corn for example. They’d move inland when the weather worsened, and moved back to the coastlines in the spring. In 1614, prior to the pilgrims arriving, the English captured 20 Wampanoag men including Tisquantum, (called Squanto by the English) with the intention of selling them into slavery. He spent years trying to return home.
Meanwhile, mysterious diseases spread across the tribe. Many were dying of what is theorized to either be disease spread by European rats that were on the ships, small pox, or yellow fever. While the exact disease (or diseases) isn’t known for the Wampanaogs, generally many Indigenous populations were harmed by European diseases since they did not have any immunity. This epidemic heavily hurt the Wampanoag people, and is known as “The Great Dying” which lasted 3 years.
When Tisquantum returned in 1619, two-thirds of his people had died. In 1620, the English arrived in Plymouth and something was different this time. There were women and children.
The Pilgrims
Looking to escape religious persecution and establish their own communities, Europeans came to settle in “The New World” on the Mayflower. Wishing to expand upon the trade and enslavement they had with indigenous people, the settlers arrived but faced hardship from lack of resources. Many people had died on their voyage, and others were sick. Half of them died during the first winter due to cold, starvation, and disease. During this time, the Wampanoag watched from afar for months. They were cautious after previous engagements. But they faced a troubling situation.
An Alliance
The Wampanoags and the Pilgrims interacted because the Wampanoag leader Ousamequin (also called Massasoit which means “great sachem” wanted an alliance. After the devastating disease, the Wampanoags needed to keep peace with the neighboring Narragansetts and the Pilgrims. So in spring 1621, they made first contact. This decision wasn’t made out our friendliness, but by a need to survive.
The Wampanoags taught the Pilgrims how to plant beans, squash, maize, and other food with fish as a fertilizer. The Pilgrims celebrated their first harvest with a feast. But the Wampanoags were not invited.
Some of the English shot off their muskets in celebration. But The Wampanoags thought these were threats. 100 warriors arrived ready to defend. But then they were told it was a harvest festival, and they joined in. They brought 5 deer to share, and it was a bountiful meal. In a journal entry, Rev. Alexander Young included a footnote that said, “This was the first Thanksgiving, the great festival of New England.”
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Cultural Clashing
The relationship formed between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoags deteriorated over time. As more Pilgrims arrived and reproduced, they expanded. Cultural differences in property ownership clashed. The Pilgrims had an individualistic perspective. Whereas the Wampanoags treated land as a community space. When buying land from the Wampanoags, the Pilgrims interpreted it as receiving sole ownership. But the Wampanoags saw it as the Pilgrims buying their way into the community.
Many Wampanoags disagreed with Ousamequin about the alliance and were angry with him for having the tribe interact with the Pilgrims who were hurting their people. But Native Americans did not have the same sense of connectedness and collaboration with other tribes that they have today. Historians believe Ousamequin had to make a “nearly impossible choice” of dying out, or seeking alliances with the Pilgrims. But the Pilgrims desire to own more land lead to further conflict.
King Phillips’ War
Tension between tribes and the Pilgrims grew as more land was taken from the tribes. As the colonists started to assert control over the Indigenous people and their land, various tribes that had clashed with each other started to meet together. Osuamequin’s son Metacomet (alos called Phil) ended the treaty with the Pilgrims after decades of violations from the colonists. ?Colonialists had passed laws forbidding commerce with Wampanoags and tried to enforce it on land that was outside Plymouth colony. Metacomet In 1765 tensions rose and raiding of towns and villages occurred from both the Pilgrims and the Native American tribes, some of which joined the Wampanoags against the colonists.
Over the course of the next year, the colonists assembled the largest army they could make because they lacked support from Britain. The Narragansetts tribe was severely diminished due to raids from the colonists. Revenge was sought, and many cities and towns were burned, including Plymouth. Many people on both sides died, including the Wampanoag people who were almost completely destroyed. The war was one of the largest in that century, and in the end almost all of the Narragansetts and the Wampagnoags were killed. Other attempts to control Indigenous populations have existed over the centuries, including forced conversion to Christianity, separation of children from families, forced sterilization, and theft of land.
Day of Mourning
As you could probably imagine, this war is not something the Wampagnoags want celebrated each year. Thanksgiving can be a painful reminder of the discrimination, enslavement, and land loss the Wampagnoags lost. Thanksgiving isn’t seen as a day of celebration, but of mourning.
In 1970, scholar Frank “Wamsutta” Jones was asked to speak for the 300th annual celebration of the Mayflower. He was censored though, unable to speak about indigenous exploitation. Rather than submit to this, Jones gave his own speech on a nearby hill, Cole Hill, to a group of Indigenous people gathered that day. Day of Mourning is now observed every year, with last year being the 50th anniversary.
Impact Today
King Phillip’s War was not the only conflict Native Americans had with colonists. For centuries the settlers of what is now the United States and their descendants have harmed the original caretakers of this land. From land theft, to assimilation, to food deserts, and to blood quantum, the Indigenous people of the Americas have had centuries of oppression. Thanksgiving has become a holiday that attempts to erase that history. As government staff, it is irresponsible for us to continue this trend. Please take the lessons learned from this email and consider how you can make an impact in Indigenous lives around you. The Wampanoags and other Indigenous communities are still here. Their stories are still able to be shared. Listen to them, share their stories.
Now what?
So you learned an abridged version of history regarding Thanksgiving. How are you feeling? It is okay to feel angry, disappointed, sad, etc. Some of you may feel that this email ruins the thanksgiving celebrations. I cannot apologize for that, because I have a responsibility to highlight the oppression around us. I cannot in good conscience encourage you to celebrate the holiday without you knowing the history. I cannot ruin Thanksgiving, it’s already been ruined for hundreds of thousands of Indigenous people.
I think there is still good we can do with this holiday, whether we spend it alone, with friends, or with family. Here are a few recommendations:
1. Discuss the history. EDI Book Club members have discussed how Thanksgiving and other holidays can be a challenging but important time to discuss the truth of our history with our loved ones. Don’t erase the holiday’s history so you can enjoy your sweet potatoes. Acknowledge what has happened, and see what else you can do.
2. Give Thanks/Give Back. The land we are on is not ours, and it was forcibly taken. We benefit from the labor and pain of others. Giving thanks isn’t just to thank our friends and family for bringing their side dishes, it is also to thank the food that nourishes us, the land the houses us, and community that surrounds us.
Giving back is also a crucial piece. Not just to your own community, but to others as well. Look up Indigenous communities where you grew up. Provide a monetary or goods donation. Buy books, movies, art, etc. from Indigenous communities. Explore other ways you can give back, even beyond something with a monetary cost.
3. Continue to Learn.
Below I include some resources to continue your learning. I hope it is a helpful list for you.
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I hope you all enjoy the long weekend and can spend it with loved ones. I hope we all acknowledge the history of Thanksgiving and work towards fixing the harm our ancestors have done. My heart goes out to our Indigenous community, especially our youth, who may hear the inaccurate histories and may feel erased. I will not let that continue here. I am committed to helping the community learn, and to give back. Thank you for your time.
Resources: