Thanksgiving Day, a holiday surrounded by much controversy, was once a pagan religious holiday that pilgrims would celebrate and feast, giving thanks for rain and harvest from drought, or victory from war. The last day of November was proposed to the states in a proclamation written by former U.S. President George Washington on October 3, 1789. However, the holiday was officially declared a national holiday by former U.S.President, Abraham Lincoln, on that same date in 1863. While writer Sarah Josepha Hale promoted this idea as a time for unity during the civil war and a time for families to reunite, the origins of this day lead us to reconsider the true importance of this day. 

During the 1621 Thanksgiving celebration on Plimoth plantation (Plymouth, Massachusetts), people of the Wampanoag tribe (under the leadership of Massasoit) joined with the English settlers to feast and negotiate a treaty. The treaty was that the English and Wampanoag would not harm one another and that no weapons should be present during trade. The Wampanoag would teach the settlers how to use tools to survive, crop, and benefit on the land while the settlers traded in English goods. As time went on the newcomers slowly took over Wampanoag land despite their debts. Also, the settlers spread sickness and disease through biological warfare. Thus, the already frail relationship between the settlers and the Wampanoag people was strained. Many mysterious events took place involving the deaths of Wampanoag and English leaders while growing disputes and tensions over land and jurisdiction inflamed. Such instability eventually collapsed, paving the way to massive colonial expansions over Native lands and subjugation of such peoples. Such expansions include a 1637 thanksgiving celebration held by John Winthrop, a Massachusetts colony governor, celebrating a victory over the Connecticut massacre of Pequot men, women, and children.

While giving such thanks to God and enjoying time with family, we should also recognize and be thankful to the various indigenous peoples, who taught the first settlers how to survive, navigate and farm crops on the land. We should recognize their efforts to welcome and trade with settlers in an attempt to allow space for the religious exiles. It is humiliating to hold such a day right after Thanksgiving, given the true history of the nation; also that it be placed on a day known as Black Friday when the attention of Americans is directed toward Christmas shopping. This is no way to recognize the Native American legacy, which continues to be outshined by the glimmer of the star-spangled banner that consumed it. Therefore, the people of the United States request that Thanksgiving Day be removed as a holiday and that it be replaced with Native American Heritage Day.

For More Information: https://culturacolectiva.com/history/true-and-bloody-origins-of-thanksgiving