'Tis the season when I am frequently asked if I celebrate Thanksgiving, and upon answering "no", I briefly explain why not. There are several reasons.
I prefer to be thankful every day and as frequently during each day as I can manage, not parse it out to a single day in a year. I've never understood Western society's preference for parsing things into small bits or thinking about very important topics only on certain days. Let's all practice love and Christian religion on Sundays and Christmas (the whole concept of God being born has tended to mystify me anyway); thankfulness for family, friends and blessings on Thanksgiving; being alive on one's birthday....
One of the difficulties Europeans had understanding our traditional Lakota lifeways was that our spirituality infuses every act and thought we have each and every day. There is no separation. That is the way I try to live.
Let's see, what else. The Eastern Indigenous nations practiced fall harvest for centuries before the Europeans arrived on Turtle Island. How about celebrating the fall harvest instead? I could really support giving thanks for Grandmother once again providing for her children. However, we are mostly children of the city and supermarkets. Most of us have no clue or care about fall harvest or when it occurs.
Oh, and besides, the TRUE origin of Thanksgiving is a celebration of a massacre.
In 1636, "Pilgrims" found a dead man in a boat, assumed he was murdered by the local Pequot, and in retaliation, they burned Pequot villages. John Mason, an English Major, extended the attacks by burning as many Pequot wigwams as he could and killed hundreds of men, women, and children. He and his forces then attacked an entire fortified village at Mystic River and set it on fire. The Pequots within (men, women, and children) were asleep. According to Mason's own words, he and his forces "utterly destroyed" 600-700 Pequot (Mason, 1736). Mason is quoted as saying,
"'We must burn them!' Mason is reported as having shouted, running around with a firebrand and lighting the wigwams. 'Such a dreadful terror let the Almighty fall upon their spirits that they would flee from us and run into the very flames. Thus did the Lord judge the heathen, filling the place with dead bodies, ' he reported afterward: "The surviving Pequots were hunted but could make little haste because of their children, Mason wrote, They were literally-run to ground...tramped into the mud and buried in the swamp. ' The last of them were shipped to the West Indies as slaves...John Winthrop.. .governor once more, ...[offered] ...forty pounds sterling for the scalp of an Indian man, twenty for the scalps of women and children. The name 'Pequot' was officially erased from the map. The Pequot River became the Thames and their town became New London." (p. 53, Heckewelder, 1876)
Underhill described the scene at Mystic River as follows: "...the fort blazed most terribly, and burnt all in the space of half an hour." The stench of frying flesh, the flames, and the heat drove the English outside the walls. Many Pequots "were burnt in the fort, both men, women, and children. Others [who were] forced out...our soldiers received adn entertained with the point of the sword. Down fell men, women, and children." (p. 42, Drinnon, 1997).
In response to this event, William Bradford, Governor of Plymouth, wrote the following.
Those that escaped the fire were slain with the sword; some hewed to pieces, others run through with their rapiers, so that they were quickly dispatched and very few escaped. It was conceived they thus destroyed about 400 at this time. It was a fearful sight to see them thus frying in the fire...horrible was the stink and scent thereof, but the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice, and they gave the prayers thereof to God, who had wrought so wonderfully for them. (Philbrick, 2007)
It was proclaimed the day after that "from that day forth shall be a day of celebration and thanks giving for subduing the Pequots". There is some debate about whether that proclamation was made by William Bradford or John Winthrop, but according to the Massachusetts Records of 1676-1677, a day was set apart for public thanksgiving, because, among other things of moment, “there now scarce remains a name or family of them (the Indians) but are either slain, captivated or fled.” Thus, Thanksgiving finds its source in a celebration of the massacre of the Pequot people.
That is why I don't celebrate Thanksgiving.
-------------
Drinnon, Richard, 1997, Facing West: The Metaphysics of Indian-hating and Empire-building: University of Oklahoma Press, 572 p. <http://bit.ly/2fXociz>
Heckewelder, John, 1876, History Manners and Customs of the Indian Nations: Philadelphia, PA, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 476 p. <https://archive.org/details/histmannerscust00heckrich>
Mason, John, 1736, A Brief History of the Pequot War, in Mason, John and Royster, Paul , editor, "A Brief History of the Pequot War (1736)" (1736). Electronic Texts in American Studies. Paper 42, 33 p. <http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1042&context=etas>
Philbrick, Nathaniel (ed), 2007, The Mayflower Papers: Selected Writings of Colonial New England: Penguin, 336 p.
