Happy Thanksgivikng

I watched a story on the PBS News Hour the other night about US school teachers being educated on the true origins of our Thanksgiving Day holiday.   I feel confused and amazed that I, along with most other non-Indian Americans, have a very skewed idea about Thanksgiving, and that the misinformation continues to this day in public elementary schools.

So I did some research, and I learned some new information.  I'll let you do your own research if you want to, because the information is vast and it is out there, and I encourage you to see it for yourself.

The Thanksgiving Story is the story of the victor, as are most history stories.  It makes us all feel good about our origins -- unless you are a member of an Indigenous Tribe.  For them, it is a day of mourning.  It was the beginning of the end for our original inhabitants.  An end that began with English traders in the early 1600s kidnapping indigenous people and taking them to Europe to sell as slaves.  The first slaves in "America."  Before we even were America.

I'm not sorry if this bursts your myth bubble about this national holiday.  I'm not saying don't gather with your family and friends and have 'the feast.'  I'm saying, give a moment to the injured in this story, to the enslaved, to the murdered.  Understand how our country really operated to seize control of land that wasn't theirs.  It's okay.  As descendents, we are blameless in the original sin, but we do have an opportunity to see it, acknowledge it, and pay respect to the First Peoples of this land.

Now go eat your turkey and be thankful for all that you have in this life.  And have a heart for your native brothers and sisters.