It’s the season of Thanksgiving! For many Americans around this time, we see gatherings of families. The story we've learned about Thanksgiving fabricates a peaceful depiction between the colonizers and the tribes while neglecting to mention the amount of death, destruction, and land-grabbing that occurred against the first peoples.
Here are a few facts that discuss the truth behind Thanksgiving:
Pilgrims celebrated "thanksgivings" in their traditional way of praying and fasting. But, over the course of many years, this happened because of the massacres of Native people, including in 1637 when Massachusetts Colony Governor John Winthrop declared a day of thanksgiving after volunteers murdered 700 Pequot people. This incident is also often cited as the first official mention of a "thanksgiving" ceremony and is another commonly cited origin story for the Thanksgiving we know today.
While we hope you all have a great couple of days off, keep these facts in mind when giving thanks. It’s important to educate yourself on different historical perspectives because it affects all of our histories.
Here are some references for you to learn more:
Jada Peters
MOSAIC Educator