November 2017

Giving into Genocide: Truth behind Thanksgiving
By Destiny Copeland

When I typed into Google “thanksgiving facts and history,” the first thing I saw read,
“In 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast that is acknowledged today as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies. For more than two centuries, days of thanksgiving were celebrated by individual colonies and states.”
It isn’t a full lie, but it is definitely a partial truth. The Wampanoag did form an agreement with the pilgrims. But after their chief’s death, the Wampanoag grew weak and were soon under attack by the pilgrims. Women were raped, children were killed, and entire villages were burned in their sleep.
So where did the peaceful narrative we learned in grade school come from? Sarah Joseph Hale, the author of “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” read a diary about pilgrim life that inspired this highly fabricated holiday. She was the one who fought to make Thanksgiving a national holiday and published a lot of the recipes we eat at Thanksgiving today. Turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce—it was all her.
In 1863, Thanksgiving became a national holiday thanks to Abraham Lincoln. He was a strategic man who decided to establish this holiday during The Civil War in hopes of bringing families and the country together. He also helped push the whitewashed narrative.
Now, hopefully not everything in this article was new information. A lot of people are aware that Thanksgiving is based on a lie but continue to celebrate it, myself included. Why wouldn’t I celebrate a day off from school and work where my whole family cooks and I get to pig out? There’s nothing wrong with that as long as you know what you’re really celebrating. I celebrate my time off while fully acknowledging that this holiday is trying to erase the truths of the natives of this land.