Title: Celebrating Thanksgiving as an Indigenous Person
Last Thursday, Nov. 28, was Thanksgiving, a holiday where you spend time with family, eat many home-cooked meals and be thankful for what you have. While I love this holiday for the amazing food my mom and aunties cook, it has this bittersweet feeling.
As mentioned in a previous piece about Indigenous identities, this holiday also puts me in a reflective mood. While Thanksgiving brings families and people together, its origins were not as thankful and joyous as we define today. The sad truth is that what most people know as the origin is only partly true. According to archive.gov the “First Thanksgiving” talks about the peaceful exchange between the Pilgrims and the Indigenous people which only lasted a short while, and given how American History talks about Indigenous people, you can see how most Americans grew up only with the half-truth.
Growing up, that was the history I learned until I was seven years old or so. My grandma was the one who partly taught me about the true origins of Thanksgiving, and she explained it in a way my sevenyear old brain could understand. While looking back on that, it shocked my brain that what I was taught was not true. Now as an adult, I’m still learning, and now I can fact-check with various sources and come to my own understanding.
With that out of the way, my family still celebrates Thanksgiving but mostly as a time to spend with family, we have not seen in a while and eat some delicious food rather than remembering the Pilgrims and the Mayflower. We also just take the time to be thankful that we still have each other and celebrate that. Now, my experience with Thanksgiving as an Indigenous person is very different from others, which is normal. I do not speak for all Indigenous people when it comes to Thanksgiving and how they feel about it. However, I only know how my family and I choose to spend the holiday. As I have previously stated, we use it as an excuse to get together at my aunts’ house and just spend time with the family while watching The Grinch early and eating delicious home-cooked food, especially my grandma’s frybread and cranberry sauce, a very indigenous staple for my family Thanksgiving.
While this is how many people choose to celebrate Thanksgiving, and while I am privileged to see my family for the holidays, many cannot for various reasons. And while I talk about seeing my family, know that Thanksgiving is not only celebrated with family but with friends and roommates as well. However, if that does not work out for you, a previous piece in the Oracle has some ideas for if you do not have any Thanksgiving plans.
In short, Thanksgiving for me is about not only being thankful for those I care about and spending time with them but also having an excuse to eat delicious food and have enough leftovers where I do not have to cook for the next few days. However, if anyone who reads this chooses to celebrate Thanksgiving, just know that the origins of this holiday are not as joyous as American history teaches. Take a moment and be grateful for all the wonderful people that you know and care about this Thanksgiving and beyond.
