Jessica Crabtree

#2: My Take on Thanksgiving

Holidays almost invariably stir up a lot of emotionally-charged issues. The volatile mix of relatives, religion, and politics inevitably leads to a lot of vitriol – and sometimes with good reason. Holidays in our modern culture tend to gravitate either towards crass commercialism or romanticized idealism, often combined with a convoluted view of history. In the case of Thanksgiving, gratitude and togetherness are excellent things to celebrate so long as they are not tinged with antiquated political propaganda and racial stereotyping. When this happens – intentionally or not – the results can be damaging.

In a bitter irony, the whole story of Thanksgiving shrouds what is possibly history’s worst case of ingratitude. No version of the Thanksgiving story would be complete without an account of the horrific sequel that occurred only a generation later. We all know the story of Squanto and the Wampanoag chief Massasoit befriending the Pilgrims and saving them from starvation, and later sharing the seminal “first Thanksgiving.” But few realize that many of the same Pilgrims who grew up in the shadow of that festive occasion later murdered Massasoit’s son and paraded his head through Plymouth in a second “unofficial” Thanksgiving; and that the very same Wampanoag with whom they had pledged friendship were brutally hunted and killed or sold into slavery. In a bitter irony, the whole story of Thanksgiving shrouds what is possibly history’s worst case of ingratitude. It’s hard to find another instance where a country’s ideals stand so high while its history is so contaminated with whitewash, treachery, and genocide. And the worst part is, most of us are completely disconnected with the reality of our past and the true context in which we commemorate it.

It’s easy to understand why so many Indians object to the popular form of Thanksgiving. On face value it seems to celebrate the successful European colonization of America and the exploitation of its bountiful resources at the expense of dispossessing an entire race – and to add insult to injury, it seems to commemorate the Indians’ generosity in helping the process along! Mainstream America eagerly incorporates Indians into its holidays, its entertainment, as sports mascots – almost casually, as if they are the intellectual property of the United States, part and parcel of the American mythology, and not real people who are part of living, sovereign nations. We love to include the Indian stereotype – without the price of telling the full story.

Speaking from experience, encountering the awful truth behind some of this country’s most ingrained myths can be extremely painful. But no matter how ugly the truth is, without it healing can never occur. Not because “we owe something to the Indians” but because we owe it to ourselves. Our past is what we are, what we stand for and where we’re headed. It’s the world we pass down to our kids. When we settle for a second-hand, white-washed version of history, we cheat ourselves out of so much – and defraud all the values we claim to embrace. Without a living history, we fail to learn from the real achievements of the past and continue repeating mistakes that should never occur.

A Lakota proverb says, “A nation without a history is like the wind over buffalo grass.” The United States is the youngest major country in the world and yet it suffers from a pandemic of historical illiteracy. When did we ever form an excuse to be so disconnected with our past? We can’t all depend on the media or our kid’s educators to go the extra step and get the story right. What we pass down to the next generation about our history forms the foundation for the way they look at the world. This is why holidays in indigenous culture are so important – they’re not just a day off, but a way to reinforce the past in a way that strengthens bonds between the family and the community. And it’s why I think that holidays like Thanksgiving are such an enormous opportunity in today’s culture. Why not use this time of year to set the record straight? When parents, teachers, students, journalists, artists, and researchers take the initiative to acquaint themselves with the truth, it’s not history we’re reclaiming – it’s our future.

Thanksgiving as it has come down to us is largely the result of myth and happenstance. It resurfaced in different forms each time pivotal events – like the Civil War and the Great Depression – caused Americans to seek solace and solidarity in “common values” of America’s roots, both real and imagined. In each evolution it reflected different agendas and different levels of historical understanding. The true Thanksgiving, I think, is yet another gift we have been given by this country’s indigenous peoples. Annual thanksgiving celebrations have been practiced by Native Americans across the continent for millennia as an integral part of their culture. And it is arguably the ideals of gratitude and togetherness as put into practice by Native Americans in our early history that gave life and meaning to the holiday in the first place.

When I sit down at the dinner table with my family this year, thankful for our health and many other blessings, I am most grateful for the many generations of Native ancestors who came before me in this country, and cherished this land for millennia, and preserved so many wonderful things to share with the rest of the world. The fact that I’m here today and able to enjoy these things, I owe in large part to them. I’m not being patronizing; it’s an unavoidable fact that the history of Native cultures is inseparable from the past of this country and this continent going back for thousands of years. That makes it part of me too. So I want to be able to embrace that past, even though time and again it went so wrong. Maybe someday soon this country will have the maturity to retrace its steps and see how much it stands to learn by listening once again to indigenous wisdom. And maybe we can share another Thanksgiving celebration together.

If you can think of any better reasons to celebrate Thanksgiving, please let me know.