{"id":5721,"date":"2022-11-18T14:41:24","date_gmt":"2022-11-18T19:41:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.adirondack.org\/?p=5721"},"modified":"2024-11-27T17:31:42","modified_gmt":"2024-11-27T22:31:42","slug":"rebuilding-thanksgiving-for-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.adirondack.org\/north-blog\/rebuilding-thanksgiving-for-all\/","title":{"rendered":"Rebuilding Thanksgiving for All"},"content":{"rendered":"
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by Melanie Reding, Associate Director, Adirondack Diversity Initiative<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Like many contemporary holidays and celebrations, Thanksgiving has become a holiday where\u00a0 oversimplification, misrepresentation and myths tend to dominate the narrative. The history and significance of the day is often overshadowed by commercialism and merry-making. Holiday shopping and Black Friday sales, which increasingly begin on Thanksgiving Day, have become a distraction from the celebration of family and togetherness. \"\"<\/p>\n

Furthermore, when it comes to Thanksgiving, there is a deep and tragic history that for centuries Americans have refused to accept \u2014 choosing instead to perpetuate a harmful myth. Unlike the depiction in the 1912 painting by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris<\/a>, the relationship between the Wampanoag Tribe native to Massachusetts and the Pilgrims of that \u201cFirst Thanksgiving\u201d was anything but the school-taught myth of happy little Indians and Pilgrims sitting together enjoying a meal. In my school days, the lesson was taught with construction paper feathers, pilgrim hats and books where \u201cI was for Indian\u201d was accompanied by colorful images of smiling party guests.<\/p>\n

For many of us with Native American ancestry (mine being Anishinaabe), Thanksgiving is at least complicated, if not impossible to celebrate in a traditional sense. Even though family and gratitude are deeply rooted in most tribal traditions, what makes the holiday most challenging is the often hidden or deliberately ignored historical reality of what followed for the Wampanoag, as well as the eventual colonization, dispossession and slaughter of entire nations of people. I can\u2019t ignore that.<\/p>\n

When looking through the lens of all that Indigenous people have endured, it\u2019s easy to understand why many look at Thanksgiving as a \u201cDay of Mourning.\u201d\u00a0 But also why others choose to celebrate the day as a reminder of their cultures\u2019 survival. Even after all that has happened since 1621 \u2014 war, disease, colonization \u2014 Indigenous people are still here: the Haudenosaunee, the Abenaki, the Anishanabee, the Tolowa, the Akiak, the Coquille, and hundreds of other tribes. Even the Wampanoag are still here, still on their ancestral homelands, still practicing their traditions. I\u2019d say that is something to celebrate \u2014 maybe just not under the current banner of Thanksgiving Day.<\/p>\n

So how do Native Americans celebrate Thanksgiving? It depends. Some ignore it completely, some protest, some powwow, some gather with friends and family and eat turkey and watch football, and some hit the malls. But I don\u2019t know of anyone who tells the myth of the First Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n

You can help rebuild a Thanksgiving that works for all.<\/p>\n

You can actively challenge the harmful and devastating myth that covers up the truth of our\u00a0complicated and tragic history of the colonization of Indigeneous communities across\u00a0 what is now the United States. In gathering with friends and family, you can start a new tradition of taking time to remember that, no matter where you live in the United States, you are on Indigenous land, enjoying a dinner that likely includes Indigenous foods. You can educate yourself on the tribes in your area, their histories and traditions. You can support your neighbors and empower yourself by facing and understanding\u00a0the truth behind the origins of the Thanksgiving holiday and the damage and pain this celebration causes for many.<\/p>\n

If we begin to deconstruct how we celebrate this day, we can rebuild it into something better \u2014 something real and genuine and healing. We can take the best of the day \u2014 the family, friends, food and gratitude \u2014 and move forward, creating a celebration for which we can ALL be thankful.<\/p>\n

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To learn more about the origins of Thanksgiving Day and the wide range of Native American perspectives on the holiday, please visit these resources:<\/p>\n

Do American Indians Celebrate Thanksgiving?<\/a>, Smithsonian Magazine
\nThe Thanksgiving Tale We Tell is a Lie. As a Native American, I\u2019ve Found a Better Way to Celebrate the Holiday<\/a>, Time Magazine
\nRethinking Thanksgiving Celebrations: Native Perspectives on Thanksgiving<\/a>, National Museum of the American Indian<\/p>\n

Please read the\u00a0Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address<\/a>, which is recited\u00a0by Native American communities throughout the year, not specifically for the Thanksgiving holiday.<\/p>\n

Photo: An\u00a0Ojibwe exhibit in the Smithsonian Museum of the Native American features members of the author’s family sharing a “feast of thanks.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Melanie Reding\u00a0is Associate Director of the Adirondack Diversity Initiative, a program of ANCA.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Melanie Reding, Associate Director, Adirondack Diversity Initiative Like many contemporary holidays and celebrations, Thanksgiving has become a holiday where\u00a0 oversimplification, misrepresentation and myths tend to dominate the narrative. The history and significance of the day is often overshadowed by commercialism and merry-making. Holiday shopping and Black Friday sales, which increasingly begin on Thanksgiving Day, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5723,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-north-blog"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRebuilding Thanksgiving for All - ANCA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.adirondack.org\/north-blog\/rebuilding-thanksgiving-for-all\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rebuilding Thanksgiving for All - ANCA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"by Melanie Reding, Associate Director, Adirondack Diversity Initiative Like many contemporary holidays and celebrations, Thanksgiving has become a holiday where\u00a0 oversimplification, misrepresentation and myths tend to dominate the narrative. 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