It’s the quintessential “all-American” holiday. This time of year has come to represent togetherness and the spirit of giving, and also nonstop consumerism. But what we think of as a season of comfort and gratitude has roots much deeper than what most of us were taught in elementary school. Indigenous people, the original stewards of this land, were here long before the Pilgrims, and their celebrations of the harvest existed for thousands of years before its repurposing into the Thanksgiving of today.
Shooting Taste The Nation: Holiday Edition, I was fortunate enough to visit the Mashpee and Aquinnah tribes of the Wampanoag Nation. Also known as the People of the First Light, they’ve inhabited present day Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard for over 12,000 years. If you’ve heard of the Wampanoag name it is probably in association with the Thanksgiving tale - the trope of Pilgrims and Indians coming together for a peaceful feast. The truth is, we don’t know if this meeting was peaceful. I learned from Wampanoag tribal member Linda Coombs that only one paragraph exists about this first encounter.
Massasoit came amongst the settlers with 90 men. He stayed for three days, they hunted deer, then he left. There is no record of why this visit took place and it wasn’t even commemorated broadly. In 1863, President Lincoln decreed that November 26 would be a national day of Thanksgiving as an effort to unite the nation during the Civil War. For many Indigenous people, Thanksgiving is not the joyous holiday as we know it, but rather a day of mourning. It is important for all of us to acknowledge our nation’s fraught past, what these communities endured, and what they have given us.
The tale of Thanksgiving is more than just an over-embellished story. This revisionist history actively erases Indigenous voices from what we consider our "American" history. The story of "America" did not begin when white settlers "discovered" this land. But the narrative that has been shaped over time would have you believe otherwise. There is so much we weren’t taught in school and although only one side of the Thanksgiving story is usually told, it is crucial to look at history from as many angles as possible.
The resilient, strong Wampanoag people are merely a footnote in the Thanksgiving stories we were told. Yet, they’ve been the keepers of their ancestral lands all this time, and we have much to thank them for. Tales of Pilgrims and Indians peacefully breaking bread were spun and perpetuated to the benefit of the colonizers, not Indigenous communities. It’s time we give credit where credit is due.
So, what does that mean for us during Thanksgiving? How can we celebrate this holiday while respecting communities like the Wampanoag Nation?
I think it’s important for us to learn about where this holiday comes from. We have Indigenous people to thank for this holiday of giving thanks. The history tomes we grew up with don’t get everything right. Let’s remember that while gathering at our tables this year.
There’s so much left out in the Thanksgiving myth and it is up to us to listen to the people who originated these traditions. If you want to learn more about the Wampanoag people, please watch our episode. Their stories are so, so important to share always, but especially right now.
Love,
