This holiday, respect marginalized identities

A typical Thanksgiving celebration brings up images of watching football, gathering with families and friends and over-eating homemade turkey, pies and mashed potatoes. From a young age, we are taught that Thanksgiving commemorates a celebratory and collaborative feast in which Native Americans taught the underprepared Pilgrims how to hunt and survive in North America. This provides, however, an oversimplified and inaccurate depiction of Thanksgiving. The harsh reality of relations among European settlers and Native Americans is often overlooked for simpler festivities. Thanksgiving is justifiably a day to remind us of the complex history associated with European treatment of the Native American people.

Traditional American history tells us that the Pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians celebrated the first Thanksgiving in 1621 at Plymouth, Mass. where Native Americans and Pilgrims ate food and played games together. According to Native American reverend Randy Woodley, however, Thanksgiving did not begin with the arrival of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock. Before Thanksgiving became an official federal holiday in 1863, the United States had a long history of Thanksgiving-type holidays, as Native Americans had been celebrating days of giving thanks for thousands of years. Some Native Americans do not specify one day for giving thanks and being grateful, and instead Thanksgiving is a periodic -- in some tribes, daily -- celebration.

Instead of a celebration of American culture, Thanksgiving offers an opportunity to raise up the traditions and rituals of Native American tribes, who have been marginalized and oppressed throughout American history. One tradition includes a roundtable reading of an Iroquois prayer. The prayer reflects on being thankful for all types of creation, and is an example of an effective method to discuss the history of Thanksgiving in relation to the Native American perspective.

Whether through discussing the relevance and importance of Native American history to the history of North America, incorporating elements of traditional Native American Thanksgiving celebrations into your festivities or learning about the history of Native Americans in your particular area of the United States, Thanksgiving should be recognized as an opportunity to educate yourself and others on Native American culture and history. We should reflect on what the immigration of the Pilgrims meant for the Native Americans, as well as European settlers. While many people celebrate the holiday, a group of Native Americans congregate every year in Plymouth for the National Day of Mourning to protest the glorification of European colonialism in North America. However you choose to celebrate and give thanks this week, the significance of the holiday's origin should not be forgotten.