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Commentary

The Concept of Being Thankful Should Never Escape Anyone

Levi Rickert, editor-in-chief in Native Condition. Discussion »

Today is Thanksgiving Day in the United States. Americans will sit down and enjoy large meals of turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberries, squash, corn and pumpkin pie.

Even though it is Thanksgiving, for some reason this year, it seems as if I have heard more about Black Friday than I have Thanksgiving.

People are camping outside of big box stores so they can be first in line to purchase big flat screen televisions, computers and other electronic gadgets. Retailers are competing as to when to open their doors to capture as much money from American consumers as they possibly can. This has been a focus of the media this week.

Somehow the whole notion of Thanksgiving seems to have gone flat.

Hopefully, this lack of focus on Thanksgiving story transferred into school rooms across America, as well. Maybe school children are more concerned about what their parents will buy for them on Black Friday than the mythical constructed history of Pilgrims in tall black hats and Indians with feathers sitting down to enjoy a turkey meal.

The whole concept of Thanksgiving, as presented in school rooms, is one that has evolved into a fabrication known as an American Tradition to create national pride.

"Thanksgiving is full of (such) embarrassing facts," writes James Loewen, who wrote "Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your High School History Textbook Got Wrong."

"The Pilgrims did not introduce the Native Americans to the tradition; Eastern Indians had observed autumnal harvest celebrations for centuries. Our modern celebrations date back only to 1863; not until the 1890s did the Pilgrims get included in the tradition; no one even called them 'Pilgrims' until the 1870s," he continues.

Most American Indians - and rightfully so - see things from a different worldview than do their non-Indian counterparts. American Indians worldview is many times communicated in Indian humor. One cartoon that has circulated in Indian Country the past few years at Thanksgiving states: "America's First Welfare Line."

There are differing opinions about celebrating this holiday among American Indians and how it should be celebrated. Many American Indians sit down and have a traditional Thanksgiving meal with their family, while others do not embrace the holiday at all.

Today, many American Indians in New England will journey to Plymouth for the annual "Day of Mourning." On the west coast, in San Francisco Bay, indigenous people take boat rides to Alcatraz Island for a sunrise prayer to remember.

This annual event was known as Un-Thanksgiving Day and is now called "The Indigenous Peoples Sunrise Ceremony." Since 1975, American Indians have gone to Alcatraz Island on Thanksgiving to commemorate the loss of life sustained by American Indians as the result of Europeans coming to this continent.

Personally, I like what Mr. Loewen writes about centuries of history of the observation of autumnal harvest celebrations among the tribes of the East. I know that giving thanks to the Creator is very significant among American Indians throughout Indian Country. It is not simply an Eastern versus Western tribal philosophy or behavior set.

While I recognize the so-called American Tradition of Thanksgiving is a fabricated construction, the concept of being thankful should never escape anyone, regardless of race, color or creed.

Way beyond the commercialization of Thanksgiving and Black Friday, this year we can recognize we have much to be thankful for from the Creator - our families, friends and the rights we now have to be who are as American Indian people. We are still strong!

posted November 24, 2011 7:30 am est