Feasts and Falsehoods

By Terreil Colon
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Thanksgiving has a deeper meaning than being the day we spend with family and feast. Thanksgiving has a dark truth to it that most people don't talk about. Now as we know it is called Thanksgiving because in 1621, the Plymouth colonists and the Wampanoag shared an autumn harvest feast that is acknowledged today as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies.

But what people don't know is that the first Thanksgiving wasn't all peace, love, and passing the gravy. While the settlers at Plymouth and their allies from the Wampanoag tribe really did gather in 1621 for an epic, three-day feast to celebrate the settlers' first successful harvest, that's far from the entire story. The entire story consists of the Wampanoag or Native American people teaching the Pilgrims how to grow crops to sustain themselves and their society from that day on. 

The Natives did teach the pilgrims how to grow crops to be able to survive but like most things there was a catch to this good gesture. With this being said, the pilgrims and natives never really had good communication which made their friendship shaky. It made it shaky enough for the Wampanoags to slowly but surely commit acts of genocide for the taking of their land. 

So, remember when you're at the dinner table eating with your family that Thanksgiving Day is a reminder of the genocide of millions of Native people, the theft of Native lands, and the relentless assault on Native culture.