[Sean Sherman argues that we need to decolonize Thanksgiving,
while Chase Iron Eyes calls for replacing Thanksgiving with a
“Truthsgiving.”]
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SHOULD AMERICA KEEP CELEBRATING THANKSGIVING?  
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Sean Sherman and Chase Iron Eyes
November 11, 2023
The Nation
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_ Sean Sherman argues that we need to decolonize Thanksgiving, while
Chase Iron Eyes calls for replacing Thanksgiving with a
“Truthsgiving.” _

The statue of Chief Massasoit, leader of the Wampanoag tribe, towers
above people marching during the National Day of Mourning, on
Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 2021, in Plymouth, Mass., Bryan R.
Smith / AFP via Getty Images

 

Yes!

I am a proud member of the Oglala Lakota Nation, born on the Pine
Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. My early memories of
Thanksgiving are akin to those of most Americans—meat-and-potatoes
dishes inspired by Eurocentric 1960s-era cookbooks.

For many Americans, the image of Thanksgiving is one of supposed
unity: the gathering of “Pilgrims and Indians” in a harmonious
feast. But this version obscures the harsh truth, one steeped in
colonialism, violence, and misrepresentation. By exploring the
Indigenous perspective on Thanksgiving, we can not only discern some
of the nuances of decolonization but gain a deeper understanding of
American history.

The sanitized version of Thanksgiving neglects to mention the
violence, land theft, and subsequent decimation of Indigenous
populations. Needless to say, this causes tremendous distress to those
of us who are still reeling from the trauma of these events to our
communities.

Thanksgiving’s roots are intertwined with colonial aggression. One
of the first documented “Thanksgivings” came in 1637, after the
colonists celebrated their massacre of an entire Pequot village.

I do not think we need to end Thanksgiving. But we do need to
decolonize it. That means centering the Indigenous perspective and
challenging the colonial narratives around the holiday (and every
other day on the calendar). By reclaiming authentic histories and
practices, decolonization seeks to honor Indigenous values,
identities, and knowledge. This approach is one of constructive
evolution: In decolonizing Thanksgiving, we acknowledge this painful
past while reimagining our lives in a more truthful manner.

Indigenous contributions—including turkey, corn, beans, pumpkins,
cranberries, sweet potatoes, and wild rice—are central to the
Thanksgiving menu. By embracing these foods and supporting Native
American producers and practices, we can ground the celebration in a
genuine appreciation of this land and its original custodians—the
same way that we celebrate European contributions to the American
plate.

The journey to decolonize Thanksgiving is also an opportunity for a
broader movement to decenter colonial perspectives around the world.
The University of Saskatchewan has possibly the most succinct
definition of colonialism: “the policy or practice of acquiring full
or partial political control over another country, occupying it with
settlers, and exploiting it economically.” Western colonization has
often exhibited a complete disregard for Indigenous customs and
cultures that value diversity and a harmonious relationship with the
land. Decolonization in this context would mean resisting the
dominance of colonial influences globally and reclaiming Indigenous
knowledge, values, and, of course, foodways.

The Western colonial diet has almost completely ignored the
nutritional and culinary diversity of North America, just as other
Indigenous cultural practices have been decimated by Eurocentric
forces. At our restaurant, Owamni [[link removed]], and in
tribal communities everywhere, food is a celebration of history,
culture, and environmental stewardship. When we strip away the ills of
colonization, we demand the shared human right of access to healthy,
culturally significant, and regionally appropriate foods.

These values can be applied not only during Thanksgiving but every day
of our lives, and would drastically change the way we all live on this
planet. Indigenous values shift the focus toward acknowledging our
shared human experiences and rights, one of which is the profound
relationship between humans and food—and not just any food, but our
own traditional foods, stewarded in a way that is healthy for our
bodies, minds, and souls. The way we can save Thanksgiving is by
investing as many resources in food production, water, land access,
and education as we do in our military and bombs. We can save
Thanksgiving by working toward a more unified world on this planet.

This Thanksgiving, let’s break the bonds of colonization and
capitalism—not just on our plates but in our perspectives, too. I
want a Thanksgiving where I can be thankful that I live in a world
where diversity is celebrated, and where every person’s connection
to their food, land, and history is respected and cherished. I would
like to be thankful not only for a more inclusive world but for a more
accurate accounting of the past. This inclusivity and commitment to
truth would honor Indigenous people, but also every person on the
planet. Banning histories as a righteous crusade to eradicate
different opinions is wrong; understanding true histories is
necessary.

A decolonized Thanksgiving could transform a holiday marred by
historical amnesia into a celebration of genuine gratitude, unity, and
recognition of our rich Indigenous heritage. It would offer a clearer
lens through which to see the entire world.

Let us drop food and knowledge, not bombs.

SEAN SHERMAN

No!

In 1620, English sailors arrived on the _Mayflower_ and landed at
Plymouth Harbor. A year later, the English celebrated their first
Thanksgiving—alone, until a Wam­panoag defense party arrived,
wanting to know why gunshots were being fired.

Our cherished national myth is that Thanksgiving originated with
Natives welcoming friends who were fleeing religious persecution and
then celebrating the harvest together. But the Wampanoags were not
there to welcome or celebrate with foreigners
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They had a mutual-defense pact with the Pilgrims and likely arrived
out of duty. Yet over time, a young America branded this interaction
as a “cohosted” Thanksgiving. George Washington celebrated
Thanksgiving in 1789, and John Adams and James Madison followed suit.
Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday, trying to
unite Americans during their Civil War. Aliens in a foreign land need
to invent new myths and identities to provide themselves with a sense
of people, purpose, and place.

There is another, more illustrative Thanksgiving story not often
shared in the mainstream. During this other early Thanksgiving, in
1637, European settlers gave thanks after their men returned safe from
a raid on the Pequot, an Indigenous tribe living in present-day
Connecticut, which led to the massacre of between 400 and 700 women,
children, and men and the enslavement of those who survived. In this
story, there is no mutual thanks; there is no giving. There is only
consumption and taking.

You want to give thanks? Give thanks to Native nations who granted
settlers some form of legitimacy—by entering into treaties
recognizing them—to be in our homelands. Those treaties recognized
that Americans are now under our spiritual custody and have rights to
pass through our country. As soon as Americans were able to impose
their will on Indigenous nations, the treaties were violated. Some
Indigenous nations do not have treaties, and legally this means their
nations should be intact. Those of us who have treaties have
defensible legal claims to lands that are now occupied by private
American settlers under US law. The United States is still not able to
deliver clear title to the lands because they were illegally and
unilaterally annexed by the United States. We know it was not the
fault of American settlers who bought the stolen land. But in order to
promote reconciliation, we want private landowners to support the
transfer of federal and state lands back to the tribal nations that
have valid claims to them. Give thanks by honoring the treaties, by
giving land back.

Give thanks by protecting the lands and waters that sustain us,
instead of compelling law enforcement to protect the property- and
capital-owning class, even when the owner class has “legal
permits” to destroy a river or poison a land.

Give thanks to the Native nations who created the world that we
inherit today. Learn that 60 percent of all food consumed to this day
was discovered, bioengineered, and/or cultivated by Indigenous
cultures in the Americas, including corn, beans, squash, and tomatoes.
Indigenous people developed many of the agri/horticultural practices,
including raised-bed farming, still in use in the United States.
“American” democracy itself was derived from observations of the
Iroquois confederacy. The interstate highways and trail systems trace
Indigenous trade routes. Anesthetics, rubber, sunglasses, kayaks,
canoes, plant medicines, oral contraceptives, and paleo, organic, and
non-GMO lifestyles derive from Indigenous practices. Thank Indigenous
people for teaching humanity that food and water are medicine. Thank
Indigenous people for defending your natural birthrights, human
rights, constitutional and other conceivable rights from corporate
encroachment.

In those early years of colonial settlement, Indigenous families,
saviors of the interlopers, nursed them back to health, only to be
slaughtered by them and subjected to decimation by biological warfare.
To this day, the Doctrine of Discovery—the foundation of federal law
permitting settlers to take possession of land they
“discovered”—imposes a set of Christian-based “laws” and
institutional thinking that confines Indian existence “legally,”
politically, and economically. The reservation system, “blood
quantum,” and the invention of the federally recognized tribes will
lead to our extinction as nations, as distinct political entities.
Thanksgiving is a lie in the same way Manifest Destiny is a lie: This
continent was not a pristine, empty land that had yet to be put to
“profitable” use in the ways “civilized” extractive alien
economies defined it.

November is already Native American Heritage Month. Thanksgiving could
be something better: a day to appreciate the truth of American history
and Native Americans’ contributions to our lives. Let’s tell a
different story by dropping the lie of Thanksgiving and begin a
Truthsgiving.

CHASE IRON EYES

_SEAN SHERMAN is an award-winning chef, educator, author, and
activist. _

_CHASE IRON EYES's distinguished career fighting for the civil rights
for Natives includes serving as director of Lakota People's Law
Project, cofounding the Native news website Last Real Indians, as a
Standing Rock Activist, and work in the Native Lives Matter movement._

_Copyright c 2023 THE NATION. Reprinted with permission. May not be
reprinted without permission
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Distributed by PARS International Corp
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the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical,
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* Thanksgiving Day
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* colonialism
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* Native Americans
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* U.S. history
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* Racism
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* Native American Heritage Month
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