Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas: America’s three biggest holidays. The debate between Americas favorite holiday is usually either Halloween or Christmas, but rarely does anyone claim Thanksgiving is their favorite. Many people say it’s a “filler” holiday and often seem to overlook its haunting history.
Valerie Cerda, a sophomore at Huntington Beach High School (HBHS), gave her opinion on the holiday. “Personally, I love Thanksgiving. Especially the mac and cheese that my family makes. If someone makes Tini’s mac and cheese, I will devour it. Regarding it’s past though, I never really pay attention to it and just spend the day getting together with my family and eating one big feast,” she said.
On the other hand, Lila Smittle, another sophomore at HBHS, has a different take on the holiday. She said, “During Thanksgiving my family does get together, but it’s low key awkward because we don’t have that much to connect over. We kinda just cook food and talk about what’s been going on in our lives. I wouldn’t say it’s boring, but it isn’t like a super big feast that most people have. I do find the past a little… unsettling, especially because I have Native American Heritage. It’s quite odd that even after everything that happened, even though a lot of it we don’t know about, we still celebrate this holiday as if none of it occurred.”
Many Americans honor Thanksgiving as a time to show gratitude and love for their families, while some Native American families may view it as a time to mourn the losses of their people due to the injustices committed against indigenous communities.
Christopher Boucher, an associate professor of Native American history at the College of Charleston, said, “It does not seem that the Wampanoags, [a Native tribe] who lived close by [to the first Thanksgiving], had even been invited to the festivities… What ultimately hastened the collapse of diplomatic relations between the English and the Wampanoags was the arrival of thousands of colonists after 1630, which ended up tipping the balance of power in favor of the newcomers. Colonial expansion exacerbated tensions over land use and ownership, as well as a host of other issues… In 1637, for instance, they waged war against the Pequots with such virulence that even the Indigenous peoples who supported the Puritans in this conflict were stunned by the colonists’ inclination to kill women, children and other noncombatants indiscriminately.”
The history of Thanksgiving in America is often shadowed by glamorous feasts and families coming together to show their gratitude toward one another. It’s unlikely that Americans will ever stop celebrating Thanksgiving, given its long history, but this doesn’t mean we should continue to glaze over the truth. Native American heritage should also get its spotlight in Thanksgiving celebrations and people should show more appreciation for what has happened in the past, no matter how uncomfortable it may be to talk about.
