This year, we want to uplift the 1 year anniversary of our partnership with Kara Roselle Smith. Kara is an Afro-Indigenous writer we are proud to have partnered with on talking about what Thanksgiving really represents. Read her piece on "Rethinking Thanksgiving" below.
Letting go of tradition can be "hard," but we must choose hard when a holiday promotes the erasure of genocide, trauma, injustice, exploitation, identity, and land theft of America's Native people. The capitalist romanticization of the holiday, Thanksgiving, is rooted in ironic and hypocritical propaganda. The concept of Thanksgiving is truly a great one; it's a day of giving and a day of centering gratitude for family and community, a concept in alignment of abolitionist principles. As children, the story of pilgrims and "Indians" sharing a meal in community and harmony was indoctrinated in our minds.
What they failed to highlight was that America has a history of being America first; however, what they don't tell you is that "America" is code for white people and Capitalism. This country, land of the free? They meant free markets, not liberation. The irony of it all is that we cling so strongly to these holidays because they provide time off from a structure that we so desperately want to escape from. We wonder, what is there to be grateful for in that? Are the holidays the most wonderful time because they are the only time of year that American culture allows us to celebrate and respect being human, celebrate rest, celebrate community, and embody abolitionist principles?
For myself and BLMGNF, Thanksgiving doesn't exist, just one day in November. Giving thanks and prioritizing community for us is practiced year-round. On Thanksgiving, we encourage people to be still and allow space for remembering the truth of America's founding over the impulse of Black Friday consumerism and over-indulgence.
The story of Thanksgiving told by me, Kara Roselle Smith: Guised as a celebration of the forefathers, this time is widely marked by over-consumption of food and industries like sports that exploit Black and Brown bodies. But what are we really celebrating? Why are we celebrating them? And if not them, who should the thanks be directed towards?
For centuries now, the story of Thanksgiving has gone something like this: European Colonizers came over from Europe to escape British rule and create their own colony. When they landed in North America, they were met by Native Americans who shared with them the ways of life, and they all sat down together and shared a harmonious meal.
The actual story goes something like this: European Colonizers arrived, and instead of attempting to live in harmony with Native Inhabitants of Turtle Island, North America, they sought to gain complete control over the land and Native people by any means necessary. When Natives rebelled against Christianization and didn't concede to European demands, the Pilgrims resorted to violence, going as far as to use biological warfare, intentionally spreading smallpox, in pursuit of power. There was no harmonious meal, and Native Americans were not honored guests. The Dark Mark of Manifest Destiny by Klee Benally, inspired by John Gast's American Progress, comes to mind.
American Progress by John Gast
The Dark Mark of Manifest Destiny by Klee Benally
The artist, Klee Benally, writes: I took John Gast's infamous 1872 painting that quite literally is the visual definition of manifest destiny and placed a "Dementor" from the world of Harry Potter to disrupt the existent pop-colonial narrative. In many ways, these are complimentary fictions: a Dementor is a force that sucks all happiness from life and spreads a deep sense of hopelessness and despair, and "manifest destiny" is just invader/settler code for genocide.
Gast painted the original picture on commission from George Crofutt, the publisher of a popular series of western travel guides. It was widely disseminated as a commercial color print to encourage travel and "settlement." Columbia, the personification of the United States, leads white settlers from the light-skied east to the dark and treacherous West. She lays a telegraph wire with one hand and carries a school book in the other. White farmers, seen on the right, have already settled in the Midwest. As Lady Columbia moves westward, indigenous people and a herd of buffalo flee from her and the settlers. Though many are just learning about the myth that is Thanksgiving, Indigenous Peoples have long since known the true, oppressive story.
In lieu of celebrating Thanksgiving, many Native people celebrate the National Day of Mourning, which officially commenced in 1970. The first observance of the Day of Mourning was in response to the rescinding of Wampanoag Activist Frank "Wumsutta" James' speaking invitation at the Massachusetts Thanksgiving Day celebration commemorating the 350th anniversary of the landing of the Mayflower.
James instead took his voice to Cole Hill, a Pilgrim landing site, and spoke on Native Peoples' true perspectives on the Thanksgiving holiday while standing next to a statue of Massasoit, the Sachem (chief) of the Wampanoag. From then on, The National Day of Mourning replaced the commercialized and myth-ridden Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November for many.
The objective of The National Day of Mourning? To dispel the lies around the fabricated Thanksgiving feast, to educate the public on this country's true history, and acknowledge Indigenous People, specifically the directly impacted Wampanoag people.
My care for this exists on both a basic human level and in being a Wampanoag woman. More specifically, an Afro-Indigenous woman of both African-American and Native-American descent. The Mashpee Wampanoag are the Indigenous people of mainland Massachusetts and were the tribe so many scholars and books failed to mention. They are also my cousins. I'm Chappaquiddick Wampanoag, and our homelands include Chappaquiddick Island, Cape Pogue, and Muskeget Island. Chappaquiddick Island is located on the easternmost shore of Martha's Vineyard, known by the Wampanoag as Noëpe, meaning land amid the waters and streams. Better known today, unfortunately, for its political scandal and tragedies. Both of which many are willing to recognize before the tragedy that is the origin story of this country — built on the genocide of Indigenous Peoples and the enslavement of African peoples.
Thanksgiving, for me, doesn't exist just one day in November. Giving thanks and prioritizing community is a practice that I participate in every day. Being still and allowing the space to remember over the impulse to over-consume and forget. My mission all of the time is to connect with loved ones and honor the ones who loved us and this planet we call home, my ancestors. I'm so grateful for the documentation of history in its totality. And I'm grateful for the strength that resides in me that first existed in them. For what is a day of giving thanks if you choose to ignore those whose practices sustain us all?
Letting go of tradition can be difficult, but when that tradition isn't rooted in truth and we cling to it because it provides time off from a structure that we so desperately want to escape from I wonder what is there to be grateful for in that?
Learn more about Kara Roselle Smith by visiting her
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