this is probably the first year where i’ve spent significant time thinking critically about Thanksgiving. it’s not that I never knew the history – the genocide, the exploitation, the theft – but the nature of the holiday always felt apolitical to me. it’s just about gathering around food. what could be more harmless? lots of countries have fall harvest celebrations, after all.
this feeling was tied up in the idea that these sins are in the distant past. the damage is done. we can learn about the history, but it won’t change anything. it sucks, but what are you gonna do?
a turning point in my thinking here came through understanding a simple idea: many indigenous people reject the label “Native American” – because they were here before it was called America. the name itself erases their history. i learned how many Mexican and Mexican-American people are indigenous to these lands. here we have this endless conflict over “illegal immigration” – all over land we evicted them from, then we criminalized them for coming back to earn pennies per hour working our farms to fuel our ritual holiday food waste.
from there, i began to understand that this isn’t ancient history. theft of land continues, perhaps most visible through the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Keystone Pipeline. today, right now, the virus is ravaging tribal communities that have been intentionally underserved by our government. the same engines of betrayal and murder are operating today, just as they were 500 years ago.
meanwhile, indigenous culture decorates the landscape around us. our streets, parks, cities, counties, and states use tribal names and language with no understanding of their meaning. i was born near the Natchez Trace, but never learned anything about the Natchez tribe. i grew up next to Cayuga lake, but for all of Ithaca’s woke trappings i never learned one iota of Cayuga or Seneca history. Brooklyn was once Lenape territory, but i’d never even heard that name until early this year. you can see what indigineous territories you occupy through this map: https://native-land.ca/
all of this is an area where i’m woefully unlearned. i’m working through the discomfort of accepting that i’m a settler, descended from settlers, and that is inextricable from my identity as a white American. i have much, much more to learn.
it’s hard. i still feel myself getting defensive when i listen and hear the raw anger of indigenous folks. it often feels hopeless and depressing the more i learn, but we call it work for a reason. it’s not fun. but it’s necessary.