Giving Thanks, For Why??

Thanksgiving is OVER. I had a great thanksgiving thank you for asking. I am still eating leftovers from last Thursday. I know we are all ready to hit the gym but you might as well do it after the winter holiday meals and drop that weight all together.
I am here today to give you a history lesson. Why do we celebrate Thanksgiving? In school they teach us that the pilgrims came over to America, settled down and shared their meals with the Native Americans. Where did these Native Americans come from? I don’t ever remember the history books telling us that we came here and took land that was not ours.

Native Americans were already settled all over America before Columbus even thought about the idea that the world is round. What happened to them? Good question, I’m glad you asked. When some Europeans came over to escape from prosecution from the British, they brought their diseases with them. Within three years of the Mayflower arriving, the plague that was brought over whipped out between 90 to 96% of Native Americans. People were dying by the masses and they were unable to handle so many corpses that survivors were forced to abandon their village and move to other neighboring tribes. Since these Native Americans have been exposed to the infection, while they moved, they also brought the diseases with them into the other tribes and infected that village as well. This left the land empty for the Europeans to be able to colonize.

What comes to mind when you think of corn? I was taught that Squanto taught the settlers who came here how to farm corn among other things. It’s a nice story to tell the kids. Squanto actually was kidnapped and forced to teach the Europeans how to farm. Not such a nice story after all huh?

There is plenty more information that you can get from this book called “Lies My Teach Told Me” by James W. Loewen. My friends and I got this joke that says Thanksgiving is actually Thanks-taking.

Don’t get me wrong, we are celebrating togetherness and that is the most important thing. I just think the story behind why we are celebrating togetherness needs to change in the history books because we end up idolizing and celebrating people for the murders they commit. Just look up the history first before you decide to celebrate something that our teachers tell us to be true.

Published by Susana