No Thanks for Thanksgiving

[Lakhota]

By Robert Jensen

Instead, we should atone for the genocide that was incited -- and condoned -- by the very men we idolize as our 'heroic' founding fathers.

One indication of moral progress in the United States would be the replacement of Thanksgiving Day and its self-indulgent family feasting with a National Day of Atonement accompanied by a self-reflective collective fasting.

In fact, indigenous people have offered such a model; since 1970 they have marked the fourth Thursday of November as a Day of Mourning in a spiritual/political ceremony on Coles Hill overlooking Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts, one of the early sites of the European invasion of the Americas.

Not only is the thought of such a change in this white-supremacist holiday impossible to imagine, but the very mention of the idea sends most Americans into apoplectic fits -- which speaks volumes about our historical hypocrisy and its relation to the contemporary politics of empire in the United States.

That the world's great powers achieved "greatness" through criminal brutality on a grand scale is not news, of course. That those same societies are reluctant to highlight this history of barbarism also is predictable.

But in the United States, this reluctance to acknowledge our original sin -- the genocide of indigenous people -- is of special importance today. It's now routine -- even among conservative commentators -- to describe the United States as an empire, so long as everyone understands we are an inherently benevolent one. Because all our history contradicts that claim, history must be twisted and tortured to serve the purposes of the powerful.

One vehicle for taming history is various patriotic holidays, with Thanksgiving at the heart of U.S. myth-building. From an early age, we Americans hear a story about the hearty Pilgrims, whose search for freedom took them from England to Massachusetts. There, aided by the friendly Wampanoag Indians, they survived in a new and harsh environment, leading to a harvest feast in 1621 following the Pilgrims first winter.

Some aspects of the conventional story are true enough. But it's also true that by 1637 Massachusetts Gov. John Winthrop was proclaiming a thanksgiving for the successful massacre of hundreds of Pequot Indian men, women and children, part of the long and bloody process of opening up additional land to the English invaders. The pattern would repeat itself across the continent until between 95 and 99 percent of American Indians had been exterminated and the rest were left to assimilate into white society or die off on reservations, out of the view of polite society.

Simply put: Thanksgiving is the day when the dominant white culture (and, sadly, most of the rest of the non-white but non-indigenous population) celebrates the beginning of a genocide that was, in fact, blessed by the men we hold up as our heroic founding fathers.

More: No Thanks for Thanksgiving | Alternet

 

[Moonglow]

Do you think the Indian Nations will secede?

 

[Lakhota]

Do you think the Indian Nations will secede?

It's too late. HOWEVER, there are others who may have a better chance of reclaiming their stolen birthright:

The Hispanic Experience - Stolen Birthright

 

[Clementine]

Do you think the Indian Nations will secede?

Indians are from India.

 

[Clementine]

Do you think the Indian Nations will secede?

It's too late. HOWEVER, there are others who may have a better chance of reclaiming their stolen birthright:

The Hispanic Experience - Stolen Birthright

Considering the damage and cost of putting up with illegal aliens all over the states, I think they owe us. If Mexico had that land, it would be shit just like the rest of their country and they'd still be looking for more. Give it up already.

 

[tinydancer]

You are such a liar.

STOP. STOP.

Stop trying to be a first nations person.

you make me want to bazooka barf..

If you don't stop this....You know what. Game on. Do you want it? I am so sick of you. I will call out Metis

 

[tinydancer]

Do you think the Indian Nations will secede?

We are hitting territory you should not be in. For your own sake step aside.

I like you as a poster.

 

[tinydancer]

Do you think the Indian Nations will secede?

It's too late. HOWEVER, there are others who may have a better chance of reclaiming their stolen birthright:

The Hispanic Experience - Stolen Birthright

Oh this is good.

Thank you so much. Now comes the real deal.

 

[tinydancer]

But you didn't even know Yaqui what type of crazy are you?

 

[Lakhota]

The troopers cut off the vulvas of Indian women, stretched them over their saddle horns, then decorated their hatbands with them; some used the skin of brave’s scrotums and the breasts of Indian women as tobacco pouches, then showed off these trophies, together with the noses and ears of some of the Indians they had massacred, at the Denver Opera House.

Much More: Native American Genocide

 

[longknife]

Do you think the Indian Nations will secede?

It's too late. HOWEVER, there are others who may have a better chance of reclaiming their stolen birthright:

The Hispanic Experience - Stolen Birthright

How very impressive!

But wait. Who is this guy? A retired teacher who writes for The Montly Review An Independent Socialist Magazine.

Does that somehow indicate a possible biased slant to the article?

This is but one quote from the piece:

The struggle for the ownership of the land in the stolen territories did not end with the conclusion of the war. Although the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo recognized the legitimacy of Spanish and Mexican land grants and offered the Mexican inhabitants in the ceded territories American citizenship, the influx of land-hungry and ruthless whites resulted in widespread oppression that sparked mass exile and repatriation. The exile of Mexican citizens from Texas that began after the Anglo takeover of 1836 intensified after the war in 1848. Besieged refugees abandoned their farms and ranches and moved across the Rio Grande to the old Mexican towns of Paso del Norte, Guerrero, Mier, Camargo, Reynosa, and Matamoros and established the new towns of Nuevo Laredo, Mesilla, and Guadalupe.

[The emphasis is mine and indicates the slant this author places on the article.]

Having spent a couple of years researching this subject for my novels on the founding of the California missions, I could claim myself to be just as much an expert as Señor Vogel claims to be. And, from that research, I might conclude there is much missing from this piece - such as the racism and bigotry of the Mexican government that placed many of the Indios y Mestizos in a form of servitude to the upper-class Criollos who took over their revolution.

Again, look at this through the lens of truth before spouting off this "This is OUR land nonsense" that La Raza and other similar groups are spouting.

 

[USNavyVet]

We won. Deal with it. And be thankful.

 

[Big Black Dog]

Take your beads and trinkets, grab a turkey leg and sit down and shut up. Get over it.

 

[longknife]

The troopers cut off the vulvas of Indian women, stretched them over their saddle horns, then decorated their hatbands with them; some used the skin of brave’s scrotums and the breasts of Indian women as tobacco pouches, then showed off these trophies, together with the noses and ears of some of the Indians they had massacred, at the Denver Opera House.

Much More: Native American Genocide

And you are saying that American indigenous peoples never did the same? [Notice my NOT using the word "Indian" - which some tribes actually prefer] Long before Europeans came to North America, various tribes ritually dismembered, gutted, and even ate parts of the warriors they conquered. They also enslaved children and women.

 

[JimH52]

By Robert Jensen

Instead, we should atone for the genocide that was incited -- and condoned -- by the very men we idolize as our 'heroic' founding fathers.

One indication of moral progress in the United States would be the replacement of Thanksgiving Day and its self-indulgent family feasting with a National Day of Atonement accompanied by a self-reflective collective fasting.

In fact, indigenous people have offered such a model; since 1970 they have marked the fourth Thursday of November as a Day of Mourning in a spiritual/political ceremony on Coles Hill overlooking Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts, one of the early sites of the European invasion of the Americas.

Not only is the thought of such a change in this white-supremacist holiday impossible to imagine, but the very mention of the idea sends most Americans into apoplectic fits -- which speaks volumes about our historical hypocrisy and its relation to the contemporary politics of empire in the United States.

That the world's great powers achieved "greatness" through criminal brutality on a grand scale is not news, of course. That those same societies are reluctant to highlight this history of barbarism also is predictable.

But in the United States, this reluctance to acknowledge our original sin -- the genocide of indigenous people -- is of special importance today. It's now routine -- even among conservative commentators -- to describe the United States as an empire, so long as everyone understands we are an inherently benevolent one. Because all our history contradicts that claim, history must be twisted and tortured to serve the purposes of the powerful.

One vehicle for taming history is various patriotic holidays, with Thanksgiving at the heart of U.S. myth-building. From an early age, we Americans hear a story about the hearty Pilgrims, whose search for freedom took them from England to Massachusetts. There, aided by the friendly Wampanoag Indians, they survived in a new and harsh environment, leading to a harvest feast in 1621 following the Pilgrims first winter.

Some aspects of the conventional story are true enough. But it's also true that by 1637 Massachusetts Gov. John Winthrop was proclaiming a thanksgiving for the successful massacre of hundreds of Pequot Indian men, women and children, part of the long and bloody process of opening up additional land to the English invaders. The pattern would repeat itself across the continent until between 95 and 99 percent of American Indians had been exterminated and the rest were left to assimilate into white society or die off on reservations, out of the view of polite society.

Simply put: Thanksgiving is the day when the dominant white culture (and, sadly, most of the rest of the non-white but non-indigenous population) celebrates the beginning of a genocide that was, in fact, blessed by the men we hold up as our heroic founding fathers.

More: No Thanks for Thanksgiving | Alternet

Thanks for posting this. Yes, this is a part of our history that has been conveniently hidden with only occasional glimpses of truth. You know, when us white folks want to show some guilt. I doubt there are many history books that details some of this.

 

[Duped]

There are no indigenous people - the redskins came from Russia! Make sure you note what the redskin tribes did to each other. Your ancesters were conquered - deal with it. I don't owe you shit!

 

[Katzndogz]

Do you think the Indian Nations will secede?

It's too late. HOWEVER, there are others who may have a better chance of reclaiming their stolen birthright:

The Hispanic Experience - Stolen Birthright

Ahhhh yes, the Aztlanistas and the mexica movement. They call themselves America's Palestinians. Good luck with that and I mean that sincerely. I would LOVE to see mexicans start blowing up school buses.

 

[eflatminor]

No Thanks for Thanksgiving

How about a thanks for being on the dole for over a century now.

No?

Well, you're welcome anyway.

 

[Si modo]

I doubt few care whether you celebrate TG or not.

Bitter old "man".

 

[driveby]

By Robert Jensen

Instead, we should atone for the genocide that was incited -- and condoned -- by the very men we idolize as our 'heroic' founding fathers.

One indication of moral progress in the United States would be the replacement of Thanksgiving Day and its self-indulgent family feasting with a National Day of Atonement accompanied by a self-reflective collective fasting.

In fact, indigenous people have offered such a model; since 1970 they have marked the fourth Thursday of November as a Day of Mourning in a spiritual/political ceremony on Coles Hill overlooking Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts, one of the early sites of the European invasion of the Americas.

Not only is the thought of such a change in this white-supremacist holiday impossible to imagine, but the very mention of the idea sends most Americans into apoplectic fits -- which speaks volumes about our historical hypocrisy and its relation to the contemporary politics of empire in the United States.

That the world's great powers achieved "greatness" through criminal brutality on a grand scale is not news, of course. That those same societies are reluctant to highlight this history of barbarism also is predictable.

But in the United States, this reluctance to acknowledge our original sin -- the genocide of indigenous people -- is of special importance today. It's now routine -- even among conservative commentators -- to describe the United States as an empire, so long as everyone understands we are an inherently benevolent one. Because all our history contradicts that claim, history must be twisted and tortured to serve the purposes of the powerful.

One vehicle for taming history is various patriotic holidays, with Thanksgiving at the heart of U.S. myth-building. From an early age, we Americans hear a story about the hearty Pilgrims, whose search for freedom took them from England to Massachusetts. There, aided by the friendly Wampanoag Indians, they survived in a new and harsh environment, leading to a harvest feast in 1621 following the Pilgrims first winter.

Some aspects of the conventional story are true enough. But it's also true that by 1637 Massachusetts Gov. John Winthrop was proclaiming a thanksgiving for the successful massacre of hundreds of Pequot Indian men, women and children, part of the long and bloody process of opening up additional land to the English invaders. The pattern would repeat itself across the continent until between 95 and 99 percent of American Indians had been exterminated and the rest were left to assimilate into white society or die off on reservations, out of the view of polite society.

Simply put: Thanksgiving is the day when the dominant white culture (and, sadly, most of the rest of the non-white but non-indigenous population) celebrates the beginning of a genocide that was, in fact, blessed by the men we hold up as our heroic founding fathers.

More: No Thanks for Thanksgiving | Alternet

Stop your bitching and go start scalping some white folks, pussy......