The Lineage and Legacy of Thanksgiving 

Autumn endures as a time of resettlement and harvest for humanity. Many countries celebrate holidays similar to Thanksgiving in this season, from South Korea’s Chuseok harvest festival to Germany’s Erntedakfest. There is a unique character, however, to American Thanksgiving which can be owed to the blending of fact and fiction concerning its history and origins. The interpretation of Thanksgiving has polarized into two competing histories—one of romanticization, and one of bitterness and sorrow. The way in which these histories can be reconciled and acknowledged by the American people is a key to understanding our ability to maintain multiple truths of history equally, to resist oversimplification, and to maintain the ability to refrain from viewing American history in a black and white filter of “them” and “us”. 

Thanksgiving, as a general term for a gathering of people for reflection on the year, was observed by colonists in New England 400 years ago first as a day of fasting. A popular perception of the holiday’s genesis is the mythical First Thanksgiving story: In autumn 1621, Wampanoag people joined the English in Plymouth for the celebration of a bountiful harvest. The real first implementation of the national holiday happened in 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln made an effort to unite Americans during the Civil War. 

The reality of the First Thanksgiving grade-school story is that its oversimplified positivity surrounding a mutual understanding and effort by colonists and indigenous people makes it closer to a fiction, or a myth, than a traceable lineage of the holiday. A notable truth in this story, which it is rightfully named so because it has lost the reality of a history, is that the Wampanoag people saved the English from starvation by teaching them hunting and planting techniques. Additionally, Lincoln’s declaration of the holiday in 1863, meant to unite the American people in the deep division of the Civil war, came a year after the U.S.-Dakota War. Ironically, this lesser-known war was internally fought between bands of Dakota indigenous people and settlers. The war was charged by aggression from Dakota families who faced starvation in the face of food supply blocked by the federal government. 

Gradually, the holiday shifted in date of celebration until in 1941 a law was passed by Congress which made the fourth Thursday of November the official Thanksgiving Day. Now, Thanksgiving is celebrated with familiar faces and festive dishes, a beautiful day of reflection promptly followed by the exhilarating materialism of Black Friday. 

Although President Lincoln’s declaration of the holiday did not originally include a connection to the story of the Pilgrims, the relations between indigenous people and the United States government during his time were a direct reflection of ongoing dissonance between America’s identity as a diverse nation and its ambitions as a rapidly expanding society. America was a force pushing against its own people, the Dakotas, trying to create a reality of westward expansion which left out indigenous Americans. What the nation failed to realize was that in an attempt to build its own history, one from the perspective of those colonists pushing westward toward industrialization and “progressive society”, a split was made in the American people. 

This split is seen today in the celebration of Thanksgiving. In truth, the history of Thanksgiving and that impact can be pieced together into a coherent sequence only through the individuals that celebrate it. Some Native Americans acknowledge and mourn it as a symbol of the loss of their political independence, gathering with family despite this for a celebration of general thankfulness. In contrast, for years, public elementary schools celebrated through the tradition of children dressing up as Native Americans and Pilgrims, promoting the idyllic First Thanksgiving story and ultimately establishing the idea of Thanksgiving in young children from the perspective of non-indigenous people. Although this tradition has since been phased out because of the stereotyping bound to happen, that non-indigenous perspective persists in the majority of the American population and government.  

Thankfulness is the center of Thanksgiving Day, of course. So, through the holiday, instead of focusing on a mythical day of establishment or an idealistic history between the U.S. and Native Americans, thankfulness should be prioritized on a personal level. Just as with thankfulness for the people one maintains close relationships with, thankfulness for America’s history balanced with healthy criticism and the hope for a better future can and will create a more open appreciation of Thanksgiving Day. The day can become a reminder of the many competing but equally important dialogues in American history, an opportunity to reflect in thankfulness, and a gate of understanding which takes the nation towards a more educated, thoughtful, and kind future.