I never heard stories about white people’s trickery and ultimate decimation of Native Americans until recently (the last ten years or so).
When I was a child, my parents and grandparents would sit at the Thanksgiving table with us and talk about all the things that we had to be grateful for; how we were luckier than some of our neighbors, and how only in America can live that what we have achieved.
I fondly remember, when something that I did not like was put on my plate grandpa saying “People in China are not as lucky as we are, eat that! And I thought, why not just send it to China?”
Until two years ago at Thanksgiving, I reflected on how much good my work with DAGPAW is doing with the kids who are “lucky” enough to be able to take lessons from me.
Now, in the circle of people that I associate with, there is a battle to decide if we should celebrate Thanksgiving at all.
When talking to family members and friends about the conflict, I use this as my guiding principle: what is thought of as wrong now was thought of as acts of honor and bravery back then. Children then, like children now, could not wait to grow and imitate the actions of their fathers and grandfathers. In their minds, they thought of Native Americans as savages, not humans, husbands, wives, and children.
The human mind is complex in the way that we picture ourselves and the world around us in periods. We are the result of a million of years project. Should we hold white men responsible for the actions that they bestowed upon their fellow humans long ago? If yes, then we should hold all peoples who enacted dehumanizing atrocities on fellow humans: Africans who invented slavery, Native Americans who went to war with neighboring tribes and slaughtered thousands, Aztecs, Mayans, Egyptians, the list is exhaustive.
Part of the problem that we are experiencing today is that groups of people feel that they can hold another group of people responsible for the actions that they deem as unjust and not right. Truth be told, only God can do that (I cannot believe I just said that the way I feel about religion).
In the end, there is only one undeniable truth that is spoken constantly by former President Barack Obama and that is “We are all in this together.” like it or not we are all Americans first ancestral heritage second.
In my house on Thanksgiving Day, we use it as a time to celebrate the good fortune that we had the prior year because that is truly what Thanksgiving is about.
This Thanksgiving, I am thankful for all the support that you have given me.
Happy Thanksgiving
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