With a Marred Legacy, It’s Time to Decolonize Thanksgiving and How We Treat the Holiday

I am a proud member of the Oglala Lakota Nation, born on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. My early memories of Thanksgiving are akin to those of most Americans – meat-and-potatoes dishes inspired by Eurocentric 1960s-era cookbooks.

For many Americans, the image of Thanksgiving is one of supposed unity: the gathering of “Pilgrims and Indians” in a harmonious feast. But this version obscures the harsh truth, one steeped in colonialism, violence and misrepresentation. By exploring the Indigenous perspective on Thanksgiving, we can gain a deeper understanding of American history.

The sanitized version of Thanksgiving neglects to mention the violence, land theft and subsequent decimation of Indigenous populations. Thanksgiving’s roots are intertwined with colonial aggression. One of the first documented “Thanksgivings” came in 1637, after the colonists celebrated their massacre of an entire Pequot village.

I do not think we need to end Thanksgiving. But we do need to decolonize it. That means centering the Indigenous perspective and challenging the colonial narratives around the holiday.