Everyone has thoughts on someone or something; whether it’s good or bad. My family has a lot of thoughts on holidays, especially Thanksgiving. And that’s why we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving.  How Native Americans were treated, and what happened to them.

We were told the Native Americans and Pilgrims ate dinner and all got along. My family thinks Thanksgiving was more like a war with the natives. Think about it; when did we learn about Thanksgiving? In elementary when we were young.  Teachers make the story of Thanksgiving sweet and sugar-coated. “The holiday associated with Pilgrims and Native Americans has come to symbolize intercultural peace, America’s opportunity for newcomers, and the sanctity of home and family.” However, what they teach us is not really true, and we are just celebrating a lie. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Thanksgiving-Day

Native Americans were treated like aliens in their own land that they discovered. Christopher Columbus killed people to scare off other Native Americans. Natives weren’t happy and the tribes slowly deteriorated. The government also used federal legislation and executive orders to take land from natives. In the 19th century, presidents like Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, and Grover Cleveland created small reservations for tribes that once controlled vast areas. When the pilgrims came they stole the land which made Natives get into fights and wars. https://www.fastcompany.com/3040647/watch-how-the-us-stole-land-from-native-americans

Natives were killed to the point where their traditions didn’t exist. They had fewer people in their tribes, and some tribes were basically gone. Some of the tribes were moved. My tribe, the Cree, were moved from up north in Montanna and a little bit of Canada and were moved to Oklahoma. To a place we never knew. Our traditions and population has slowly degraded. Today, there are over five million Native Americans in the United States, 78% of whom live outside reservations. “When the United States was created, established Native American tribes were generally considered semi-independent nations, as they generally lived in communities separate from British settlers.” Our population has decreased and we have to live on reservations. If this never happened we would have a big population and we wouldn’t be stuck on reservations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_Americans_in_the_United_States

This is why my family doesn’t celebrate Thanksgiving. Most people just celebrate for the food but I see it as a day people died. For my family, there is nothing to be thankful for.