Talking Turkey

Our Opinion / Is your stomach strong enough for a real Thanksgiving?

By Cindy Gomez-Schempp
Editor

Growing up Mexican in the U.S. always has interesting twists. In our household there were no celebrations of any U.S. “traditions;” not in any recognizable way to anyone truly “American.” Every year dad would bring home a turkey or a ham from work. We didn’t even know what to do with them; gigantic frozen bird or large oval-shaped pig covered in meat gelatin. Although we didn’t “do” thanksgiving, we didn’t mind the time off to be with each other as family with the buzz of the Macy’s day parade in the background. We began to try to figure out how to use all the meat from the gigantic bird and that’s how our annual turkey tamale-making tradition began. People at school and in the community tried to help us assimilate explaining the traditions; something about pilgrims, Indians, football, and nauseating amounts of food. Admittedly, the details have always been a bit sketchy and hard to understand.

Take for instance the pardoning of turkeys. Seriously, what’s is up with that tradition? Everyone pardons a turkey. On Monday, Gov. Jack Dalrymple pardoned a turkey. There’s even a goofy video online of the press conference you can watch on The Jamestown Sun’s website complete with a full court press of photographers and plenty of hardy chuckles and guffaws. Gov. Mark Dayton also pardoned a turkey. One of Dayton’s turkeys got free from his pen and tried to escape. Awkward! But, why all the “feel good” phony ceremony? We eat thousands of them all the time, especially at this time of year. But a select few ‘special turkeys’ are preened, paraded on TV and all around the country are “pardoned!” We let them live and it eases our collective consciences.

Perhaps all the pomp and turkey circumstance serves another purpose besides levity. There is something more to that conscience-easing bit of this tradition.

Today, lots of people are really bent out of shape about Thanksgiving in a way I’ve never heard of before in my life. There have been many news stories, blog entries, and editorials on the “real” Thanksgiving history exposing misgivings about celebrating a holiday based on the celebration of mass genocide of millions of indigenous people. Although most of the recent discussions about exposing the truth behind Thanksgiving are happening among white Americans, indigenous people have been holding another type of ceremony on the holiday for decades:

“Since 1970, Native Americans have gathered at noon on Cole’s Hill in Plymouth to commemorate a National Day of Mourning on the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. Many Native Americans do not celebrate the arrival of the Pilgrims and other European settlers. Thanksgiving Day is a reminder of the genocide of millions of Native people, the theft of Native lands, and the relentless assault on Native culture. Participants in National Day of Mourning honor Native ancestors and the struggles of Native peoples to survive today. It is a day of remembrance and spiritual connection as well as a protest of the racism and oppression which Native Americans continue to experience.”  -Statement from United American Indians of New England on the 42nd annual commemoration of the National Day of Mourning

First Nation people want us to know and remember that the warm fuzzy stories about friendship and Indians helping pilgrims survive the first winter are insulting in their deliberate omission of reality. America’s recognized Thanksgiving, based on a celebrations between the Wampanoag and the pilgrims in 1621, couldn’t have happened if not for Tisquantum (better known as Squanto), the Wampanoag Indian credited for mysteriously speaking English to the pilgrims and saving them from certain death. Squanto’s amazing English skills came from the previous “visit” from pilgrims in 1614 which resulted in the enslavement of many Wampanoag—Squanto among them—; a whole boatload of them, in fact. Squanto, who finally escaped slavery in England and hitched a ride on a boat back to the U.S. in 1619, returned to find that pilgrims had killed most of the Wampanoag. Just five short years after the benevolence of the Wampanoag was bestowed upon the pilgrims, they in turn had destroyed most the generous Wampanoag’s tribe and most other neighboring tribes as well. In fact, the Wampanoag’s chief’s head was chopped off, impaled on a steak and hung in display in Plymouth Massachusetts for 24 years. To learn more about the real history of thanksgiving scan this QR code or read http://tiny.cc/RealTHanks

Certainly, this is not the type of conversation conducive to shoveling massive amounts of food down our gullets! It sure isn’t something little children should hear, or could even understand, right? It’s hard to stomach for most adults, let alone innocent children. What if you were to teach your kids the real history of Thanksgiving? Can you imagine the moment during the football game when your kid blurts out how pilgrims at the first Thanksgiving kicked the bloody severed heads of Natives down the streets like soccer balls to “give thanks” for their victory over the “savages?”

No wonder people are divided on how they feel about hearing history, or repeating it.

Learning all of this ugly information is not pleasant. We cannot undo history or change a federal holiday. People like turkey and pumpkin pie; that’s not going anywhere. What’s the point of getting upset about—or worse yet— spewing horrifying history facts at relatives you barely see and rarely speak to much less have profound conversations with? Black Friday is here to stay, so is football. We all realize we need to understand these self-evident truths.

No one understands these dilemma’s better than a mixed-race Mexican growing up in the U.S. As a Meztizo, finding out the Spanish and French European parts of my family raped and murdered their way into my indigenous gene pool, was no cause for celebration. The problems of denying any parts of my family or history are deep and inescapable.

We’re not evil for simply wanting to enjoy our holiday in present day America in peace. The real problem comes when trying to ease our conscience with fake turkey pardons instead of real contrition for the massive loss of life and land of indigenous people all while pretending not to notice that we’re still celebrating a holiday which was meant to commemorate the conquer and defeat of Native tribes. Understanding what really happened and consciously choosing to acknowledge and honor the duality of our existence with the First Nations of continental America is healthy, healing, and necessary. 

Those who know the true history and honor it need not feel ashamed or left out of holiday celebrating. Many people of indigenous roots celebrate Thanksgiving, in their own way, and honor the idea of “giving thanks” while also honoring their heritage. Native American journalist, Tom Giago, explained that as Americans we share a common holiday given that many of the Great Plains Indians have a similar celebration called ‘wopila.’ People of the Sioux tribe who celebrate Thanksgiving recognize the death and suffering of their people, while honoring the generosity and saving grace of the Wampanoag to new settlers. Members of the Oneida marched in the 2010 Macy’s parade on a float called “The True Spirit of Thanksgiving.” And mixed-blood Indian Mexicans, like me, have learned to make great pies, and turkey tamales.

If natives, the victims of Thanksgiving, can celebrate the holiday and still honor themselves, so can we all—as a nation. No one has to destroy their family holiday with historic grief, but we do have a duty to recognize historic suffering. To do otherwise would be a monumental injustice to the people who started our Thanksgiving holiday by putting aside their grief and saving the lives of others.

Questions and comments: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)