Turkey, baked mac and cheese, collard greens, and mashed potatoes are some of the few foods that come to mind when you think of Thanksgiving, but exactly how thankful are Americans on this day?

The autumn of 1621 was the first Thanksgiving ever recorded and “celebrated” by the Wampanoag Native American tribe and Pilgrims, finally becoming a national holiday on November, 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln. 

The American school system portrays Thanksgiving as a holiday to celebrate togetherness and acceptance but the reality is different. English pilgrims brutally massacred hundreds of Wampanoag Native Americans.

Student, Shayne Goulet, shares her thoughts.

“I like to eat but, it’s origins are not that great. I don’t really like that it’s a mass murder and that a feast came out of it.” 

Goulet is not the only person who shares this thought. Over the years there has been an increase of Americans who recognize the way this holiday came to be is not morally correct, this point amplified by Native Ameircans continuing to spread awareness of what truly occurred during the first Thanksgiving. 

“We don’t acknowledge the American holiday of Thanksgiving … it’s a marginalization and mistelling of our story.” Paula Peters, a Wampanoag woman said to The Washington Post. 

Despite this fact many Americans still celebrate this genocidal holiday. However, Thanksgiving can still be celebrated in an appropriate way in which we give thanks to Natives and their contributions to America instead of dismissing the history of this horrifying holiday. 

Next time you sit down at the Thanksgiving table preparing to eat your meal or say grace, keep the Wampanoag tribe in mind and be grateful to Native Americans as a whole who’s land you currently reside on.