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I believe that if we were to still celebrate Thanksgiving each year, the meaning behind it should be altered. We should have a day of remembrance for all the native lives lost at the hands of our natives. Ideally this holiday would not be celebrated at all due to its historical inaccuracy, but I feel due to the attachment our culture has to this day, that would not be possible.

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I previously knew that what we consider the First Thanksgiving was not truly the first, but I did not know the deep rooted history the day had. It shocked me that Thanksgiving was more about religion and fasting than a big feast. It supports the idea that the holiday has been completely changed from what it was originally intended to be to what modern society made it into being.

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I think we shouldn't continue to celebrate Thanksgiving the way we celebrate it right now. America has completely erased the horrifying history of Thanksgiving and replaced it with a story of peace between Native Americans and colonists. I think we should choose to learn the correct history behind Thanksgiving and the deadly conflicts that occured both before and after the first Thanksgiving. One way we could celebrate is to try and create less waste around Thanksgiving day, as respecting the earth and finding harmony with nature are important in Native American Culture.

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In school we learned that Squanto helped the colonists but I don't remember learning that he was taken and sold as a slave. I never learned that Squanto's Patuxet tribe had all died due to smallpox. Although we learned that many Native Americans died from diseases brought over by Europeans, we never learned the full extent of this (population reduced by 90% from 1616-1619).

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In our history classes we often only learn from one textbook and possibly a few sources. I wonder if there would be less erasure of Native American history and culture and if we learned from more sources with different viewpoints.

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I believe we need to drastically change the way we celebrate this holiday. This could begin with teaching the full history of Thanksgiving in schools, and not glossing over the violence, death, and conflict that surrounds the holiday. Knowing the full history of the Thanksgiving, it would be ignorant to view it as a celebration. Instead, we can use this day as a day of remembrance to honor Native Americans. We can use it as a day to learn about Native American culture, and find ways to give back to their community.

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In school we had never spent time learning about the violence that followed Thanksgiving. We learned about the feast itself, but never explored the bloody conflicts that followed. We were taught about Squanto's involvement, but only as a translator and ally to the Pilgrims; we never learned that he was captured and sold into slavery.

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I think that we should still celebrate Thanksgiving and get together with family and loved ones, but celebrate for a different reason. Most people likely celebrate without thinking of the history of Thanksgiving at all, so we should make an effort to educate our family and friends about the true history and how the Native Americans were so terribly treated. With better education on the holiday, we can hopefully celebrate in a more respectful manner.

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I hadn't known about the epidemic that the Europeans had brought over that took out many of the Native Americans. I had always been taught that they were captured and used for labor, but I did not know that many had died previous to the slavery. This was very shocking to me and shows how much is left out of children's books and even high school textbooks.

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My opinion on this might be a little bit controversial, but anyways: personally, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because it is one of the only times the entire country shuts down to celebrate the same thing, and spends time with their family members. To me, Thanksgiving is about stopping to appreciate what we have in life, while enjoying good food and family members. The holiday may be rooted in genocide and mass destruction, but traditions are what we make them. And I think Thanksgiving can still be a joyous time with family and still remember that Native Americans have long been mistreated.

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I was aware about most of the complex relationships between the Native Americans and early settlers, but I had no idea about the enslavement of Native Americans prior to the pilgrims. I also hadn't considered that treatment of Native Americans could be so different between the different settling parties; I assumed, incorrectly, that because all the Europeans came from the same place, as groups they would treat Native Americans in similar manners.

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I was aware of the conflicts that occurred after the "Thanksgiving" most of us think of in history, such as King Phillip's War (worth noting, as the article also did, that King Phillip was the name given by colonists, his real name was Metacomet). However I never really grasped the severity and brutality of this war (such as Metacomet's head being displayed on a spike). It is easy for these details to be left out in the grand scheme of history, but they tend to stick with us the longest.

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I think that in order to answer this question, we need to think about the differences between the Thanksgiving written in history books, and the Thanksgiving we celebrate today. As we know from these readings, Thanksgiving today takes a much different form than it does in the past. I would argue that today's Thanksgiving is more of an American cultural phenomenon than some remnant of the past. I do think it is important we celebrate family and thankfulness, as I am inclined to think our current Thanksgiving does. But obviously, people have flawed information on the past Thanksgiving, and it is important that we recognize Native American struggles. As such, I would be inclined to say that we should continue celebrating Thanksgiving (while dispelling myths associated with it), and institute another day in remembrance of Native American struggles. Another point I have here, is that part of me worries if we try to contain this all in one holiday, it is likely we will end up having families remember the atrocities are nation committed, then eat turkey and make jokes 5 minutes later, which could send an unintentional wrong message. But obviously, my perspective is very flawed here, and I am in now way in a position to make "suggestions" for lack of a better word.

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I believe that Thanksgiving should not be changed and should be kept the same. Personally, during Thanksgiving, I get to see a couple of cousins, grand parents, uncles, and other family members every year and get to see them. Thanksgiving is all about thankfulness and seeing your own family. Since it is already a tradition, Thanksgiving should not be changed and should not be changed just because a change of history about Thanksgivng.

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When I was younger, I learned a lot about Squanto and who he was. However, I did not know Squanto was put into slavery in Spain. I learned in the article that England took Squanto for Slavery in 1614 and was eventually sent to Spain. According to the article, he went back to New England and noticed his tribe died from smallpox and met the pilgrims. I learned new information about Squanto how he was part of slavery during his lifetime.

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This is very similar to what I said in Q1, but do you think it could be problematic for us to try and have a day where we remember Native American struggles, and then proceed to make jokes with family at the table? I wonder if we try to do both at Thanksgiving, we might send an unintentional wrong message. But again, my perspective probably is not very valuable (or useful) here.

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Considering the true, raw facts associated with Thanksgiving, we seriously need to reconsider what we are celebrating and why we are celebrating it. I think that more people need to be aware of the National Day of Mourning as celebrated in Plymouth MA. As a lifelong resident of MA, I was unaware of this celebration that truly represents what we should be celebrating during “Thanksgiving.” We need to emphasis the unfortunate genocide of Native Americans rather than celebrating a brisk moment in time when relations between colonists and Native Americans were actually peaceful. While I am not against the time spent with family giving our own personal thanks, I think we should reconsider associating the lovely gatherings we have today with a non peaceful, horrible, time in history. We should further stress a Native American day of remembrance and disassociate our day of thanks with the “First Thanksgiving” in 1621.

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If the first Thanksgiving was nothing like what we celebrate today, how did the true idea of Thanksgiving get so lost in history?

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I was unaware that Lincoln made Thanksgiving an official holiday in 1863. In the article it says he made it as a “thank you for the Civil War victories in Vicksburg, Miss. and Gettysburg, PA.” I am a bit confused as to how Thanksgiving would relate to battles won in the Civil War, especially if Native Americans didn’t play a prominent role in fighting. I was also unaware that the term the “first Thanksgiving” was coined by New Englanders specifically to show their side of the story and not the natives. This fact didn’t necessarily surprise me, but it was interesting to know.

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I think that discontinuing Thanksgiving is unrealistic but better education could help people realize and honor the lives that were lost surrounding this holiday. I think instead of celebrating the pilgrims from the first Thanksgiving we should honor the lives of these people and perhaps in the spirit of giving donate to an organization that helps find lost indigenous women. Of course many people that celebrate it are completely blind to the history and do it for cultural reasons. So educating these people and also remembering the native Americans on Thanksgiving you can still celebrate respectfully.

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I never remember learning about the enslavement of native Americans so learning about how they enslaved Squanto after he helped them. I was shocked that I had never learned about this before. I think our history books are very brief about the "diseases" colonizers gave to native Americans. It is not talked about in detail ad I never knew how many people these diseases like smallpox actually killed.

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I believe our current usage of Thanksgiving, a day in which we appreciate our surroundings and the people in it, is an appropriate day to celebrate a day of Thanks. But, I think we should either drop the historical meaning, or repurpose it. Similar to the transition away from Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day, I think we could highlight the accomplishments and origins of Native Americans on Thanksgiving, rather than acting like the Pilgrims did something really helpful and/or impactful. I think a lot of the historical meaning has already been sort of downplayed, so we could maybe lose it all together - and use Thanksgiving as a day in the present; an opportunity to celebrate family, food, friends and helping others.

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Squanto's story was definitely the biggest surprise for me. As an emblem of appreciation within our current education system, it is blinding to recognize the unjustified treatment he received. Basically the entire story we've been told has been sugar coated and revised. I think it is more than valuable to present the truth. The real meaning behind Thanksgiving and the events that took place, allow us to reflect on how times have changed.

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Similar to Sophia, I wonder how the real events of Thanksgiving have been adapted so tragically/drastically.