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In my opinion, we should still celebrate Thanksgiving, but in a different way. Rather than honoring the Pilgrims and their successful harvest, we should instead attempt to remember the lives of the Native Americans that were affected from European colonization of the Americas. Many conflicts arose from the interaction between these groups, and I feel that Thanksgiving, in its present state, does not adequately address the loss of life that occurred. Although Thanksgiving is a well-known tradition and has been celebrated for hundreds of years, it is still possible to change the way it is celebrated by mourning for Native Americans (like what we do on Memorial Day for veterans).

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One notable thing that I learned from the video and articles was the story of Squanto attempting to revolt against Massasoit. I knew from the past that Squanto had helped the Native Americans, but I learned for the first time that there was a twist in his story that led to worsening relations between the Pilgrims and Native Americans. Also, I had known that disease greatly impacted the Native Americans due to their susceptibility to foreign illness, but I had never known that it killed up to 90% of the native population in just three years. Learning this caused me to consider the tremendous impact that Europeans have had on Native Americans and helped me to understand the little-known history behind Thanksgiving.

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Are there any other holidays with a dark history that we should reexamine?

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I still believe we should celebrate Thanksgiving, but I believe that the public school systems need to better educate the public on actual history. I also think that the emphasis should be shifted towards remembering the natives rather than the colonizers.
In my opinion, a good way to do this would involve two focuses: the Mayflower and the Civil War. The more somber part of remembrance would emphasize the native lives lost and how peace didn't last long, even though there was a feast. In order to keep the theme of thankfulness/connectedness/joy of the modern celebration, schools could emphasize how the holiday came to be nationally celebrated as the civil war was coming to a close. These two focuses would emphasize the idea of national unity and also pay homage to the culture that was erased.

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While I was surprised by how much I already knew from the articles and videos (i.e. that no turkey was served or that Squanto had been a slave), I was very surprised to learn that Squanto had tried to revolt against Massasoit. As a kid, I had read the Magic Treehouse books quite often, and they had always projected Squanto as the "noble savage" stereotype. Learning that he had, in fact, schemed for power made me question my own internal biases and what I had been taught about American history.

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How do native Americans want this holiday to be celebrated?

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I believe we should continue to celebrate the holiday because it exists on the premise of giving thanks and being grateful, however our focus should shift towards the culture of the Natives that made Thanksgiving a possibility in the first place. Instead of attentively watching a Thanksgiving parade, maybe we watch a documentary on Native Americans, or a youtube video such as the one we watched for example. Traditions revolving Thanksgiving could not be farther from the origin. Turkey is the staple food for every Thanksgiving meal, yet there is no evidence that turkey was consumed on the first Thanksgiving. Similar to how the pilgrims did not land on Plymouth Rock, a familiar fact that has been incorrectly drilled into our heads. I think the main concepts of being thankful, and appreciative during this holiday should persist, however we need to be correctly educating our youth on the true, although gory, origins of Thanksgiving.

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I believe that we should still celebrate Thanksgiving so we can continue to give thanks to those around us and appreciate what we have. That being said I think that we should also use Thanksgiving to be a day where we recognize what events really happened a long time ago and remember that Thanksgiving is not a day of celebration for everyone because for Native Americans it is a day of mourning.

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One thing that I did not know that much about was how Squanto wanted to overthrow Massasoit to gain more power for himself as the only English speaker of his people. I used to believe that Squanto did not want to turn against Massasoit because he helped bring peace between the Native americans and the pilgrims. I knew he must have know hoe being the only translated gave him more power than others, but I did not know he would use that power to cause a divide.

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Why don't schools teach their students the real story of Thanksgiving? Wouldn't it help the students in the long run to understand all that really happened?

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How did the true story of Native American history pertaining to Thanksgiving manage to be swept under the rug for so long? How can we collectively work to educate people, and inform them of the truth of Thanksgiving?

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I think the New York Times is aptly titled, "Everything You Learned About Thanksgiving Is Wrong", as that speaks for itself. It is truly shocking how much the origins of Thanksgiving have been essentially falsified, and distributed into hundreds of thousands of copies of inaccurate history textbooks. Specifically, there was no evidence that the Natives were even invited! After all the help they provided the Pilgrims with, they might have been excluded from enjoying the rewards of the harvest. I also did not know Squanto's backstory, how he was captured by the English and sold into slavery in Spain 5 years prior to returning to New England. After he learned English in England, he came back to America, only to find his Patuxet tribe died from the infections disease Smallpox, as they had not built up immunity to it.

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In my opinion, we should still celebrate the holiday, however it should be directed towards honoring those who lost their lives after keeping colonists alive. To honor their lives further, the following day we should fast, or refrain from eating, to represent all the things taken from Natives.

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In history class I had learned that the reason behind why pilgrims, or separatists, moved to America was to be able to follow their own religion. It had never been explained that they had this while living in England and really came for money, which was explained in The New York Times' Article.

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Since this was left unknown by many for so long, what other events could we be hurting others by celebrating without knowing?

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I think that we should continue to celebrate Thanksgiving, but the education surrounding the holiday should change. Similar to how Columbus Day is now also known as Indigenous People's Day, transitioning the holiday as a way to honor Natives would be beneficial. Rather than not discussing the topic at all, it would be better to instead educate the public (especially children) on the true story.

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As the New York Times article stated, most everything we learn about Native Americans is wrong. One specific aspect that I never knew prior to reading and watching the video provided, is Squanto's backstory. I did not know that he was captured and sold as a slave in Europe before coming back to North America.

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How can we integrate this accurate information into educational curriculum? I tutor a third grader right now, and she was learning about pilgrims and the myth story of Thanksgiving we have always been taught. It is crazy that sometimes the things that we learn in school are not always even completely accurate, and we should work to fix this.

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Yes I believe that we still should celebrate Thanksgiving. However, it should be celebrated solemnly as we remember the peace that we had and use the holiday as a reminder to atone for the sins of our ancestors past. We should also use the holiday as a chance to educate people about what really happened to the Native Americans.

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One thing I was not aware of was how brutal King Phillip's war was. I was aware that it happened but was never taught how gruesome it was. For example one of the articles said that 30% of the English died and 1/2 of the Native Americans died. I was also not aware of all the political jockeying going around with the natives and how they all were unable to see that the English were the common threat and could not organize.

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While most of us are not direct decedents of the people who committed these atrocities we as Americans benefit from it every day. The land we were born and raised on was stolen. How can we atone for this "original sin"?

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Yes, I believe that we should celebrate Thanksgiving. Yet if we do celebrate the holiday we should use it to inform people on the true history behind what happened to the Native Americans. Since a lot of people have been misinformed and uneducated on what thanksgiving means for Native Americans, as it has become heavily commercialized.

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I had never heard the true reasoning behind the British coming to America. The New York Times article states that they came for money. This shocked

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Whats some of the most important information Native Americans want everyone to know concerning this holiday?