Like the myths surrounding Christopher Columbus, Thanksgiving is another example of a mythology that is based in some aspect of truth, but has since been warped and distorted to suit a decidedly less truthful and less condemning narrative. As is becoming an unfortunate pattern, my education surrounding Thanksgiving was brief and vague in elementary school, again because to teach the truth would be to underline the blatant horrors that were committed by the English both prior to, and directly after the “true” historical event. What I had been told by figures of authority was that Thanksgiving a day of celebration, of revelry and friendship, but this narrative is so untrue that I am once again baffled that it survived multiple centuries into the present day.
The simple fact of the matter is that the English colonists did not see the Natives as equals, which resulted in the imperial violence that preceded the first Thanksgiving, and which quickly followed it. Such claims can be proved through a personal correspondence by Edward Winslow, written on December 11th, 1621. In this letter, Winslow describes the event known today as the first thanksgiving, then explains that because the Natives fear English retaliation, they have decided to make peace with the English and each other. He says “it hath pleased God so to possess the Indians with a fear of us, and love unto us, that not only the greatest king amongst them called Massasoit, but also all the princes and peoples round about us…been glad of any occasion to make peace with us . . . so that there is now great peace amongst the Indians themselves, which was not formerly neither would have been but for us” (Winslow). Winslow takes great pride in his belief that the presence of the English has brought peace to the natives, implying heavily that the mere existence of the English instills hospitality wherever they go. Not only is this an unbelievably arrogant position to take, it undermines the very real truth that there would be no repercussions for the English if they chose to wipe out the Natives at any time; a power which they frequently chose to exercise.
Cultural myths can bind us together, and they can be a source of pride. But as with all symbols, a myth is only worth something if it signifies something worth believing in. The myth of Thanksgiving undermines cruelty, undermines invasion, displacement, and racism, and for what net positive? It is a smokescreen at best, and a replacement of true, consiquential history at worst.