Thanksgiving holiday is misconstrued (Ithaca Prof: holiday means racism, genocide, etc.)

The Ithacan | Park 269 ^ | November 16, 2006 | By Brooke Hansen / Guest writer

[Behind Liberal Lines]

The celebration of a mythical Thanksgiving did not happen in this country for several hundred years after the event, by which time American Indians had been colonized, assimilated and removed from many of their ancestral lands, usually through dubious treaties and other means that are still being questioned today. Thanksgiving has been further colonized by capitalism in recent times, further removing us from the true meanings of “thanksgivings” that Native people honor on many occasions throughout the year.

Much like American-Indian mascots, people say that American Indians are being honored by the remembrance of that “first” Thanksgiving, which children purportedly embody with their construction paper and dyed chicken feather headdresses. If we want to honor American Indians, we need to take a deep look at the genocide that was perpetrated against them, the dishonest taking of Indian lands, the horrific conditions that churches and the U.S. government put them through in the Native boarding schools, and the current struggles for land, sovereignty and cultural survival.

Brooke Hansen is an associate professor of anthropology. E- mail her at kbhansen@ithaca.edu.

[Cicero]

All I can say is that we're planning to victimize another turkey this Thanksgiving.

[FreeKeys]

The Real Story Behind Thanksgiving The Great Thanksgiving Hoax What Really Saved the Pilgrims Thanksgiving: The Producers' Holiday

The Pilgrims’ Real Thanksgiving Lesson Creating Our Own Blessings Whom Should We Thank Giving Thanks for the Big Tent

Find some actual excerpts from Plymouth Colony
Governor William Bradford's diary HERE

Property Rights?  SOME U.S. Senators are confused about, and hostile to, the very concept -- even calling "extreme" the teachings of Madison, Jay and Jefferson HERE!

"Private property is the most important guarantee of freedom." -- F.A. Hayek 
"Property must be secured, or liberty cannot exist." -- John Adams 
"The true foundation of republican government is the equal right of every citizen in his person and property and in their management." -- Thomas Jefferson
"No freedom is secure if your property rights are not secure." -- Neal Boortz
"If you can't own (and use) property, you are property." - Wayne Hage

[.cnI redruM]

Leave to Cornell University to save the turkeys with an offer of tenure.

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

I'm just thankful that this guy isn't one of the relatives I'll be dining with next Thursday.

[eastsider]

The celebration of a mythical Thanksgiving did not happen in this country for several hundred years after the event ...

Brooke, you ignorant yankee. The first Thanksgiving took place in 1619 at the Berkeley Plantation, Virginia.

[Kenton]

Yeah, the only holiday the Indians celebrated was the one to commemorate when those noble natives, the Iroquois, managed to completely wipe out their neighbors, the Eries. But they didn't have a word like genocide to throw around back then.

That and when they took some white captive to burn at the stake. That was always cause for a celebration, and a chance for the women to have a little fun with fire and teach the kids how to torture people.

Oops, I bet the prof never heard of that part...

[Lunatic Fringe]

Miserable people who just can't shut up and enjoy a holiday...

[yetidog]

As a retired college history teacher I can guarantee you that this kind of tripe originates in the misplaced pride of someone who thinks the ignorant masses don't know as much as he or she does. "Intellectuals" particularly those of a leftist persuasion--have an (ignorant) pride in what they think they know and presume radical positions on that knowledge to basically impress themselves, their peers, parents and perhaps their pets. Much of what originates from the academy in history is generally motivated by these same behaviors and it shameful that academics lack intellectual integrity to the extent that all they can do is to nod their heads in some sort of ideological consensus. History can be spun and there are many academics who have made lucrative careers in doing so.

[Argus]

If we want to honor American Indians, we need to take a deep look at the genocide that was perpetrated against them, the dishonest taking of Indian lands, the horrific conditions that churches and the U.S. government put them through in the Native boarding schools, and the current struggles for land, sovereignty and cultural survival lose our shirts at one of their casinos.

[wastedyears]

I fail to see how it can be considered a field of study. Is it in being able to date things that makes it acceptable? Anybody can dig up some bones from 4,500 years ago.

[FlingWingFlyer]

Hanson sounds like he might be a racist and a bigot who has waaaaaay too much free time on his hands. He needs to get a REAL job. He doth whine too much.

[Buck W.]

On an only partially related note, do we have an official FR Thanksgiving recipe thread this year?

[Behind Liberal Lines]

He is probably a she, given that the first name is "Brooke"

[O Neill]

...thought it was more of "Thank God we didn't ALL die" from the pilgrims.

Yes, the Pilgrims were expressing gratitude to God for blessing them with survival, a pretty good harvest that first year & peaceful relations with the (prone to violence) Natives (who had NO concept of land ownership).

God is receiving far shorter shrift than the Native Peoples from many of our post-modern 'Thanksgiving' Day celebrations!

[spikeytx86]

I have Mohawk,Irish,Dutch, and Anglo ancestry. My nation backed the Brits in the revolution and got creamed for it. The Indians were not a peace loving people, they fought other Indian nations for land like any other empire of the time did. They allied with various colonial powers to fight the others for privilege from the allied power. About the best way I can put it is imagine 200 years from now you are reading a text book about Iraq and it refers to the Iraqi's "as a peace loving people who never quarreled with each other until the imperialist Americans ventured in" same shit has happened with the Indians.

Have a happy thanksgiving and rejoice that our for fathers overcame a enemy whose sole aim was total domination of the land by any means necessary and I ain't talking about the British, because with out them we may be speaking Mohawk right now :)

[Steve_Seattle]

"If we want to honor American Indians, we need to take a deep look at the genocide that was perpetrated against them, the dishonest taking of Indian lands, the horrific conditions that churches and the U.S. government put them through in the Native boarding schools . . . "

If there had been genocide, we wouldn't have given them land and they wouldn't now exist in greater numbers than before the "genocide." Yes, things were done then - such as the boarding schools - which now seem wrong, but they were considered benign and even enlightened by the people who implemented those policies.

The conquest of the American Indian only seems barbarous because it was one of the most recent historical instances of that particular type of conquest, and a relatively benign form, compared to most conquests known to history. And how can we have "taken" lands for which - by the Indians' own admission - they had no concept of ownership?

[50sDad]

The Liberal Creed

1) Every country but this one is wonderful, especially France.
2) Every time but this one was wonderful, except here.
3) If you feel good about your country or yourself, you are not fully educated.
4) If you are not riddled with self-doubt as to what is right and what is wrong, then you think in dangerous black-and-whites and must be a evil Bible thumper.
5) If you do not feel guilty about all the horrible things your ancestors did that you are responsible for, you must be an evil white Republican.
6) If you are in some way enjoying your life, it must be because you are exploiting others, and you need to be fined a great deal of money to be given to others who didn't work for it.
7) If you have ever been fired because you didn't show up, didn't speak the language, couldn't do basic math, were disrespectful of customers and coworkers, it must be management's fault.
8) You may worship only the God of Tolerance. You have no right to an opinion on anything mentioned above if it in any way would make others feel bad about themselves, because we want everyone to feel positively about themselves, you ignorant, evil, small-minded, wicked, judgmental, bigoted, privileged, elitist, Christian bastard.

[SargeK]

Anthropology went off the rails with Margaret Mead and her mentor/girlfriend and their paleolib protofeminist claptrap. It hasn't been the same since. I'll bet there isn't 1 in 10 anthropologists today that doesn't have, or wish they had, a shrine to her in their offices.

[digger48]

Anybody can dig up some bones from 4,500 years ago.

I'm proof of that. I have mastadon bones...10,000 years +

Is ah now an anthropolollolologist?

[alloysteel]

Harvest festivals have been celebrated around the world for millennia, long before anybody landed a ship in what is euphemistically known as the 'New World'.

Thanksgiving is nothing new and greatly predates even the invention of writing. Over the centuries, these festivals have been accompanied by rituals, and feasting, and general merry-making to the point of excess.

Why does anyone begrudge the self-satisfied bourgeoise a day, or a long weekend, of excess of food consumption, football watching, and yes, exuberance in vulgar display in conjunction with extravagance in conspicuous wastefulness. Got to hand to it to a society that knows how to indulge themselves.