This year Thanksgiving takes place on Thursday, November 28, 2019. Wherever and however you celebrate, there is one small way you can honor the Indigenous tribe who once lived in the place where you will be celebrating.
Some Historical Context
Harvest festivals have been celebrated by pagans and indigenous populations for centuries. When cultures relied entirely on what they could grow themselves, it made sense to celebrate the bounty of the harvest with a large feast. The food served, traditions observed, and the size of the group would all vary, but the festival would typically include an homage or offering to the spirits or deities who helped with the farming process.
Those indigenous to North America had their own versions of this festival, and when Puritans from Britain first appeared on their shores and nearly died, they taught these new people their ways of cooking, eating, and celebrating. The depictions of the “first” Thanksgiving vary widely depending on their source, but it was a significant moment in history that left a longstanding impression.
For many years after the establishment of the United States government in 1776, the states that did observe Thanksgiving did so on completely different days. It was a New England tradition that was not even widely known about in the South.
Starting in 1846, editor and columnist Sarah Josepha Hale began writing letters to sitting presidents, asking them to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. She felt there was a decline in American families coming together, and at the time there were only two national holidays: Independence Day and Washington’s Birthday. Abraham Lincoln, the fifth president she wrote to, made Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863. Since this was in the middle of the Civil War, it was not celebrated until the 1870s.
In the meantime, Native Americans were intentionally killed, stripped of their rights, and pushed to undesirable plots of land in the increasingly growing nation. Though often attributed for showing kindness at the “first” Thanksgiving, Native Americans were not considered U.S. citizens. When the Civil Rights Act passed in 1866, granting citizenship to former slaves, the provision did not include Indigenous people. While some individuals or certain tribe members were granted citizenship piecemeal, it was not until The Indian Citizenship Act passed in 1924 that Indigenous people were considered United States citizens.
“Wiyot’s Children” by Mary Leighton Thomson, depicting the Tongva village of Sa-angna
However, they could not vote until the Voting Rights Act passed in 1965, and it is alleged that there are still ongoing issues of voter suppression. Additionally, indigenous people were legally prohibited from openly practicing their faith in the United States until the American Indian Religious Freedom Act passed in 1978. This included accessing sacred sites, performing rituals, burning sage, and holding sacred ceremonies.
Why does all this matter?
It’s easy for us to forget where our traditions come from, and to think that they always existed this way. One video I found mentioned that Thanksgiving was once observed by kids dressing up in costumes and going begging for food, which was later seen as disgraceful. Today we associate Thanksgiving with stuffing ourselves with turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie while watching football and getting ready for Black Friday. Obviously, we all have our own traditions and customs when it comes to the food we eat and the things we do during the day and night, but this has become a stereotype that we are all influenced by to one extent or another.
In reality, Thanksgiving is a somewhat made up holiday with roots in the indigenous cultures of this land. Looking at it this way, we can make our own rules and pay respect to the cultures who were originally here and continue to call this continent their home.
All of us who currently live in the United States, regardless of our race, ethnicity, or countries of origin, are bound by the history that has brought us to this point. Regardless of how we feel about the past, we cannot change it. We can, however, change our behavior and our actions moving forward.
A Tongva woman storing acorns in a granary. Photo: California Historical Society Collection at the University of Southern California
How to Honor Indigenous History on Thanksgiving
This holiday is rooted in Indigenous tradition, and we all live on land that was once the original home of an indigenous tribe or tribes. One step we can take in acknowledging the past is to honor the tribe who lived in the area where you will be celebrating. You can do this by preparing an offering of food and honoring the tribe before beginning your Thanksgiving meal.
The first step is to find out which tribe or tribes originally lived where you will be celebrating. This is a great interactive map: https://native-land.ca/
This map not only includes all of North America, but also the Hawaiian and Caribbean islands, Australia, New Zealand, and some tribes of South America. The website includes a disclaimer that it is not complete, but it gives you a great sense of where each tribe originally lived.
For me, the barometer for a map like this one is that it includes the Tongva, who lived and currently live in my hometown of Long Beach, California. The Tongva are sometimes called Gabrieliños, a name given to them by Spanish missionaries.
A map of Tovaangar, the home of the Tongva, from the LA Times piece “Mapping the Tongva villages of L.A.’s past”
The second step is to do some research on the tribe in your location. You can go as in depth as you like—there are multiple historical resources on indigenous tribes, although the depth of historical accounts vary greatly depending on the tribe.
As you do research, find out what food they typically consumed and how it was prepared. For example, the Tongva ate nuts, roots, seeds, fruit, leafy greens, acorns, deer, rabbits, chia seeds, fish, shellfish, and other marine animals.
The next step is to plan a food offering. The idea is to prepare a dish as part of your Thanksgiving meal with ingredients the local Indigenous tribe would have consumed. You can use a family recipe with indigenous ingredients, order something from a local Indigenous-owned catering company, or make a traditional dish of the local tribe.
Beliefs vary as to whether or not the food should be displayed and placed outside, placed on an altar, or even set aside for a period of time before being eaten. While doing research, you can see what the traditions and beliefs were of the particular tribe you wish to honor. If you can’t find that information, then do what resonates most with you.
For example, I don’t believe in wasting food, so my preference is to place the food items on a table with respect, and call in the spirits I wish to honor. I then give them some time to energetically consume the dish, and then enjoy it.
When you serve the particular dish, whether it’s a separate course or part of the meal as a whole, call in the spirits of the land and ancestors. Let them know this offering is out of respect, and you can also add anything else you like. For example, you can ask that the spirits and deities continue to guide and protect their living descendants.
There are a few ways you can incorporate this practice on Thanksgiving. First, before dinner, say a few words to honor the tribe who originally lived on the land where you are celebrating. You can share what you found in your research, share a legend or story that was of particular interest to you, or reflect on what your research brought up or taught you. If this is uncomfortable and your family has a tradition of each person saying what they’re grateful for, then you can bring up what this research taught you and how it helped you to see something from a different perspective.
You can also keep tribal traditions and customs in mind while decorating your Thanksgiving table. This could include certain objects, nuts, or foods that you would like to place as an offering. However you incorporate these ideas, the most important thing is to do so with respect.
Before the end of your meal, thank the spirits and ancestors to whom you made an offering. This is a common practice when working with disembodied spirits—saying thank you and acknowledging them so they can continue on to wherever they want to go next.
A Tongva woman seated in front of her home on the banks of the Los Angeles River. Photo: Bowers Museum Collection
How to Honor and Support Indigenous People Any Day
One powerful statement I heard recently from an Indigenous person really stuck with me: many people talk about Indigenous people and Native Americans as if they are an extinct population. This is not the case—indigenous people live on reservations as well as in cities and suburbs around North America.
The lack of awareness about Native people is part of the intentional erasure that exists in our educational systems and society at large. Many of us who are not Native were taught a certain narrative about the origins of America, and as we are learning in this new information age, many of those are revisions of history.
The idea of honoring Indigenous tribes on Thanksgiving is meant to be a stepping stone. There are many other ways you can honor and support Indigenous people today and in the future. The first key is awareness—exposing yourself to the voices of Indigenous people and hearing their firsthand accounts of what life is like at present.
One of the main issues facing Indigenous populations today is what’s known as the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) epidemic. Research shows that Indigenous women and girls go missing and are murdered and raped at much higher rates than any other demographic, and are more commonly the targets of sex and human trafficking. Organizations such as Af3irm work to end this and raise awareness, but often in a case-by-case basis the issue can be putting pressure on local authorities to thoroughly investigate the violence perpetrated against these women.
Other large-scale actions you can take include advocating for equal rights and access to water, combating voter suppression, funding scholarships and grants for indigenous individuals, and advocating against pipelines and other environmentally harmful plants that are typically built on or near reservations. There are also small-scale ways to help, such as patronizing Indigenous-owned businesses, Instagram accounts, writers, podcasts, artists, entertainers, poets, musicians, fashion designers, and creators.
RELATED SOURCES
Map of Native Lands in North America
Santa Monica Bay Audubon Society: About the Tongva
Los Angeles Times: Mapping the Tongva Villages of L.A.’s Past
Vogue: How 6 Indigenous Designers Are Using Fashion to Reclaim Their Culture
