Native American Heritage Month and Thanksgiving both take place in November. The history between these two events are intertwined.

For many Americans, Thanksgiving is a day to spend time with family and eat food around the table as you share what you are thankful for. But for indigenous people, this holiday is a day of remembrance and mourning.

The first Thanksgiving was held in the 1620s after the pilgrim’s first successful autumn harvest, but Native Americans have been celebrating the fall harvest long before the arrival of the pilgrims.

The celebration of the autumn harvest has since transformed into the Thanksgiving dinner that people are familiar with today. The ingredients traditionally used to make Thanksgiving dishes today are turkey, cranberries, pumpkins, squash, corn and potatoes. These delicious ingredients all originate in the Americas. The pilgrims learned to make food like cranberry sauce and corn bread from the indigenous people.

To this day, Americans still eat these foods on Thanksgiving. Some people can’t afford to make a Thanksgiving dinner due to lack of food, but food drives are held to aid the community. Unfortunately, indigenous people all over the United States also experience food insecurity and lack clean water, but these struggles are largely due to being pushed off their land and getting their resources stolen.

This mistreatment sprouted from the settlements of the pilgrims and events like Thanksgiving. Many people have heard the narrative of the first Thanksgiving where the pilgrims and Native Americans shared food in peace, but is that the real story?

For many indigenous people, Thanksgiving is a reminder of the deaths of the Wampanoag people and other indigenous groups. It celebrates the suffering of the indigenous and the success of colonizers. It is something that signifies the start of oppression and genocide towards Native Americans.

Native Americans fast to show mourning and protest for the horrific things that have happened to their people. This is the opposite of what most people do on Thanksgiving since it is celebrated with a grand feast.

It is important that people are educated about the dark parts of history so that we can prevent things like this from happening again. Take some time to be educated, learn about the struggles of the native people of this country, and use your voice to help them. So, this Thanksgiving, take a moment of silence to remember the indigenous lives that were lost.