they’re probably thinking, “i hope you choke on that turkey”

found this while reading about this silly holiday “…this may surprise those people who wonder what native americans think of this official U.S. celebration of the survival of early arrivals in a european invasion that culminated in the death of 10 to 30 million native american people. thanksgiving to me has never been about pilgrims. when i was six, my mother, a woman of the dineh nation, told my sister and me not to sing “land of the pilgrim’s pride” in “america the beautiful.” our people, she said, had been here much longer and taken much better care of the land. we were to sing “land of the indian’s pride” instead. i was proud to sing the new lyrics in school, but i sang softly. it was enough for me to know the difference. at six, i felt i had learned something very important. as a child of a native american family, you are part of a very select group of survivors, and i learned that my family possessed some “inside” knowledge of what really happened when those poor, tired masses came to our homes. when the pilgrims came to plymouth rock, they were poor and hungry — half of them died within a few months from disease and hunger. When Squanto, a wampanoag man, found them, they were in a pitiful state. he spoke english, having traveled to europe, and took pity on them. their english crops had failed. the native people fed them through the winter and taught them how to grow their food.these were not merely “friendly indians.” they had already experienced european slave traders raiding their villages for a hundred years or so, and they were wary — but it was their way to give freely to those who had nothing.” thanksgiving a native american view.  by xy