Thanks, Leolaia, for the "real" version.
Thanksgiving or National Day of Mourning? - A Native American Perspective
by nvrgnbk 19 Replies latest jw friends
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Lady Liberty
Dear Nvrgnbk,
Happy Thanksgiving!!
I watched the History Channel lastnight about Thanksgiving and how it started. Thanksgiving wasn't even declared a national holiday until President Abraham Lincoln declared it. So up to that point it wasn't a "National Holiday". So the "Orgins" of it were NOT nationalistic as the Society likes to make claim!! I thought that was very interesting!!
Sincerely,
Lady Liberty
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nvrgnbk
Hello and good wishes to you and your hubby as well, Lady Liberty.
Enjoy your Thanksgiving!
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Tatiana
I am part Blackfoot on my grandmother's side. But, it wouldn't matter to me if I weren't. I spend the day with my family because we are all off work, and it's a chance to be together and reminisce. I don't celebrate Thanksgiving. And I make sure all of my children and everyone in my family know the true history. To me, it would be like Jewish people celebrating the Holocaust.
We take time during our day to remember all the innocent people who died.
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nvrgnbk
We take time during our day to remember all the innocent people who died.
I would give up everything rather than have the blood of white men upon the hands of my people.
Chief JosephFrom where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever.
Chief Joseph
It makes my heart sick when I remember all the good words and the broken promises.
Chief JosephTreat all men alike. Give them the same law. Give them an even chance to live and grow.
Chief JosephHin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt
(1840-1904)I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed. Looking Glass is dead. Toohoolhoolzote is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say, "Yes" or "No." He who led the young men [Olikut] is dead. It is cold, and we have no blankets. The little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills, and have no blankets, no food. No one knows where they are -- perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children, and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever.
Joseph's fame did him little good. Although he had surrendered with the understanding that he would be allowed to return home, Joseph and his people were instead taken first to eastern Kansas and then to a reservation in Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) where many of them died of epidemic diseases. Although he was allowed to visit Washington, D.C., in 1879 to plead his case to U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes, it was not until 1885 that Joseph and the other refugees were returned to the Pacific Northwest. Even then, half, including Joseph, were taken to a non-Nez Percé reservation in northern Washington, separated from the rest of their people in Idaho and their homeland in the Wallowa Valley.
In his last years, Joseph spoke eloquently against the injustice of United States policy toward his people and held out the hope that America's promise of freedom and equality might one day be fulfilled for Native Americans as well. An indomitable voice of conscience for the West, he died in 1904, still in exile from his homeland, according to his doctor "of a broken heart."
Note: Joseph had converted to Christianity.
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NewLight2
Thanksgiving to me is a day I reflect on what it is I have to be thankful for in my personal life, plus a time to gather with family and friends to share a big meal with.
The true history of how 'the USA' came into existence makes me weep and feel very ashamed of my 'white race'. We still have not changed! Our leaders are still invading and killing the 'natives' in foreign lands - think Mid-East. I am so ashamed of our President for invading Iraq and trying to steal its oil fields for himself. Sure the dictator of that nation needed to be dethroned, but that was not our leaders real reason for invading Iraq!
To all native Americans - my heart aches for what my race did/does to your people. I wish I could change the history, but I can't. I also grieve for the loss of natural habitat that is being lost in the name of progress to developers who pave and build in all of our wetlands, swamps and forests. Wild animals, birds and plants are losing their 'homes' just as the native Americans did in the past.
NewLight2 -
Tatiana
From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever.
Chief JosephThat is the T-shirt I'm wearing today. Bought it in Chicago at the ALLEY years ago, and still wear it in remembrance.
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R.Crusoe
Hin mah too yah lat kekt would no doubt have been alive at the time of CT Russel. I wonder if he realized it was the white mans message from Jesus and God that had come to supplicate his people with the worlds only hope of resurrection? Maybe he would have celebrated Thanksgiving if he knew! Sheesh God will be vexed!
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dawg
I hope all of you won't jump me too hard when I say this, but I think the Natives that recieved the worst was the Cherokees, maybe that's becasue I'm from Georgia, Home of the Cherokees but anyway.... they had for the most part assimilated into the population here in 1800, my ggggggg-Grandfather was a liquer maker and used to sell them his whiskey. IN North Georgia around 1830, they (whites) discovered gold, all of a sudden the very neighbors they lived with were undesirable as friends.
We all know of the trail of tears. Thousands died. But honestly, the conflit between the races was inevitable. Ignorance, of the differing cultures and language, a disire by the whites to have the land... that was a conflict waiting to happen. Not condoning just saying.
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R.Crusoe
It must feel to the AI that the white man is no respecter of others cultures. Wonder what the reaction would be if someone imposed their culture on him? True today as it's always been. No wonder the 'One and Only' WTBTS flourished! I'm white by the way - on the outside that is!
