As we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving, the same stories about the Pilgrims and the “Indians” helping each other are being told to children. But this is not the whole story. Native Americans have faced hundreds of years under the abuse and persecution of White people from Europe. The White Puritans forced them from their own lands, and these people murdered many, many of Native Americans of all ages. The Whites also introduced the Native Americans to diseases that they were not immune from, thus, killing thousands and thousands of them.

The Puritans also tried to ruin the Natives’ culture by shoving Christianity down their throats. And they took their children away to boarding schools to “beat the savages out of them.” The White people wouldn’t keep promises and treaties with the Native Americans. The Native Americans were willing to share their own food and knowledge with the White people, but the Whites refused to compromise and/or keep their promises to the Natives due to greed and the need for power.

I am strongly urging people to start teaching their children the whole story instead of just the fluffy ones that are taught year after year. It’s time for the oppressed to be remembered and recognized for all they went through and all they continue to be put through.

Here are a couple of excellent resources to help remember the Native Americans this Thanksgiving.

This is a reference for everything I have written in this post:

https://www.ferris.edu/HTMLS/news/jimcrow/native/homepage.htm