I know not everybody is exactly alike. But in general, do Native Americans hate Thanksgiving and see it as a memory of white invasion, or do you just have a feast and enjoy it? Please excuse my ignorance.
2007-10-31 04:30:32 · 10 answers · asked by Arggg 7 in Society & Culture ➔ Holidays ➔ Thanksgiving
As an American Native, I can tell you that I am glad to celebrate Thanksgiving. It has nothing to do with "white invasion." It has to do with giving thanks to God for His provision of a new land where we could, at one time, celebrate Him freely.
2007-10-31 09:28:58 · answer #1 · answered by †Lawrence R† 6 · 5⤊ 1⤋
Why would it be 'White man' invasion? Native Americans made friends with the pilgrims and they celebrated together....Anywho, I'm half Native and I love Thanksgiving, and everyone I know on Indian Island(penobscot Indian Reservation) likes and celebrates thanksgiving.
2007-11-02 00:10:14 · answer #2 · answered by ?Lindsey? 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
My late hubby was Choctaw and he said that as long as he got that day off from work, they could call it anything they wanted. To him it was just another good reason to eat, we celebrated all kinds of different things for that holiday. Each year the kids would think up an outlandish name for Thanksgiving. My all time favorite was, we were celebrating that the Ninny cat only had 5 kittens, she could have had 8. We were very thankful that year.
2007-10-31 17:32:50 · answer #3 · answered by ♫ Bubastes, Cat Goddess♥ 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Thankgiving has absolutey nothing to do with Native Americans so if they have negative feelings about it those feelings are mis-placed
Thangsgiving was actually invented by President Abraham Lincoln who after delivering his address at Gettysburg PA on 11/19/63 decided that a day of thankgiving should be celebrated by all Americans ergo the late November celebration.
If you take a second and think about it you will quickly realize that no culture in the Northern Hemisphere has a harvest festival in late November ; they have them in late September.
2007-10-31 16:50:41 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 3⤋
Most Natives I know call it "Thanks-taking." My friend was appalled at the "Thanksgiving history" they were teaching his kids in school. Basically it seems to be a time for white people to pretend they're honoring Natives, but they really don't know what the h*ll they're talking about. All of those cardboard-feather headbands and bean rattles are actually really disrespectful, because the kids aren't being taught the real history, what tribe they're trying to emulate, what it all means, etc. They come away with a distorted idea of Natives as these benevolent mystics who helped the white man. True, they did "help the white man," and the first colonizers would have perished if they hadn't taught them how to grow crops. But then those colonizers went on to commit mass genocide and subjugate and dehumanize Native cultures.
2007-10-31 04:38:30 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 12⤊ 5⤋
I work with the nation, and I am white. They celebrate the day as a day to be thankful for the harvest. They do not think about the bad aspects of the day.
2007-10-31 04:34:51 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
I asked a native american that once and he replied, "There were no Native Americans!...There were Natives and then there were Americans". So... lol I'm guessing a little resentment.
2007-10-31 04:36:41 · answer #7 · answered by ~$~Ace~$~ 3 · 3⤊ 3⤋
they make jokes about how our ancestor's cornered them in the mountains. seriously i have heard this joke from a native american.
2007-10-31 04:34:14 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
My Lakotah fencing master (I kid you not, my old fencing master was a Lakotah) was not fond of it. He did commemorate the Battle of Little Big Horn, though.
2007-10-31 17:23:35 · answer #9 · answered by Hoosier Daddy 5 · 4⤊ 1⤋
we consider this 'white mans' Holiday as a day of mourning. we have 10 more thanks giving during the year , they can have that one.
2007-10-31 16:15:42 · answer #10 · answered by chin 6 · 6⤊ 2⤋