Thanksgiving by Beth Bartlett

When I offered to write the FAR post for Thanksgiving a month ago, I had no idea how difficult I would find that task to be. I suppose I had a different vision of what these days would be like.  I had no idea how heartsick and wordless I would become in the wake of a second and even more bizarre and dangerous Trump presidency.  It hardly feels like a time for celebrating a national holiday. 

Thanksgiving in the United States and the colonies before has gone through several iterations – from the mythologized feast of the Puritan colonists in Plymouth, Massachusetts with the indigenous Wampanoag following the successful corn harvest – corn the Wampanoag had taught the Puritans how to plant after half of them had starved to death the previous winter; to George Washington’s Thanksgiving proclamation giving thanks for the successful ratification of the US Constitution; to Abraham Lincoln in 1863 acceding to Sarah Josepha Hale’s 36-year quest to establish Thanksgiving  as a national holiday — “to heal the wounds of the nation.” Goddess knows we could use that now, but it seems farther out of reach than ever.

Lesser known is the proclamation of a day of thanksgiving by the Massachusetts Bay Company to celebrate their defeat of the Pequot nation following the Pequot Wars of 1636-1638 in which most of the Pequot peoples were killed or enslaved, giving rise to many indigenous peoples observing Thanksgiving as a National Day of Mourning.

Among the myths about Thanksgiving I was fed as a child was the idea that my ancestors had come to North America in search of religious freedom, but they had already found that in the Dutch city of Leiden. In America they sought a better life for their children than the one of hard labor they had in Leiden. They did desire religious liberty above all, yet paradoxically also were intent on imposing their religious beliefs on others. They saw in America an opportunity to take up the crusade, as William Bradford, governor of the Plymouth colony wrote, of “propagating and advancing the gospel of the kingdom of Christ in those remote parts of the world,” which he regarded as “unpeopled,” in the sense of “being devoid of all civil inhabitants, where there are only savage and brutish men . . . .“[i]

Ah, the savagery and brutality done by these “civilized” Englishmen and their heirs to indigenous peoples across all of America in the name of “advancing the kingdom of Christ,” and pursuing their “manifest destiny.”[ii]  It continues to this day – in the rise of Christian Nationalism and in Trump’s hateful rhetoric soon to become policy and its embrace by white Christians who have empowered him to take office once again.[iii] 

“If there is hope, it lies in the proles.”[iv] That line from George Orwell’s 1984 has been echoing in my mind ever since the election.  In his dystopia, the proles were the underclass of that totalitarian society, the ones who lived under the radar, who might still know beauty, friendship, and love.  The closest equivalent in the US today are the original inhabitants of this land and their descendants. 

The dystopia many of us now are facing in the wake of the election is nothing new for indigenous peoples. As Krystal Two Bulls, Executive Director of Honor the Earth wrote following the election: “Indigenous folks have been navigating the settler colonialism, militarism, capitalism, and fascism this country was founded on for well over 500 years now. Our struggle is not new and will not be won on the timeline of elections. It is only by building our own power, together, that we will secure Land Back, Sovereignty, Justice, and true Freedom. It’s up to us to care for our communities and to create the world we want to see. It always has been.”[v]

Land Back is the centuries’-old effort to return indigenous lands to indigenous hands.  This means restoring indigenous sovereignty over lands that have been stolen.  At the very least, as indigenous climate activist Jade Begay has explained, in the US this would include the co-management or Indigenous-led conservation of public lands, Bureau of Land Management lands, national parks, and national forests.

An intermediary step to restoring indigenous lands to indigenous hands is the voluntary land tax movement — suggesting those of us living on stolen land pay a monthly rent to Native nations or organizations in our area.  “Paying land taxes is a regular reminder to all of us that unpaid debts to Native nations still exist,” writes the Native Governance Center. “While they’re no substitute for the United States government following through on its promises, land taxes can pave the way for a larger movement for accountability.”[vi] 

In addition, despite being less than 5% of the world’s population, Indigenous peoples manage or have rights to around 25% of the world’s land area, and the lands under their care are refuge to 80% of Earth’s remaining biodiversity.  Ensuring indigenous sovereignty and legal authority to give or withhold their consent over lands they manage is the best hope for climate justice and the future of the planet. 

On this Thanksgiving and every day, I am thankful for indigenous peoples, for their resistance and resilience in “creating the world [they] want to see,” a far better world than the one of patriarchal power and greed in which we are immersed. As a white settler, I’m questioning the appropriateness of turning to indigenous peoples for hope in these dire times. Is it too much like my colonizing and appropriating ancestors?  I have pondered often the words of a colleague who, when giving a lecture on local indigenous treaty rights, said the best thing any of us settlers could do for indigenous people is to leave.  Short of that, the best I can do is support every possible effort to restore land to indigenous hands, to ensure indigenous sovereignty, and then get out of the way.

As Begay has said, “When Indigenous peoples are resourced and networked, they have the power to change the world.”[vii] The power to change the world in a good way.[viii] 

References:

Beyond Land Acknowledgment: A Guide – Native Governance Center

Bradford, William. “Sundry Reasons for the Removal from Leyden,” from History of Plymouth Plantation, written 1630-1650. Sundry Reasons for the Removal from Leyden – Collection at Bartleby.com

DeVega, Chauncey. “The ultimate answer to why Donald Trump won: White Christians.” Salon. The ultimate answer to why Donald Trump won: White Christians

Johnson, Ayana Elizabeth. What If We Get It Right?: Visions of Climate Futures.  New York: One World, Random House, 2024.

Orwell, George. 1984. New York: New American Library, 1977.

Thanksgiving 2024 ‑ Tradition, Origins & Meaning | HISTORY

Two Bulls, Krystal. Honor the Earth. Emails, 11/5/24 and 11/14/24.

Voluntary Land Taxes – Native Governance Center

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[i] Bradford, William. “Sundry Reasons for the Removal from Leyden,” from History of Plymouth Plantation, written 1630-1650. Sundry Reasons for the Removal from Leyden – Collection at Bartleby.com

[ii] “Manifest destiny” is the term coined in the 1840s claiming a God-given right of white Americans to expand the United States across the continent under the pretense of spreading “Christianity and democracy.”  It has continued to be used by various administrations to justify various US interventions in foreign governments.

[iii] Like the Puritans, Christian Nationalism seeks to impose its interpretation of Christianity on the entire nation. Its adherents include Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, and many in Trump’s circle. Eight in ten white evangelicals and six in ten white Catholics and non-evangelical Protestants voted for Trump. By contrast, 86% of Black Protestants voted for Harris. 

[iv] Orwell, 60.

[v] Krystal Two Bulls, email. 11/14/24.

[vi] Voluntary Land Taxes – Native Governance Center. Several of these programs already exist – the Shumi Land Tax supporting the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, an Indigenous women-led organization; Real Rent Duwamish supporting the Duwamish people; the Wiyot Honor Tax in northern California; and in Minnesota, the Mni Sota Makoce Honor Tax. See Homepage – The Sogorea Te Land Trust, Real Rent Duwamish – Real Rent Duwamish, honortax.org, The Mni Sota Makoce Honor Tax – Native Governance Center.

[vii] Begay, in Johnson, What If We Get It Right?, 392.

[viii] For more information on ways to contribute to this effort see landback.org, Honor The Earth, and Beyond Land Acknowledgment: A Guide – Native Governance Center.

[ix] Bradford, William. “Sundry Reasons for the Removal from Leyden,” from History of Plymouth Plantation, written 1630-1650. Sundry Reasons for the Removal from Leyden – Collection at Bartleby.com

[x] “Manifest destiny” is the term coined in the 1840s claiming a God-given right of white Americans to expand the United States across the continent under the pretense of spreading “Christianity and democracy.”  It has continued to be used by various administrations to justify various US interventions in foreign governments.

[xi] Like the Puritans, Christian Nationalism seeks to impose its interpretation of Christianity on the entire nation. Its adherents include Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, and many in Trump’s circle. Eight in ten white evangelicals and six in ten white Catholics and non-evangelical Protestants voted for Trump. By contrast, 86% of Black Protestants voted for Harris. 

[xii] Orwell, 60.

[xiii] Krystal Two Bulls, email. 11/14/24.

[xiv] Voluntary Land Taxes – Native Governance Center. Several of these programs already exist – the Shumi Land Tax supporting the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, an Indigenous women-led organization; Real Rent Duwamish supporting the Duwamish people; the Wiyot Honor Tax in northern California; and in Minnesota, the Mni Sota Makoce Honor Tax. See Homepage – The Sogorea Te Land Trust, Real Rent Duwamish – Real Rent Duwamish, honortax.org, The Mni Sota Makoce Honor Tax – Native Governance Center.

[xv] Begay, in Johnson, What If We Get It Right?, 392.

[xvi] For more information on ways to contribute to this effort see landback.org, Honor The Earth, and Beyond Land Acknowledgment: A Guide – Native Governance Center.