Decolonize your views around Thanksgiving
History in North America tends to be told from a Eurocentric lens, so the Thanksgiving history we all learned in classrooms is pretty whitewashed. But for Indigenous people around the U.S. and Canada, Thanksgiving isn’t a time for celebration but a time for mourning. It’s a time to recognize the devastating racial genocide that occurred between the settlers and the tribes whose territories they encroached on, as well as the continuing assaults on Native culture and religion.
This fight continues today, and for many Indigenous people, climate justice is at the heart of it. Native people are the first protectors of the land and have always lived in symbiosis with the plants and animals of their regions.
If you want to be an ally, there are Native-led climate justice movements happening to protect the land in every part of the U.S./Canada that you can support. Some voices to follow are @indigenousrising, @seedingsovereignty and @therednationmovement.
If you would like to learn more, you can read An Indigenous People’s History of the United States (there’s also a version for young people).