Thanksgiving Is Not About Killing Indians

I truly enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday. To me, it's about family, togetherness, and launching the winter holiday season.

It is not about killing Indians.

The last few years, I have become increasingly annoyed at individuals and groups who use this holiday to bash the Pilgrims as "Indian Killers" and then go on to bash every single immigrant that arrived after that point.

Yes, immigrants fought with the tribal people that were already here. That's what happens when migration occurs into occupied lands, especially when greed is in play. However, that is not what Thanksgiving remembers.

Thanksgiving remembers two very different groups of people -- the tribes who were already in North America and some very unprepared Pilgrims -- working together to get through the winter. The tribal peoples saved the Pilgrims by sharing food and survival tips, and the Pilgrims were grateful. This is why the two groups came together in a celebration of thanks and good will.

The tribal people who helped the Pilgrims are examples of extreme generosity to people who were escaping religious persecution at the risk of their own lives. The Pilgrims were brave -- they took off for a land they had never seen at great risk. They had no idea what they would find or what would happen to them. Yet, they went because it was a better alternative to what they had.

The spirit of that first Thanksgiving is what we should remember and celebrate. It is a demonstration of what very different people can do if they set aside what is different and focus on what is the same: shared humanity.

What came later is what happens when we deny each other's humanity.