11/27/2025
Thanksgiving is often taught as a peaceful harvest feast between Pilgrims and Native people. While a meal did occur in 1621, that single moment has been used to soften a much harder truth: what followed was not unity, but colonization, land theft, disease, forced removal, broken agreements, and the dismantling of entire cultures.
For many Indigenous families, Thanksgiving is not a celebration, it is remembrance.
Learning this history is not about guilt, it’s about honesty. And honesty matters because history does not disappear when ignored. It lives in families. It lives in communities. It lives in the nervous system.
🧠 The Mental Health Impact
Generational trauma doesn’t vanish across decades, but instead, it settles into:
• anxiety
• grief without closure
• identity confusion
• emotional suppression
• hyper-vigilance
• difficulty trusting systems
• spiritual disconnection
When calamity is passed down across bloodlines, the effects become emotional inheritance. This doesn’t only impact Indigenous communities, it shapes society’s relationship to power, belonging, and truth.
🌿 A Healthier Way to Observe the Day
Instead of only celebrating, consider also:
• learning the real history
• honoring Indigenous voices
• practicing intentional gratitude
• reflecting on loss and survival
• supporting living Native communities
• holding space for complexity
You can give thanks without erasing truth.
Gratitude doesn’t require forgetting. Celebration doesn’t require denial. And healing begins where awareness lives.
This Thanksgiving, let truth sit at the table too.