A Thanksgiving Reflection
As many of you know, though I Canadian, I was born in northern Minnesota and while I have spent most of life living in Canada, I take my dual citizenship in the US very seriously. It is because of this that I want to spend a brief moment reflecting on American Thanksgiving. Rooted in the celebration of the harvest, the day is also associated with the holiday with a meal held in 1621 by the Wampanoag and the Pilgrims who settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Before I go on, I want to make clear that my intention here in not to bash American Thanksgiving or Americans in general. That being said, I am continually astounded at how little attention is given to the history of our nations (I include Canada here) in regards to our treatment of and relationship to the First Nations/Native American people. While some acknowledge that these wrongs did occur, few call it for what it truly was (perhaps because some historians undermine the discussion with uncertainties)- genocide. Estimates on the size of these communities before European arrival range from 1.8 to 12 million people, with the truth probably somewhere in the middle. By 1900 there were less than 240,000. Whether through intentional violence, accident expoure to disease or ignorant destruction of social and cultural systems, the results are still with us today.
The connection between American Thanksgiving and our relationship with these First Peoples should not be ignored, but neither should it result in the irradication of this holiday. Rather, I believe that the Christian community needs to reclaim and redeem this holiday. Maintaining its celebratory gratitude for all that we have been blessed with, we must integrate the acknowledgement of our failures, both past and present, to the native people. Consider many of the Jewish holidays, allowing for a genuine celebration while never forgetting the brokenness and failure.
And so, as you go into your Thanksgiving holiday, take some time to remember that much of what we are thankful for came at the expense of others. Reorient your hearts, minds and lives this day to not only remember and repent of these sins, but to make manifest your thanksgiving by fulfilling the covenantal promise that God extended to His people:
