Do Native Americans celebrate Thanksgiving?

[Dr Satan]

[La_Serpiente]

1. Many people do not know this

but the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which is now under the Interior Department, was orginially a part of the "War Department". This was because it was official US policy to kill and plunder the Indians (or Native Americans).

[DuctapeFatwa]

2. But of course! Just like the Middle East celebrates the Crusades!

and of course all over Africa, famous dates involving Belgium, France and other European countries are cause for great festivals!

What ancient land doesn't celebrate the joyous occasion of its European invasion!

[Stupdworld]

3. nope

damnable whiteys.

[hlthe2b]

4. no, but many tribes celebrate corn and other harvests...

certainly not White Man's arrival -- Columbus Day

[sleipnir]

5. Why didn't they use posters like this to recruit for Bush's Desert Folly?

Huh...most things never change, just the names.....

Switch out Indian to Arab...sad to say, but you'd probably get 100 a day...

[Terwilliger]

6. I should hope not

"Spirit of the Earth, we give Thanks on this day in celebration of the first day of our near-annihilation"

Doesn't make for a lot of celebrating.

[maggrwaggr]

7. one of my ex girlfriends is half Indian

and her family would actually fast on Thanksgiving, but then have the big thanksgiving meal on Friday.

go figure. Bi-cultural, or schizo? You decide

[politicat]

8. I keep hoping the "Northern Exposure" rotten tomato lobbing would

catch on, but no dice so far.

We don't celebrate but not because we're Native American (or if we are it's a tiny part of the ancestral DNA) but because the DH is Norse and I'm Irish.

Those damn puritans stole the Norse vinelands, and since when has any Irish had anything to be thankful about when it comes to Puritans?

This is somewhat tongue in cheek since we don't celebrate any holiday except 19th Amendment day and Constitution Day and the "Dead Leaders" days.

[Squeech]

9. Demonstrations in Plymouth MA

Every year Native Americans hold a protest rally in Plymouth. I think they call it the "Day of Shame."

One year not so long ago (1999?) the benevolent white fathers stationed observers in tall buildings, so they could direct cops at street level to arrest the most vociferous (but still within their First Amendment rights) demonstrators.

Mrs. Squeech follows such issues closer than I do; she believes she has one quarter Indian blood, but it's one of those closely held family secrets and she can't nail down the documentation to prove it. But the one thing she holds against Big Dog is, he promised to pardon Leonard Peltier, and never did.

[BringEmOn]

10. Where did you find that poster?

Bill Janklow's office or Slade Gorton's former office?

This native has his children over for turkey dinner. Definitely no Columbus Day celebation, though.

[proud patriot]

11. Well Yes my very good friends celebrate it

turkey and stuffing is turkey and stuffing Yummy .

[shepard]

12. I celebrate what is good

and this was not.

The year was 1637.....700 men, women and children of the Pequot Tribe, gathered for their "Annual Green Corn Dance" in the area that is now known as Groton, Conn. While they were gathered in this place of meeting, they were surrounded and attacked by mercernaries of the English and Dutch. The Indians were ordered from the building and as they came forth, they were shot down. The rest were burned alive in the building. The next day, the Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony declared "A Day of Thanksgiving", thanking God that they had eliminited over 700 men, women and children. For the next 100 years, every "Thanksgiving Day" ordained by a Governor or President was to honor that victory, thanking God that the battle had been won.Ahe'ee Nehemah

[SOteric]

13. Of the 3 Native American tribes I work with, some do and some don't.

Those that do celebrate Thanksgiving don't celebrate the pilgrims and their inroads into America so much as they celebrate a day of giving thanks. In every life there is something to feel grateful for. It's perhaps more valid to use the holiday for such than to amuse ourselves over tales of Miles Standish.