page_title: Thanksgiving (United States)
section_title: Criticism and controversy
hierarchical_section_title: Thanksgiving (United States) / Criticism and controversy
caption_attribution_description: Local call number: Pe0156 Title: Seminole Indian Thanksgiving Meal Personal author: Peithmann, Irvin M. Date: mid-1950s Physical descrip: 1 photonegative: b&amp;w; 2 1/2 x 2 1/2 in. Series Title: Irvin M. Peithmann Collection General Note: "Wild turkey, venison &amp; pie"--back of photoprint. Repository: State Library and Archives of Florida, 500 S. Bronough St., Tallahassee, FL 32399-0250 USA. Contact: 850.245.6700. Archives@dos.state.fl.us Persistent URL: www.floridamemory.com/items/show/164181
context_page_description: Thanksgiving is a federal holiday in the United States, celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. It originated as a harvest festival, and to this day the centerpiece of Thanksgiving celebrations remains Thanksgiving dinner. The dinner traditionally consists of foods and dishes indigenous to the Americas, namely turkey, potatoes, squash, corn, green beans, cranberries, and pumpkin pie. Thanksgiving is regarded as being the beginning of the fall–winter holiday season, along with Christmas and the New Year, in American culture.
  The event that Americans commonly call the "First Thanksgiving" was celebrated by the Pilgrims after their first harvest in the New World in October 1621. This feast lasted three days, and—as recounted by attendee Edward Winslow—was attended by 90 Native Americans and 53 Pilgrims. The New England colonists were accustomed to regularly celebrating "thanksgivings" days of prayer thanking God for blessings such as military victory or the end of a drought. Thanksgiving has been celebrated nationally on and off since 1789, with a proclamation by President George Washington after a request by Congress.
context_section_description: Much like Columbus Day, Thanksgiving is considered by some to be a "national day of mourning", as a celebration of the genocide and conquest of Native Americans by colonists. Thanksgiving has long carried a distinct resonance for Native Americans, who see the holiday as an embellished story of "Pilgrims and Natives looking past their differences" to break bread. Professor Dan Brook of the University of California, Berkeley condemns the "cultural and political amnesia" of Americans who celebrate Thanksgiving: "We do not have to feel guilty, but we do need to feel something." Professor Robert Jensen of the University of Texas at Austin is somewhat harsher: "One indication of moral progress in the United States would be the replacement of Thanksgiving Day and its self-indulgent family feasting with a National Day of Atonement accompanied by a self-reflective collective fasting." Some of the controversy regarding Thanksgiving has been used to justify the Christmas creep (the act of putting up Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving). Those who sympathize with this view acknowledge it as a small minority view; author and humanist John G. Rodwan, who does not celebrate Thanksgiving, noted "If you put forth the interpretation (...) that touches on the dishonorable treatment of the native population that lived in what became the United States, then you are likely to be dismissed as some sort of crank(.)"
  Since 1970, the United American Indians of New England, a protest group led by Frank "Wamsutta" James has accused the United States and European settlers of fabricating the Thanksgiving story and of whitewashing a genocide and injustice against Native Americans, and it has led a National Day of Mourning protest on Thanksgiving at Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Massachusetts in the name of social equality and in honor of political prisoners.
  On November 27, 1969, as another notable example of anti-Thanksgiving sentiment, hundreds of supporters traveled to Alcatraz on Thanksgiving Day to celebrate the Occupation of Alcatraz (which had started a week earlier and lasted until 1971) by Native Americans of All Tribes. The American Indian Movement and the Native American Church (peyote religion) both also hold a negative view of Thanksgiving; the AIM has used it as a platform for protest, most notably when they took over a Mayflower float in a Thanksgiving Day parade. Some Native Americans hold "Unthanksgiving Day" celebrations in which they mourn the deaths of their ancestors, fast, dance, and pray. This tradition has been taking place since 1975.
  The perception of Thanksgiving among Native Americans is not, however, universally negative. Tim Giago, founder of the Native American Journalists Organization, seeks to reconcile Thanksgiving with Native American traditions. He compares Thanksgiving to "wopila", a thanks-giving celebration practiced by Native Americans of the Great Plains. He wrote in The Huffington Post: "The idea of a day of Thanksgiving has been a part of the Native American landscape for centuries. The fact that it is also a national holiday for all Americans blends in perfectly with Native American traditions." He also shares personal anecdotes of Native American families coming together to celebrate Thanksgiving.
  Members of the Oneida Indian Nation marched in the 2010 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade with a float called "The True Spirit of Thanksgiving" and have done so every year since.
  In the early part of the twentieth century, the American Association for the Advancement of Atheism (4A) opposed the celebration of Thanksgiving Day, offering an alternative observance called Blamegiving Day, which was in their eyes, "a protest against Divine negligence, to be observed each year on Thanksgiving Day, on the assumption, for the day only, that God exists". Citing their view of the separation of church and state, some atheists in recent times have particularly criticized the annual recitation of Thanksgiving proclamations by the President of the United States, because these proclamations often revolve around the theme of givi
caption: Seminoles having a Thanksgiving Meal in the mid-1950s
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