Thursday, November 25, 2021

Happy Thanksgiving 2021

Being part Cherokee, I am aware that many Native Americans view the holiday as a celebration of the genocide the colonists committed upon indigenous peoples and observe it as a day of mourning. What is more, I can fully understand their view. After all, much of the mythology of Thanksgiving is centred around the Pilgrims at Plymouth. Sadly, the Wampanoag, who according to legend dined with the Pilgrims, suffered greatly for their contact with the British colonists. That having been said, the Thanksgiving held at Plymouth was hardly the first to be held in what would become the United States, much less North America. Indeed, Native Americans had their own Thanksgiving rituals well before Europeans set foot in North America. The Seneca have Thanksgiving rituals that last four days, and other Iroquois nations have their own Thanksgiving rituals as well. The Cherokee have several different ceremonies at which we give thanks, including the Great New Moon Ceremony, the Exalting Bush Festival, and the Ripe Corn Ceremony.

My only real objection to the American holiday of Thanksgiving is the fact that it is attached to the mythology of the Pilgrims. To me, we simply need to divorce the Pilgrims myth from the holiday and observe it purely as a day of giving thanks. To me the act of giving thanks is very important and,in many way beneficial to the mental health of individuals. No less than Wilma Mankiller, the first woman to serve as Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, recognized the importance of expressing one's gratitude. She said, "We celebrate Thanksgiving along with the rest of America, maybe in different ways and for different reasons. Despite everything that's happened to us since we fed the Pilgrims, we still have our language, our culture, our distinct social system. Even in a nuclear age, we still have a tribal people."

Of course, central to any holiday are various traditions. Here at A Shroud of Thoughts it is a tradition to post vintage pinups. Here then are this year's pinups.