Thanksgiving Day has been an annual holiday in the United States since 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed it a national day of “Thanksgiving and Praise.” While it is widely celebrated as a time for gratitude, family gatherings, and feasting, the day also carries a more complex legacy. Many Native Americans view Thanksgiving as a reminder of the suffering and cultural destruction their ancestors endured following European colonization.
Early Origins of Thanksgiving
The origins of Thanksgiving predate Lincoln’s proclamation. Several regions in North America held earlier ceremonies of thanks long before the famous Pilgrim feast.
Some historians point to El Paso, Texas, in 1598, as the site of the first Thanksgiving, when Spanish settlers celebrated surviving a harsh journey through the desert. Another early event occurred in 1619 in the Virginia Colony, where settlers offered thanks for safe arrival.
However, most Americans trace the modern holiday to 1621, when the Pilgrims at Plymouth, Massachusetts, held a harvest celebration with the Wampanoag people. This event is often romanticized as a symbol of cooperation between Native Americans and European settlers. In reality, the relationship between the two communities soon deteriorated as colonization expanded and indigenous lands were seized.
The first true “thanksgiving” by the Pilgrims, according to records, took place in 1623, when they gave thanks for rain that ended a severe drought. These early thanksgivings were primarily religious observances, marked by church services rather than feasts.
Growth of the Tradition
By the late 1600s, thanksgiving observances after the harvest became more common across the colonies. However, these were not uniform — different communities celebrated on different days, and some even held multiple thanksgiving services each year.
In 1789, George Washington, the first U.S. president, issued the nation’s first official Thanksgiving proclamation, designating a day to give thanks for the new Constitution and the blessings of independence.
A Day of Mourning
For many Native Americans, Thanksgiving is not a celebration but a time of reflection and mourning. Since 1970, Indigenous groups and their allies have gathered at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts, to observe a National Day of Mourning on Thanksgiving Day. The event honors Native ancestors and draws attention to the historical injustices and ongoing struggles of Indigenous peoples.
In recent years, American Indian Heritage Day, observed around the same time, has also gained recognition as a way to acknowledge and celebrate Native contributions and resilience.
Thanksgiving, therefore, remains a holiday of gratitude and gathering for many, but also one of grief and remembrance for others — a reminder that the nation’s shared history is as complex as it is enduring.