American traditions of cranberry sauce and stuffing have masked the underlying true horrors of what Indigenous people of America have faced through the centuries.
With Thanksgiving being right around the corner, many are gearing up for the holiday by making shopping lists and preparing for a day full of family and celebration. Hiding behind their ignorance with pounds of mashed potatoes and turkey.
On Oct. 13, 2025, Native Americans in the Bay boated out to Alcatraz Island for a day of celebration known as The Indigenous Peoples’ Day Sunrise Gathering. It is a one-day event organized by the International Indian Treaty Council commemorating the 1969-71 occupation of Alcatraz Island and the 533 years of cultural resiliency and survival in the Americas. It also honors Alcatraz as a sacred historical place for Indigenous people in California and around the world.
Another Sunrise Gathering will be held on Nov. 27, this year’s Thanksgiving date. But the gathering held on this day is known as Un-Thanksgiving.
It provides an alternate perspective to the traditional Thanksgiving celebration and gives a platform to raise awareness about mistreatment, displacement and injustices that Indigenous communities faced throughout history.
This celebration traces back to 1970, when Native American activists in Plymouth, Massachusetts, organized a protest on Thanksgiving Day. Led by Wampanoag leader Frank James, the activists fought to counter the romanticized version of history that is associated with the holiday.
In his book, There There, Tommy Orange writes, “In 1621, colonists invited Massasoit, the chief of the Wampanoags, to a feast after a recent land deal. Massasoit came with 90 of his men. That meal is why we still eat a meal together in November … But that one wasn’t a Thanksgiving meal. It was a land-deal meal.”
He then goes on to explain that two years later, a similar meal occurred. This one was meant to symbolize the community and friendship between the colonists and Native Americans that modern Americans now celebrate for Thanksgiving. But in the end, 200 Natives dropped dead from an “unknown” poison.
The context in which Americans in our current society celebrate Thanksgiving is often not with the intention of commemorating the relationship established between colonists and Native Americans in 1621. This is because many are too ignorant to inform themselves or take time to recognize the true history the holiday holds.
But we have to consciously acknowledge the history Indigenous people have experienced and understand why they condemn and want to reclaim the tradition.
It is a privilege to celebrate a holiday joyfully and serendipitously, while so many others gather to commemorate years of grief and the erasure of their history.
Orange writes, “If you were fortunate enough to be born into a family whose ancestors directly benefited from genocide and/or slavery, maybe you think the more you don’t know, the more innocent you can stay, which is a good incentive to not find out, to not look too deep, to walk carefully around the sleeping tiger.”
Thanksgiving, in my eyes, is about community. It is about being with the ones you love and remembering that we are all lucky to be on this Earth, experiencing the many beautiful cultures and customs all at the same time. It’s simply a day for us to have a potluck dinner and play obscure board games where we can start feuds with one another.
Our current society erases any culture besides colonial America. When all that is being taught is the traditional white American life, we look past the tragic history of many others. We forget, or never learn, that the same white culture being taught contributed to the unsettling history of other marginalized communities.
My grandmother has always been very knowledgeable about Indigenous culture and instilled respect for them, their culture and customs in my family and me growing up.
It doesn’t take much to inform yourself or be consciously aware of the holiday you are celebrating before stuffing your face with turkey and gravy. People who claim it’s “not that deep” or “it happened years ago” are the same people who turn a blind eye to genocides and massacres that have happened recently or are actively still happening.
“The wound that was made when white people came and took all that they took has never healed. An unattended wound gets infected,” Orange writes. “All these stories that we haven’t been telling all this time, that we haven’t been listening to, are just part of what we need to heal.”
Ceremonies and celebrations held by Indigenous people of America are not exclusive to their own community. This is how we can grow as a society. Experiencing another culture’s customs, watching their performances, buying their handmade jewelry, crafts and textiles, and understanding their history is key to showing solidarity.
People can show support in many ways by joining celebrations, speaking out, joining peaceful protest events, and respecting and acknowledging that the land you are on was once theirs. It was stripped from them.
“We made powwows because we needed a place to be together. Something intertribal, something old, something to make us money, something we could work toward, for our jewelry, our songs, our dances, our drum.” Orange writes.
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TOP PHOTO: Members of the Round Valley Yuki tribe perform a prayer song during the Thanksgiving Sunrise Gathering on Alcatraz Island on Nov.28, 2024. (Photo by Gabriel Carver/Golden Gate Xpress)
Milo Jones is a staff writer for The Express.
