The Truth About Thanksgiving & Honoring the Culture of Gratitude
“...this idea of the gift-giving Indian helping to establish and enrich the development of the United States is an insidious smoke screen meant to obscure the fact that the existence of the country is the result of the looting of an entire continent and its resources.” - Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
“The most fulfilled people are the ones who get up every morning and stand for something larger than themselves. They are the people who care about others, who will extend a helping hand to someone in need or will speak up about an injustice when they see it.” - Wilma Mankiller
Part 1: The Truth About Thanksgiving
Every story has many sides. When it comes to the history of Thanksgiving many of us were taught just one perspective, the perspective of the colonizer. We didn’t get the whole truth of what happened many years ago, so it’s important to take the time now to learn.
And we get it. You might be wondering what the history of Thanksgiving has to do with healing and growth work for women, but trust us it’s connected!
For many Indigenous Americans, Thanksgiving is a day of mourning and protest because it marks the arrival of colonizers and the centuries of genocide and oppression that followed.
The first Thanksgiving gets portrayed as this friendly harvest festival where Pilgrims and Indians came together to eat and give thanks. The truth is, the first Thanksgiving wouldn’t have happened if the Wampanoag People hadn’t helped the English settlers have a successful first harvest. Really, the gathering was more about honoring political alliances, diplomacy, and the pursuit of peace –sadly this mission of peace and the agreements and treaties that were signed were ignored shortly after the first Thanksgiving in 1621.
It’s easy for people whose ancestors didn’t experience oppression and genocide to say things like, “Let it go, that was 400 years ago!” but what gets missed is how trauma lives on in the body and gets passed down from generation to generation.
We can see that trauma and unresolved pain from our past present today - all we have to do is take a quick look around - so many of us are not well - we are stressed out, burnt out, addicted, depressed, anxious, etc.
Here’s how it all connects: the trauma from the past lives in ALL of us. Whether we like it or not, we are all swimming in the same soup - a post-colonial, patriarchal, racially-biased bisque.
Those of us who are White carry the trauma of inflicting violence, or passively watching violence be inflicted, onto other living breathing souls. Indigenous people (along with other people of color) carry the trauma of being lied to, enslaved, and killed.
As we embark or continue on our healing journeys, it’s inevitable that we will uncover intergenerational trauma living in our bodies. When we take the time to learn and integrate knowledge on this type of trauma it helps us identify it, work with, and release it which each person living on this Earth needs. We ALL need each other to release old pain and defense mechanisms that are getting in the way of us being our most loving, resourced, expansive selves.
So, thank you Brave Woman, for reading at least until this point and taking the time to unlearn and educate yourself. For further learning and unlearning, here are some great resources:
“An Indigenous People’s History of the United States” by: Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
*if you can, pick up a copy at your local bookstore or library!
The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian - https://americanindian.si.edu/ and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPEuQNp0nII
Courageous Yoga - 200 Hour Sacred Activism Teacher Training - https://www.courageousyoga.us/teacher-training
Section 2: Honoring the Indigenous Roots of Gratitude
The idea of giving thanks was and still is central to Indigenous people. Long before English settlers arrived, Native tribes across the land practiced gratitude as a way of life. They took time daily to appreciate not only the good things in life like family, community, and the riches of the land, but they also appreciated their struggles and lessons from Mother Nature - the things that challenged them initially but ultimately created growth making them stronger, wiser, and more loving.
As many of us have seen, gratitude has become a buzzword in the modern health and wellness space and it’s the theme most commonly associated with the month of November. Instead of hopping on the gratitude bandwagon because you’re hearing and seeing the word everywhere right now, we encourage you to slow down and honor the roots of gratitude.
The truth is, that gratitude is an ancient practice that has been appropriated. Gratitude is a way of being that Indigenous Americans truly embody. It’s not about making gratitude lists, or going around the table and saying one thing we’re thankful for, it’s much deeper than that.
To practice gratitude in a way that is honorable, effective, and powerful we must:
Understand & honor the indigenous roots of gratitude - this helps shift us from cultural appropriation into cultural appreciation
Learn how to embody it - meaning, we must feel the respect and appreciation in our bodies
Focus the energy of our gratitude toward WHO we have in our lives and HOW things have happened vs. what we have or own
Check out the following embodiment practice (10-minute guided meditation) to help you get started in a more honest & honorable gratitude practice.
Part 3: Embodied Gratitude Practice
In this "Embodying Gratitude" meditation, you will be invited to bring to mind an experience or a person that you are grateful for. You will be guided to focus on how that experience or person has contributed to your healing and growth and to locate and feel the sensations of gratitude in your body. This meditation is useful for learning how to embody the energy of gratitude so you can access it again in your life outside of meditation.
Embodiment of Gratitude - Guided Meditation: https://insig.ht/7jvlw7f0SEbutm_source=copy_link&utm_medium=live_stream_share
If you are interested in learning more and would like a free 20 minute consultation, contact us at info@bravecounseling.com. We work virtually with clients throughout the Denver and Boulder area and all throughout CO.