From the Racial Justice Team, November 2025
For a Deeper Meaning of “Thanksgiving”
Most of us are preparing to celebrate Thanksgiving which is the 4th Thursday of November. Perhaps you remember dressing up as little Pilgrims and Indians when you were in grade school, re-enacting the “first” Thanksgiving as told by the colonists. Perhaps you have gathered for years on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving in your local congregation (like we do here at Christ the King) giving thanks for God’s good abundance followed by delicious pie. And perhaps you remember gathering with family and extended family on Thanksgiving Day itself, gorging on turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes with little marshmallows, Jello salad, pumpkin pie with whipped cream and white dinner rolls, followed by naps and so much football.
We’d like to invite you into a deeper exploration of the origins of Thanksgiving and what Thanksgiving means for so many Native Americans for what we remember and what our Native American kin remember are, in so many ways, very different. The tales we learned as children have been sanitized and “white-washed”. They don’t tell the story of the heartbreak that occurred for generations as this land we know as the United States was systematically stolen from indigenous people. We don’t tell the stories of brutalization, genocide from both disease and murder that Native Americans experienced at the hands of the colonizers and settlers. We don’t tell the stories of how the people were driven far from their homes, then forced to live in poverty, while being repeatedly lied to.
Now, do we need to share this over our dining room tables while we feast at Thanksgiving? Of course not. But perhaps in preparation for your gatherings, you’d like to read some short essays from Native writers, about Thanksgiving and how it might be celebrated in a more meaningful way. Perhaps you could take some of their suggestions for remembering our shared history and lifting up stories not often told. And perhaps, as you feast, you could acknowledge that much of what we eat today comes to us as part of Native American cuisine and tradition.
Here are some helpful links to enhance and enrich your celebration:
https://blog.nativehope.org/what-does-thanksgiving-mean-to-native-americans
https://time.com/5457183/thanksgiving-native-american-holiday/
https://www.newbrightonmn.gov/634/Amplify-Indigenous-Wisdom
Have a Blessed Thanksgiving,
Kisten Thompson, on behalf of the Racial Justice Team, Christ the King
Racial Justice Team Survey
The Racial Justice Team received 31 survey responses from congregation members. Thank you so much for taking the time to respond and give us your feedback. We will be sharing some of the insights that we gained over the next few weeks.
