From 1621 to 2020: How media power created “Thanksgiving”
The Thanksgiving myth is deeply harmful to the Wampanoag people. Here’s how media power helped set it in motion.
Wampanoags today remember the Pilgrims’ entry to their homeland as a day of deep mourning. So how did we get “Thanksgiving?” Well, white-controlled media power played a huge role.
Truthfully, all we know about the meal known as “the First Thanksgiving” in 1621 comes from a couple of paragraphs written by Edward Winslow and Governor William Bradford. It wasn’t characterized as a big deal.
In 1789, with the United States only recently formed, George Washington feared the nation could easily collapse due to its many internal divisions. So he hosted a gathering at St. Paul’s Chapel on Nov. 26, where he delivered the first Thanksgiving proclamation. In it, he urged civic unity and asked God “to pardon our national and other transgressions.” [side-eye]
The Gazette of the United States, a New York newspaper, printed the Proclamation in its entirety right on the front page of the issue dated October 10.
