Each year, members of the Wampanoag Indian tribe and their supporters gather at Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Mass. for the National Day of Mourning. The holiday occurs on the third Thursday of November, the same day as Thanksgiving, and it was started in 1970 by the United American Indians of New England in honor of American Indian people and their struggles, according to the UAINE mission statement.
The American Indian attendees of the National Day of Mourning spend Thanksgiving day protesting the oppression and genocide their culture experienced at the hands of European settlers. But not all American Indians feel the need to protest Thanksgiving, and perspectives on the holiday vary greatly among American Indian tribes, nations and indviduals, Kenan Metzger, Ball State University professor of English, said. Metzger is of Hochungra, Cherokee and German descent.
"It's important to get the voices of many Indians on the issue," Metzger said. "There's no monolothic American Indian culture or perspective."
Colleen Boyd, coordinator of the Native American studies minor at Ball State, celebrates Thanksgiving with her husband, John, who is an American Indian from the Pacific Northwest, and their children, she said.
"We still do Thanksgiving dinner, but the food we cook is politically selected," Boyd said.
For Thanksgiving dinner, Boyd's family tries to eat only foods that were cultivated in the Americas, she said. Foods indigenous to the Americas include potatoes, corn, beans, squash and tomatoes, and these foods were not available in any other part of the world before the Americas were settled by Europeans.
"We used it as an opportunity to educate our children," Boyd said. "Because we had to figure all this out, it means more because we all have an investment in it."
Elizabeth Nesbitt, instructor of English at Ball State, said Thanksgiving fits well into many American Indian traditions.
"It just depends on the family and the people," Nesbitt said. "Some tribal people are still very isolated, but any opportunity for Native Americans to get together and celebrate and be with family, they usually take it."
Giving thanks is a big part of Native American culture," Nesbitt said. "If you hunt or take something, you leave something else behind."
In his book, "Mayflower," published this year, Nathaniel Philbrick explores a little known fact: The Pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians who met at Plymouth Rock in 1621 went to war with each other in 1675.
Many American Indian students Metzger has taught were ignorant to the historical context of Thanksgiving, he said.
"I think the ignorance is probably across the board, and the history has been supressed across the board," he said.
Metzer said Thanksgiving is a good opportunity for American Indians to reflect on the past and be thankful for what they do have despite the oppression they have experienced.
"Not all American Indians think the same way," Metzger said, "but I think in general they have a different mindset, and I think there's a feeling of thankfulness that they survived and a feeling of hope that there can be healing between Indians and European Americans."
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