Note: This was written as an assignment for Death and the Maiden
Pushing my cart through the grocery store I reflected that while on the surface my mission was the same as my peers, gathering food for a Thursday feast, the ingredients filling my cart were for a meal honoring the conquered and not the conquerors. The process of saying no to honoring the fairy tale version of the fourth Thursday in November has been a long one. I’ve known for most of my life that the narrative of the happy collaborative feast did not reflect reality, but I have always loved the aspects of family and giving thanks that Thanksgiving invoked. However, even without an explicit acknowledgement of the myth, it has always hung in the background.
As I reflected my way through the grocery store, I was struck by the urge to grab a microphone to make an announcement. However, my announcement would not be of the “clean up in aisle six” variety, it would be of the “wake up to reality” variety. I wanted to ask my fellow shoppers how they could continue to celebrate a holiday that marked the beginning of the genocide of indigenous people. A holiday that led to the Trail of Tears, Indian Schools, and all the other horrific atrocities inflicted upon the first people to populate this land. I refrained, because I didn’t want to waste a four day weekend in jail and because I knew every person has to come to their own conclusions about the fourth Thursday in November.
Although our studies this semester have been about the connections between women and death, as I reflected on our early lessons about the objectification of women and the killing of women for sport, I realized that indigenous women were not immune to this objectification and torture and that as I chose to honor the National Day of Mourning, one of the ways I could honor them was by telling their stories of both death and resilience.
There are many myths about the alleged Thanksgiving feast between the pilgrims and the Wampanoag people, but what we know to be true is that the Puritans came to America and encountered an indigenous tribe called the Wampanoag. There is disagreement about whether the Wampanoag helped the Puritans or not, but what we do know is that eventually the relationship turned deadly, and the Europeans decimated the Wampanoag. We also know that the Wampanoag, like many indigenous tribes, were more egalitarian than Europeans and that women had a seat at the literal and metaphorical table. They were accorded positions of respect and leadership (Weaver, 2009, p. 1554). According to some historians, the equality of women did not sit well with the patriarchal male Puritans as they were afraid that their wives and daughters would demand equality after being exposed to a culture where women were treated as equals (Schertow, 2006).
Early European settlers killed indigenous men and women and treated their bodies no better than animals as there are reports of people’s noses being cut off so that soldiers could tally how many Native Americans they had killed and strips being cut out of men’s backs to make razor straps (Schertow, 2006). Women were subjected to this violence and more, as gender-based violence during the Trail of Tears and other forced migrations was seen as a way to subjugate indigenous people through fear (Weaver, 2009). History tells horrific stories of indigenous women being brutally raped, then murdered, and their bodies discarded like rubbish. At least one pregnant women was brutally murdered and her unborn child torn from her body to be baptized then murdered (Schertow, 2006).
Sadly, the violence against indigenous women is not a relic of days past as Native American women are more likely to be raped than non-native women and these rapes are more violent than those perpetrated against their non-native peers (Weaver, 2009, p. 1557). Even more alarming, the CDC reports that the murder rate for women living on reservations is 10 times higher than the national average. Murder is the third leading cause of death for indigenous women, even though murder does not even make the top 10 causes of death for women overall (Bureau of Indian Affair).
Indigenous women are victims, but they are also survivors, advocates, and leaders. Women play leadership roles in violence resistance movements and are working to maintain their traditions and lead their communities into the future (Weaver, 2009, p. 1557). Women are also working as activists to bring attention to the continued tragedy of missing and indigenous women. Former Grand Chief of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak, Inc, Sheila North Wilson, launched a grassroots movement and the #MMIW (Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women) hashtag to call attention to increase visibility into the high numbers of missing and murdered women . Other indigenous women, including Jodi Voice Yellowfish and her sister Snowy Voice (Oglala Lakota, Muscogee Creek, and Cherokee), who have started a MMIW organization in Texas (Smith-Morris, 2020), and Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland are also fighting to stop the violence against indigenous women. As a US Representative, Haaland sponsored the Not Invisible Act which established a cross jurisdictional commission dedicated to study the issue and make recommendations. The commission includes tribal members, law enforcement, families of the missing, and survivors (Department of Justice, 2022).
My deliberately choosing not to celebrate the false narrative of Thanksgiving and instead to honor and mourn the consequences of the arrival of Europeans in North America, will not in itself change the world. However, I also know that once I woke up to the truth of the fourth Thursday in November, I could no longer rationalize celebrating a holiday built upon a racist and violent foundation
References
Bureau of Indian Affair. (n.d.). Missing and Murdered Indigenous People Crisis. Retrieved from Bureau of Indian Affairs: https://www.bia.gov/service/mmu/missing-and-murdered-indigenous-people-crisis
Department of Justice. (2022, May 5). Justice Department and the Department of the Interior Take Important Step in Addressing Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples Crisis. Retrieved from Department of Justice: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-and-department-interior-take-important-step-addressing-missing-and-0#:~:text=The%20law%20established%20the%20Not,%2C%20and%20most%20importantly%20%E2%80%94%20survivors.
Schertow, J. A. (2006, December 15). COLONIALISM, GENOCIDE, AND GENDER VIOLENCE: INDIGENOUS WOMEN. Retrieved from independent uncompromising indigenous: https://intercontinentalcry.org/colonialism-genocide-and-gender-violence-indigenous-women/
Smith-Morris, C. (2020, March 6). Addressing the Epidemic of Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. Retrieved from Cultural Survival: https://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/addressing-epidemic-missing-murdered-indigenous-women-and-girls?gclid=CjwKCAiApvebBhAvEiwAe7mHSGw45C4XVcDFKTogo-9lYvWU3hjiafX52zcWPUNDinrQxbQf3iBClBoClgkQAvD_BwE
Weaver, H. N. (2009). The Colonial Context of Violence: Reflections on Violence in he Lives of Native American Women. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 1552-1563.