CLEVELAND — Millions of Americans remember Thanksgiving as the start of a friendship between the pilgrims and the Wampanoag tribe, but for many Native people its only a small piece of it's history.

What You Need To Know

  • Thanksgiving is  celebrated by millions of Americans each year; its roots can be traced back to the 1621 harvest feast between the Pilgrims and Wampanoag tribe,

  • The alliance between the Wampanoag people and the Pilgrims marked the beginning of an alliance that was later tested by spread of disease and violence, which greatly decimated the Native population.

  • Today, many Native Americans host their own festivals and dinners to celebrate the fall harvest.

“No native person is trying to ruin family night… but I think for native, non-Native people, it's incredibly important to remember that the story that people get told, that official story of Thanksgiving, is just a tiny part of this story,” Paul Edward Montgomery Ramírez said.

Montgomery Ramírez grew up in Ohio with strong ties to Monimbó, an indigenous neighborhood in Nicaragua. He said, growing up, his family like millions of others gathered around the dinner table on Thanksgiving. He is now the treasurer for the Committee of 500 Years of Dignity and Resistance, an indigenous rights nonprofit in Cleveland. 

With a doctorate in archaeology and cultural heritage studies, Montgomery Ramírez said the telling of Thanksgiving history often ignores the violence that ensued between the Wampanoag people and the Pilgrims in the years following the shared harvest dinner.

“As the Wampanoag saw it, that they were not subject to the Puritans’ laws, but the Puritans thought that they very well were,” he said. “So this began a conflict, what we call King Philip’s War today, and this war in North America is … the most violent and bloody conflict in this continent.”

Robbi Swift, born in Ohio, is part of the Ojibwe First Nation. 

“My family is from Wawaskinaga, which translates to Whitefish River First Nation in Ontario, Canada,” she said.

Swift said she celebrates Thanksgiving, but not the friendly narrative many people learn in school.

“You have to look at it this way. It’s a day off of work. Everybody gets to sit down and chitchat and enjoy a good meal, and you get to watch parades, and it’s the beginning of the shopping season,” Swift said. “So celebrate that.”

She now serves as the bookkeeper for the Lake Eerie Native American Council in Cleveland. Swift said the council co-hosts a harvest festival with other Native groups each year, taking a different approach to the holiday.

“What you’re celebrating is that sharing of a good harvest with people that were less fortunate, and maybe that’s something you should do yourself, is look at those that are less fortunate and see what you can do to help, even though it decimated the tribes because of the illness that occurred afterwards of that contact,” she said.

Like Swift, Montgomery Ramírez says Thanksgiving is about remembering your roots.

“I think non-Native people should, not just around Thanksgiving, but kind of every day recognize the depth of history, the depth of cultures, and then also, what is your responsibility to this land,” he said.

Along with celebrating community.

“We are not conquered people. We are not going extinct. We are not vanishing,” Montgomery Ramírez said. “We are vibrant members of your communities, of these multi-ethnic communities that. Make the United States a nice country.”