Links to Visit as a Settler on Thanksgiving, and Throughout the Year

Hyperfocusing on gratitude this Thanksgiving washes over the fact that it should be a day of mourning, reckoning with, and confronting settlements on indigenous land. Thanksgiving is usually a time to be around family (chosen or not), which can be sustaining for some, and unsafe for others. Needless to say, the various connotations to this Thursday can be, in turns, intense, overwhelming, dark, and joyous. However you find yourself on this U.S. holiday, we encourage you to think critically about this celebration (what is being celebrated, exactly?) and your position in it. A crucial aspect of gratitude is humility. So, we’ve collected a list of resources to self-educate as you cook. It’s not comprehensive, but it’s a start.

Wishing you a warm, safe, and critical Thursday!
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Image from ILoveAncestry.com

Whose Land Are You Settling? (educational resource)

"Real Rent Duwamish” (reparations resource)

“THE SUPPRESSED SPEECH OF WAMSUTTA (FRANK B.) JAMES, WAMPANOAG (1970)” (historical decolonial speech)

“3 Ways to Decolonize Thanksgiving” (direct action resource)

A Poem from Tommy Pico’s “Nature Poem” Collection (poem)

“Decolonization is Not a Metaphor” (scholarly resource)

“Home for the Holidays: A Survival Guide for Queer Folks” (direct action resource)

Unsettling America: “Allyship and Solidarity Guidelines” (educational resource)

Read the Proclamation from the 1969 “Occupation” of Alcatraz (historical resource)

How to Talk to Your Family About Racism on Thanksgiving (direct action resource)

“The Future is Indigenous” (educational resource)

“We Asked These 4 Queer Native Americans How They’ll Be Spending Thanksgiving” (personal narratives)

Thanksgiving: A Day of Mourning (essay)

Five Strategies for Addressing Family Racism at Thanksgiving (direct action resource)

Exploring the Potential of Truthsgiving (opinion piece)

#Blackout Black Friday (educational/direct action resource)

100 Anti-Indigenous Behaviors to Personally Address (educational resource)

“The Three Pillars of White Supremacy” (scholarly resource)

“A People’s History of Thanksgiving” (educational resource)

Art by Jeffery Gibson, a visual artist with Cherokee heritage who is a citizen of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.