WHAT THANKSGIVING IS TO US

The Real Story Buried Under America’s Tall Tales And the Lives We Honor by Telling the Truth

By Kino Smith

Before you begin:

This is not mythology. These are not fables, half truths, or “alternative histories.” Every major claim in this article is supported by irrefutable evidence from leading universities, anthropologists, geneticists, historians, and federally archived documentation. After reading, explore the footnotes. The truth is richer than the myth Americans were taught to celebrate.

Every November, the nation retells a familiar script: pilgrims fleeing religious persecution, seeking freedom, landing in a new world with righteous intention.

But the archives tell a different story.

England not only exported religious separatists; it also emptied its jails, deporting criminals, debtors, and political dissidents to the colonies. [8] Meanwhile, Columbus, celebrated as a brave explorer, was eventually arrested and sent back to Spain in chains for his brutality, torture, and acts of genocide against Indigenous peoples. These are facts documented by his own government.

This country’s holiday stories were written by those who benefited from erasing the truth.

But we cannot honor our ancestors by repeating narratives designed to silence them.

Before America: The Human Story That Started in Africa

Long before the Mayflower, before Plymouth Rock, before borders and flags, humanity began in Africa. Genetic evidence from Harvard, Stanford, and the Max Planck Institute confirms that all modern humans descend from African ancestors who migrated out of East Africa tens of thousands of years ago. [1][2][3]

As they moved into colder climates, bodies adapted over millennia:

• skin tones lightened in low UV regions

• eyes narrowed in harsh winter glare

• hair textures and bone structures changed

The Indigenous peoples of North, Central, and South America, whether in the Arctic, the Andes, the plains, or the woodlands, descended from these ancient migrants. [5][6][7]

By the time Europeans arrived, these nations had already built civilizations with complex agriculture, diplomacy, astronomy, engineering, and governance.

The English Arrival: Desperation, Disease, and Diplomacy

When the English landed in 1620, they were not the noble heroes of schoolbook legend. Many were sick, starving, unskilled in this land, and agriculturally unprepared for the climate. Some were fleeing persecution. Others were prisoners or men attempting to escape poverty. [8]

The Wampanoag Nation had already endured unimaginable loss, as European diseases had wiped out entire villages. Their leader, Ousamequin (Massasoit), made a strategic choice: to help the new arrivals survive, hoping to protect what remained of his people. [11]

Tisquantum, known as Squanto, had been kidnapped, sold into slavery, taken to Europe, and returned to find his family dead and his village empty. [12] He became the interpreter between two worlds.

It was his expertise that saved the settlers:

• how to plant corn in mounds

• how to fertilize soil

• how to fish and gather

• how to survive winter

Without Indigenous science, there would have been no harvest, no colony, and no “Thanksgiving.

The First “Thanksgiving”: Not a Holiday, Not Tradition, Not Peace

The 1621 gathering was not a peaceful celebration. It was triggered when the English fired guns in celebration, leading Wampanoag warriors to arrive armed, believing war had begun. Only after realizing it was a harvest event did they stay. [9]

The meal was not a planned tradition.

It was not annual.

It was not peaceful unity.

It was a fragile, defensive moment between two nations who did not trust each other.

And it was short lived.

As more English settlers arrived, the treaties were broken, land was seized, families were murdered, and entire nations were removed. [13]

Genocide unfolded across the continent, from Massachusetts to the Carolinas, from the Great Lakes to California. [15][16]

No state was untouched.

Why Africans Were Enslaved: Not for Strength, for Skill

While Indigenous nations were being dispossessed, another forced migration reshaped America.

Colonists did not kidnap Africans for “unskilled labor,” despite modern revisionist claims. They targeted West Africans specifically for their agricultural expertise.

They took:

• Mende, experts in rice cultivation

• Wolof and Mandinka, masters of irrigation and cattle

• Igbo, specialists in yam and root farming

• Akan, sophisticated political and agricultural systems

• Bambara, drought resistant farming expertise

These Africans were chosen because Europeans lacked the skills to cultivate subtropical crops and navigate the soil of the American South. [17][18][19]

Their knowledge, stolen through violence, built the plantation economy that enriched America.

The myth that enslaved Africans “learned skills through slavery” is false.

The colonists needed African expertise because they lacked it themselves.

Two peoples, Indigenous and African, paid the price for American prosperity.

Their land.

Their knowledge.

Their labor.

Their lives.

The Mask: Survival Behind a Manufactured Myth

Paul Laurence Dunbar gave words to what so many endured: “We wear the mask that grins and lies.” Maya Angelou carried that legacy forward, describing how generations of Black people hid their pain to survive. [24][26]

Our ancestors wore that mask:

They smiled when terrified.

They worked while grieving.

They hid their genius to protect their children.

They wore the mask so we could one day tell the truth.

The Modern Reality: Colonization Never Ended, It Evolved

Today’s prosperity still sits on the same foundation of extraction.

The United States and Western nations depend on:

• immigrant labor to sustain agriculture, healthcare, construction, and logistics

• minerals from Africa for phones, electric cars, and weapons

• oil and natural resources from exploited nations

• cheap labor abroad for manufacturing and global supply chains

Yale, Oxford, and Georgetown scholars document what this truly is: modern neocolonialism. [20][21][22][23]

The names have changed.

The tactics have changed.

But the structure has not.

America cannot sustain its economy without the labor of the poor or the minerals of nations it does not compensate.

The Western world would collapse without what it takes from others.

This truth must be part of the Thanksgiving story.

What Thanksgiving Is to Us

As we gather at our tables, sharing recipes passed down through generations, we honor:

• the Indigenous nations who fed strangers and were repaid with violence

• the Africans whose agricultural expertise built this economy

• the immigrants who keep industries alive today

• the ancestors who wore the mask so we could breathe

We do not celebrate myths.

We celebrate truth.

We celebrate resilience.

We celebrate the people who made our existence possible.

This is what Thanksgiving is to us.

A story of truth.

A story of sacrifice.

A story of survival.

A story we refuse to let go silent.

FOOTNOTES AND REFERENCES

Human Origins and Migration

[1] Harvard Medical School Human Origins: https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2017/humans-africa

[2] Stanford University Out of Africa Migration Genetics: https://news.stanford.edu/2016/09/21/genetic-study-tracks-human-migration

[3] Max Planck Institute Genetic Adaptation: https://www.eva.mpg.de

[4] Smithsonian Evolution of Skin Color: https://humanorigins.si.edu/human-characteristics/skin-color

Indigenous Origins and Civilizations

[5] National Geographic First Americans: https://www.nationalgeographic.com

[6] Smithsonian NMAI Native Civilizations: https://americanindian.si.edu

[7] Cambridge University Press Peopling the Americas: https://www.cambridge.org

Pilgrims, Penal Colonies and 1621 Events

[8] British Library Penal Transportation: https://www.bl.uk

[9] Plimoth Patuxet 1621 Harvest: https://plimoth.org

[10] National Archives Colonial Records: https://www.archives.gov

Wampanoag and Broken Treaties

[11] UMass Wampanoag History: https://www.umass.edu

[12] Smithsonian Squanto: https://www.smithsonianmag.com

[13] National Archives Treaties: https://www.archives.gov/research/native-americans/treaties

[14] University of Michigan King Philip’s War: https://press.umich.edu

Genocide Across the United States

[15] University of Colorado Indigenous Genocide: https://www.colorado.edu

[16] UC Riverside Massacre Map: https://data.nativemassacres.org

African Agricultural Science

[17] Harvard University Press Black Rice (Carney): https://www.hup.harvard.edu

[18] Cambridge African Agricultural Expertise: https://www.cambridge.org

[19] National Humanities Center African Farming Knowledge: https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org

Neocolonialism and Modern Dependency

[20] Yale Journal of International Affairs: https://yalejournal.org

[21] Oxford Research Encyclopedia Neocolonial Resource Politics: https://oxfordre.com

[22] Georgetown Immigration Lab Economic Impact: https://immigrationlab.georgetown.edu

[23] Brookings Global Extraction and United States Dependency: https://www.brookings.edu

Poetic Legacy

[24] Poetry Foundation We Wear the Mask: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44203/we-wear-the-mask

[25] Library of America Dunbar’s Influence: https://loa.org

[26] Poetry Foundation Angelou on Dunbar: https://www.poetryfoundation.org