It's amazing how subtly erasure of indigenous history permeates our culture. I stumbled upon an article from The Times entitled "Top 10 things you didn't know about Thanksgiving".
I saw titles like "There's Debate Over Which President First Pardoned a Turkey", "There Are Three Towns Named Turkey", and "The Detroit Lions Always Play on Thanksgiving".
One section even blamed the Wampanoag People for breaking the "devout settlers" abstinence from food.
Thanksgiving was initially meant to be a fast, not a feast. The devout settlers at Plymouth Rock mostly recognized "giving of thanks" in the form of prayer and abstaining from food. But the Wampanoag Indians, who joined the pilgrims for their 3-day celebration, contributed their own harvest traditions -- dancing, games and feasting -- from their ancient festival, Nickommoh, meaning "to give away" or "exchange."
This article points a finger at Wampanoag People for giving starving settlers food, and suggests that it somehow disrupts the settlers purity. Then the article fails to mention that after many Indigenous Nations extended the hand of friendship in similar ways, the white invaders began the mass genocide and systematic cultural destruction of indigenous peoples.
Thanks for sharing! This reminds me of a video clip that I was discussing with my mom last week. It seems like a lot of people are aware f this fact, but it is often ignored or turned into something comical so that people don't have to come to terms with the truth.
Here is the (funny) clip that we were talking about
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VbYZDohsHk
I actually never knew that it was originally supposed to be a feast, I probably slept through that part 5 min talk in history right before Thanksgiving in middle school. I think the fact that the article was trying to blame the friendly Natives like you said is horrible, its sickening. But I also think this kind of history needs to be better taught in elementary and high schools opposed to a small reading before thanksgiving. The kids are too excited for break and don't pay attention and without a real unit like everything else its just glazed over like it was in my memory.