Holding Both: A Thanksgiving Reflection

Kellie Anderson
Nov 27, 2025
3 min read

Note to readers: This simple reflection is based on the knowledge available through a mere morsal of the abundance of information out there. Please, as always, use this information as a launching point for reflection and do your own research as you feel called.

The Shadow We Must Witness

The traditional Thanksgiving narrative we learned as children—of Pilgrims and Native Americans sharing a harmonious feast—obscures a devastating truth. What followed that 1621 gathering was centuries of genocide, forced displacement, broken treaties, and cultural erasure that continue to impact Indigenous communities today. The very land we gather on was taken through violence and systematic oppression.

The Wampanoag people who helped the Pilgrims survive that first winter could not have known they were aiding those who would participate in the destruction of their way of life. Within a generation, King Philip's War would devastate Native populations in New England. The holiday itself was later formalized during periods of colonial expansion and even used to celebrate military victories over Indigenous peoples.

To celebrate Thanksgiving without acknowledging this history is to participate in ongoing erasure. The shadow demands our attention, our grief, our accountability.

The Light We Can Cultivate

And yet—gratitude itself remains sacred. The human impulse to pause, to give thanks, to gather in community and acknowledge our interdependence is not tainted by the misuse of a holiday. These are universal practices that Indigenous cultures have honored since time immemorial.

We can reclaim this day as one of genuine reflection: gratitude for the Indigenous peoples who have stewarded this land since long before colonial contact and who continue to lead the way in environmental protection, community care, and resilience. Gratitude for the opportunity to be more honest, more accountable, more aligned with justice.

We can let gratitude break our hearts open rather than close them. True thankfulness includes acknowledging everything that has brought us to this moment—the beautiful and the brutal, the gifts and the debts.

Reconciling in the Present

To hold both shadow and light means:

Educating ourselves and others. Learn whose ancestral land you're on. Understand local Indigenous history. Share these truths with children in age-appropriate ways that center Indigenous voices and perspectives.

Supporting Indigenous communities. Donate to Indigenous-led organizations. Support Indigenous sovereignty, land back movements, and the protection of sacred sites. Amplify Indigenous voices, especially on this day.

Practicing honest gratitude. Give thanks while acknowledging the full context. Recognize that the abundance on our tables exists within systems of inequity. Let this awareness inform how we move through the world.

Reimagining the gathering. Use the day to have difficult conversations about history and justice. Make it a day of service. Practice reciprocity with the land itself. Consider observing the National Day of Mourning that many Indigenous people mark on this day.

Committing to repair. Let gratitude become action. Thanksgiving can be a beginning—a day that reminds us annually of our ongoing responsibility to work toward justice, to honor treaties, to support Indigenous self-determination.

A Practice for This Day

As you sit with abundance, perhaps try this:

Place your hands on your heart. Acknowledge the land beneath you and the Indigenous peoples who have cared for it. Feel the complexity—the grief and the gratitude can coexist.

Ask yourself: How does my gratitude demand more of me? What does genuine thankfulness require?

Let the discomfort be present alongside the joy. This is how we develop the capacity to hold the fullness of our humanity and history. This is how we begin to heal.

We cannot change the past, but we can change what we do with this day, this moment, this opportunity to align more closely with truth, justice, and genuine relationship.

May we all find the courage to be grateful in ways that honor rather than erase, that open us rather than comfort us, that lead to transformation rather than complacency.