Did Trump Get Wind of the Fact Some Native Americans Don’t Like Thanksgiving?

Published November 27, 2019

SUNRISE, Fla. ― On Tuesday night, President Donald Trump told his faithful followers at a rally in south Florida he saved the nation from those who don’t want to use the term “Christmas.” But now he says there is a new attack on Thanksgiving.

“You know, some people want to change the name ‘Thanksgiving.’ They don’t want to use the term ‘Thanksgiving.’ And that was true also with Christmas, but now everybody’s using Christmas again,” using exaggerated terms he told his faithful.

“But now we’re going to have to do a little work on Thanksgiving. People have different ideas why it shouldn’t be called Thanksgiving, but everybody in this room I know loves the name Thanksgiving and we’re not changing it.”

Television journalists were grappling to find out what Trump was referring to because they had not heard of any large scale movement to rename Thanksgiving. They surmised maybe the president was referring to a 2015 false story debunked by Snopes that was plugged by conservative media claiming then President Barack Obama planned to change the name, the holiday is not widely considered to be under any form of attack.

However, among American Indians the Thanksgiving holiday has been a source of conflict because the story of the so-called first Thanksgiving was a constructed false narrative.  On Thursday, the United American Indians of New England (UAINE) has called for the 50th National Day of Mourning in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

And, maybe the president got wind of the scheduled event on Alcatraz Island on Thursday called “The Indigenous Peoples Sunrise Ceremony.” Every year since 1975, American Indians have journeyed from the mainland to Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay on Thanksgiving Day. Previously the day was called “Un-Thanksgiving Day.”

Just maybe, Trump got wind that some American Indians will not be celebrating Thanksgiving the way non-Natives plan to celebrate the holiday be overeating and sneaking away to do Christmas shopping.