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How Native American communities view Thanksgiving

It's National Native American Heritage Day. As a way to learn about Native American history, Tuscarora Nation shares how Thanksgiving is observed.

TUSCARORA, N.Y. — Every year, on the fourth Thursday of November, families across the country gather around tables with food to celebrate what they're thankful for. It's known as Thanksgiving.

While many people see it as a day of gratitude, Native Americans take it as a day of mourning.

"It's too general to ask. A lot of them take it as a day off. In terms of celebrating it, I would have to say I don't think there's a huge aspect of that," Brennan Furgeson says.

In 1620, Europeans came to the New World and landed in what's known as modern-day Plymouth, Mass. The Europeans were trying to break away from the British but were ill-equipped to survive, so the Indigenous formed an alliance between the groups and showed the pilgrims how to grow crops.

Eventually, the two groups had a celebratory feast, recording it as the "First Thanksgiving." This all happened to Indigenous in the Wampanoag Nation.

"No one is going to give it back to us, we have to get it back to us. We have to take it back ourselves," Brennan Furgeson of the Tuscarora Nation said.

Joanne Rickard Weinholtz is also with Tuscarora Nation and is a cultural teacher. 

"Nobody talks about these things this way," Weinholtz said. 

Over time, Native American communities started to vanish. They were killed off by disease, famine, and displacement.

"When I look at something like Thanksgiving, I can take the best from it. As a human, you're lucky if you have peace in your life," Weinholtz. 

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