Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Since you’ve got a little extra holiday time on my hands, I implore you to watch the video linked below. While Thanksgiving is typically explained to children as a folksy dinner gathering between the pilgrims and indigenous peoples, we often don’t learn that this is basically a fairy tale designed to absolve the US government from centuries of human rights abuses. We must be straightforward: the reason why we’re able to sweep our country’s ugly history under the rug was because the federal Indian Removal project was tragically successful.

The video below walks through the ways the American government perpetuated the genocide of Native Americans. It makes clear that these people didn’t simply die of disease or natural causes: Early American leaders explicitly sought to remove these people from the land by whatever means necessary.

Want to Take Action This Thanksgiving?

Back in 1835, Congress promised the Cherokee Nation that they would grant them a delegate in the United States House. However, Congress never actually gave them a seat; the promise was never fulfilled. Fast forward to today, leaders of the Cherokee Nation are renewing their push for a non-voting delegate in the US House as the treaty that grants them this delegate has no expiration date.

The Cherokee Nation is asking voters to contact their congressperson and urge them to pass a resolution seating the Cherokee Nation delegate in the U.S. House of Representatives. I’ve already reached out to my House representative via email and I really hope you do as well. It doesn’t need to be anything fancy or elaborate, just a short message saying that you stand with the Cherokee Nation and believe that it’s our government’s duty to honor its past promises.