Who Took the Indians Out of Thanksgiving?

The other night my brothers and Kim and I were talking about how America is heading towards Socialism...with the government bailing out banks and with stupid people out there supporting a presidential candidate who supports socialised medicine, etc (I won't name any names since tomorrow is election day and I don't want to even mention his name and give him any free advertisement.)

Anyway, someone brought up the fact that when the the United States was first settled, in Jamestown or maybe one of the other early settlements, they tried out Socialism. They gave everybody a plot of land to farm and then had everyone bring in their harvests to be shared by all. Within just a couple of years the system fell apart because some people just didn't work as hard in their fields knowing that they could survive because of the hard work of others in the settlement. ANYWAY, soon thereafter they just went back to everybody just living off the harvest from their own piece of land and all of a sudden the lazy people disappeared. Now this isn't the point of this post...this is just a little side note to show you that Socialism does not work and that we've already tried it here in the US...so we have proof. (Although I don't have the facts to back up our conversation on the Pilgrims and Socialism.)

Anyway talking about the Pilgrims brought Thanksgiving to my mind. And not just any old Thanksgiving but that first Thanksgiving when the Pilgrims and Indians (now known as Native Americans) got together and ate a big feast. See picture below for details...

And then all of a sudden it hit me...who took the Indians out of Thanksgiving? I mean, really, after that first Thanksgiving you never heard of us White folk inviting over the Indians anymore. Were they bad guests? Did they not BTOM (Bring their own meat) or something? Were their table manners below par? Whatever happened to Thanksgiving being a holiday where Caucasians and Native Americans got together to share some grub?

My family all laughed at me quite a bit when I suggested this idea, but in my defense aren't holidays meant to commemorate whatever we started the holiday for? I mean, is it weird that I think it is weird that my family has NEVER had any Indians over for Thanksgiving dinner?

Anyway, I just think this is something we all should think about. I know I am. Since my parents are in a foreign land my family probably won't be celebrating Thanksgiving this year (or I guess for the next three years), but if I was going to have a Thanksgiving dinner I would sure think seriously about finding some Indians to invite.

It will just be my little brother and I spending this Thanksgiving together and I just don't think that cooking a turkey for two is really worth it...especially since I don't really cook anymore. So, due to our lack of desire to make a big meal together we are thinking of going to a Homeless Shelter in SLC and helping serve Thanksgiving dinner. Either that or we might go to NYC for the long weekend. We are undecided.

But, if we do end up serving the homeless I will probably get to share my Thanksgiving dinner with at least one Native American because there is one that I always see at Pioneer Park so I'm betting he'll show up for dinner. If so, I'll be sure to share a blogpost on "My first REAL Thanksgiving." Stay tuned...

Oh, and this post isn't meant to be racist...it is just meant to give you something to think about. I mean, I love Indians. Well, actually I don't know any. But if I did I would love them and I would invite them over for Thanksgiving...so there!