Shailene Woodley is still fighting the good fight in Standing Rock against the Dakota Access Pipeline. Last week protesters were doused with water cannons in freezing temperatures, for which some had to be taken to the hospital for hypothermia. One protestor may lose her arm due to damage from the force from the water. Police in riot gear have also used tear gas, rubber bullets and concussion grenades against protestors, who are trying to keep a corporation from running an oil pipeline through their land. This heavily militarized response is happening in the US, and given the fact that Donald Trump has just been elected president, we can expect more protections for multinational corporations and less for people trying to preserve their way of life. All the news coming out of Standing Rock has left me sickened and depressed, which is not how you’re supposed to feel around the holidays. Shailene was asked in an interview about Thanksgiving, and she made it clear that the origins of the holiday are not as altruistic as children are told.
Shailene Woodley, who has been one of most high-profile advocates against the Dakota Access Pipeline, is now speaking out about the sanitization of American history in videos released on Thursday at Standing Rock reservation.
“Today is a day that many call Thanksgiving, and it’s a day where kids in elementary school in America are taught false narratives about our native brothers and sisters,” Woodley said, fighting back tears in an interview with TYT Politics.
The “Divergent” actress has joined thousands of activists in recent months calling for a permanent ban on an oil pipeline that would carry crude oil across sacred lands, potentially contaminating the population’s fresh water source and disturbing sacred grounds.
“From the time we’re little kids, we cut out in cardboard paper pictures of pilgrims and feasts and turkeys, and yet none of our children know the truth about not only what happened to Native Americans when Westerners decided to colonize this country, but what is still happening to Native Americans” she continued. “Thanksgiving was founded on a massacre and yet we’re here with cops and snipers with rubber bullets and I’m sick of it.”
Woodley, with the help of actress Jane Fonda, spent Thanksgiving at Standing Rock this year serving meals to protesters, who call themselves water protectors, to thank them for their tireless activism in the face of increasingly violent clashes with government forces and the harsh winter weather.
She’s right. Kids are not taught in school about the smallpox on blankets, about the centuries of broken treaties or about the way that entire communities were heartlessly wiped out. Instead they’re told a fairy tale about pilgrims and native people sitting around sharing food. I like eating my mom’s stuffing, turkey and pumpkin pie and I like seeing family but what does Thanksgiving stand for? Is it for celebrating genocide because that’s what happened after the pilgrims came. It’s a sh-tty time in the US and all around the world and doesn’t show signs of abating. This is supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year and yet all around us is dread and fear. We are supposed to protect the water and land and yet the president elect promises to open our resources wide up to dying fossil fuel industries all while being too ignorant to even acknowledge climate change. We were taught the false narrative of Thanksgiving in our youth and soon all we will be fed from the press are false narratives. There’s no easy answer but we can keep talking about it, we can keep exposing the truth and we can keep listening to people on the ground like Shailene.
We stand with Standing Rock and you can support the cause here.
Photos credit: FameFlynet and WENN
THIS. ALL OF THIS. The amount of people on my FB feed this morning who I have had to educate on the REAL meaning of Thanksgiving (because they were making fun of “liberal ideas”–LONG, RACIST, TRUMP-Y, RAGE INDUCING STORY), is astounding.
Yep! My in-laws are NOT charmed by my kids talking about the truth at Thanksgiving. My youngest is only 6 and told grandma she should talk about what really happened and not “whitewash” it. I about died laughing.
That’s a good kid you got there SW.
I agree thanksgiving is another BS holiday that we were brainwashed with. Thanks fully we don’t really celebrate it…my mom cooks but we don’t observe. This year we observed by donating to Standing Rock.
Fight the good fight. The militarization of the police and media blackout echoes every BLM protest of the last two years
PARENTING WIN!!
Have to take the wins when you can, because next time it might be a parenting fail! lol
I went to public school in the 1970s and 80s and we were taught about the true origins of Thanksgiving, as well as the many crimes committed against first peoples. It’s nice that Shailene just got woke, but this has hardly been buried information.
That is awesome.
When you are talking about people you have “had to” educate, consider using the correct pronoun. “Whom” is a pronoun that replaces objects and “who” is a pronoun that replaces subjects. You had to educate them, so they are the people whom you had to educate.
Also, I agree with Megan: I learned about this in the ’80s in school. I honestly didn’t know that people didn’t learn about the real origin of Thanskgiving.
Each family has to decide when it’s time to tell their children about the atrocities committed by colonization. I woke up to all atrocities when I became educated late in life- in my 40s. I wasn’t conservative before, just in survival mode and couldn’t afford the education. My children grew up with traditions that are now dispelled, but I still wont’ let anyone shame me into telling them “the truth” just yet. They are older and slowly we can work together for a better world. I just told my older daughter about the pipeline because one of our crazy friends is up there protesting. I say crazy because she doesn’t even use a vacuum in her home because of being “natural” or whatever. My point in sharing this is that the liberal progressives need to take it easy on those of us who are just truly of the working class and late on all information. I’m doing my best to understand and change- albeit at my own digestible pace.
Just so y’all know all the facts, the pipeline people offered the Native Americans 10 million dollars to go run the pipeline under their lands. They were JUST FINE WITH IT, but wanted something like 50 million dollars instead, so the pipeline people decided to go around the tribal lands, laying the pipeline under land that they legally bought and own. Furthermore, the pipeline is miles away from their water, and where it crosses is downstream of the water, so even if the pipeline broke (the chance of that being remote, but yes, anything is possible) it wouldn’t reach their water. Again, the tribe had no problem with the pipeline running directly under their lands, but they wanted more money so now the pipeline is going around the tribal lands.
I think Rich Hall’s documentary about how Native American culture has been misrepresented says it all. Thanksgiving is one of many ergregious things misrepresented even AFTER you know about the pilgrims/settlers.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lheXnx02JYE
The Army Corps of Engineers said it is “closing the portion of the Corps-managed federal property north of the Cannonball River to all public use and access effective December 5, 2016,” according to a letter sent to the tribe, signed by district commander with the Corps, John W. Henderson.
my prays are with the Water Protectors.
The Army Corps of Engineers has also delayed issuing an easement to allow the pipeline to go forward. The Corps is a pivotal player in this fight and not blindly issuing the easement is reason for hope.
Ugh, CB, that last paragraph. I was thankfully out of the country during the election and back just in time for Thanksgiving. This almost makes me want to consider becoming an ex-pat. The family we were visiting are happily disconnected from a lot of US news, living on a sailboat. Sounds pretty good right about now.
Obama is still president–why has he sat on the sidelines, watching this play out?
because he’s the same as every other politician, he just needed you to think otherwise until he was on his way out the door.
Exactly. Obama is still president. Why is he just acting like a spectator.
In September, his administration halted production, temporarily. The went around a federal court ruling I think. If I were him, I’d have a zillion lawyers dotting every “I” to make any legal action bullet proof because if the next administration.
I remember that. I do wonder though what he can actually do to stop this? His hands have been tied throughout his presidency on even the smallest issues, this is a huge issue with a lot of money involved for a lot of people who only care about money and don’t care about the water or Native Americans. Can he just write something up and say it’s not happening and have it stick?
I heard a rumor that he has the power to make the reservation a national monument. Of course I always cut him slack because of the republican dominated congress…but I wish he’d just GO THERE and protest with Jane and Shailene.
I love Obama and will miss him dearly but but no means is he a perfect president. That one of the reasons it pissed me off so much when people said Hilary has faults. Ahem so does Obama.
I don’t know…I’m wondering if it was just a matter of not wanting to undermine the Army Corps of Engineers. In Obama’s defense, he stopped the Keystone Pipeline and no doubt, that will be overturned once Trump gets into office.
At the very least, Obama should be addressing what is happening there and protecting the protestors.
The situation is a complicated mix of state and federal issues. Obama has no jurisdiction over state issues. He has tried to influence the federal side of things to the greatest extent possible.
Obama was able to kill Keystone because it needed to originate at the federal level.
That’s my understanding too, Megan.
Perhaps but he could be more vocal about the violence against the protestors – the PD is dosing out some pretty harsh treatment and that takes a lot for me to say since I generally give them the benefit of the doubt but what’s going on over there is BS. We know that Trump or Giulianni will crush them like bugs so the least Obama could do is raise more awareness…. we are one effed up country.
Politicians are all the same. Obama could do something: he could use the treaty that exists that proves the land belongs to the tribes. He keeps saying he will let it play out a few more weeks. Until someone else loses an arm? While they’re spraying water (with droughts on, no less) on protesters, and shooting them, and attacking their horses? Kendrick Eagle, whose life story was a great prop for Obama, has reached out to him, asking him to help. No response. He’s like all of them: just a lot of talk. So was Hillary. Trump is utter s—, but he’s blatant about it. Obama should be putting things in place NOW. He can say tribes deserve “a seat at the table”, but he can’t allow them their own land and clean drinking water? I tell my kids that Thanksgiving has been turned into a family holiday, but it started with the pain of others.
I don’t know, I learned all of that in school. The small pox blankets, trail of tears, the century of abuse. I was in middle/high school. I don’t think my young children are taught that but I can’t say that is necessarily age appropriate (in a school setting). They do Native American studies and learn more about the cultures.
I’ve never known anyone to personally use Thanksgiving to glorify settlers or piligrams. I think for the most part it’s an American tradition of getting together to eat and every 4 years fight over the election 😜.
This…I grew up in Mississippi which is one of the most racist states in the country (if not THE most racist state in the country) and we still learned all of this…how the white people f*cked the Native Americans over by stealing from them and taking advantage of their generosity and continue to do so to this very day.
I’ve never celebrated Thanksgiving thinking “Yay pilgrims and Indian equality” but more like “Yay a day off of school and food.”
Trump is our president elect. We have to admit that the country does know that Thanksgiving is racist but don’t care at all. Many people LIKE being racist. They don’t want to change.
Maybe we’re not stupid. Maybe we’re just bad.
Is it not caring though? Can you acknowledge what the settlers did to the Native Americans and the horror and still use the time off to enjoy your family and traditions? It’s not like those traditions include handing out small pox blankets, its eating with family and traveling and taking time off.
Thanksgiving isn’t an American holiday, it is rebranded as such but almost all cultures had some sort of harvest celebration, just as almost all cultures had a winter celebration that has been rebranded as Christmas.
To me, you can care deeply about these issues and still enjoy the long weekend with your family.
I travel through Mississippi a lot and feel for you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I probably would have guessed that one of the Carolinas (or maybe even Texas) would have been the most racist.
Why is it age appropriate to tell young kids a complete lie about the meaning of Thanksgiving that gets embedded in their psyche when they’re in Preschool. Then as an aside later on in one chapter of a history book mention all the atrocities Native Americans faced as if they happened long ago and were fixed?
Well, first of all I wouldn’t say it’s a complete lie. Settlers and Native Americans worked together well and didn’t. History is nuanced.
Age appropriate education in the classroom means what kids can grasp, handle (both academically and emotionally). You give them parts of the story as they grow in their education so that by the time they are adults they have the whole picture. Or as close as possible.
I don’t believe in white washing, I tell my children as much as the truth as I can. But you don’t start with a pre-k student dressed as a turkey and say “kid, let’s talk about genocide before we eat some green bean casserole”. Why would you? What does that mean to a young child? They can’t conceptualize death and a permenant thing until much later.
Same thing happens with wars, the young kids learn about WW2, learned we won, later they learn about the bomb and the camps.
But there’s a difference between detailing to them the atrocities, and saying “unfortunately the white settlers betrayed the indigenous people and took their land, and did many other terrible things”. There’s no reason why even a five year old can’t be told that something bad happened – you don’t need to go into deep detail.
And I mean – let’s be real. There are children in many classrooms who are of Native descent – how is it not inappropriate to gloss it over as a fun time for everyone when those kids’ ancestors were on the receiving end of such BS.
Juluho it’s mostly a lie. The vast majority of interactions between Native Americans and settlers were acrimonious in some fashion. From Columbus on. The small amount that weren’t get amplified to myths that are mostly BS. It’s sort of like telling young children that Germans and Jews got along great during WW2 then later on mentioning the Holocaust in passing. There are ways to be honest with young kids without scarring them for life.
@Erinn, I completely agree. There are age appropriate ways to explain almost any subject that doesn’t require completely leaving out the bad bits. I think you are Canadian, right? I saw a CBC news segment last year about a daycare in BC that is teaching kids about residential schools after the educator was inspired by the Truth and Reconciliation Report. It just goes to show that you absolutely can teach young children about these things.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/vancouver-daycare-teaches-residential-schools-1.3243358
Thank you, Lee1. I am searching the library as I type this. My class has a strong sense of right and wrong. They deserve to know the truth. I try to tell them the truth without terrifying them. Same with Columbus Day. I tell them it’s nice we have a day off, but it was originally about a guy who came and hurt the people already living here and then he stole their land, and he doesn’t deserve to be celebrated. And I tell them the feast is nice, but the Pilgrims did the same thing. And I use the word genocide with my actual offspring.
Keep up the good work Jenn12! You sound like a fantastic teacher! You are doing great things for your students and helping to encourage a more sympathetic and well informed world in the future for all of us. Kudos to you!
When you have a child who needs to trust the world- you’d feel differently about telling them all about atrocities over which they have zero control. REally- don’t judge the parents here. A stary eyed child is so vulnerable, and thrives on trust- even magic and hope. I believed that a “settled” and trusting child would be the most robust physically and emotionally, so I’ve taken my time informing my kids about the more harsh irreversible aspects of humanity. An old friend of our family’s is up at the pipeline with her 10yr old- we have different parenting styles.
Thank you, Lee1. That means so much! I already took out When I Was 8, thanks to you. I try to strike a balance of not scaring them, but telling the truth.
My kids learned the truth about the early settlers fairly early on in school. We use the day as a day to give thanks for what we have and to give to others where we can. If something good can come out of a troubled time in history, then so be it. I didn’t grow up in the United States so I can’t say what people my age were generally taught about Thanksgiving.
+1 I did grow up in America and it was/is the literal same for me,Paranormal.
That’s what I was thinking too. Surely I can’t be the only one who was taught about Trail of Tears, etc.?
It seems that Thanksgiving uses some of the imagery of Pilgrims/Native Americans for kids, but for a while now it has become a generic holiday that is about being thankful for your family and friends. I don’t know if I want to discourage that. Don’t make perfect the enemy of the good, you know? At the same time, I do wish there was more discourse about the CURRENT treatment of Native Americans and what can be done to make sure they are being treated justly.
+1 Juluho to all of that. I learned it by 5th grade if not earlier. Idk where kids don’t learn that. And mine was 80s/90s, too.
I saw the photos of the poor woman whose arm was injured. And the young girl – 13, I think? – hit by a rubber bullet and who may lose an eye. This is awful. Lord knows we have our own problems here in Britland with the policing of demonstrations but RUBBER BULLETS? I think Northern Ireland and the Troubles is the only time we have sunk that low. I hate, hate, hate state violence against protest.
I donated at the weekend. Usually, we send all our donation money to local homeless and poverty charities for the lead up to Christmas at this time of year but we had followed Shaun King’s link to the Standing Rock Amazon wishlist. It was full of BODY ARMOUR and GAS MASKS. FFS. It broke my heart and I honestly sat and cried. But I bought some stuff.
The thing that hit me the hardest was seeing side by side pictures of black protestors being blasted with water cannons in the 60s compared to Native American protestors being blasted with water cannons in 2016.
It’s just state criminality, isn’t it?
It’s horrible. And the police tried to blame her injuries on protesters mishandling a propane canister afterward.
It’s infuriating! These people have suffered enough. Kudos to Shailene to use her fame to continue to spread awareness. Is this story still being ignored by the large media outlets?
I am reading “White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America,” by Nancy Isenberg. The biggest message I’ve taken from it so far (I’m not finished yet) is that the U.S. is an incredibly unreliable narrator. I mean, No duh, Eggy Weggs, but still.
I couldn’t get into that! Granted it was my third trimester and my attention span was waning, so I’ll try again later, but what’s the least reliable narrative thread?
Also, is there a country on the planet that tells the truth, always? I doubt it.
Pretty much all countries try to “whitewash” their history to make it more palatable.
It’s the same here in Australia.
The main problem (that I see) is that so many people that don’t actually understand the role of information, understanding and empathy in their lives and in society. They think that too detailed re-tellings of the past tries to make them feel guilty and they don’t want to feel guilty. They don’t understand that you can actually learn about history, including the horrible tragic stuff, and move forward with understanding, empathy and the knowledge to make decisions on how to (attempt) to end the inequality that has occurred.
You might learn something at school (the facts) but the way it relates to your life (turning facts into knowledge, understanding and empathy) is a by-product of the way you are raised, your education level and your personality. Don’t think that just because school might teach this, people know this.
One of my favorite reads is ‘Lies my teacher told me’ by James W Loewen. It goes into the many inaccuracies that are regularly taught to students each chapter goes in to one lie that’s regularly taught as fact regarding historical events or figures. There’s also ‘A People’s History of the US’ by Howard Zinn.
I’ll head to those next. Thanks, @Luca76. @Betsy — I agree, it’s kind of touch and go for me, too, but my attention span is crap and I don’t have the excuse of being pregnant.
Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the US” was a required read for my AP US History course and it was amazing. It was the type of literature I was already into, of course, there were distractors.
I just can’t with conspiracy theories. I’m all about factcheck.org. I don’t want my head filled with fear based propaganda or theories about history. Enough.
Welp, I taught whatever I wanted in public schools in the US and that happened to be the narratives of women, black and Native Americans.
I think critics should qualify this to read something more like, “People in parts of the country where there is a strong culture of conformity are taught false narratives (because they are only given one narrative of anything, ever).”
Public schools in California did a great job with black history month. As a Canadian export, I knew little specifics about black history and learned so much.
They do learn (closer to) the truth these days. And the smallpox blankets and genocide had nothing to do with the first Thanksgiving, aka when Native people saved our white azzes because we didn’t think to send, you know, farmers or people with other practical experience.
Shout out to the delightful book 1491. That book was an amazing trove of what they think actually existed pre-contact. Short version of part of it: Europeans were able to get a toehold only because diseases (not just the biggies like smallpox) traveled ahead of them, brought in part by livestock that the Spanish released. Basically the Spanish unknowingly dropped that bomb and other white colonizers up the coast landed in a depopulated world, otherwise they would have been dealt with by Native populations much differently one assumes.
“1491”: another one on the list. Thanks for the reminder. 🙂
It starts small and simple. My 5 year old asked, “Mom, why do we call Native Americans Indians sometimes?” “We don’t. Men from Europe were trying to sail to India. They landed here and it looked like the right place to them, so when they met the people, they called them Indians. They were mistaken. It’s like someone was looking for the Smiths next door, came to our house instead, and continued to call us the Smiths, instead of apologizing for their mistake and asking for our correct name. It’s just the wrong word.”
Come teach me your parenting ways! What an appropriate analogy.
I said the exact thing to my kids. They really clung to that- though Indian gets thrown around today for our American Native People- is the word “indian” making an acceptable come back?
That is an awesome analogy.
I agree with her 100%. I have never celebrated Thanksgiving. It’s nothing one should celebrate. It’s horrific what was done and is still being done to Native Americans.
I am so filled with admiration for Shailene.
She’s amazing! Love her!
I’ve taught my kids the truth about Thanksgiving, the truth about how the American Indians were and are still treated, slavery then ( from all walks of life) and how it does still exist today and the absolute truth about the factory farm industry. If I cannot explain it then I try to find a good documentary about it. I try to teach them about most things and there are some I do not know and do my best.
I refuse to have my kids find out the truth like I had to in college. Talk about an eye opener to the world. Omg!! I felt so lied too by everyone. I couldn’t stop gathering info.
“American Indians” ??
Yuh, we have different parenting styles. IMO children can’t or shouldn’t have to bear the burden of atrocities so that they fear the world. They need trust and to believe in magic so they develop hope. Kids can’t change anything so why pile that negativity on their developing brains? Also I told my children the mistake about “Indians” – the ding dong explorers thought they were in India. So we clearly have different developmental ideas.
The young lady who may potentially lose her arm was injured with a concussion grenade that the police aimed directly at her, not because of the water hoses. They literally blew out her muscles, flesh and nerves. On another note, I’m glad to see the amount of commenters who have invested in teaching their children the truth.
Littlestar, do you have children?
Has anyone watched the Warn Springs documentary? It’s about the small tribe beating the US military and keeping their land.
Lov her! wonderful human being.
I’m glad that this received so much social media news on Thanksgiving. I am truly sadden at the Civil Rights parallels. Others are labelling this 2016 Birmingham treatments. It’s atrocious treatment and I don’t even understand how more cannot be done. I saw a video the other day of Police Officers asking a couple of protesters to leave a restaurant because “they were disturbing those who are trying to eat”. So infuriating to see history repeating itself. The Officers used their authority and had them aggressively removed. The protesters were clearly in their early 20s at best and females. The Officers called them over, after seeing pins on their clothing and asked to “talk to them”. Amazing.
I’m in tears after watching the video. I too am sad this Thanksgiving. Sad that the people who are natives to this land are treated so
Viciously.
Trump isn’t President. Obama is. This is happening under Obama.
But this is about the state government anyway.
Obama could stop this. He could recognize the treaty of 1851; he could do something about the easement. He chooses not to, but he sure as hell was ready to wear the ceremonial garb and take photos with the tribes when it suited him. Hillary is as bad as he is, and Trump is utter scum, but it’s almost a relief that he owns what a POS he is. And before anyone starts crap, I voted Hillary. Not because I thought she was the best choice, but because I hoped she was the lesser of two evils. Most awful election ever. Both sides are reaching out to Obama because he CAN do something. He is choosing not to.
Correction to the post. From what I read and saw, the protester who is going to lose her arm is losing it because she was hit by a concussion grenade thrown by Police, not because of the water cannons. Shrapnel was pulled from the girl’s arm at the hospital, and empty concussion grenade canisters were found at the site. I don’t understand why police are lying about this.
We can still celebrate Thanksgiving as a traditional family holiday filled with good food and gratefulness for what we have. At the same time, we can also use this holiday to teach children about history and to lend their support to uphold Native American rights now and in the future. This is a great time to support Standing Rock and bring more attention to the cause. I wish there was more to do to help, but it is clear that neither the current president and the future president care about Native Americans or have any intention of blocking this pipeline from being built. The most nationally recognized politician who has spoken out against the pipeline is Bernie Sanders.
Sooooo…the REAL real history of Thanksgiving is that it was not started until the Civil War period and was recognized as a set national holiday until Abraham Lincoln decreed it in 1863 as a day to try and be thankful for what remained during a brutal war, a day to try and be hopeful for the future of the country. It has absolutely nothing to do with Pilgrims and Native Americans. I know that is the little story that gets told but I get really crabby whenever people try to drag my favorite family holiday- one of the few that isn’t totally destroyed by crass consumerism- by saying it’s history is tainted. The history of thanksgiving, as a holiday, is actually totally fine. If we want to be angry about something it shouldn’t be the holiday itself but the inaccurate mythology that was built up around it for no reason.
with trump’s environmental policies we are officially so screwed. as Chomsky says- we are running to the cliff.
Shailene is at least bringing a spattering of attention to something that should be FRONT and CENTER in the national conversation.