Rev. Mindi Welton-Mitchell – Regional Executive Minister
When we think of November, we often think of Thanksgiving. While we may think of this holiday as a long-held tradition going back generations, did you know it was only in 1941 that Thanksgiving was set on the fourth Thursday in November in the United States? Though Abraham Lincoln declared a national day of Thanksgiving in 1863, according to the Library of Congress blog, President Andrew Johnson forgot about it until December in 1865. Before that, it was a less formal declaration, and James Madison proclaimed it in September in 1813 and March in 1815. It appears our long-standing traditions are not as long-standing as we might think.
Thanksgiving has a lot of mythology around it. The Potawatomi Nation has facts about the myths of the origins of Thanksgiving on their blog. Most of us know that “the first Thanksgiving” really did not happen the way we were taught in elementary school. That by the time the Wampanoag and the Pilgrims may have come together for a feast (it’s still disputed if this actually happened), over 90% of the tribes of New England had been decimated by disease brought by colonists to the “New World.” Though many associate Lincoln’s declaration in 1863 with a moment of hope for unity in the midst of the Civil War, the declaration came after the assassination of 38 Dakota men at the end of the Dakota War.
It is important for us as Christians to be truth-tellers, and to find the real reasons to give thanks. We give our thanks and gratitude to God who is our Creator. We give thanks for the wondrous diversity of life and all of God’s children. As Christians in the United States, we recognize that colonizing Euro-centric Christianity has at times brought unbelievable hardship, suffering, and death for Native Americans as well as for enslaved Black Africans. We give thanks that the message of Christ is a liberating message, that in Christ “there is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). We give thanks that the true meaning of Christ as one who frees us from sin, from the ways of this world of power over and domination, continues to prevail.
This November, may we all learn to be truth-tellers. May we listen to our Ho-Chunk family (Indian Baptist Church is in the Ho-Chunk Nation) along with the Potawatomi, Mohican, Chippewa, Menomonie, Oneida, Ojibwe, and many other nations, some not federally recognized such as the Brothertown Nation. We can learn more by visiting the tribal websites as well as resources from the Wisconsin Council of Churches: https://www.wichurches.org/indigenous-justice May we give thanks to the Creator of us All, and that the message of Christ continues to be one of freedom and hope.