OPINION:
The revision of the meaning of Thanksgiving has devolved into what I consider the most offensive cover in the history of The New Yorker.
The magazine’s latest issue depicts a group of aristocratic Indians arriving at a party given by rowdy fans of the Washington Redskins. The illustrator, Bruce McCall, justifies his work as rectifying the offenses committed against America’s Indians throughout history. “We did everything to the Indians that we could, and it’s still going on. It seems crude and callous. Names like the Atlanta Braves come from another time. So, in my cover, I’ve brought the cultural arrogance of one side back to the 1600s and the first Thanksgiving dinner, just to see what would happen.”
I can tell him what happens for me. The New York cover is out of bounds. It is offensive. It is absurd. It is wrong.
I have no idea whether Mr. McCall has spent much time in Indian communities, but I cut my journalistic teeth on the American Indian Movement in the 1970s. I am far from an expert on the culture, but I have visited reservations as a reporter, including writing about the poverty at Pine Ridge, South Dakota. I covered the 1973 AIM takeover of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, and other protests.
Native Americans have endured much suffering, but the celebration of Thanksgiving does not add to their burdens.
Although the modern meme of Thanksgiving has focused on the Pilgrims and Indians at their 1621 feast in Plymouth, Massachusetts, history provides another take on the holiday. Traditionally, the day has been a celebration centered on God’s generosity, a notion which also might spark a liberal tirade.
The Continental Congress proclaimed the first Thanksgiving in 1777. Sam Adams, the Boston firebrand, reportedly wrote the original draft. As a result of recent victories by the American forces, the Congress declared a day of thanksgiving “to inspire our commanders, both by land and sea, and all under them, with that wisdom and fortitude, which may render them fit instruments, under the providence of Almighty God, to secure for these United States, the greatest of all human blessings, independence and peace.”
President Lincoln officially proclaimed Thanksgiving as a national holiday in 1863, with the Civil War raging. Secretary of State William Seward, who wrote the declaration, underlined the importance of God rather than story of Plymouth.
Lincoln’s proclamation speaks of “the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.”
“It has seemed to me fit and proper that [those gifts] should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people,” the proclamation stated.
Although Native American journalist Tim Giago has written about the numerous problems of his people, he also points out that Thanksgiving has resonance for everyone.
“[T]he day known as Thanksgiving has been accepted as a legal holiday by most Native Americans because the idea of a day to give thanks is such a strong part of their traditions and culture. There are ’wopila’ (giving thanks) celebrations all of the time among the Indian people of the Great Plains,” he wrote in 2010 in The Huffington Post.
Let us decry the offensive cover of The New Yorker and concentrate on what Thanksgiving is really about. It is not a day of controversy about what immigrants did to the indigenous population. Thanksgiving is a day to thank God for all He has done for us — both Native Americans and immigrants of all stripes and cultures — to celebrate our common bonds, our families and our heritage. It has nothing to do with revising history — as The New Yorker would like to do.
• Christopher Harper is a longtime reporter who teaches journalism at Temple University. He can be contacted at charper@washingtontimes.com and followed on Twitter @charper51.
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