Thanksgiving history taught in classrooms is often whitewashed. We asked Indigenous people what everyone should know about the holiday -- and how non-natives can be better allies.

Thanksgiving is often celebrated in the United States as a time for gratitude, family, and feasting. The narrative taught in schools and popularized in the media paints a harmonious picture of the Pilgrims and Native Americans sharing a peaceful meal in 1621.

When the first settlers arrived in Jamestown in April 1607 and raised a cross at Cape Henry, claiming the land for England, they may have had a thanksgiving predating their first known observance in 1619. In that year, Berkeley Hundred was settled, one of a number of plantations granted by the Virginia Co. of London to its stockholders.

While the 1621 feast wasn’t called “Thanksgiving” at the time, it set the stage for a holiday that would become a cornerstone of American culture. The modern version of Thanksgiving was proclaimed a national holiday by Abraham Lincoln in 1863, during the Civil War, as a time to unite and reflect.

Thanksgiving has always been a conflicting time for me as an Indigenous person. Teachers spoke of gratitude and cooperation, but no one ever asked me, the lone Native student in my class, how I felt about it.