TRUTHSGIVING:
A STORY OF UNGRATEFUL TAKING
This week, tables across the country will be filled with food, laughter, and family. But while many gather in
gratitude, A Long Talk invites you to sit with a different kind of truth. One that doesn’t erase, soften, or sanitize.
We call it TruthsGiving—an unflinching look at the ungrateful taking that gave birth to this holiday.
David Two Arrows Vanderhoop, a Wampanoag elder, reminds us what this day meant through Indigenous eyes. “In
1621,” he recounts, “there was no Thanksgiving. It was gunfire, drinking, partying. Our leader, Massasoit
Ousamequin, sent 90 warriors to investigate.”What they found wasn’t unity, but suspicion. “We knew,” David says,
“these people were not to be trusted. They came, they killed, they stole land, they enslaved people.”
There was no turkey. No harmony. No shared table. The myth came later—packaged in 1863 by Lincoln to
distract from civil war and fabricate unity. That myth still papers over genocide, theft, and the ongoing erasure of
Native people.
So what do we do with that? We disrupt the lie.
This isn’t about shame. It’s about courage. About telling the truth—even when it’s inconvenient. “We can’t keep
telling this lie,” David urges. Silence perpetuates white supremacy. Truth disrupts it.
You don’t need to be a historian. Speak at your level of understanding. Invite discomfort. Make room for
questions. Most of all—listen. “There will never be a neatly packaged way to tell the truth,” said Kyle Williams,
ALT’s co-founder. “Because once it’s processed, it becomes something less.”
So don’t process it. Proclaim it.
We’re not asking you to cancel your meal. We’re asking you to reclaim its meaning. Let your table be a place where
truth is welcome—where someone like David Two Arrows would feel at home.
Make this year honest. Make it informative. Make it different. Make it TruthsGiving.
#truth #honesty #love #compassion #forgiveness #SystemChange
