Warning: MASSIVE Thanksgiving thread incoming.

cw: cultural genocide, genocide, colonization

Since it's American Thanksgiving today, and a lot of folks are retelling the old lies about poor pilgrims and friendly Natives, so let me tell you a story. (Info from Indigenous Prosperity And American Conquest, by Susan Sleeper-Smith) https://www.amazon.ca/Indigenous-Prosperity-American-Conquest-1690-1792/dp/1469640589

This takes place in the Ohio river basin. Today, this land produces <30 bushels per acre, but under Indigenous management, it produced 40-70 bushels per acre. Food crops were grown together in the 3 sisters method, and were supplemented by game, wild forage, and fruit trees.

Many tribes shared territory in this area, including the Wea, Wyandot, Kickapoo, Wabash, Miami, Ho-Chunk, and more. This story is mostly about Ouiatenon, a multi-ethnic trading town in modern day Indiana, but there were many villages throughout this area. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouiatenon 

When a village reached 2000+ people, some would split off & found a new village, keeping average pop, per village between 1000-2000. This was seen as most sustainable, both for the environment & for keeping good relationships within the village. Too many people led to conflicts.

These villages were at the center of an incredibly prosperous trade network pre-contact, and saw trade goods from as far apart as Louisana and northern Quebec. Post-contact, though, they FLOURISHED.

The villages provided furs, and traded for new European goods. The most sought-after trade item was not guns or alcohol, but CLOTH and SILVER. Cloth constituted 55.04% of all trade goods in Ouiatenon between 1715-1760. Alcohol was 6.95%, and guns only 0.02%.

All this cloth revolutionized the Indigenous fashion scene, and embroidery, bead and quillwork, and cutwork were all utilized to decorate the cloth. Particularly skilled craftswoman would trade their creations for further wealth.

Much of this fashion revolution can still be seen in modern pow wows.

Silver was also a huge fashion statement. Silver brooches and ear bobs replaced shell/bone decorations. Silver ornaments were so popular that silversmiths were brought over from Europe to keep up w demand.

This roughly 100 year trading period was a cultural renaissance for the people of Ouiatenon. French traders secured the best furs (and kept trading even after the French closed the fur trade) by marrying into Indigenous families...

...and Indigenous craftswomen who were skilled at processing furs could make their families VERY prosperous.

Ouiatenon was a center of trade, of cultures, a place where you could take tea with a mixed Indigenous-French family off of fine china from Europe...

... where an Indigenous man would codeswitch, wearing his traditional garb when dealing with traders from other tribes and wool coat and crevat when trading with Europeans.

THEN. In the midst of this prosperity came the settlers. Now that the British (and soon to be the US...) had pushed out the French, they were not looking to trade, but to settle.

Settlers were worried about "savages" raiding their homesteads while, at the same time, Native villages and their stored trade goods were seen as a quick way to make a buck. Indig leaders had to contend with these raids despite being allies with the British.

Indigenous leaders saw the British as unreliable allies, and vice versa. Alliances were tenuous, and often broken. Misunderstandings were common.

Now, it's 1787. The Northwest Ordinance proclaimed that the Ohio River valley was now part of the Northwest Territory, a part of the newly-formed USA.

Ouiatenon, if you couldn't guess from the name, was originally French, and as late as 1778, was a staging ground for allies of the British government.

Clearly, it had to go.

The first attempt to attack Ouiatenon and neighboring trade town, Miamitown, was led by General Harmar. This was a RESOUNDING defeat. They never reached Ouiatenon, and when they finally reached Miamitown, the residents had fled with all their trade goods.

The army burned the town and it's surrounding fields and orchards before retreating. A force of 1,133 men had been defeated by <600 Natives.

Then, President Washington ordered General Sullivan to "extirpate the unfriendly nations of the Indians... subdue their country, destroy their crops...capture as many Indians as possible, particularly women and children".

This was meant to starve out AND demoralize Native warriors at one blow, driving them out of US territory. He put Brigadier General Scott, a noted "Indian-hunter" in charge of this effort.

41 women and children were taken captive. The town (and several neighboring towns) were burned to the ground, as were the verdant corn fields and orchards. A prosperous trade town and site of a cultural renaissance - burned in a single day.

Today, all that remains is a replica blockhouse of Fort Ouiatenon (set across the river from where the town was), a plaque, and the Wea Plains historical marker near the town of Granville.

Anyway. My point is that there was an era where the US could have chosen to let these vibrant, wealthy trade villages continue to thrive. Could have taxed them and profited off the trade.

But it chose, instead, the path of Manifest Destiny. The path of genocide and subjugation. Of extinction and extermination.

A path that has, through various twists and turns, led to the mess we're in today.

Don't let anyone tell you that Indig people died off from disease and left the US open for settlement. We went kicking and screaming and we're still here today. Despite it all.

Despite what we could have had, together. What we could still build again. If we choose to.

If we turn to Indigenous knowledge and manage the land, together, sustainably. If you trust our wisdom and listen.

Also, I guess it's NOT American Thanksgiving today, oops! But I'm still mad about this today, so.... :p