, Columnist
An American Thanksgiving Story Without Any Heroes
When it comes to the treatment of Native Americans, the U.S. doesn’t have much to be proud of.
“Custer's Last Charge,” June 1876.
Photographer: Hulton Archive/Hulton ArchiveThis article is for subscribers only.
American Thanksgiving is typically seen as a celebration of the cooperation between the English who settled the continent and the natives who helped them grow crops and saved them from starvation. It is a story about how multicultural cooperation and private-property incentives, both strong American principles, can boost a harvest.
But as Thanksgiving 2019 approaches, I am struck by another lesson: America’s need to come to terms with a history that, as it relates to the treatment of Native Americans, has remarkably few heroes on the side of the white settlers.