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“Like other holidays, including Christmas and Columbus Day, Thanksgiving is not based on historical accuracy, but rather on the importance and prevalence of maintaining a consumer culture”, Pewewardy, who is a member of both the Comanche and Kiowa tribes, said on Tuesday.

Saying that Thanksgiving is based on the importance and prevalence of maintaining a consumer culture, is a big, unsupported assertion. It appears to be his heavily biased opinion.

In 1621 colonists in New England gave communal thanks and praise to God for his abundant mercies and blessings. They were aware that they could not have survived their first year without the help of God. Help came through the Indians.

This communal thanks became a tradition. In 1863 Thanksgiving Day was proclaimed a legal holiday. We ask that each person’s gratitude to God may bear fruit in loving service to neighbors.

That is what Thanksgiving is about Pewewardy, thanks to our ancestors, yours and mine, and an inspiration to continue loving service to our neighbors.