Thanks, but No Thanks: Things This Indian-American From Cleveland Is NOT Thankful for This Thanksgiving Day

While I am indeed thankful for some things this Thanksgiving Day, such as my family, my job, and so on, there are things I'm NOT thankful for this Thanksgiving Day.
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While I am indeed thankful for some things this Thanksgiving Day, such as my family, my job, and so on, there are things that this Indian-American from Cleveland is NOT thankful for.

1. That one element of this national and quasi-religious celebration is the slaughter and exploitation of the indigenous people's of the "Americas."

2. Columbus' colossal error in naming those people.

3. All of those people who asked me "What tribe are you from" when I told them I was Indian.

4. All of those people who embraced their ignorance and called me a "spearchucker" in elementary school in order to insult me.

5. Those people who ask me about the "tribes" in India.

6. Having to make and wear "Indian head-dresses" with construction paper in elementary school.

7. Having to tell people that we were not the "woo-woo-woo-woo" Indians, in reference to, and to distinguish ourselves from, the battle cries of stereotyped Hollywood "Indians" in John Wayne type "westerns."

8. Having to tell my kids that they are Indian-Americans and not American-Indians.

9. Chief Wahoo.

10. Being a Cleveland Indian.

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