A few of the friends who attend my Wednesday evening drawing zoom are not originally from the US, and they were curious about exactly what Thanksgiving celebrates, its origins, etc. So I found myself explaining the things I was taught as a child, about the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag sharing a big feast to express gratitude for survival and bounty, that the Wampanoag had taught the Pilgrims to grow corn and crops that would survive in the rocky New England soil, etc. Then I explained the various ways these stories had more recently come into question - That the focus on one day of cooperation and peace had served more or less to culturally erase the frequent violence between these groups and the way the American settlers had displaced Native Americans from their lands. 

I think it's useful and important for us to take a day each year and devote it to gratitude for our many blessings and advantages. I think it's equally important for us to remember the cost of some of those benefits, in life and cruelty.

One of my friends started going to Google images for reference pictures related to Thanksgiving. I warned her that she was going to find mostly pictures of turkeys and pictures of Native Americans that were probably considered acceptable when they were taken, but that would probably be considered racist now. She found some old woodcuts depicting the first thanksgiving, with feather-wearing near-naked Wampanoag folks and Pilgrims in formal clothes, and big tables, etc. She suggested that, since what we were meant to be expressing gratitude for, at least on that day (in addition to the grace of God that had allowed the Pilgrims to survive), the assistance of the Wampanoag - since that was in the origins of the holiday, she said, why don't we try to draw a Native American person in a more respectful way. 

Remember, please, my level of skill is low. Here is my attempt, based on this reference photo:

The model is much much more proportional and symmetric than my drawing, but I think this came out ok.