‘It is a day of recognition and mourning of the genocide that has happened against our people. It’s a celebration of our resilience and recognition of the scarcity of our First Foods.’
Main image: Lukas Angus, Nez Perce, practices a smudging ritual with his 4-year-old daughter Ramona. "Thanksgiving is one of these holidays that came about through colonization that I’ve been a part of through indoctrination — being an adult you see the lies," Angus says. "I gather with my family, but that tradition comes from our ancestors always gathering and being thankful for our harvests.” Photo by Alex Milan Tracy / Underscore News
Hundreds of volunteers attended the Wapas Nah Nee Shaku Unthanksgiving Garden Work Party at the Native American Youth and Family Center’s (NAYA) community garden in Portland, Ore., on Nov. 24, 2022, to spend the holiday in reciprocity with the land and solidarity with the local Indigenous community.
Attendees performed a multitude of land-tending tasks, including weeding vegetable patches, tilling the earth and digging roots. They also sorted seeds and completed art projects throughout NAYA’s ever-expanding garden, set upon the historic Chinook trading site of Neerchokikoo.
Photographer Alex Milan Tracy asked attendees what Unthanksgiving means to them. Here’s what they had to say.
Alana Kent, of the Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians, and René Ruiz embrace as volunteers are given a rundown of tasks to be performed. Kent says she “is against the colonist holiday, and to be able to be with members of the tribe while reclaiming this season is essential to healing." Ruiz says “whenever I give thanks I always mention what happened in the past. Being an immigrant of European descent, I’m trying to understand the colonization within my own family.” Photo by Alex Milan Tracy / Underscore News
Sofia Naasuk, Iñupiaq: “I was adopted and spent the last few years reconnecting with my birth family. I started volunteering this year to get back to the culture and reconnect with my roots.” Photo by Alex Milan Tracy / Underscore News
Elora Silverwhip, Chippewa Cree Assiniboine Sioux: "It is important to create new traditions within our community to honor our ancestors through meaningful connections.” Photo by Alex Milan Tracy / Underscore News
Alba Mae Veenhuizen, 3, holds up an earthworm as she helps her mother Melissa dig out roots. Melissa says, “I’m trying to reconnect with my roots as my mom’s family is Navajo. None of us have been tied to the culture, so I am trying to start a new meaningful tradition for my daughter and I.” Photo by Alex Milan Tracy / Underscore News
NAYA Community Health Worker Program Coordinator Jennie Brixey of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma introduces the garden to volunteers attending the Wapas Nah Nee Shaku Unthanksgiving Garden Work Party on Nov. 24, 2022. The garden exists where there was once a Chinook trading and fishing village known as Neerchokikoo. Photo by Alex Milan Tracy / Underscore News
Paz Lazo pulls yarrow roots from the ground. "My mom is Indigenous from the Peruvian Andes. It’s a complicated history," Lazo says. "I was born in the U.S., but have a multi-ethnic background. For me, it’s impossible to ignore the historical significance of this day, but it is important for community to gather here.” Photo by Alex Milan Tracy / Underscore News
Sarah Thomas prepares perennials for transplanting. About Thanksgiving, she says: “It’s not really a holiday that’s worth celebrating. I feel good being selfless on a very self-indulgent day and want to respect the people who were here before me.” Photo by Alex Milan Tracy / Underscore News
Diana Suarez: “It feels so good to be with community and to give back to the land. There is physical land and body land, and being in relationship with both, along with the greater community, is empowering. Food sovereignty is incredibly important. The land wants to give us food and medicine, so it’s important to be together to know how to do this.” Photo by Alex Milan Tracy / Underscore News
Volunteers are welcomed to the Wapas Nah Nee Shaku Unthanksgiving Garden Work Party at the Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA) community garden in Portland, Ore., on Nov. 24, 2022. Photo by Alex Milan Tracy / Underscore News
Ola Onipede came to the garden to help sort and save seeds. “Because of colonization, I don’t get many opportunities to work with the righteous inhabitants of the land,” he said. Photo by Alex Milan Tracy / Underscore News
“I’ve always had a big problem with Thanksgiving and see it as a white supremacist holiday," Riley Pittinger says as he moves logs. "I’m also bothered by the consumerism. And so instead of expressing negativity, I came to work in the garden to provide a positive expression.” Photo by Alex Milan Tracy / Underscore News
“My grandma is from Mexico and I’m trying to deepen my connection with her and to my own roots," Javier Rivera says as he uses a broad fork to break ground. "I always had a green thumb but never knew why until I looked into my family and discovered the connection to the land. We are taking back and decolonizing through planting.” Photo by Alex Milan Tracy / Underscore News
Community garden volunteer Mick Rose, Diné, performs a smudging ceremony to welcome volunteers to the Wapas Nah Nee Shaku Unthanksgiving Garden Work Party at the Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA) community garden in Portland, Ore., on Nov. 24, 2022. Photo by Alex Milan Tracy / Underscore News
Jamila Wilson came to the garden with her daughter. “I don’t think we’ve ever really looked at the perspective of the Native people until recently," Wilson said. "I want to honor the ancestral knowledge that exists in all of us, but also acknowledge how we came here.” Photo by Alex Milan Tracy / Underscore News
Nic Francisco, who is native Hawaiian, says “it’s important that my actions match my beliefs. I don’t believe in the American empire and I want to work with people in resistance to that.” Photo by Alex Milan Tracy / Underscore News
Erin Zipper, Chickasaw Nation, says “it means a lot to be in relationship with the land and all beings that make this place a home with a larger community of people.” Photo by Alex Milan Tracy / Underscore News
Lucy Suppah, Warm Springs and Shoshone-Bannock, kneels among the Three Sisters garden. “It is a day of recognition and mourning of the genocide that has happened against our people. It’s a celebration of our resilience and recognition of the scarcity of our First Foods. The changes in the weather have affected our gathering abilities and so we have to look to new ways to cultivate our foods in order to keep the traditions alive.” Photo by Alex Milan Tracy / Underscore News
Alex is a photojournalist based in Portland, Oregon, working throughout the Pacific Northwest and further afield. For the past eleven years, he has worked as a freelance photographer and videographer, supplying content to publications such as The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, TIME, CNN, National Geographic, The Washington Post, CBS, ABC and NBC. View more of his work here.
