Thanksgiving is one of the more overlooked holidays when it comes to commercialization, but still holds a special place in many American hearts. The holiday is known for its abundance of food, quality time with family, and being thankful for all of the good things in life.

A popular belief among the public is that thanks is given in honor of the indigenous people who taught the pilgrims the skills they needed to survive in the New World, such as growing corn. In reality, Thanksgiving celebrates a history of racism, genocide, and imperialism.

What actually happened, according to the Mantaka American Indian Council, was the pilgrims invaded America, raided a Pequot town located in present day Groton, CT on the morning of the native people’s Green Corn celebration. The pilgrims then slaughtered 700 members of the Pequot tribe and set the village on fire. The survivors refer to the attack as the Pequot Massacre while the settlers called it “A Day of Thanksgiving.”

“When you sit down to dinner this year, look at your family, serve the food and tell each other what you are most thankful for, think about the origins of Thanksgiving. Think about the countless Native Americans who lost their lives so you can carve a turkey and get the best deals on Black Friday. Say a prayer for them, especially the children, who died simply because of the color of their skin,” Nicole Breedlove wrote in the article “Happy National Genocide (Thanksgiving) Day!” for the Huffington Post.

“We’re certainly not against giving thanks. As indigenous people we give thanks every day … The issue here with the Thanksgiving holiday as celebrated in the United States is that it perpetuates this myth that the wonderful Pilgrims came here from Europe and were so kind and good to the Native people who were here and lived happily ever after,” Mahtowin Munro, co-leader of the United American Indians of New England, told finalcall.com.

The harsh and unfortunate truth is often concealed through lies spread by the public education system. In elementary school, students would read picture books about Tisquantum, more commonly known as Squanto, teaching the invaders how to grow corn and Thanksgiving being born as a way of saying thank you to him.

Celebrating genocide and imperialism is never okay and while it is unlikely that Americans will stop celebrating Thanksgiving completely, the least that can be done is to stop spreading dangerous lies and acknowledge the truth.