Native American women marching with signs
MFP Voices

U.S. Native American Population Increased 87% Due to ‘Racial Shifting’ Whiteness

The Native American population in the U.S. grew by a staggering 86.5% between 2010 and 2020, according to the latest U.S. Census—a rate demographers say is impossible to achieve without immigration. Birth rates among Native Americans don’t explain the massive rise in numbers. Instead, individuals who previously identified as white are now claiming to be Native American. This growing movement has been captured by terms like “pretendian” and “wannabe.” Another way to describe this recent adoption of Native American identity is what I call “racial shifting.”

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Artistic vision of pilgrims and Native Americans eating at Thanksgiving
MFP Voices

The First Thanksgiving Is a Key Chapter in America’s Origin Story

This year marks the 400th anniversary of the first Thanksgiving in New England. Remembered and retold as an allegory for perseverance and cooperation, the story of that first Thanksgiving has become an important part of how Americans think about the founding of their country. But what happened four months later, starting in March 1622 about 600 miles south of Plymouth, is, I believe, far more reflective of the country’s origins—a story not of peaceful coexistence but of distrust, displacement and repression.

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