For whom was this holiday created? Expatriated Brits.
While I do enjoy the benefits of the society that celebrates this day, and I fully respect those who wish to celebrate, I find it rather hypocritical of me to do so, being Native American.
Now, don't get your panties in a wad, I know most of you are U.S. Citizens and are very patriotic about it, but a lot of your ancestors were not, and they came here and decided to settle this seemingly unoccupied land (never mind the indigenous race that was already here.) If you think about the mindset of the British empire at that time, it was simply their standard modus operandi.
More below the orange filigree.
I grew up in a mainly white world, unaware that my heritage was slipping away. My mother tried to encourage my interest in the Native world, but she was just as entrenched in the one we shared.
Holidays were fun then and I didn't give a single thought to the origins, but now I do. Now I must. This particular day doesn't mean much to me, in that even if the British had not invaded, I would still be here. My ancestors were here. We were overlooked, made victims of land theft and displacement. Our culture was crushed and almost obliterated by the expatriated Brits. They brought us disease and arrogance and then treated us as lower than beasts.
So why should this day be a special one for me and my fellow Natives? We have no homeland to return to, free of the tyranny and arrogance that took ours, and we're still overlooked as a group of citizens, having to prove at every turn that we are indeed this nation's First People.