Happy We-Stole-Your-Land-and-Killed-Your-People Day!

This slogan is a modern, anonymous protest phrase used to criticize celebratory narratives around U.S. settler-colonial holidays—most commonly Thanksgiving and, in some contexts, Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples’ Day debates. It circulates primarily in late-20th- and 21st-century activist settings (signs at demonstrations, classroom or campus discourse, social media posts, and satirical “holiday greeting” memes). The line’s blunt, accusatory tone is designed to puncture conventional holiday cheer by foregrounding Indigenous dispossession, violence, and the historical consequences of European colonization in North America. Because it is vernacular and widely reposted, it is typically unattributed and lacks a single, stable first publication.

The quote works as biting irony: it mimics the format of a friendly holiday greeting (“Happy ___ Day!”) while substituting an explicit summary of colonial harms. Its rhetorical force comes from collapsing a complex history into a deliberately stark accusation, challenging listeners to reconsider what is being commemorated and who benefits from the dominant story. As a piece of protest language, it prioritizes moral confrontation over nuance, aiming to provoke discomfort and prompt historical reckoning. The phrasing also signals solidarity with Indigenous critiques of national mythmaking and with calls to reframe public memory away from triumphalist celebration toward acknowledgment, accountability, and repair.