Native American Heritage Month Braided With Thanksgiving
Wind, smelling of wood smoke rattles the yellow leaves off the peach tree. I adjust my glasses, button my coat. My son bounds from his classroom to greet me. Eyes filled with brown warmth, he peeks out from under a cap of shiny dark hair; it's the kind of black that shines red in sunlight.
"Mom, something about this isn't right." He is holding a construction paper headdress fashioned with hot pink and purple feathers. I nod, and run my hand through his hair, pushing the bangs off his forehead. Out of the corner of my eye I see children clutching construction paper pilgrim hats.
With his eyebrows curved in question marks my sons asks, "Have you ever seen an Eagle with pink and purple feathers?" And then we both giggle at the absurdity. It's both funny, and not funny. My son understands the seriousness of regalia, but at age seven it's not his job to carry the weight. As his mother that responsibility belongs to me.
November, the season of damp leaves, slanted sunlight and Thanksgiving is braided with Native American Heritage month. What started at the turn of the century to recognize The First Americans simmered on the back burner until 1990, when President George H. Bush approved a joint resolution designing November as "National American Indian Heritage Month." Similar proclamations have been issued each year since 1994. But thus far, the majority of those I meet within mainstream America continue to be unaware there is something to acknowledge other than the story of "The First Thanksgiving."
I say this not only in sorrow, but in disbelief.
Why do so many parents, families and teachers continue to dedicate the month of November with a focus on perpetuating this myth year after year after year?
Native people are connected to history, to family, to land, culture and community. We are still alive. We are still here; we have not disappeared into the past, like the pilgrims did. All of the Elders I know tell me Native People have been giving thanks for as long as people have existed. After the corn was all dried, pumpkins sliced and the wild plums brought in it was a time for "giving thanks." When the food was together for the hard winter months and when the work was all done, they gathered.
Yet after the "Thanksgiving" holiday was coined and continues to be celebrated based on a story that does not include factual Native American history, "Thanksgiving" has become a time of mourning for many Native People. It serves as a period of remembering how a gift of generosity was rewarded by theft of land and seed corn, extermination of many Native people from disease, and near total elimination of many more from forced assimilation. As celebrated in America "Thanksgiving" is a reminder of 500 years of betrayal.
I'm within the assemblage of American Indians whose family and Native friends celebrates Thanksgiving. But our focus is not on pilgrims. We don't turn their lives topsy-turvy by making lengthy lists of things needing to be done for what has come to be known as Turkey Day. We aren't in the throng of those who go commercial in the planning and then grumble about the fanfare involved. Our celebration is deep-rooted in the simple tradition of honoring, remembering our ancestors, our history, with a focus on celebrating the harvest. We feast and pray for the healing to begin. Our thoughts turn to the Wampanoag people.
Each year when the platters of cracked corn, green-chile turkey soup and the pies are brought out, I remember my grandmother's words. "Child," she said, "We're Indians, our culture has been scattered into odds and bits, yet Indian People are determined to keep our life ways alive."
Since no one knows when the "first" thanksgiving occurred, if it were up to me, I'd dedicate the entire month of November focusing on National Native American Heritage, to teach the rich histories of Native Peoples, and I'd let the pilgrims have a day all of their own, in December.
Jennifer Chrisler: Giving Thanks for Family
Nil Zacharias: The Times They Are A-Changin': Vegan Thanksgiving Recipes (SLIDESHOW)
Robin Gorman Newman: Thanksgiving Tradition
Whenever I think about how white Europeans destroyed native cultures in America I also remember how the native people in the Bahamas introduced tobacco to Columbus and how he took it home to Europe and how many people it has killed since then. I realize that even though every last one of those Bahamian Indians were wiped out, they got their revenge and still do.
Some people like to talk about slavery and oppression but know nothing of Sand Creek or Pine Ridge or the countless other events when US troops rolled in with guns, sometimes on the top of trains and let loose. Some peoples will never forget the events around their people's genocide but do not recognize the millions that were slaughtered in the formation of this country and the lives lived by so many disenfranchised on depressed reservations. Some think all Indians are rich because of Casinos.
Most do not want to be reminded or hear it but this country was founded on the simple fact that an entire way of life and millions were slaughtered in order for this country to be built on their bones. It would do a lot of people good to go visit a reservation, one in the Western U.S.-Pine Ridge, Four Corners, Wind River, Spokane, and perhaps the Makah. Then go sit down and think about how hard your life is and the injustice that has been done to you and your people. It might help put things into perspective.
While it is natural to be a proud member of a number of groups, we should take care to u
Peace.
We are many cultures, and will be one people when all cultures get the same regard; we are all important. I would add that being pro something does not mean anti something.
“If not for oral history, my uncle would not have pursued the history that became the 'Roots' project.”—Alex Haley
Through history, the domination of one culture over another has been played out time and time again. The statement implying to move forward is a valid one, but I feel it comes from a belief of one people’s philosophy overpowering another. This is how the west was won, but I suggest it is not how we move forward in the 21st century.
The inclusion that creates the patchwork society we live in is our strength. There is rarely a day that goes by that I am not aware of the sobering fact that the land I walk on was once Indian, then Spanish, and now American. As we move forward as a people, I believe it must be done collectively as opposed to a mindset of “I’ve got mine, go get yours”.
We are at a crossroads in this country. With the domestic and international challenges that lay before use, the luxury of time is not on our side. As a people we have an opportunity adapt to changing world. I grew up in a mainly white dominated society and from what I see around me, things are changing. The socioeconomic riptide we find ourselves in has shaken us all. America has been, and always will be a “work in progress”. Let’s keep it that way.
Maybe we should simply acknowledge our violent past and endeavor to rise above it, rather than wallow in the crimes of our forebears, eternally shackled to crimes we had no part in. What's done is done. Now look to the future.