I’ve heard so many stories over the years about the true origins of Thanksgiving. So, it is with interest that I read President Barack Obama’s proclamation that was issued today regarding the holiday. Obama tells us the day that began as “a harvest celebration between European settlers and indigenous communities nearly four centuries ago has become our cherished tradition of Thanksgiving. This day’s roots are intertwined with those of our Nation, and its history traces the American narrative.”
If anyone would like to read the full text of Obama’s proclamation, here it is.
Are we all in agreement with this narrative? How many Native people actually celebrate the day.
When I was a reporter at the Daily Camera in Boulder, Colo., I interviewed several Native students about the holiday. They said they didn’t celebrate it because it wasn’t part of their tradition. As for my experience, most of my Lakota and Mandan and Hidatsa relatives cook a turkey and enjoy the day with friends and family.
Jodi Rave
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Lori Messenger
Jodi,
Heather Bruce, a professor of mine as I work to become a certified secondary English teacher, suggested I find you here. I have a small response to your Thanksgiving question, and another question – to do with school work – as well.
In response to Obama’s proclomation, I have been getting a more and more clear picture over the years that there is no real evidence that Native people and pilgrims ever sat down to a feast of “Thanksgiving” together. As a white mother of twochildren, working towards becoming a teacher, I’m doing my darndest to figure out how best to teach this holiday. Lots of evidence shows so many ways Native people helped pilgrims, and many other “explorers” and “settlers” as they came to their lands. Those Native helpers were sometimes treated all right, and were more often treated horribly. Evidently that first winter some Pilgrims broke into and stole stashes of Native people’s food. Beyond this attempt to figure out the real history, it is clear that many communities around the world and on this continent have very old traditions of some kind of fall harvest festival, and community event to give thanks. Maybe this is where we all connect. At least the turkey part makes some degree of sense in Montana, as a wild food (not that most of us get ours that way). Anyway, a big subject, and I’d love to hear what other Montana-dwellers think about the subject.
For my other question, Jodi, I am working on a writing project about the rhetoric surrounding Indian Education for All Policy, and I am wondering if you’d be willing to talk with me as I search for resources?
Speaking of giving thanks, I’m so glad at the moment to live in a state that has funded and is trying to work out a way of carrying out this policy well!
And thanks to you,
Lori
Jodi Rave
Thanks for the response Lori. I will post prominently. Thanks for all your work and for being a tireless advocate for Native peoples.