Thank you to our guest blogger, Terra Trevor, for this work commemorating Native American Heritage Month.
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 American 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 Native American’s 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.
Terra Trevor, of Cherokee, Delaware, Seneca ancestry, frequently writes on the topics of motherhood, culture, ethnicity, and her identity as a mixed blood. She is a contributing author of ten books, including Children of the Dragonfly: Native American Voices On Child Custody and Education (The University of Arizona Press) and The People Who Stayed: Southeastern Indian Writing After Removal (The University of Oklahoma.) With her husband she raised three children. Her son was adopted as a baby with special medical needs, and her oldest daughter was adopted at age ten. Terra’s first book, Pushing up the Sky: A Mother’s Story, published in 2006, is widely anthologized. Read an excerpt.
Terra’s Websites
http://www.terratrevor.com
http://pushingupthesky.blogspot.com
Suggested Reading
Deconstructing the Myths of “The First Thanksgiving”
Thanksgiving by Jacqueline Keeler
Native American Heritage Month
About
Melanie Mayo-Laakso is the Web Editor for Mothering.com. Mothering is the birthplace of natural family living and attachment parenting. We celebrate the experience of parenthood as worthy of one's best efforts and are at once fierce advocates for children and gentle supporters of parents.
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The American Thanksgiving Holiday is actually a continuation of a traditional fall harvest festival celebrated throughout Europe for hundreds and hundreds of years. It became a national holiday in 1863, after President Lincoln had been persuaded to do so by Sarah Josepha Hale (author of “Mary Had a Little Lamb”). I just read about this recently, while teaching my homeschooled daughter about Lincoln. I am 35 years old and ,to my shame, never bothered to question the basis for the holiday. I knew that it was an exaggeration, but never went further into it. The kids want to decorate with top hats (like the President wore) and sheep, in honor of Ms. Hale
This summer, we traveled out West from Louisiana. On our drive, we passed through several Native American towns and reservations. My oldest knows the true basis of our country (not an empty land to be filled up, but one whose inhabitants were violently displaced), but I have made sure that they realize Native Americans still exist. Our trip was a great way to show that to them. Sadly, no school I ever attended or taught in shared more than a cursory (and frankly, racist) depiction of Native Americans. We aren’t just insulting the many NA cultures and traditions and people; we are doing a disservice to our children when we alter facts to fit a happy, “patriotic” narrative of America.
Thanks for bringing attention to this. Parents need to demand better from their schools, or at least educate themselves on the truth.
I am only of partial Native American Decent, but what you said about Native people being connected to their history , their family, their land, culture and community resonated in me. These things are very important to me as a new mother. I have often been confused why I felt so strongly about them because they are not the values the my family. Now I believe it is just the Native in me. My daughter is 6 months old and she will know and celebrate National American Indian Heritage Month. Thank you for enlightening me.
Well said, Terra, as always.
: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.:
Yes, absolutely. Sending you thoughts for a wonderful November!
.-= Margie´s last blog ..Some “brooding bad parent” to go with “angry and anti-adoption” =-.
I am only a percentage and unfortunatly I don’t know from wich tribe. it seams as if it was secret. I’ll probubally never know. It is very sad and I am ashamed from what my ancesters have done.
I am going to try to find out how much and from what tribe and my son will celerbrate Native American month as well.:)