Natives' Complicated Relationship to Thanksgiving

Reflecting on the gift of being adopted into a Crow clan, at the same time of the holiday that recalls North America's first Puritans rejecting the invitation to live as part of the Wampanoag people.

Encountered this interview from NYC ARTS on the lovely Erica's blog.

The Neverending Circle Documentary from Victoria Prieto on Vimeo.

An interesting short video about bringing Native culture to today's classrooms and communities; about preserving their cultures and demythifying Native peoples through education and expose.

Excerpts from Q&A: Native Americans' Complicated Relationship to Thanksgiving
Cliff Matias, cultural director of the Brooklyn-based Redhawk Native American Arts Council, spoke with NYC ARTS about Thanksgiving, which often conjures a deceptively rosy snapshot of the history between Puritans and Native Americans. Beyond overcoming misconceptions about the past, one of Matias’s challenges is to bring to life the realities of Native Americans’ existence today.

Q: How do you feel about Thanksgiving?
A: Thanksgiving is a mixed message for native peoples. Of course people all over the world had such harvest ceremonies.  People who depend on the earth are very thankful to grow a crop. You never know what nature will bring. Native Americans had festivals for green corn, apples, strawberries.

Q: Many people think Thanksgiving has its origins in a feast that Puritan Pilgrims and members of the Wampanoag nation shared in Massachusetts in 1621.
A: Thanksgiving is not a Native American ceremony. The Thanksgiving holiday Americans observe today on the third Thursday of November was created by Abraham Lincoln in 1863 as a general day to give thanks. Fifty years later, it became a silly story about the Wampanoag sitting with Pilgrims at this one feast.
In fact, in 1621, the Wampanoag brought about five deer, among other things and watched the Puritans drink and shoot muskets. The Wampanoag wanted to adopt the Pilgrims and have them live as Wampanoag. Within 50 years, almost three-fourths of the Wampanoag were decimated through disease and the European style of warfare brought to their homeland.

Q: Do you or other groups have a presence in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade?
A: Thanksgiving offends some indigenous people so we choose not to get involved. The Wampanoag in the Massachusetts area have a day of mourning. They fast on Thanksgiving and have a sunrise ceremony to remember ancestors who didn’t make it.
Thanksgiving is an American holiday, not a native one, but we’re proud to be Americans. Indigenous people have the highest per capita percentage of people in the armed forces.  We defend the land that our ancestors are buried under. This is still our homeland.

Q: How will you personally observe Thanksgiving this year?
A: My family uses it as a day to come together. We also have a moment when we think about our ancestors and brothers and sisters who are no longer with us. Abraham Lincoln thought we should give thanks. In the Civil War, even Northern troops shared with Southern troops on that day for some peace and harmony. That’s what I think of Thanksgiving as.
~~~
This is exactly how I thought of talking about Thanksgiving at school this year: complicated. I was curious what the Apsalooke (Crow) people would make of it, being an indigenous community- how they would recognize it. And what I found was no different than how I have always experienced Thanksgiving: as a time to come together with family and friends, share in their company, and give thanks for being together. That is the message of Thanksgiving that the Indian communities around here celebrate.

Erica explained it so eloquently: "Every Indian family I know on the rez is currently together with family celebrating Thanksgiving. This is not a community of activists, protestors or angry, jaded people. it’s a tight-knit community of Native American familes who have welcomed me, shared with me, loved me, laughed with me, despite the history, conflict and colonization that has forced them to live where they do. Thanksgiving is not a day of mourning here—and I feel confident saying the Indian families I work and live with would agree that Thanksgiving is an American holiday, not a native one, but we’re proud to be Americans." (http://bloomingtogether.tumblr.com/)

Clan Day (Exciting news!)

Today was Clan Day, where people can be adopted into clans and clan members offer give-aways to receive prayer and wishes for wellness and success.

I was adopted into the Ties the Bundle clan! Garla, our principal, adopted me into her family, so now her two sons are my brothers.

In the Crow clan system, you are of your mother's clan and are the child of your father's clan. So I was adopted as a Ties the Bundle and a child of the Big Lodge clan.

When you are adopted, the person traditionally presents the person they are adopting with a gift, usually a blanket, shawl, or piece of jewelry. Garla presented me with this gorgeous bracelet. It's beautiful and every time I wear it I will be reminded of my welcome into the Crow family.


Thanksgiving in Ashland, tomorrow!!

First grade discovers Photo Booth...

Plus, our bowling-with-water-bottles subtraction lesson,

...featuring Kermit the Frog? Typical.

And finally, for Thanksgiving...

"I am thankful for food." The illustration is of his family hunting in the mountains for said food. Yep, must be in Montana.

Bye, green waterbottle...

... you served me well.

Rex got a hold of my trusty water bottle at recess.... such a tragic end!

RIP... You've been a great water bottle.

Oh well, at least this is a good reason to get one of the "anti-bottles" that I recently heard about from vapur. They're convenient and even more eco-conscious than hard bottles. (Pssst, Mum- did I mention it's small and foldable, perfect for stuffing in a stocking or something? ;) )

That time we went to Crow Fair...

Check out pictures from Crow Fair 2011 that I just finally published on this past entry here.

"Children are sacred. They are closer to the creator. Society has not yet ruined their spirit. The elders tell us that children are sacred."
-Spoken during Saturday's Grand Entry, Crow Fair, August 2011

Native American Day

When I was looking for pictures of the school to go with my post about Saint Xavier, I found pictures from Native American Day back in September that I never posted.

To celebrate at Pretty Eagle, all the classes joined in a parade up the main road, we shared a lunch of stew and frybread with families that came, and we had a school Pow Wow during the afternoon. It was the best day!


Kids came to school in their traditional dress... so many beautiful handmade pieces


Classes piled on pickup trucks for the parade.


Kindergarten's float riding down the road.


"Bring your horse to school" day?


The kindergarten's Princess and Chief... so cute!


Grand entry to the school Pow Wow


The Collins boys sang a Crow song to start off the Pow Wow, with Colton (the oldest, 4th grade) on the drum. They are awesome!


Two of my first graders push dancing :)


Cleveland, 3rd grader, leading a dance for a give-away to a clan uncle, a tradition of the Crow clan system.

The importance of language

Our Mother Tongues | Crow

"The language is not just words... it's a culture, a tradition, a unification of community, a whole history, and it creates what a community is- it's all embodied in the language; language is central to it. So it's really the revival of a culture and a way of life... it's a central component." -Noam Chomsky, MIT linguist, on the revival of the Wampanoag language (They believe the last native speaker lived over a century ago; now, after a burst of revival effort, a young girl is raised as the first native speaker in seven generations. A language brought back to life. Amazing.)

"What we would like to do, I heard in many ceremonies amongst our people, is to take this way of life into the future, into good times, into celebrations where we can be speaking the stories of our people, speaking in terms of our cultural practices, like clan practices... the stories that define who we are... to the point of where we empower ourselves and liberate ourselves with our identity and maintain this true civilization of who we are as Apsáalooke." -Dr. Lanny Real Bird, Apsáalooke (Crow), professor at Little Big Horn College

http://ourmothertongues.org/

Saint Xavier

Only 12 days until Thanksgiving and it was not even cold enough to need a jacket this morning. It has gotten chilly here (we had our first light snowfall last weekend!) but I've been so appreciative of Mother Nature not slamming winter on us real early like we were told would happen. I would've been so sad not to have a fall season!

I thought I'd finally post some pictures of where I am living in Saint Xavier, MT.


The sunrise painting the sky over the yard.


Our trailer (the building behind it is the church.) That's our front door- Can you spot what is wrong with this picture? :)


One of the teachers lent us this bicycle. I love it! So retro. I love having it to get out and explore.


My favorite spot to ride to is down by the river.


The Bighorn River crosses through Saint Xavier from the Bighorn Canyons down to Wyoming.


Scenes of the roadside.


The road into Saint Xavier from the west.


Walking down Mission Loop (the back road that we live on)


Baxter! Our neighbor Sam's new puppy :)


and Rex, one of the neighbors' dogs who likes to follow us around.


... there's always lots of pups around!

Well, that's Saint Xavier. And that's basically it, besides the school and the post office (which is soon to be shut down, we hear.) Not much to see but a lot to explore.

Whitehall, MT

We traveled to Whitehall, MT for retreat last weekend. We got to get together with the whole Big Sky volunteer region and spend the weekend talking about community with two Catholic Workers from Missoula, a wonderful couple who started the only Catholic Worker house in Montana. (The Catholic Worker movement was started by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin. CW communities work for peace and justice by promoting nonviolence, protesting injustice, and living alongside/in solidarity with people experiencing homelessness.)



We stayed in a beautiful, cozy lodge that was surrounded by birch woods and ski trails that were great for hiking and exploring.






The back porch!


View from the back porch of Homestake Lodge


It was a refreshing weekend to spend time outdoors in the Montana mountains and in the company of so many good friends. I got to spend the weekend with Erica which was a complete joy!



We had a lot of free time to rest, hike, hang out, do whatever- which was much appreciated. I wasn't eager to leave the beautiful lodge and head back to flat old Saint Xavier, but when we did I was reenergized for my community living and service.




Cold! But I was pleasantly surprised that it didn't bother me too much :)


Sunrise from the east... what a scene to wake up to.

On the day after Halloween...

I wasn't even going to attempt to try to present any new concepts with everyone tired from trick-or-treating, masquerading, and sugar highs... so I made use of the Halloween excitement and turned it into a math activity. It was a chance to practice sorting, tally marks, and making up their own number stories, which we've been working on. (Plus it's a creative way to make use of those candy wrappers littered all over the room!)

On the Stonehill website :)

http://www.stonehill.edu/x24854.xml
Three Stonehil alumni have recently embarked on a year of full-time volunteer work with Jesuit Volunteer Corps (JVC) Northwest, continuing to live out Stonehill's mission of compassion and service beyond their time spent at the College.

Julie Albert ‘11 is currently at Orutsararmuit Native Council in Bethel, Alaska. Erica Carmody ‘11 is serving at St. Paul Mission Grade School in Hays, Montana. Janine DiLorenzo ‘11 is also in Montana at Pretty Eagle Catholic Academy in St. Xavier.

"JVC is one of hundreds of programs available for seniors interested in service, says Associate Director of Career Services Kris Silva. "The College's Catholic mission and commitment to service led to the creation of our own post-graduate service program, International Extension, with locations in India, Honduras and the Dominican Republic."

Silva notes there are 30 graduates from the Class of 2011 who are currently in volunteer service programs, both domestic and international.

A total of 141 Jesuit Volunteers (JVs) - 28 returning for a second year - are serving in 20 locales throughout the five states of the Northwest, living in 23 JV communities.

"Our JVs will be making a big impact for the people and habitats they will be serving this year; they will participate in transforming the communities where they serve and they will forever be transformed," says Jeanne Haster, executive director for JVC Northwest.

This type of volunteer work is an extended version of the service being performed at Stonehill through the Into the Streets program and the HOPE trips every spring. Students are not letting their love of service graduate after their four years at the College, but are instead carrying what they have experienced with them into the wider world.

Ablert, Carmody and DiLorenzo were all involved in service to others while at Stonehill. They are now taking a year to explore the needs of humanity while simultaneously caring for the environment and pursuing their quest for spirituality.

Jesuit Volunteers can be found in a variety of urban and rural locations and are challenged to live simply and work for social and ecological justice in a spiritually supportive environment.

Established in 1956, JVC Northwest is an independent, non-profit organization that recruits, places and supports volunteers living in communities across the states of Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington.

This year, the JVs work with over 100 partner agencies across the region in many areas, involved in critical service advocating for refugees, nursing in community clinics, teaching in schools on Native American Reservations, assisting in shelters, and organizing community garden projects, and many more important works. Throughout their year of service, JVs focus on four core values-social and ecological justice, simple living, spirituality and community.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween here at Pretty Eagle on Monday was a blast. In the morning we took grades K-4 trick-or-treating at Crow Agency. They got to trick-or-treat at some tribal offices, the college, the post office, and a bunch of stores and gas stations. It was like a big long trick-or-treat parade.



The first building was totally decorated so it was like walking through a haunted house... so cool!



In the afternoon we had a Halloween party in the classroom (oh man, we had 5 different varieties of cake/cupcakes brought in!) Luckily they got to let out their sugar highs at a Halloween dance in the little community room we have. The kindergarten teacher's husband came in to DJ and they decorated real cool... it was awesome (I think I had as much fun as the kids!)



After school was yet another Halloween Party- the 5th-8th grade kids had a bigger dance in the gym, so we went to help and hang out. Since most of the middle schoolers were 'too cool' to dance, the little kids dance was more fun, but it was still a good time. (They haven't ever had many dances so we're going to help put on a few more this year, like a Winter Ball and Spring Fling and stuff.)



One of the other things that happens around here for Halloween each year are masquerades- they go on for the whole week before Halloween and are a very big part of the culture. We went to the last one the night after Halloween. All I can say is... oh my. It was the most bizzare thing I've ever been to. Participants dress up in ridiculous costumes (mostly young men dressing up like crazy-looking women and stuff their backsides really big) and full-face masks, and they dance around this gym. It sort fo resembles a pow-wow, except they dance really goofy to modern music and try to be the weirdest/funniest dancers. It's hard to describe why it's so funny but I laughed the whole time. They usually pick on audience members as well and one of them made Don come out and dance... it was hilarious!! The middle schoolers he works with won't let him live it down ;)

We sat with one of the families we know from school and bunch of our favorite kids, so it made it even more fun. I couldn't believe there were so many little kids there, all the way until midnight! I was so tired the next day at school but most of the kids had been at the masquerade as well and were still there bright and early. I guess they're used to it! I was so glad we went and could finally understand what their masquerades truly are!


p.s. I was Princess Lolly from Candyland for Halloween... the kids loved it! I made it homemade with an old dance costume. (I'll try to find some pictures of me dressed actually dressed up at school..)