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.
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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/)