For the past few years we've been on a journey of seeking the truth. Being homeschoolers we have all the time we need to research the truth. Sometimes not an easy task to do! No more public school history B.S. for us! In doing so, we've learned many things about the beginning of this country, the true meaning of the holidays. It's getting harder and harder to just go with the traditional flow of things.
My husband being half Ojibiwa Indian and our children quarter blood. We have a hard time embracing a traditional Thanksgiving. Every time I hear the story of the pilgrims and the Natives happily sharing a Thanksgiving meal together I have to cringe. (no hard feelings toward anyone with bloodlines running way back to the first white settlers, it's all good.)We celebrate a bit different. We do have the turkey with the trimmings...as it's my favorite meal of the year. And yes, I know there wasn't a smidgen of turkey on that first Thanksgiving table!
We celebrate it as a Ghost/Harvest Supper, honoring our past loved ones and being thankful for what the Great Father has been so gracious to give us during the past year.
Oh, did you know that November (gashkadino-giizis/freezing moon) is Native American month and November 27th is National Native American Day? I think we'll have our Ghost Supper on the 27th. which is a Friday.
Well, I wanted to give you a few links to the Native American Month proclamation from the President for 2009 and some posts on our homeschool blog from last year... but for some strange reason, (a blogger gremlin or a grumpy pilgrim spirit, I'm assuming.) I cannot link or paste anything on this post. Weird!
6 comments:
I descend from the Mayflower pilgrims and I totally understand! We know what Pizarro did in South America; we know what the white settlers did in the U.S. Spanish and British imperialism at their worst.
We look at Thanksgiving as part of our heritage, but I ALSO believe in teaching my son about how those once-friendly relations (all that the Wampanoags did for our ancestors, and vice versa) went sour.
I've had the same feelings since I'm part Native and usually we just focus on our family being together since we've been apart on holidays most of our lives and being thankful for having food and shelter. When I think about it we don't really think about the past on Thanksgiving but on the present and our futures together. This year though we should remember how far we've come from years before.
I love it! I just wish the public schools would get a clue!
I do the same as you - celebrate Thanksgiving as a day (or month) of gratitude for our ancestors, and our blessings. I have no fluffy ideas about how this continent was 'found.' Good for you for teaching your children the truth.
Having said that...I still beleive in Santa Claus...so the truth thing, as it relates to kids (and grown-up kids) is still a tiny bit blurry in my case!
Like Wendy, we also have an ancestor that arrived on the Mayflower. But I've tried to teach my girls what the first Thanksgiving was really like. Such a difference between the reality and how it is often portrayed!
My hubby and I have some dear friends who are of Native blood, and we celebrate with them, as a day of togetherness, and honoring our friendship, and those of our ancestors.
Thankfully, mine arrived in this country in the 1800 hundreds, and were not pioneers. Hopefully, they were honorable people. I can't control what they did, but I can hope. I can only control myself, and how I respect and care for others.
The truth should be taught in schools, not glossed over, but as facts of history, hopefully to learn to not make the same mistakes.
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