On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, as I have for the past 20 years, I will see a parade of elementary school students pass by my house wearing construction paper headdresses created at school and arrowhead-shaped name tags emblazoned with their whimsical “Indian names.” This practice will constitute a large portion of their education about Native peoples and cultures. As a Wisconsin Ojibwe woman, I have nothing against Thanksgiving; we celebrate it annually in our adopted home here in Ohio. Giving thanks and feasting with friends and relatives is a longtime Ojibwe tradition that spans the entire year. I am deeply ambivalent, however, about the national holiday of Thanksgiving. The ongoing practice by many public schools of using the Thanksgiving myth as a basis for “teaching” students about Native history and culture continues to exasperate the hell out me. Even with the rich resources available to educators from the National Museum of the American Indian’s Native Knowledge 360° project, my local schools continue their outdated love affair with Thanksgiving. Schools in some states are trying to do better. States such as Washington and Montana have mandatory laws about including Native American history and culture. Meanwhile, in several states such as Wisconsin, Minnesota and California, Native American educators and citizens are pushing for greater inclusion of Native American history and culture in curriculum. Native peoples continue to be placed firmly in the past tense, part of an ancient, primitive bygone era. For most Americans, if they think of Native peoples at all, it is usually in association with the dubious, consumer-driven feel-good story about pilgrims and Indians sitting down together for a Thanksgiving meal.
Read More on the Story
Mary Annette Pember:
Enough Thanksgiving Myths. Schools Should Teach Indigenous History.
(Truthout November 22, 2018)
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