Many children grew up listening to the story of the primary Thanksgiving — which marks its four-hundredth anniversary this yr — and the way the Pilgrims and Native Americans sat down collectively and shared a pleasant feast. And in many colleges across the nation, a model of that very same story continues to be being advised.
But the rosy image that’s typically painted of that meal and time interval is way from traditionally correct — and a few consultants say that perpetuating this narrative is dangerous, notably to Native Americans.
“It’s important to provide children with accurate history,” Debbie LeeKeenan, a pacesetter in anti-bias training, lecturer, early childhood guide and creator, tells Yahoo Life. “The traditional Thanksgiving story is told from the white colonist viewpoint. When we do not give the accurate story, we are perpetuating harmful stereotypes and misinformation about Indigenous people — in this case, the Wampanoags.”
Jameson R. Sweet, an assistant professor of American research at Rutgers University who’s Lakota/Dakota, agrees, telling Yahoo Life: “I think any teaching of history needs to be historically accurate, and I think even younger school kids can handle the realities of history, although they don’t need to know the brutal details yet if particularly young.”
Having age-appropriate conversations about Thanksgiving with children can do greater than make clear the historical past of the vacation: “If we can tell more complete narratives, it leads to increased understanding and more curiosity about the world around us,” Renée Gokey, the coed and instructor companies coordinator on the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian and a member of the Eastern Shawnee tribe, tells Yahoo Life. “What else can we understand better? Whose voices are missing? What else should I investigate? How do these events — and even misunderstandings about the history — connect with our understandings today and present situations?”
The actual story of Thanksgiving
The approach the story of Thanksgiving is usually advised, “it makes it appear that early settlers had peaceful relations with the Indigenous people in the region,” says Sweet. “The difficult parts of that history are almost always glossed over in order to uphold the myth of American exceptionalism and erase the inherent violence of settler colonialism.”
So what did occur again in 1621? According to the National Museum of the American Indian: “The First Thanksgiving is often portrayed as a friendly harvest festival where Pilgrims and generic, nameless ‘Indians’ came together to eat and give thanks. In reality, the assembly of the Wampanoag peoples (a Native nation based in Massachusetts) and the English settlers in 1621 was about political alliances, diplomacy, and a pursuit of peace.”
The Wampanoag “shared their land, food, and knowledge of the environment with the English,” in response to the museum. “Without help from the Wampanoag, the English would not have had the successful harvest that led to the First Thanksgiving.”
Despite this, the Wampanoag individuals weren’t invited to the harvest feast. It was solely as a result of English settlers had been firing weapons into the air to rejoice the harvest that the Wampanoag got here to research. When they had been advised it was a harvest celebration, the Wampanoag then joined, bringing meals together with deer.
But that cooperation was “short lived,” in response to the museum, “as the English continued to attack and encroach upon Wampanoag lands in spite of their agreements. Interactions with Europeans and Americans brought accelerated and often devastating changes to American Indian cultures.”
Sweet emphasizes that “young children don’t necessarily need to know the gory details, but they need to know that the Native people [the English settlers] encountered were members of sovereign nations that long predate the existence of the United States and are still here” and that Indigenous individuals confronted violence and the theft of their land. “This inaccurate history completely erases this reality,” says Sweet.
Native American historical past is American historical past. Native individuals are part of our previous, current and future.”Debbie LeeKeenan
This erasure “signals to Native Americans they are not important, that their histories don’t matter and that the long legacies of these wrongs that continue to affect Native communities don’t matter,” he says.
Sweet explains that if dad and mom “only invoke the ‘good’ parts of history and ignore the bad, they contribute to this harmful mythology and participate in the dehumanization of Native Americans.”
When it involves instructing children the actual story about Thanksgiving, it may be exhausting to know the place to start. Here are some methods you can begin speaking to children concerning the vacation in a extra genuine approach:
Ask children what they already find out about Thanksgiving
“It is important to talk to children in developmentally appropriate ways,” LeeKeenan says. “Find out what children already know about the ‘Thanksgiving story.’ What questions do they have about Thanksgiving? That gives you entry points on where to start.”
From there, LeeKeenan says dad and mom and their children can be taught extra collectively to assist reply their questions and counteract stereotypes. An excellent place to start out is by studying books collectively as a household. Cool Mom Picks, for instance, has a listing of kids’s books that have a look at Thanksgiving from the attitude of Native Americans.
Learn concerning the precise historical past
“Learn more about Indigenous history, in particular the Wampanoags,” suggests LeeKeenan. “They were on the land before the Europeans arrived.”
The info you share together with your youngsters might help present a fuller image of the Wampanoags and their important function in serving to the settlers, relatively than as “supporting players.” According to instructional supplies from the National Museum of the American Indian: “The Wampanoag were a people with a sophisticated society who had occupied the region for thousands of years. They had their own government, their own religious and philosophical beliefs, their own knowledge system, and their own culture.”
You may also speak to youngsters about how the idea of “thanksgiving” was removed from new to the Wampanoag and different Indigenous teams. “They were also a people for whom giving thanks was a part of daily life,” famous the museum.
Talk about how not everybody celebrates Thanksgiving
Another approach to begin a dialog concerning the historical past of the vacation is to share together with your children that Thanksgiving is a day of mourning for some Native Americans. For greater than 50 years, Indigenous individuals and their allies have met on the hill above Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Mass., to commemorate a National Day of Mourning on the vacation.
According to the United American Indians of New England: “We are mourning our ancestors and the genocide of our peoples and the theft of our lands” and individuals “honor Indigenous ancestors and Native resilience.”
Focus on the current
Thanksgiving is often the one time children find out about Native Americans in class they usually’re typically portrayed as individuals who lived prior to now when, actually, there are 574 federally-recognized tribes within the U.S., and as much as 5,000 Wampanoag residing in current day New England.
While speaking concerning the Wampanoag round Thanksgiving is well timed, consultants advocate that oldsters proceed the dialog about Indigenous peoples and their tales of “resistance and resilience” all year long — “not just in November [for Native American Heritage Month] or around particular ‘holidays,’ but all year,” LeeKeenan says. “Remember, Native American history is American history. Native people are a part of our past, present and future.”
A great place to start out: Dr. Debbie Reese, an educator and member of Nambé Pueblo, created the net ebook useful resource, American Indians in Children’s Literature, which has a greatest books record. Or you’ll be able to take a look at her ebook options by faculty age right here. And A Mighty Girl has a listing of fifty youngsters books that commemorate Native Americans and their accomplishments.
Look up which tribal lands you at present stay on
Another good dialog starter with children is to search out out which Indigenous teams lived (and should stay) in your space and “acknowledge whose land you are on at this very moment,” suggests LeeKeenan. There are websites, corresponding to Native Land, the place you’ll be able to look that up by coming into your tackle or metropolis after which you’ll be able to be taught extra about these Indigenous teams.
Ask your youngster’s instructor about Thanksgiving lesson plans
Most youngsters be taught concerning the historical past of Thanksgiving at college, so it’s price discovering out what your child’s instructor has deliberate for classes across the vacation. “We can do that in a respectful way, by asking questions and expressing concern if they are perpetuating stereotypes with images, stories, ‘Thanksgiving pageants or plays,’ or examples of cultural appropriation,” says LeeKeenan.
As a dad or mum herself, Gokey shares that she introduced up the subject together with her youngster’s instructor, although it wasn’t straightforward. “I know this can be a hard question — at least it was difficult for me in the sense that I want teachers to know I’m in allyship with them and they should not feel embarrassed or judged since I work at the National Museum of the American Indian and our family is Native,” Gokey says. “I’m one of the only Native American parents in the school. It was important for me to ask in a non-threatening way and provide ideas and support for them, but also ask critical questions of the curricula so our kids feel represented in more accurate and thoughtful ways.”
If you’re feeling snug, LeeKeenan suggests sharing assets with lecturers. For instance, the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Learning for Justice offers info for educators on tips on how to train Thanksgiving in a socially accountable approach, whereas IllumiNative offers lesson plans for educators. And the National Museum of the American Indian’s Native Knowledge 360° Education Initiative offers assets to educators that embody Native views.
Experts, together with Sweet, additionally encourage dad and mom to search out out if lecturers are sharing details about Indigenous individuals all through the college yr. Sweet says that within the American Okay-12 system, in addition to at many schools and universities, college students be taught “very little” about Native Americans past the nineteenth century.
A 2019 report by the National Congress of American Indians helps that: The report discovered that 87 % of state historical past requirements don’t broach the topic of Native American historical past after 1900, and 27 states do not point out a single Native American of their Okay-12 curriculum. Though that’s slowly beginning to change as extra states, together with North Dakota and Connecticut, move legal guidelines that require faculties to show about Native American historical past and cultures.
“Despite this difficult history, the Wampanoag people who met the Pilgrims in 1620 are still here,” Sweet says. “Native people are still here and still have vital cultures. Students need to know that Native Americans didn’t disappear and that they still have rights as sovereign nations.”
For dad and mom, Thanksgiving can function a reminder to have these necessary conversations with children and to begin to change the narrative. “Thanksgiving is a time for families to gather, share good food, and give thanks,” says LeeKeenan. “We can also use this time to tell the truth, and provide a counter-narrative to the harmful myths and learn more about Native peoples.”
