""Do Indians celebrate Thanksgiving?"
I am asked this question at least once every fall. Which, by the way, is too many times.
The answer is that my family (though I can't speak for the other 5 million Indigenous people in America) doesn't. Not the "brave-pilgrims-and-friendly-savages" version of the holiday, anyway. Twenty or 30 of us might gather under the same roof to share a meal. We'll thank the creator for our blessings.
But that could be true of any Thursday night in a Wampanoag house. Wish any of us a "Happy Thanksgiving" today and we're liable to cut you off and say, "You mean the National Day of Mourning?"...
"Fall is the annual middle finger this country gives Native Americans," says Simon Moya-Smith, a journalist from the Oglala Lakota Nation who lives in New York City.
At the very least, it's a disorienting time to be Indigenous. Images of Native people are everywhere: greeting cards, football helmets and elementary school pageants with paper-bag vests and historical imprecision.
At this time of year, it's these long-haired, buckskin wearing presumptions of how Indians should look and behave that get mainstream exposure. Not our humanity."
-- SAVANNAH MAHER, npr.com
No comments:
Post a Comment