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Thanksgiving perspectives Bridging the gap Students from Haskell discuss Native American perspectives of Thanksgiving
Haskell senior Nathan Taylor explains Native American perspectives on Thanksgiving in a classroom on the campus of Haskell Indian Nations University.
Photo by Julianne Kueffer
By Matt Bechtold mbechtold@kansan.com
Grandma's home cooking, catching up with family, football games and full-blown food-induced comas. These are the things that normally come to mind when many of us think of Thanksgiving Day.
But students at Lawrence's Haskell Indian Nations University have a much more somber view of this holiday.
It's easy to argue that Thanksgiving Day has lost much of its original meaning. Today, it's little more than an excuse to gather the extended family and have dinner together. While spending time with family is certainly valuable, this holiday has become an overly romanticized and commercialized story that is insulting to many Native Americans.
Unlike Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny, the story of the "first Thanksgiving" is one that continues to be perpetuated in our collective notion of history, long past the age when we learn that Santa doesn't exist. The grade school plays depicting happy Pilgrims and Indians bear little resemblance to the history that we aren't taught until much later.
Derrick White, Lawrence senior at Haskell, says the meaning of Thanksgiving changed for him when he became a student at Haskell and began his academic pursuits in Native American history.
"I started shifting my focus from giving thanks on that day for the things that I have to give thanks for the people who have fallen before me and the legacy that they've passed on," White says.
Marei Spaola, Rapid City, S.D., junior at Haskell, says his perspective on Thanksgiving is that it's a holiday that people know about but not one he celebrates because it's someone else's holiday and doesn't really have meaning for him.
Robyn Neswood, St. Michaels, Ariz., senior at Haskell, says many families make the most of their time off from school and work during Thanksgiving by spending it together.
"I don't really think Indian people are going to totally protest this day. If we have a chance to spend some time off with our family, we're going to take it," she says. "Family comes first for Native Americans."
Tila Salas-Brooks, Crescent City, Calif.
freshman and student ambassador for Haskell, says she celebrates Thanksgiving with a feast just like everyone else.
"But we're more thankful for other things, like the fact that we weren't wiped out, that we're still here," she says. "I feel like we're underappreciated, and because of the pain and struggles our people have gone through, we created a holiday that nobody really understands."
Dan Wildcat, faculty in Indigenous and American Indian studies at Haskell and a Yuchi member of the Muskogee Nation of Oklahoma, says he thinks that considering what Thanksgiving means to Native Americans is a positive direction to take.
Neswood says she has a son in a predominantly white elementary school and feels it's important for elementary schools in America to tell the story of Columbus and Thanksgiving from an American Indian perspective.
"That's something that's not done today," Neswood says. "I know that some schools in Lawrence are looking to Haskell students to
come in and explain our points of view to the kids when it comes to those federal holidays. I'd like to see more of that in the future, and maybe that could help curb the romanticism when it comes to Thanksgiving."
It's unlikely that Thanksgiving Day will ever be the symbol of unity and cooperation that the "first Thanksgiving" story was intended to commemorate.
Instead, both Wildcat and the Haskell students suggest that perhaps a new holiday is in order, so that a clean slate could leave those hard feelings behind.
"I wish they'd quit considering November as the one month of the year that we'll deal with Indians." Wildcat says. "It would be much better if we had a sense of the heritage and history of the first Americans every day of the year."
There seems to be an awkward divide between students at Haskell and those at the University of Kansas. Thankfully, more programs and cooperative efforts are taking place. One way to bridge the gap could be as simple as taking a class at Haskell.
"You know that you can bridge it and come down here. That's available for KU students," White says. "I have several KU students in my Western Civ class who come and take classes through Haskell because it gives a completely different perspective on what you're learning."
The way the next generation will act toward each other can only be improved through education on both sides of the issues.
"I think re-education and education of truth at a young age is what's going to be the thing that really changes this country;" White says.
"I had a lot of rage when I was younger," says Nathan Taylor, Red Lake, Minn., senior. "But the older I got, the more I began to understand. Once you break into it, you find out who you are. Then you work from there, work for that better day, work for the betterment of our children, the betterment of our people, the betterment of our interace relations. That's all we students can do."
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November 20,2008