Reframing Thanksgiving: Honoring Native Heritage, Facing the Past
We do need gratitude practices more than ever to cultivate inner joy, resilience, wellness, and abundance in these challenging times for our nation and our world.
I wish you and yours a Happy Thanksgiving if you celebrate. May you find the joy and solace of celebration and togetherness in the bounty of Mother Earth and loving heart connections.
Gratitude is such powerful and practical medicine for somatic and spiritual healing as a yearlong lifestyle that I will be sharing more throughout the holiday season, especially as this can be a tender time for many. Remember that you are a sacred being loved beyond measure by your Higher Power and deserving of that love from yourself.
Thanksgiving is a holiday with a historical legacy that deserves a second glance. It gives us the opportunity to look deeper on many levels. I invite you to continue reading…
“To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way that we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others.
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This is where the heart can hold different perspectives from a place of love and compassion, empathy and respect.
The Thanksgiving holiday in US culture has been a way for us to slow down and focus on enjoying the “fruits of the heart” such as counting our blessings and spending quality time with family and friends while coming together to cook and enjoy feasts.
These days, many people don’t reflect upon or acknowledge the original inspiration for the holiday, the supposed historical harvest friendship meal between Pilgrims and the Native Americans of the area, the Wompanoag Nation. Also known as “The People of the First Light”, they have lived in the area of the northeastern woodlands including Massachusetts for more than 12,000 years.
Gratitude practices on a daily and seasonal basis along with harvest feasts were already regular traditions of the Wompanoag and many Indigenous cultures long before any contact with the Pilgrims.
For many Native Americans, Thanksgiving as a historical holiday, is a day of mourning and protest, not a celebration. It is often seen as a reminder of the centuries of oppression and genocide that followed the arrival of settlers in North America. The Wampanoag people, especially, are impacted by the legacy of betrayal and bloodshed marked by this day.
National Day of Mourning
In 1970, the United American Indians of New England (UAINE) established the National Day of Mourning on Thanksgiving “to honor Native ancestors and the struggles of Native peoples. On this day, people gather to remember and protest the racism and oppression that Native Americans continue to experience.”
Some Native Americans may also choose to participate in Thanksgiving by, for example:
Sharing a large meal with family and friends
Wearing traditional clothing
Volunteering and supporting others
Supporting Native cultures
Some practices ways to honor and support Native cultures on Thanksgiving and beyond may include:
Recognizing that Indigenous peoples are very much alive and here to stay
Saying a prayer with family and friends before the meal giving thanks to Mother Earth for this bounty and honoring the Native peoples as the First Nations of this US nation-going strong now, recognizing the history and legacy
Including dishes like Three Sisters Soup (a soup made from corn, beans, and squash-the main 3 crops of many Native American nations), recognizing the traditional foods like turkey, mushrooms, walnuts, wild rice, pumpkin and squash
Sharing the children’s book Keepunumuk: Weeâchumun's Thanksgiving Story by Danielle Greendeer, Anthony Perry, Alexis Bunten, Garry Meeches Sr. (Illustrator)
Working with Native growers to use heirloom beans, squash, pumpkins, and corn varieties
Learning about and discussing contemporary Indigenous issues
Supporting Indigenous peoples, organizations, businesses
Some Indigenous Organizations to Support:
https://grandmothersvoice.com/
https://www.grandmotherswisdom.org/
“What you see from an open heart is far more inportant than what you see with open eyes.”
