Native Americans and Thanksgiving

[i.heart.rachel]

Is anyone in your family Native American?

If so, do you/they celebrate Thanksgiving?

Why or why not?

A friend of mine said she is offended by this holiday and will never celebrate it, so it got me thinking... and of course I decided to ask you guys! :)

[omgamomie]

Good question! Bump to read later!

[KyliesMom5]

We can trace our family back to Pocohontis, and we celibrate Thanksgiving.  This Holiday is about Family and friends coming to gether.  

[prego7386]

no not in many generations BUT i have a friend that is half Comanche and he does. Here is the thing most NA i have ran into  pretty much main stream with everything but i have ran into some that are a bit heated still on what happend a while back....so with this its a hit and a miss

[lcbowman]

My mom's side of the family is part Cherokee and we celebrate.  We have pictures back several generations celebrating Thanksgiving.  Maybe because my Great, great grandmother (who was full Cherokee) married into a "Christian" family and just adopted those traditions.  Sorry not much help.

[key2ynot]

My husband and his family is Blackfoot and I have a little Lenni Lenape in my heritage. We take our children to pow wows and dance and teach them about Earth Mother just as much as we teach them about God.  As for Thanksgiving, we DO celebrate it and we look at it this way - in many native cultures, you earn respect by giving without holding back. It's thought that by giving, there will be enough for all.  And isn't that the whole point of Thanksgiving anyway?

As for the suffering of native peoples at the hands of foreign settlers...I look at Thanksgiving as a moment to reflect and be thankful that so many did survive despite that suffering.  And they were able to pass their culture and history all the way down to me and my family.  It's about the survival of a culture - not the destruction of it.  For us anyway.  :-)

[RaynesMommy07]

My father is Native.  Yes we celebrate it...well we all get together as a family and eat.  Do we go around the table sayin what we're thankful for no.  We've been taught that the natives had the best interest in their heart when "thanksgiving" was thought up of...so why think of it in a negative way, just b/c other ppl decided to abuse it?   

[i.heart.rachel]

BUMP

[jesikarabit]

My family is Onieda and we've been having thanksgiving dinner for as long as I can remember. When i was a kid we would have traditional Onieda dishes but as we all got older some of those recipes are gone with the elders. We have always looked at Thanksgiving as a way to be with all the family and celebrate what the earth have given us to eat. For us, there is no Pilgrims and Indians and I try to teach my child that after his teachers fill his head full of crap.

[Klingrrr]

I am 1/2 white 1/2 native american and I do celebrate Thanksgiving. Though it proved to be a horrible time for many Indians I cannot be ungrateful for the fact that I am here. If it wasn't for all of the things that happened in the past then I would never have even been born. It's kind of a messed up way to look at it. The only thing that angers me about the situation is how they tell us to listen in school and do what our teachers tell us only to find out that most of it was a lie. Christopher Columbus didn't discover America! Why? Because the Indians were already here, that's why! Thanksgiving wasn't this big happy celebration. This was actually when the settlers were right in the middle of torturing and killing the native american people. We're supposed to have pride in our country and our states but I live in Oklahoma. They don't teach you about the Trail of Tears in school. I didn't learn about that till I was in highschool taking Oklahoma History which was  a required course.

[Siamesejewels]

 My hubby and my family have native american and we do celebrate turkey day.