November 18, 2021
Dear LREI Community,
Thank you to all who participated in our community gathering focused on Native American Heritage Month and a discussion of the traditions and myths surrounding our celebration of Thanksgiving. Thank you to Director of Equity and Community Kalil Oldham and to our colleagues Chloe Smock, Momii Roberts, and Charlene Cruz-Cerdas for their participation, and to our special guest, Aaron Carapella, for his contributions. The recording of this gathering can be found on the LREI Connect Resource Page. As I thought about this program, I found it helpful to think about it from the “I perspective,” as we are often encouraged to do.
I love Thanksgiving. I always have; everything about it. I love a good touch-football game and we have had one with neighbors for 15 years. (That said, I am not a college or pro-football fan, but that is a topic for another letter.) I love the hubbub that leads to the meal. I enjoy the planning that leads to the hubbub that leads to the meal. My family begins planning in September. We are into it. And, of course, I love the meal. The food for sure, but the meal most of all. There are few things I enjoy more than cooking for friends and family and then enjoying a long, lingering meal, and next Thursday’s will be the granddaddy of all long lingering meals thus far this year. Warm, delicious, cozy, loving.
As I reflected on Tuesday’s presentation and conversation, it became so very clear that what I value about the Thanksgiving holiday is quite distanced from the historical events that took place 400 years ago; the events that were the genesis of this celebration. Somewhere along the way, during my grade school years most likely, I am sure participated in a school-based project that at the very least celebrated this myth, and more likely added to the injury it causes indigenous peoples. Thankfully, over time, I have been able to gain a truer understanding of the relationships between the Pilgrims and the indigenous peoples on whose land they landed. Our home, our table, our gathering, and customs do not celebrate the Pilgrims. Not in the least. That said, neither do they recognize the harm and the violence visited upon the indigenous peoples of Massachusetts. So while I may not be actively adding harm, my silence protects the harm and allows it to continue. I am doing nothing to repair the harm already done nor to mitigate the ongoing injury experienced by native peoples.
What to do? As I learned on Tuesday, there are many things to do. First, I am writing this letter to you. On Thanksgiving, I will share a land acknowledgment with my guests. I have included three below and encourage you to choose one and to share it at your celebration, as well. I will call out any references to the myths of Thanksgiving that are shared at my table and offer my guests resources to learn the truth about the interactions between the Wampanoag and the Pilgrims in 1621. I myself must learn more, much more. I am sure that there is more to be done and I will look for these actions in the future.
How important is it to make amends or change behaviors today in response to historical bigotry and racism? Do we have to atone for the sins of our ancestors? I don’t feel responsible for what happened to the Wampanoag people 400 years ago. I don’t think anyone is asking me to take on this responsibility nor to feel guilty. I am responsible for learning the truth about the past. I am responsible for acknowledging that I do benefit from the theft of the lands of the native peoples. I do. Everyday. I do so as a leader of this institution and I do so as a homeowner in Brooklyn. I do so as a consumer of energy.
If the past is not my fault, I have to embrace that the future, on the other hand, is most assuredly my responsibility. I have to acknowledge the current benefits that come from past wrongs. I have to take responsibility for my choices and actions going forward and for being part of the righting of past wrongs even if I was not responsible for them. I am, we are, not personally responsible for the past harm. I do and we do, however, share responsibility for our fellow humans now, and in our shared future.
I offer some resources below. I hope you find them helpful.
Peace and hope,
From Kalil Oldham, Director of Equity and Community:
- Now This: “The Origins of Native American Heritage Month”
- National Museum of the American Indian Youth Panel: “(Re)Telling the American Story”
- National Museum of the American Indian Video: “The Invention of Thanksgiving”
- Howard Zinn, “Indian Resistance and Thanksgiving Declarations”
- Zinn Education Project, Native American Activism, 1960s to the present
- Blog: 10 ways to make your Thanksgiving celebration about justice
- Twenty #ownvoices children’s books about Native Americans and First Nations Canadians
- Our Favorite Children’s Books by Native Authors
From the Washington Post – This tribe helped the Pilgrims survive for their first Thanksgiving. They still regret it 400 years later –
Aaron Carapella – Tribal Nations Maps
Land Acknowledgements:
This land acknowledgment was written by the third graders in the 2020-2021 school year:
We want to acknowledge the Lenape, who lived on this land before us.
We thank them for taking care of this land where we now live and learn.
Their story is the foundation of the story of New York City.
Meaningful, yet simple and straightforward:
We gratefully acknowledge the Native Peoples on whose ancestral homelands we gather, specifically the Munsee Lenape as well as the diverse and vibrant Native communities who make their homes here today.
Having a Zooms-giving? This land acknowledgment has been used at a number of Parents Association digital events. It is adapted from one written by Adrienne Wong:
Since our activities are shared digitally to the internet, let’s also take a moment to consider the legacy of colonization embedded within the technologies, structures, and ways of thinking we use every day. We are using equipment and high-speed internet not available in many indigenous communities. Even the technologies that are central to our lives have significant carbon footprints, contributing to changing climates that disproportionately affect indigenous peoples worldwide. I invite you to join me in acknowledging all this as well as our shared responsibility: to make good of this time, and for each of us to consider our roles in reconciliation, decolonization, and allyship.
Want to learn more about honoring native lands? Ana Chaney, middle school principal, suggests beginning here.
Want to learn more about the indigenous peoples who lived and live where you will be on Thanksgiving? Check out this site.