As Thanksgiving nears, educators work to avoid serving baloney

Exploring the origins of what’s become known as the Thanksgiving holiday is a hotter mess than most attempts at deep-fried turkey. Many historians point to the gathering between Pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians that’s been immortalized in Jean Leon Gerome Ferris’s 1912 painting “The First Thanksgiving 1621.” (The Natives are all seated on the ground as the white people — and their dog — stand, and the feathered headpieces the Natives are depicted as wearing were actually a Plains Indian adornment, not traditional Wampanoag regalia.)

Part of the problem with pinning down the holiday’s origin may be that the term “thanksgiving” was used countless times in the early colonial period for events that basically went well for the English settlers: harvests, the safe arrival of ships, hunts or periods of prosperity.

One person credited with making Thanksgiving an official holiday is Sarah Josepha Hale, the poet and novelist associated with the nursery rhyme “Mary had a Little Lamb.” Hale was also the editor of a popular periodical called “Godey’s Lady’s Book,” and she wrote about the need for a national holiday to express gratitude, even writing to President Abraham Lincoln in September 1863 to express the extent of support she’d received from various leaders and officials.

Hale implored the president to take official action establishing the last Thursday of November as Thanksgiving, so it could become an “American custom and institution.”

It remains debatable whether Lincoln’s national Thanksgiving declaration issued the following week was in response to Hale’s letter. It occurred on Oct. 3, the anniversary of the Thanksgiving proclamation that George Washington made in 1789. It’s also believed that the sentiment behind it was to help unite a country that was still engulfed in the Civil War.

In June 1870, President Ulysses S. Grant signed the Holidays Act, making Thanksgiving an annually observed federal holiday. In December 1941, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed a bill making the annual celebration on the fourth — not the last — Thursday of November. This is said to have helped retailers by providing more time for holiday shopping.

In the decades since, Thanksgiving has exploded into a commercial juggernaut that blurs reality. Schools often feature Thanksgiving pageants that repeat the romanticized gathering of Pilgrims and Indians feasting on turkey and potatoes (among the offerings that were more likely to be shared: eels, clams and corn porridge). The school celebrations also often have children making feathered headdresses and big hats with buckles (another historical fallacy). The following centuries of war, disease, oppression and relocation are buried deep like so many candied yams under the marshmallows.

So what to do?

Decoteau said discussing long-held misconceptions with educators should always be done with an open heart and an open mind. “Usually the educators that we work with are grateful,” she said, adding that many of them are learning information that conflicts with what they were taught in school. Decoteau also said it’s important for educators to acknowledge the darker elements of history, but to tailor them to one’s audience, especially with younger students.

“I always remember my grandfather when we would celebrate Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July,” said Decoteau. “And he would always tell us, ‘I’m not celebrating that holiday, but we’re celebrating as a family, so we’ll sit down, we’ll have a meal.’” She said for him the reason to celebrate was “that we’re still here.”

She added, “I always thought that my grandfather must not like fireworks or Thanksgiving” and that it wasn’t until she was older that she “really understood why he would say those types of things.”

Across the U.S., many Native people debate the merits of the Thanksgiving holiday and whether or not it’s relevant to their communities. Some boycott the holiday and its festivities altogether. Others reframe it. The United American Indians of New England will be holding a protest and march for their 56th annual “National Day of Mourning” on Thursday.

For all of the controversy and debate, Natives can be conflicted about celebrating and do it anyway because they love being together with their family and friends and they love to eat.

“I truly believe that given all of the centuries of labor on our ancestors’ part for us to be here as a thriving people, that there is no wrong way to celebrate Thanksgiving,” said newspaper columnist Nancy Kelsey, who is half Native and half Salvadoran and who identifies as Anishinaabe of the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians.

Like Decoteau, Kelsey says elementary school Thanksgiving activities have generally “glossed over genocide” and the “dismantling of Indigenous communities across the country,” which when she was young sparked confusion and reflection as it conflicted with what she’d learned from others in the Native community.

“One important thing I’ve learned over time is that you can take holidays and you can reframe them,” she told Buffalo’s Fire. “We can make the holiday into something that is special for us.”

Kelsey has written several columns for the Cleveland Plain Dealer on the Thanksgiving holiday, calling it the “cornucopia of American mythologies” while also pointing out that Native people, not just the Pilgrims, traditionally marked a successful fall harvest. To that end, she says the debate over the holiday doesn’t have to be an “either-or” decision.

“It can be a day of mourning, but it can also be a day of celebration,” she said. “You can observe that in honor of your ancestors, while understanding the genocide that occured.”

Kelsey said that her favorite observances have been spent with family on their tribe’s ancestral lands in the northern part of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, serving frybread, Indian tacos and Salvadoran-style turkey sandwiches to integrate their lineage into the Thanksgiving dinner.

Decoteau also incorporates traditional Native foods into the holiday menu, which in her case means doing her best with a wild rice casserole.

“I can’t perfect it yet,” she said, laughing. “Hopefully one day.”

In recent years, tribes have become a welcome voice in discussions about national observances, including Thanksgiving. The Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde in Oregon have an activity guide that encourages children to rethink the holiday. It suggests activities like creating a gratitude collage and planning a First Foods ceremony. The charity Partnership with Native Americans uses the holiday to discuss food insecurity on reservations, and Decoteau has sent newsletters to teachers in the Bismarck Public Schools sharing information about the vast diversity of Native people across the U.S. and how to accurately teach Thanksgiving and Native American Heritage Month.

Decoteau said her department is working with non-Native Bismarck Public Schools teachers to help them feel comfortable discussing Thanksgiving with students. She said she provides them with “as many resources that they can use” so they can provide their students accurate information.

Still, asserting the Native perspective has become politically fraught in the second Trump administration, which has amplified the culture wars. Over the past year, the president has intervened in schools’ debates over the appropriateness of Native-themed sports mascots and proclaimed Christopher Columbus the “original American hero.”

Kelsey has three suggestions for any teacher wanting to share this important perspective in the classroom or their community.

“Learn about the local Indigenous people of the space you’re standing on,” she said. “Avoid the risk of it being performative with the land acknowledgement and that being the end.” She also suggests seeking out modern stories by Indigenous storytellers. “We’re all capable of telling our own stories,” she said.

Finally, Kelsey recommends calling out racism and correcting misinformation about Indigenous people, saying, “It’s uncomfortable, but it’s important in really ensuring that allyship is rooted in practice and is not performative.”

With much more awareness of the hardship and adversity Native people have faced since the Pilgrim’s arrival in 1620, it would be easy to focus on the loss of ancestral lands and traditional ways. But Decoteau doesn’t want a Thanksgiving observance that takes a limited view.

As her grandfather did, “We celebrate that we’re still here,” she said. “That’s one thing I’d like to push: We’re still here, and that’s why we celebrate certain holidays. To keep our language, stories and culture alive.”