Gratitude and Growth

Posted On November 24, 2021

I hated history growing up. With ministry exams to pass it was always more focused on memorizing dates than on telling any kind of story. Between this and the fact that Canadian Thanksgiving is in October and actually focused on giving thanks, I pretty much dodged the whole Plymouth rock love fest mythology of the Puritans and Wampanoag coming together to celebrate a successful harvest.  Our son has grown up doing things like gratitude jars or writing what he’s grateful for on colorful turkey feathers and sticking them to a cardboard cut out of what looks like a bowling pin. 

Nevertheless, this year seemed like the time to start talking about what really happened at Plymouth rock. Four hundred years is a pretty momentous anniversary. 

The lad LOVES history and has been wanting to know the story behind every holiday. Luckily, over the last decade or so, I’ve become pretty enamored with the stories that can be found within the facts. So I’ve spent the last week or so in a deep dive into Thanksgiving. There’s a lot out there, or I should say, a lot more out there now. 

I’m not going to give you a full run down here.You likely already know the broad strokes, and if your Thanksgiving is like ours and focused on bringing family together, you’re likely glancing at this on a break from cleaning and prepping and don’t have the time or the brainspace to confront the horrific details about the founding of this nation. 

I do want to share some resources that were helpful to me in the hopes that you find the energy to venture in at some point. The facts are important and they tell a story that is deeply necessary to remember. 

I will skip right over the part where the first Thanksgiving was actually held in Maine 12 years before Plymouth.(It was, but the colonizer’s motives were no more pure than those at Plymouth). 

 I would start you off with an episode of my friend Melissa McCue-McGrath’s podcast Bewilderbeast. The episode “Five Deer” delves into the real reasons the Wampanoag and the Puritans of Plymouth rock gathered that autumn, what was really on the Thanksgiving table (hope you like boiled swan and eel) what actually took place and, how the story got twisted into a message of unity around the time of the civil war. She doesn’t pull a lot of her punches so use your parental discernment if you’re sharing it with your littles. I used parts of it with my 6 year old to start some deeper conversations, her nine year old listened to the whole thing and had some great questions. 

She also mentions a great resource if you want to know who originally lived on the land you now occupy. Through this resource and a little additional digging I discovered we live on Wawenock land,(an Abenaki tribe), that later became part of the Wabanaki(Dawnland Confederacy). I can’t exactly put into words why, but I found it deeply moving to know the history of the land I live on. 

If you’re looking for something that might land more with younger ones, I stumbled across this Thanksgiving lesson plan earlier this week from Native American Student Services. I also love this resource from Little Passports. And for the educators out there, here are a ton of great tips and resources from the NEA.

Should I have put this post out sooner? Absolutely, but this is not a topic that should be limited to Thanksgiving, or even to Native American Heritage Month. There is so much to learn.  This is a crucial part of our history that doesn’t see the light of day often enough. 

I would encourage you not to shy away from this topic. Yes, it can be deeply uncomfortable, but what makes it worse is burying the truth under sugar coated lies. If you’re like me, you’re going to fall down the rabbit hole. My bookmarks are pretty full of other articles and my cart is full of books. I’ve also been reading Sacred Instructions: Indigenous Wisdom for Living Spirit-Based Change by Sherri Mitchell (Weh’na Ha’mu’ Kwasset (She Who Brings the Light). This was probably the catalyst for much of this search.  It is a deeply beautiful and thought provoking book, jam-packed with amazing lessons on conflict and reconciliation. 

I hope this Thanksgiving finds you celebrating in the way you love best. I hope you have many blessings to be grateful for. If you can, spare a moment on growth and search your address on Native-land.ca. Learn what you can about the specific tribe or tribes that lived where you are now. You might see your place in the world and in history in a whole new light. I know I did.