Rasco From RIF

WEDNESDAY WINDOW: Thinking about Thanksgiving

November 18th, 2009

Last year as I flew from D.C. to be with family for Thanksgiving I sat by a gentleman who struck up a conversation as we landed; he asked if I was going to have a big Thanksgiving. I noted it is always “big” for me to be with family whether the gathering is large in numbers or not. He asked about my family’s traditions and I told him about the book Thanksgiving at the Tappletons‘ by Eileen Spinelli and illustrated by Maryann Cocca-Leffler which is a story shared at our family’s Thanksgiving celebration; I had just blogged about the book and my family’s Thanksgiving traditions and memories and invited him to read about it.

The following week I received a voice mail from my new acquaintance from the plane, and he shared with me the only thing that really bothered him about my blog posting was the reference to “Indian headdresses of paper feathers.” He went on to note he is an enrolled tribal member (he did not say what tribe, my memory has lost his name and I received no business card), and my reference in general to the headdresses made him think that perhaps I did not know about the real role of the American Indian in this “feast” or “festival.” He challenged me to read and study 1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving by Catherine O’Neill Grace and Margaret M. Bruchac with photographs by Sisse Brimberg and Cotton Coulson; the book is published by National Geographic Society.

I promptly ordered the book and have thought a great deal over the last year about what I have been learning. I have also read carefully much of what Dr. Debbie Reese of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign  has written on the Thanksgiving topic on her blog  American Indians in Children’s Literature:  Critical perspectives of indigenous peoples in children’s books, the school curriculum, popular culture, and society-at-large. Dr. Reese is a member of RIF’s Literature Advisory Committee, and we are certainly appreciative of her time and expertise as we talk with her and read her blog. And I have also more recently been reading information shared by Cynthia Leitich Smith on Native North Americans as well as her tweets.

What am I taking away from my study thus far which I realize has not gone deep at all? In brief, from the words of Nancy Brennan, Executive Director, Plimoth Plantation and Margaret M. Bruchac, Wampanoag Indian Program Advisory Committee  in the Foreword to 1621.  What you will read in these pages represents new thinking about the people and events of 1621. This book is just one part of a museum-wide effort to reinterpret the 1621 harvest feast, through books, videos, educational materials, and a reenactment that gave birth to these photographs. We invite you to join us here on this shore and view the past from a different perspective.

What will I do with this “different perspective” I am gaining? One colleague asked if I am doing away with Thanksgiving celebrations for my family. Goodness, no! But I will work to bring this new outlook to the table, to make sure the children and adults in our circle of family and friends have copies of 1621; and I will work to nurture an ongoing interest among family and friends to share my own study of the American Indian, past and present. For me personally, I want most of all to have front and center in my consciousness at Thanksgiving what Debbie Reese wrote in a posting last year when she said:

Filed under: Children's Books, Musings, RIF Multicultural Literacy Campaign

Tags: 1621: A New Look At Thanksgiving, American Indian Perspectives on Thanksgiving, American Indians in Children's Literature, Catherine O'Neill Grace, Cotton Coulson, Cynthia Leitich Smith, Dr. Debbie Reese, Eileen Spinelli, Jingle Dancer, Margaret M. Bruchac, Maryann Cocca-Leffler, Nancy Brennan, National Geographic Society, National Museum of the American Indian, Plimoth Plantation, Sisse Brimberg, Thanksgiving at the Tappletons', The Good Luck Cat