Our hearts are with the friends and family mourning the lost and keeping vigil over the injured from the shooting in Colorado Springs that targeted the LGBTQIA+ community. No community, no people, and no person should live in fear. We extend our condolences and support to our LGBTQIA+ community members. You belong here.Dear Friends,
I wish that I were dating myself by sharing that I grew up with the very worst of Thanksgiving imagery, both at my school and on my table. Stereotyped Pilgrims and stereotyped Indigenous Americans, all happy, all feasting. I say that I wish I were dating myself because I know this imagery persists today. I also know there are schools and tables where it no longer exists. I am grateful for schools, people, and places who choose to lean into the truth so these stereotypes no longer exist. This gives me hope.
Many of us are looking for a new orientation and language to mark a day that is simultaneously about gratitude and genocide. Both deserving of our time and attention, yet inappropriately and problematically coupled in a single holiday.
In 2009, the US recognized its first Native American Heritage Day, falling annually on the 4th Friday in November. An attempt to decouple a day of harvest gratitude and a day of remembrance, recognition, and reclamation—an indication that the problematic nature of the day has reached some level of national awareness. This gives me hope.
The Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation offers one example among many of an Indigenous community resisting common narratives and reclaiming its heritage. As one of its initiatives toward liberation, this Lakota community is considering a learning space inspired by Montessori, grounded in Lakota tradition, and free from government influence that causes harm rather than help.
I keep replaying in my mind the long view of hope and determination reflected in this line from the video:
[Achieving liberation] is going to take generations, so we have to have patience. We’re planting the seeds, and maybe seven generations from now we’ll see a different reality.
I wish for all of us a time of thanks-giving for all we have and an enduring commitment to better all we can.
