Reconsidering the Thanksgiving Story and Indigenous History
Resources for Deeper Understanding
Written by Meg Honey, the original post first appeared on Medium.
“Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. ”
The fall provides learners with powerful opportunities to explore and examine the unique and vital lives of indigenous people. Many educational leaders continue to rethink traditional Thanksgiving events. I hope that the resources presented here will support K-12 teachers, parents, and caregivers in their work to ensure responsible representation of Indigenous contributions, perspectives, and experiences, as well as help students understand the courageous journeys, bold decisions, and transformative actions of Native peoples.
Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland
Deb Haaland, the first Native American to serve as a Cabinet Member, is the United States Secretary of the Interior. Upon her appointment, Secretary Haaland launched the Federal Indian Boarding Schools Initiative: a comprehensive study of the devastating legacy of Native American Residential Schools.
The initiative seeks to “recognize the troubled legacy of federal Indian boarding school policies with the goal of addressing their intergenerational impact and to shed light on the traumas of the past.” Secretary Haaland’s interview with PBS’s NewsHour provides context and information about this critical work.
Kimberly Teehee is the first Congressional delegate from the Cherokee Nation, making good on the promises outlined in the devastating 1835 Treaty of New Echota (which outlined plans for the forced removal of Cherokee people from ancestral lands). Have students watch this overview of Teehee’s experience and appointment while they learn about the Indian Removal Act.
Kimberly Teehee, Delegate-Designee to US House of Representatives for Cherokee Nation
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian provides visitors, both in person and online, with new perspectives on Native American history.
The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian
In addition, the museum offers a wonderfully informative downloadable poster that provides great ideas and resources to expand understanding around the First Thanksgiving story.
The acclaimed A Mighty Girl online community provides a comprehensive list of books that celebrate, honor, and remember indigenous women and girls.
Plimoth Patuxet’s You Are the Historian interactive website guides students through an examination of primary and secondary sources about Wampanoag and English colonist interactions. Students engage the skills of historians to determine what is factual (and what is not) about the first Thanksgiving story.
Since 1986, Rethinking Schools has provided educators with powerful resources to create classrooms that are equitable, representative of many perspectives, and focused on preparing students to challenge traditional systems of power. The groundbreaking Rethinking Columbus: Expanded Second Version, The Next 500 Years contains “more than 80 essays, poems, interviews, historical vignettes, and lesson plans that reevaluate the myth of Columbus and issues of indigenous rights.”
Rethinking Columbus (Edited by Bill Bigelow and Bob Peterson)
About the Author, Rise Up Against Racism Co-Founder, Meg Honey
Meg Honey (she/her) is an Ethnic Studies and United States History teacher at Northgate High School in Walnut Creek, California. She also currently serves as an adjunct faculty member at Saint Mary’s College of California and at University of the Pacific. Meg is a regular moderator of the Newmakers Speaker Series and has been featured in conversation with David McCullough, Martin Luther King III, Michael Beschloss, Abby Wambach, Nikole Hannah-Jones, and Tan France. Meg earned a Master's Degree in United States History at San Jose State University, is a certified educational trainer with the Southern Poverty Law Center, and was Mount Diablo Unified School District's Teacher of the Year in 2017.