BOISE, Idaho — For many Americans, Thanksgiving is a time to express gratitude and be with family. However, the holiday has a much different meaning and heaviness to it for some Native Americans.
Every school year, teachers often include fun activities related to the holiday in their classrooms and help students learn about the origins of a very uniquely American holiday. When teaching and learning about Thanksgiving, it’s important to not misrepresent Native American cultures.
The holiday is traditionally celebrated to express gratitude and be with family, but University of Idaho Recruitment and Retention Specialist Micah Bisbee told KTVB that for many Native Americans, it’s a day to mourn and remember.
“For me and a lot of Native Americans, we consider it a day of mourning. So, we are trying to decolonize Thanksgiving dinner,” Bisbee said.
Bisbee works at the Native American Student Center and is from the Nez Perce Tribe in North Idaho.
Rather than a celebration of expressing gratitude, Thanksgiving represents the dark history of violence against Native people.
“From a tribal perspective, this was definitely a sad time because we were losing our land. We were losing our people,” said Randy’L Teton.
Shoshone-Bannock Tribe member Randy’L Teton said Native American history in Idaho is taught in fourth grade and the month of November gives them the chance to continue educating the community about Native cultures.
She told KTVB that many Thanksgiving teaching materials give an incomplete picture of the event leaving out the other side of the story, the Native perspective.
“You have this story that started off as a meaningful way of helping one another out, turned into an atrocity for that tribe which did not end well. They lost their land and had to resort to another area,” Teton said.
When Native peoples moved to other areas, other problems started to arise, like new diseases.
“This was all foreign to us and brought to our communities. It killed off a lot of people,” Teton explained.
After speaking to both members of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribe and Nez Perce Tribe, they both agreed that Thanksgiving is a day to honor ancestors and to be with family.
"We are thankful we are still here. We appreciate the thankful aspect of Thanksgiving," Bisbee said.
"At our family setting, we give thanks because we are here today. We are proud of who we are and the fact that we are still alive," Teton added.
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