Some educators want us to believe that Thanksgiving should be a national day of mourning. In their hopes of “decolonizing Thanksgiving,” they share some resources on social media that are linked to a toolkit created by St. Mary’s University professor Lindsey Passenger Wieck.
A resource was shared in Facebook and Twitter posts by the McQuade Library at Merrimack College in North Andover, Massachusetts. A hashtag that states #NationalDayofMourning was initially included in the post.
Wieck’s bio on the toolkit piece, notes that she “is an educator, urban historian, and advocate for incorporating local culture and history in the classroom.”
The toolkit article, titled “Decolonizing Thanksgiving: A Toolkit for Combatting Racism in Schools.”
Wieck sheds light specifically on the typical grade school Thanksgiving curriculum as she works to tackle “tricky issues of racial representation in my teaching and research,” in the article.
“Stereotypical and racist portrayals of Native peoples fill U.S. elementary schools each November as students encounter historically-inaccurate portrayals of Native peoples in arts & crafts, books, and lessons about a shared Thanksgiving meal, and songs and plays with hand-crafted headdresses and vests,” She notes.
According to her, “these activities are problematic because they perpetuate myths about colonial encounters and portray Native peoples in an ahistorical way.”
“These depictions overlook the immense diversity of Native peoples in North America, while also turning contemporary Native peoples and identities into costumes to be worn,” Wieck further notes.
“By engaging Native perspectives that recognize the diversity of Indigenous peoples and their contemporary presence in 21st-century America,” the author seeks to “de-romanticize this holiday.
With students of all ages in the classroom, to explore “myths of Thanksgiving” she further points to books about Native peoples, cultures, traditions, and ways for teachers.
She also offers sample letters that parents can submit to administrators if they want to adjust the curriculum at their child’s school to include lessons and activities that are customary for Thanksgiving.
The article “Ten Ways to Make Your Thanksgiving About Social and Environmental Justice” by Eve Bratman is one of the resources that Wieck connects to in order to help with teaching about Thanksgiving and Native Americans “in a socially responsible way” (2016).
“The repeating of the holiday with no acknowledgement of the intolerance in its history feels delusional at best, if not actively perpetuating oppression.”, says Bratman.“I want to make this Thanksgiving more genuinely anti-racist, ecologically anchored, and anti-imperialist.”
Which also states that “Teaching about Thanksgiving in a socially responsible way means that educators accept the ethical obligation to provide students with accurate information and to reject traditions that sustain harmful stereotypes about indigenous peoples,” additional resources are provided in the article “Teaching Thanksgiving in a Socially Responsible Way” by Amanda Morris (2015).
For each grade level, Wreck also provides links that include lesson plans.
“In no way represents the ethos of faith, family and freedom for which the college stands, nor our genuine appreciation for this most American of holidays,” Merrimack Associate Vice President of Communications and Marketing Jim Chiavelli told Campus Reform that the post from the McQuade Library.
Sources: AWM, Georgiarecord, Campusreform