As our yearly Thanksgiving tradition, if you can call it that after two years, MWCC is reflecting on what the holiday means to us. Expressing gratitude, sharing local foods, and spending time with friends and family are top of the list. So is the understanding that this holiday – recognized by some Indigenous people as a National Day of Mourning – is part of our nation’s foundational history of genocide, land theft, and forced cultural assimilation of Indigenous peoples. We’re considering how this history and how we choose to celebrate Thanksgiving informs our work and relationships, and how we can use this knowledge to right historical wrongs. We’re also remembering that November is Native American Heritage Month. This holiday season, please join us in reflecting on these themes and considering how we can decolonize Thanksgiving as well as our conservation work. Here are some resources and articles that may help.
New Resources
- Thanks-taking: Unspoken Words podcast
- Unspoken Words is a podcast by Native American hosts Josiah Hugs (Apsaalooke), JC Beaumont (Apsaalooke/Nakoda) and Randy Bear Don’t Walk (Apsaalooke) that discusses the issues of Indigenous peoples with insight, experience and humility.
- A Thanksgiving Message from Seven Amazing Native Americans
Shared last year
- Don’t Trash Thanksgiving. Decolonize it. by Zenobia Jeffries Warfield
- Decolonizing Thanksgiving and Reviving Indigenous Relationships to Food by M. Karlos Baca
- Food Sovereignty is on the Menu This Thanksgiving by Salish ethnobotanist Rose Bear Don’t Walk
- Allyship with Our Native Community (2nd article on the page) by Crystal White Shield, Director of Community Organizing and Equity at the Missoula Food Bank & Community Center
The post Reflections on Thanksgiving first appeared on Montana Watershed Coordination Council.