I found this article on the web about a Native American struggling during Thanksgiving season. I now have a better understanding why this can be a sensitive topic and I wanted to share some of his own words about it:
For an Indian, who is also a school teacher,
Thanksgiving was never an easy holiday for me to deal with
in class. I sometimes have felt like I learned too much
about "the Pilgrims and the Indians." Every year I have
been faced with the professional and moral dilemma of just
how to be honest and informative with my children at
Thanksgiving without passing on historical distortions, and
racial and cultural stereotypes.
The problem is that part of what you and I learned in
our own childhood about the "Pilgrims" and "Squanto" and
the "First Thanksgiving" is a mixture of both history and
myth. But the THEME of Thanksgiving has truth and integrity
far above and beyond what we and our forebearers have made
of it. Thanksgiving is a bigger concept than just the story
of the founding of the Plymouth Plantation.
So what do we teach to our children?
This presented above comes from this web address:
http://www.2020tech.com/thanks/temp.html#story
The writer here has inspired me greatly and given me knew light about Thanksgiving. Here is his name:Chuck Larsen
Tacoma School District
Printed: September, 1986
Let's make a difference!