I hear a lot about Native North Americans and how they should boycott Thanksgiving from Americans and from Europeans. I would just like to set the record straight. The situation is not that simple. Many Natives do celebrate Thanksgiving and some are even proud that their people played a positive role in the traditional Thanksgiving story. More to the point, Natives are people like you and me. The reservations (reserves in Canada) give them something potentially precious and valuable --- namely self-determination. Sometimes that is used to keep the old ways and the old culture. Sometimes that means using the reserve to grow grapes and make ice wine to sell as does one Canadian tribe with their reserve. The Navajo have one of the biggest reserves. Here is a nice Navajo video which may help a bit to set the record straight : youtube/watch?v=uTqXHSQv5qQ P.S. So what does this have to do with me? Maybe very little. In Vancouver we lived only a kilometer or so from a Salish reserve and came to love the Natives, though we had little direct contact. I also know that at least one of my ancestors had a son who married a Cherokee Indian and so Casada became one of the official Cherokee family names. But more than that, how can you call yourself American or Canadian or Mexican and not appreciate the decendents of those who came before us!?
Posted on: Fri, 28 Nov 2014 11:37:42 +0000
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