Here are the morning’s top stories on Thursday, November 28, 2024…
- For families here in California, Thanksgiving often means gathering with friends and family and celebrating with food and drinks. But the holiday has a much different meaning for California’s Native American community.
Native American Reflections On Thanksgiving
Some Native Americans celebrate Thanksgiving by taking the opportunity to gather with loved ones and focus on gratitude. Others consider it a day for mourning because it perpetuates the myth that Pilgrims had a symbiotic relationship with Indigenous people and glosses over past atrocities committed against Native Americans.
“I teach classes in Native American history at UC Riverside, and my students are angry and they’re like, why didn’t I know this? Why didn’t somebody teach us this Native American history? California Indian history is American history. It is California’s history, and we should all know it,” said Gerald Clarke, ethnics studies professor at UC Riverside and a member of the Cahuilla Band of Indians. “And it’s just, when things get erased – and I think that the romanticized story of the original Thanksgiving, it’s a form of erasure. And I think that’s what rubs many Native people wrong. And once we can correct the educational system, we can give a fuller picture of this country’s history.”