Thanksgiving Celebration & Mourning

As we gather together to celebrate gratitude, family and abundance, let us not forget the shadow side of this Holiday. Let us honor, and speak aloud, the true story.

Corn Goddess Image from Journeying into the Goddess

This Thursday, many of us will be practicing Gratitude, and celebrating Abundance

in a Harvest Festival we call Thanksgiving.

Others will be Fasting and gathering in a National Day of Mourning.

Harvest Festivals feed the soul. Gathering with Family and Friends feeds the soul. Celebrating abundance, Engaging the senses, Feeding Each Other, Enjoying Life - It all feeds the soul.

Yet . . .

Thanksgiving day is a reminder of the genocide of millions of Native people, the theft of Native lands, and the relentless assault on Native culture. Participants in National Day of Mourning honor Native ancestors and the struggles of Native peoples to survive today. It is a day of remembrance and spiritual connection as well as a protest of the racism and oppression which Native Americans continue to experience. --uaine.org Let us honor Indigenous Peoples this Thanksgiving!

Learn the real History of Thanksgiving and the Wampanoag Tribe. Where do you live? Which Indigenous tribes originally lived here?

Truly acknowledge the current disenfranchisement and racism facing Indigenous peoples to this day. Speak it aloud.

Can you support Indigenous Businesses?

Can you support Indigenous Causes? As we gather together to celebrate gratitude, family and abundance, let us not forget the shadow side of this Holiday. Let us honor, and speak aloud, the true story.

Read and Explore: Lesson Plan: After helping Pilgrims, Today's Wampanoag tribe fight for their ancestral lands

Slideshow accompanying above article

The Wampanoag Side of the First Thanksgiving Story

Teaching Kids about Columbus or Thanksgiving Day? They Deserve the Real Story.

As a Native American, Here's What I Want My Fellow Americans to Know about Thanksgiving 11.26.20 National Day of Mourning information: United American Indians of New England (UAINE)

500 Nations State Tribes Map Inspiration:

I knew I wanted to meditate on and speak to this topic today. As I began my process, I was inspired by Susanna Barkataki and Lindley Ashline's posts.

Do you have articles to share? Do you have Indigenous art to share? Connect with me:

Instagram: @yogawithc Email: ckansas42@gmail.com

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Image description: In the sky, a smiling, mature Native American woman with flowing grey hair looks down upon a crouching young Native American man. She is wearing a costume of corn kernals and cradling several ears of corn in her hands.

In Cherokee mythology, Selu was the First Woman and goddess of the corn. (Her name literally means "maize" or "corn" in the Cherokee language.) Selu was killed by her twin sons, who feared her power; but with her dying instructions she taught them to plant and farm corn, so that her spirit was resurrected with each harvest. source: native-languages.org