Thanksgiving: A Guest Post from Mike Jetty

Hau Mitakuyape (hello my relatives),

My name is Mike Jetty and I am a member of the Spirit Lake Dakota Nation and a Turtle Mountain Chippewa descendant and I work at the Office of Public Instruction as an Indian Education Specialist.

I hope the school year is going well for all of you.  It is already the end of November and a major cultural celebration is once again upon us – Thanksgiving.  I was asked to share my perspective regarding Thanksgiving and to provide some examples of how educators can teach about the history behind Thanksgiving in a more accurate and inclusive manner.  These are my thoughts and are in no way intended to serve as a statement reflecting all of the multiple American Indian perspectives regarding this issue (Essential Understanding #2).

I have heard from several of my American Indian friends that they do not celebrate the holiday because it is based on a lie that serves as a way to perpetuate a feel-good history that does not tell the whole story of the cultural genocide that occurred in our country’s history.  Other American Indian people that I know do celebrate the holiday in the traditional manner reflected in our contemporary American culture and I know some American Indians who celebrate the holiday in their own ways that incorporate unique cultural traditions from their people.  I personally view Thanksgiving as a great time to gather with family and friends to give thanks for all that we have and to have a meal that includes all of the traditional fixings. Maybe watch a little football, eat some tasty left overs and share some bad jokes like this one…Do you know why some Wampanoags don’t like April showers?  Because they bring Mayflowers…. I could not resist throwing in at least one bad joke.

We know that cultures from all around the world have ceremonies to give thanks for a multitude or reasons.  Certainly all of the Indigenous cultures of the Americas had their own ways of offering thanks and so did the European immigrants who landed on the Eastern shores of North America.

So how did we get to this point?

In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln, as part of his efforts to help heal the country divided by a bloody and violent civil war, declared the last Thursday of November to be a national holiday of giving thanks.   It took several years for the holiday to take on a mythical quality that was based upon a peaceful feast that occurred between the Pilgrims and Wampanaogs.  Historical accounts from both parties attest that a gathering did occur in 1621 but what happened before, during and after the feast has morphed into a dominant culture mythological narrative perpetuated by our educational systems for over a hundred years (Essential Understanding 6).

As educators it is important that we present a more accurate and inclusive history of our country and this includes deconstructing the myth surrounding the first thanksgiving in 1621. I think events like this provide an excellent opportunity for us to implement Indian Education for All in our classrooms. I have included numerous links to excellent teaching resources and articles that provide good background information about the holiday that I hope provide you with some ideas on how to approach this issue in your own classroom.

Whether or not you celebrate Thanksgiving, I do wish that all of you enjoy the upcoming break and get to spend some quality time with your family and friends or just enjoy some quiet time by yourself.  Please let me know if you have any questions regarding Indian Education for All and I will do my best to assist you.  Good luck with the rest of the school year!

Interesting links: 

• "American Indian Perspectives on Thanksgiving," National Museum of the American Indian 
• "Recognizing Native American Perspectives: Thanksgiving and the National Day of Mourning," National Geographic 9-12 Activity
• "The Wampanoag Side of the First Thanksgiving Story," Indian Country Today
• "Thanksgiving Mourning," Teaching Tolerance 6-8, 9-12 Lesson
• "The Thanksgiving Tale We Tell Is a Harmful Lie. As a Native American, I’ve Found a Better Way to Celebrate the Holiday," by Sean Sherman, Time Magazine
• Colonization and American Indian Perspectives," Montana Office of Public Instruction grades 7-8 lesson
• "What Educators Need To Know About Teaching Thanksgiving," National Public Radio
• "3 ways to expand Native American curriculum beyond Thanksgiving myths," Education Dive
• "The Invention of Thanksgiving," by Philip Deloria, New Yorker

What do we need to do to understand a topic?

Do you know about Harvard University's Project Zero and their Cultures of Thinking initiative? I've written about their Visible Thinking Routines before, and I really admire their work other work as well.

Their research shows that students need to learn how to think (and why it matters) in addition to learning skills and content and they provide teachers with tools to make this shift.

Here's a chart they've created for you to print out and display in their classroom to help remind students of the steps they need to take to gain understanding of any topic: Wondering, describing what's there, considering different viewpoints, reasoning with evidence, building explanations, making connections, uncovering complexity, and forming conclusions (before starting all over again). Find more tools on their website.

I subscribe to "Rockies Today" and, boy, am I glad I do

Rockies Today compiles "The big stories up and down the Rocky Mountains, curated by Mountain West News." What that means is that every day I get an email with the top headlines. To be fair, I don't always have a chance to dive into it, but when I do, I find gems, many of which look at historical events or movements to explain the present. For example:

• This story from KUER, a Utah NPR affiliate about the American Prairie Reserve, "How big money is building a new kind of national park."
• The High Country News feature "The U.S. stole generations of Indigenous children to open the West Indian boarding schools held Native American youth hostage in exchange for land cessions" or the Minnesota Public Radio News feature "'I've never told anyone': Stories of life in Indian boarding schools."
• "A battle over Superfund coming to the U.S. Supreme Court," a collection of articles on how a case coming out of Butte has the potential to neuter Superfund.

I also find articles about Indian Country and sovereignty. For example:

• Two stories about the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women movement and fears that the Keystone Pipeline will bring more sexual violence to nearby reservations (one from the Montana Free Press and the other from The Revelator, a publication of the Center for Biological Diversity, and
• "Tribal sovereignty and coal mine reclamation clash," a collection of articles about the dispute between the Navajo Nation, which owns "Montana’s largest coal mine," and the State of Montana, which refused to grant an operating permit if the tribe didn't waive sovereign immunity.

I wouldn't have time to find these stories on my own but am always richer for having read them. If that sounds like you, you can subscribe to get regular emails. You might also assign your students to find articles of interest simply by visiting the website.

Do Ink and Other Takeaways from the MFPE Educator Conference

This year's educators conference in Belgrade was fantastic, full of great conversations! I mostly didn't get to go to sessions because I was working our booth in the exhibit hall, but that doesn't mean I didn't learn new things.

Do Ink Green Screen

For about $3.00 you can install this app on an iPad. With the app, still images, and a green piece of fabric tacked to the wall, you can "combine photos and videos from the camera roll with live images from your iPad."

How does this relate to Montana history? Well, how about doing "live" news features about the fur trade in front of the painting Free Trapper? Or from an 1880s round up in front of Bronc to Breakfast? (Images of both of these Charlie Russell paintings--and more--are available as part of our Montana's Charlie Russell teaching material.)

MHS Teacher Leaders in History Rock!

Three years ago we started a teacher leader program to improve our outreach across the state. The Teacher Leaders showed up in force this year at the Educator Conference, allowing us to give a record eight different presentations! These teacher leaders are experienced social studies teachers, who are willing to provide professional development to your school or district. Looking for PIR programming or one-on-one advice/mentorship? Find a Teacher Leader near you for trainings on a range of topics from teaching with primary sources, incorporating Indian Education for All, and teaching Montana history to using visual thinking strategies, hands-on learning, and engaging students with National History Day.

Speaking of National History Day...

National History Day (NHD) is growing in Montana! I've written about NHD before (see this post from way back in 2012) and everything I've said before still holds true: National History Day is a great way to get students working as historians, digging into primary sources, and making arguments (evidence-based claims) about the past. Engage your students with NHD and you will engage your students in an inquiry arc (as recommended by the National Council for Social Studies C-3 Framework) and meet most (maybe all) of the Common Core ELA Literacy in Social Studies standards.

The big news this year is that not only will there be regional competitions in Billings and Missoula (and a statewide competition in Bozeman) but the statewide competition will allow students, competing in select categories, to Skype in if they are too far away to make the competition in person.


This year the NHD theme is "Breaking Barriers in History" (not my favorite theme, to be honest, but workable). Check out our NHD web page for information on the prizes the Montana Historical Society is offering and suggestions for Montana topics/people who fit the theme, including Elouise Cobell (blackfeet banker), Hazel Hunkins (Billings suffragist), and the 1918 Montana Sedition Act--a barrier created by the Montana legislature and broken at great cost by 76 Montanans.