Demythologizing Thanksgiving

 This American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month, we are delighted to share this guest post by OPI Indian Education for All specialist Mike Jetty.

Hau Mitakuyapi – Hello My Relatives,

Happy American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month!  As we celebrate and honor the ongoing contributions of American Indians it is important for educators to bring in authentic and accurate perspectives regarding what is known as the “first Thanksgiving”.  Teaching Indigenous perspectives on Thanksgiving is crucial for developing a more comprehensive and accurate understanding of American history. By including Indigenous viewpoints, we can foster a more nuanced appreciation of the holiday's origins and its place in American culture. It's important to recognize that the modern Thanksgiving holiday, established as a national observance in 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln, was indeed intended to unite a country divided by the Civil War. But over the years the holiday morphed into an almost mythological event and in classrooms across the country well intentioned teachers would often perpetuate inaccurate and stereotypical information such as having students dress up as Indians and pilgrims as part of a classroom activity.  

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. By teaching a more inclusive history, we can honor the resilience of Indigenous peoples, promote cultural understanding, and encourage critical thinking about the narratives we inherit. This approach doesn't aim to eliminate Thanksgiving celebrations, but rather to infuse them with greater historical awareness and cultural sensitivity. 

“Correctly taught, the issues of the era of the first Thanksgiving could help Americans grow more thoughtful and more tolerant, rather than more ethnocentric.” (Quote from James Loewen).

Here are some links to great resources that can aid in this infusion:

1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving

American Indian Perspectives on Thanksgiving from the National Museum of the American Indian.

“Thanksgiving from an Indigenous Perspective” Smithsonian Magazine

Wopida Tanka! The IEFA Unit extends a big thanks to Montana educators as you continue to implement IEFA in a culturally responsive manner.

Teaching with Maps

MTHS Lesson Plans

Last month, in a post on literacy and social studies, I reviewed why teaching social studies improves literacy and talked about the "Write Your Way In/Out" strategy. I also promised to share some other strategies for imbedding literacy activities into your social studies units.  

We recommend using maps in many lessons (including our study guide for Girl from the Gulches: The Story of Mary Ronan) and Lesson 2 of Unit 3 of Montana: A History of our Home) but here are two of my favorite map lessons:

·       Montana Today: A Geographical Study (designed for grades 4-6, but easily adaptable for higher grades) asks students to investigate how climate, geology, and geography affect the lives of Montanans. I particularly like Part 1, in which they construct population maps and look for patterns. An upper grade (grades 6-8) version of Part 1 is now available. A Google Docs version of the upper grade worksheets is also available.

·       Mapping Montana, A to Z, Lesson Plan (Designed for grades 4-8) is a perennial favorite that asks students to plan a trip across Montana, visiting towns that start with every letter of the alphabet. 

Cool Maps to Use in Your Classroom

Here's a really interesting map that shows the neighborhoods that were swallowed by the Berkeley Pit.

Here is an interesting article on how Mercator maps distort our understanding of countries' sizes and a tool to see the "True Size of Every County." 

The Library of Congress has digitized many of the Sanborn maps for Montana (and other states as well). What are Sanborn maps, you ask? Founded in 1867 by D. A. Sanborn, the Sanborn Map Company was the primary American publisher of fire insurance maps for nearly 100 years.” Their maps “include information such as the outline of each building, the size, shape and construction materials, heights, and function of structures, location of windows and doors. The maps also give street names, street and sidewalk widths, property boundaries, building use, and house and block numbers.” Here are a few ways teachers have used them: 

“Using pages from the Census, Sanborn maps and the local history book "Stumptown to Skitown" students explore what Whitefish was like 100 years ago.”
Using the Sanborn maps for Missoula, we re-constructed neighborhoods and created logs of the businesses and how they changed over time.

The Montana Authors Project has documented the settings in favorite Montana books from Tough Trip through Paradise and Fools Crow to A River Runs through It, This House of Sky, and Selected Poems of Richard Hugo in an interactive map. 

The State Historic Preservation Office has created several maps reflecting Montana history. My favorite is Montana in the Green Book.

Wondering how your county voted in 1914 on the question of women's suffrage? Find out.

Find more map resources and suggestions for how to use them in this old blog post.

Free Book Kits

 The Montana Jewish Project is once again giving away book kits focusing on the anchor text, Christmas Menorahs: How a Town Fought Hate. The picture book is based on a 1993 episode in Billings. After members of a hate group threw a rock through a Jewish family's window during Hanukkah, the community organized in opposition. Over 10,000 Billings residents displayed pictures of menorahs in their windows as an expression of solidarity with their Jewish neighbors. The event sparked a larger movement called Not in Our Town.

We included the book and a lesson plan in our hands-on history footlocker Coming to Montana: Immigrants from Around the World. (Information on ordering the footlocker can be found here.) 

Billings social studies teacher Bruce Wendt had his students work with the Western Heritage Center to create an exhibit on the twentieth anniversary of the incident. You can read about the project here. 

The Montana Jewish Project adapted our lesson plan for their book kits, which also include a copy of the picture book, a menorah, and dreidels (special tops that Jewish children play with at Hanukkah). And unlike the MTHS footlocker, these kits are yours to keep. They did this last year too, and the teachers who got them loved them. 

• Preview the lesson plan. 
• Hear the book read on YouTube.
• Apply to receive one of these book kits.
• Learn more about the Montana Jewish Project.

P.S. Don't forget to register for Teaching with Maps, and online PD offered from 4:30-5:30 p.m. on November 12.