Native Americans and the first Thanksgiving
I really had a lot going through my head during our “exploration” in Ms. Vera’s class today. I was feeling tired, rundown, and on the verge of getting sick so perhaps I wasn’t as responsive as I would like to have been. I think more than that, I was and am feeling a little confused and lost. I am part Native American, but that is a part that I have never really claimed. Looking at the the story of the first Thanksgiving made me feel sad, not just because it is a lie, but also because I feel like an outsider in a culture that I should know more about. The story of the first Thanksgiving is a story that I was taught. I didn’t learn some of the truths until later in life, and in this way I can see the dominant white culture in play. What haven’t I been taught about my own history, my own people whose blood made me who I am today? The truth is, many Americans have ties to Native Americans and the story we tell is always so quaint and pretty. We leave out the part where our ancestors almost destroyed an entire culture. Even today, Native Americans struggle to let their voices be heard in history and literature books. Knowing what I know, I couldn’t possibly read a little cutesy book about the brave Pilgrims coming to America , where everyone sits down and has a feast, and they all live happily ever after. The truth is, there is a group of people who didn’t get to live happily ever after. And doesn’t that fact shake the very ideal of the wonderful “melting pot” that we all want to have in this country? What happens when we acknowledge that things haven’t always been great in this country? What happens when we say that there have been groups of people who have been and continue to be brutalized and terrorized in this country?
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I feel like these past few months have been so much longer than what they actually have been. I am learning so much about myself everyday and am reaching a new understanding about who I am and what I hope to accomplish. I have definetely been on a roller coaster with the ups of feeling really satisfied with myself and this program and the downs of questioning whether or not I have made the right decision. Those ups and downs have really made me look at myself more closely, and I think it is a necessary process. A necessary journey that won’t always be easy. There will always be those ups and downs, and it isn’t the ups and downs that make you or break you; it is how to choose to reflect on them and grow from them. When I think about it, this is still a very new experience for me. I haven’t been in this program and student teaching for all that long. But when you see your strengths and weaknesses come out on a daily basis, it feels like so much longer.
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