Giving Thanks

Giving Thanks

We Are All In This Together

As we pause to give thanks this time of year, we remember the stories of our Pilgrim ancestors about how they were helped by those who lived here before they arrived on their shores. Some of the stories have morphed into visions of long tables filled with turkeys and all the trimmings where both newcomers and native peoples sat together and enjoyed the shared bounty. 

 

We know now that these visions bore little resemblance to the truths that followed those first encounters. Our ancestors survived their first winters with help from native peoples in what became known later as New England. As more arrived and they all had children, our ancestors forgot that early generosity. They took native lands, the water and the bounty and called it their own. 

 

The subsequent history of our relations with native peoples followed the path of Manifest Destiny, the Indian Wars, the Trail of Tears and Wounded Knee to forced relocation to impoverished reservations, just to name but a few.

 

Some take solace in a different view of our shared past through Indian mascots for public schools. They just perpetuate the myths and the obliteration of native cultures. 

 

Native wisdoms still survive, despite all the attempts to eradicate their culture and oral histories. We are reminded of some of those each year when the Thanksgiving stories re-emerge. We also hear them when the Water Protectors rise up to oppose fossil fuel pipelines that threaten and the foul the water. We also hear them when Water and Air Protectors rise up to oppose mining operations that threaten and then pollute the water and air. Native peoples know that we need the water and air in order to survive. We need to protect our shared Earth so all can share in nature’s bounty. We need to live together and protect the land, water and aid in order that we all may live. 

 

Wisconsin Bands celebrate our shared connections to Mother Earth with Honor the Earth pow wows where meals are shared, elders honored, and dancers and drum songs tell the stories, so the children learn, and warriors do not forget. Elders carry the history and tell the stories when memories need to be refreshed. 

 

The People, Anishnabe, as the Ojibwe call themselves, pass along seven teachings we can all adopt without fear of appropriation. 

Wisdom, Humility, Love, Bravery, Honesty, Truth and Respect form a core.

 

Respect is given to you and you give it to others.

 

Humility allows us to learn about ourselves.

 

To deal with Truth and Honesty, we must be truthful and honest in all our affairs.

 

Wisdom is to know the difference between Right and Wrong.

 

We must have the ability to Love ourselves.

 

All of these teachings require Bravery so they may be embraced. 

 

These teaching have become all the more important in this time of pandemic and division. None of us are immune and all are at risk. Embracing these will help lead the way to a shared protection of Mother Earth and those who live on her.

 

We are all in this together.