Native American perspectives on Thanksgiving
By Douglas Burns
For most of the United States, Thanksgiving is a day during which that most popular of contemporary sins — gluttony — is celebrated with gusto and gravy.
Americans eat, watch football and stop stuffing the stuffing into their gullets in just enough time to hit the Christmas shopping season starting line.
But for many Americans, those descended from the first Americans, in fact, Thursday is a day that marks centuries and generations of betrayal and horror.
“It’s a difficult time for many of our people,” says Jeanne Marie Brightfire Stophlet, a Shawnee Cherokee. “We came in friendship and caring, and we suffered from that friendship and caring.”
Read the rest of the feature in Des Moines' Cityview newspaper ...
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