~`_ The Spirit of the Eagle speaks into the soul _'~

You may see that I don't write about Thanksgiving as many do...I write about ThanksTAKING. Yes, this is the *holiday* I say:

• Thanks for tricking my ancestors into selling land.
• Thanks for taking away their freedoms.
• Thanks for taking away our dignity.
• Thanks for moving us to reservations and outlawing our ways.
• Thanks for STILL denying us the right to those things which we all sacred.
• Thanks for STILL denying us recognition.
• Thanks for making my ancestors deny their heritage and feel the need to intermarry to *look* like everyone else.
• Thanks for raping and pillaging our homes, calling us savages, and telling us our ways weren't good enough compared to yours.
• Thanks for coming into our homes, even now, and taking away the eagle feathers and tribal regalia that we managed to salvage from our ancestors.

As you can see, I don't take much stock in Thanksgiving Day. I am thankful every day that I have a roof over my head, food to eat, clothes to wear, more freedom than my ancestors had after the invasions, a family who loves me, and a personal relationship with the Creator. I am thankful that those in my tribe *and other tribes* have taken the time to try and preserve our heritage and history so that the children may see and learn...so that others may learn and try to understand. I am thankful for our powwows and our ceremonies. I am thankful that the Creator saw fit to have me as a child of natives here on this earth.

As the day approaches I become more and more unnerved. I hate that we celebrate it likes it's just another feast day, when it's not. I cry during movies like "The Last Samurai" and "The Last of the Mohicans" because of the pain they show my people, my brothers, having to endure. It's only the grace of Kishelemekong that has kept us this far, and His grace leads us home.

Seek the truth, and ye shall find...and please teach your children that the history books aren't objective and they aren't always right.

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myclette take a look at that teach link and you will see that your little E is not the only child who has thought the natives were no longer in existence.