Thanks Giving, Thanks Sharing - Allyship from the Margins

Note - this was drafted a few days ahead of Thanksgiving 2020 and finished mid-December. Time is less of a ‘thing’ peri-pandemic, so I hope you don’t see this as ‘after the fact’ but along the lines of ‘recency and importance means we can still talk about this’.

As someone on a life-long [read slow moving in fits and starts, but earnest none-the-less] decolonization* journey, I’ve felt squicky about the origins and observance of American Thanksgiving since college. I’ve been calling it ‘Turkey Day’ [sorry vegan folx] to avoid supporting the glossing over of the ugly history of colonization in my birth country. I’m not NA, but being a first generation Haitian American I feel closer than average to my ancestral indigenous roots. Today, very little of the Taino culture which was indigenous to Hispaniola [Haiti and Dominican Republic] remains, while Haitians and Dominicans are fiercely proud of their post-colonial history, so I hold alot of space for the folks truly native to the American continent.

It wasn’t until 2020, though, that I learned that Native American History Month is the same month as the Thanksgiving holiday. Past efforts for days/month of recognition had been celebrated in May and September until the Bush administration named November as “National American Indian Heritage Month” in 1990. [https://nativeamericanheritagemonth.gov/about/ ]

Now, there are several ways we can mark that fact - maybe it's trivial; maybe it was an attempt to bring attention and have Thanksgiving conversations share space with how modern America continues to fail its Native peoples... but as a Black person, this timing seems 'sus' as the kids say lately. Honestly, it feels like a similar slight that black folx have with 'Our Month' [Why did Black History Month have to the be the shortest month of the year?!?!] but in the end, I'm choosing to see it as an opportunity for timely education that will lead to long-view reparations. I like the quote below for its focus on the opportunity rather than exacerbating harm.

“The acknowledgement and celebration of Native American Heritage Month is an opportunity for America to reckon with its past, to heal long-standing historical wounds, to build national self-awareness, and fully realize what it means to be a nation built on justice and equity for all people. This should be a priority to those in the highest levels of leadership.” - Crystal Echo Hawk and Nick Tilsen

Native folx have celebrated the Day of Mourning on Thanksgiving since 1970 to claim their own opposition and demands for respect and reparations. That's 50 years of visible and 'peaceful' protesting and yet, not much has changed for most folx living on recognized Native Land.

Just like with other large social classifications, Native Americans aren't a monolith and issues of land acknowledgement, blood quantum, and historic abuse by national, local, and private institutions have complicated and texturized the Indigenous American experience. I can only speak to this as it mirrors the Black Diaspora experience in this country, but I share those known complications to implore folx to seek multiple overlapping resources to inform and help nuance their understanding. For myself, I name the tribes indigenous to my current residence when it makes sense, and have reached out to friends for Native-led organizations locally that I can support, learn from and uplift. I'm sharing a few resources that I found helpful below, just as I did this September in support of the renewed focus on the movement for Black Lives. Being a 'marginalized' person doesn't preclude me from being an ally to other marginalized folx. Like our privileges, our marginalization can come in many forms; occupying multiple spaces in one body is a norm and I hope that allyship [and the more active Accompliceship] becomes a norm as well.

“This history is not your fault, but it is absolutely your responsibility.” - Nikki Sanchez

* I recently googled "Decolonization is for Everyone" and while I had different thoughts for that phrase, it lead me to this beautiful TED talk by Nikki Sanchez where she talks about Indigenous folx from the Vancouver / Squamish Musqueam Tsleil-Waututh territories. My own thought was that even/especially folx who are considered white should decolonize because in addition to dismantling racist, sexist, and late-stage-capitalist systems it can be a chance to reclaim the beautiful heritage of their own Pre-American cultures.

Old School & National Orgs

New School & Local to CO [Ute, Cheyenne, Arapahoe land] Orgs

Land & Tribal Territory References

IG Profiles

Premye Filette