Seattle Schools Teaching Thanksgiving Myths

[mad1]

Seattle public schools want a side of political correctness served on your Thanksgiving table.

Washington state's largest school district sent letters to teachers and other employees suggesting Thanksgiving should be "a time of mourning" for its Native American students.

The memo, from Caprice Hollins, the district's director of Equity, Race & Learning Support, included an attachment to a paper titled "Deconstructing the Myths of 'The First Thanksgiving.'"

But one Seattle-area tribe says Thanksgiving is not somber on the reservation but a time to see friends and family, as it is for other Americans.

Native Americans in the Northwest celebrate the holiday with turkey and salmon, said Daryl Williams of the Tulalip Tribes. Before the period of bitter and violent relationships between natives and their culturally European counterparts, they worked together to survive, he said.

"The spirit of Thanksgiving, of people working together to help each other, is the spirit I think that needs to grow in this country, because this country has gotten very divisive," he said.

Seattle Public Schools has been in the news before, not always for the performance of its students.

The U.S. Department of Education investigated in April after the district spent part of a federal Smaller Learning Communities grant to send 20 students to the "Eighth Annual White Privilege Conference."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,312480,00.html

Myth #11: Thanksgiving is a happy time.

Fact: For many Indian people, “Thanksgiving” is a time of mourning, of remembering how a gift of generosity was rewarded by theft of land and seed corn, extermination of many from disease and gun, and near total destruction of many more from forced assimilation. As currently celebrated in this country, “Thanksgiving” is a bitter reminder of 500 years of betrayal returned for friendship.

http://www.oyate.org/resources/shortthanks.html


It is obvious they have no clue what they are teaching, well maybe they do. But what garbage they are forcing on these children needs to be corrected with the truth, not ones personal agenda.

[Beemer]

A nice historical follow up to Thanksgiving would be a comprehensive history lesson of all the events that led up to the first one, to the events that followed. I would restrict this to high school of course. It wouldn't be comprehensive without the ugly side along with the good.

[Pexster]

So they find one guy from a Pac Northwest tribe who says they enjoy Thanksgiving. How does that negate Point #11; that some don't?

As usual, this appears to be muck-raking Fox crap that they pass on to their eager consumers as "news."

[MTAtech]

It's only a time of mourning if your football team loses on Thanksgiving.

History is a bit distorted about T'giving. After the 1st Thanksgiving, it wasn't repeated in Plymouth and was in fact forgotten until a reference to it was discovered almost 200 years later. It was not until 1931, when President Herbert Hoover made his proclamation, that any of the presidential declarations of thanksgiving mentioned the Plymouth Pilgrims and the 1621 harvest festival as a precursor to the modern holiday.

[mad1]

Pexster;

So they find one guy from a Pac Northwest tribe who says they enjoy Thanksgiving. How does that negate Point #11; that some don't?

But one Seattle-area tribe says Thanksgiving is not somber on the reservation but a time to see friends and family, as it is for other Americans.

Hollins would not defend her letter

, this is due to she has nothing to defend it with.


You need to read the article, not initially look at what where it came from and then make form a opinion. Can you find information to offer another opinion, or is this just your personal opinion?

[Pexster]

Of course I read the article. It's an inflammatory piece of crap. As support for their slant, they offer up a quote from Michael Medved. WTF does he have to do with this? Maybe they should have thrown in a quote from Rush, too.

Did you read the other attachment? I did, and it makes a lot of sense. I don't necessarily agree with #11, but many people do.

[Beemer]

This day forth shall be a day of celebration and thanksgiving for subduing the Pequots

Of course the reason used for declaring thanks giving at that time was not respected. Years later new reasons emerged to better justify a reason for having a Thanks Giving celebration.

Just going by a Wikipedia article and the Pequot War it looks like a little bit of mistaken identity and an over zealous bunch of mercenaries may have something to do with contradicting the present myth of the original thanks giving. The Pequots were judged guilty through association.

I haven't done any evaluation on this topic so take the wiki article for what it's worth. The first step of online investigation. By no means should it be your only step.

Ya. It looks like there may be some ugly history but it would only be important to divulge if someone tried to teach a revisionist view of history that would need countering with some actual facts.

[mad1]

Pexster;Of course I read the article. It's an inflammatory piece of crap. As support for their slant, they offer up a quote from Michael Medved. WTF does he have to do with this? Maybe they should have thrown in a quote from Rush, too.

You are correct about the reasons the school uses to justify their position.

Myth #1: “The First Thanksgiving” occurred in 1621.
Fact: No one knows when the “first” thanksgiving occurred.

A feast held in the autumn of 1621 by the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag to celebrate the colony's first successful harvest.
The first recorded Thanksgiving observance was held on June 29, 1671 at Charlestown, Massachusetts by proclamation of the town's governing council.

Several people made a proclamation to congress and some presidents observed a day of Thanksgiving in November prior to Lincoln making this a official holiday, Roosevelt later changed the day.

Myth #2: The people who came across the ocean on the Mayflower were called Pilgrims.

This is meaningless to support their(school) point.

Myth #3: The colonists came seeking freedom of religion in a new land.
Fact: The colonists were not just innocent refugees from religious persecution. By 1620, hundreds of Native people had already been to England and back, most as captives;

There are many reasons why people came across the ocean, not just to enslave Indians and bring them back to England.

Myth #4: When the “Pilgrims” landed, they first stepped foot on “Plymouth Rock.”

Meaningless again, most people are aware of this.

Myth #5: The Pilgrims found corn.
There is no record that restitution was ever made for the stolen corn, and the Wampanoag did not soon forget the colonists’ ransacking of Indian graves. (6)

History of Plymouth Plantation, By William Bradford
In this book states that restitution was made.


I am going to stop here.

Did you read the other attachment? I did, and it makes a lot of sense. I don't necessarily agree with #11, but many people do.

Most people, including native Americans, disagree with this. This article is a joke.

[no1_vern]

http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/law...porary-ac.html

[Beemer]

They did write things down back in the early days.

It seems that the first proclaimed a day of thanksgiving was by Governor William Bradford of Plymouth Colony in the summer of 1623.

This seems to be a comprehensive history of Thanksgiving. Check it out.
http://www.nativeweb.org/pages/legal...ing_nelte.html