Days and festivals of giving thanks are universal around the world, going back to early history. That includes Native American cultures, with their emphasis on the blessings of nature in its various forms.
But not everyone has reason to celebrate the Thanksgiving Day tradition of the early European settlers, particularly those whose lands, traditions and cultures were sacrificed in the process. To understand their sentiments, Delmarva Public Media talked to several Piscataway Nation Singers and Dancers here on the Eastern Shore.
RRG:
The Thanksgiving tradition in North America is popularly traced to the Puritans celebrating a good harvest in 1621. Their companions were Native American tribes who helped them survive the previous year of scarcity.
There have been contradictory claims about the First Thanksgiving, including some that trace it to English settlers in the Virginia Colony in 1619, two years before the more famous one in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
But another perspective is offered by Johnson Taylor, from the Ponka and Southern Ute people. If he doesn’t celebrate the official day of Thanksgiving in America, it’s because he would rather celebrate his own culture of giving thanks for every day, including this day of dance and drumming at Salisbury University.
Johnson Clip 1, 21 secs “Forget a day of thanks, give thanks always”
To Johnson, a 50-year-old father of two, Thanksgiving has a different meaning.
Johnson Clip 2, 30 secs “Natives celebrate every day”
For Naiche Tayac, a member of the Piscataway Nation in Maryland and the San Carlos Apache tribe in Arizona, the popular American tradition of the First Thanksgiving brings up the unhappy history that followed it.
Tayac Quote 1, 30 secs “by Thanksgiving Day 2, Indians were dead”
All the same, Tayac, a family man with 4 children, sees some good in the tradition.
Tayac Quote 2, 15 seconds “Good for families to get together”
Tayac’s idea of giving thanks focuses on chanting and drum ceremonies in which he takes part with the Piscataway Nation Singers and Dancers here on the Eastern Shore. For him, it signifies the resilience of the people who initially helped the continent’s first colonists.
Tayac Quote 3, “we’re still here”
With Kevin Diaz, this is Rodolfo Rubio-Guerra for Delmarva Public Media.
