My Native American High School club feasted today on frybread and chili.

I really enjoy the club this year. Mostly seniors, all smart and interested in other cultures, other people. The club attracts international students as well as our own indigenous students. They have been inviting their friends, but the group remains small and cozy. Even then, they put away two dozen frybread and a pot of chili.

When I posted earlier about my club, I wrote of how we discussed the poverty at Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and some of the root causes of this. This post brought 40 comments and among them, Bill S. who returned to tell me this:

“You have to remember, though, Steph - that cuts both ways (think back to the Hitler Youth; because children are so malleable they can easily be led astray as well). But, kids tend to be more accepting of things than we adults do - they don't let preconceived notions get in the way.”

Now, I trust Bill's judgment. He is a fine man. Besides comparing me to Hitler, he told me something I needed to hear. So, at the next meeting, I made a disclaimer. Two of the students have known me since second grade so they backed me up. They knew me. I told them that my politics were progressive--waving my hand waaaaay off to my left. I told them that they would never hear the word “genocide” in relation to Native Americans even in their Advance Placement (AP) US History class, but they would hear it from me. I told them to take what I said with a grain of salt. They all assured me that they liked what I was doing and could take care of themselves. Thank you.

So, today we talked about the original Thanksgiving.

We talked about how the first Thanksgiving was in October and included mostly seafood. Our Mayan girl said her family celebrated it but had Mexican food. Our girl from South East Asia was looking forward to her first American Thanksgiving. 

I spoke about how the first contact between Europeans and Native Americans brought into play the most potent Colonialization tool—germs. Though not well known, North America suffered the largest human die off in history where it is estimated that 80 to 90 percent of the population was felled by influenza, small pox and a host of diseases from the Old World to which they had absolutely no immunity. The pilgrims actually settled on an abandoned Indian village. Of course, the Pilgrims saw this as God's hand clearing the land to make room for them.

I told them that the Wampanoag people had shared their entire winter's harvest with the immigrants that year, not one specific meal. Even having enough experience with Europeans already to know what they were about, the Wampanoag's ethical system would not allow them to let these people starve. Fifty years later, they were extinct as a people.

One girl is going to make a presentation about Native Americans to her AP class, particularly about the Ogalala Sioux at Pine Ridge and will bring her information to us.

It is going to be a very good year.