November 21, 2018
Dear Family, Friends and Everyone reading this blog,
I am thrilled that this whole month of November is designated Native American Heritage/History Month! This is long overdue! The true history of indigenous tribes needs to be shared in this world.
I hope everyone has a nice Thanksgiving! When I was in grade school I was taught that Thanksgiving was a time, a holiday, to be grateful for the Indians who helped the Pilgrims. In honor of the Pilgrims having a good harvest in 1621, a feast of three days was held near Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts with both the Pilgrims and Wampanoag Indian Tribe. I remember making paper Pilgrim hats and paper Indian feathered headdresses. I celebrated how the Indians were so friendly and helped the English settlers in our country. This initial three day feast held in in the 1600’s was peaceful and friendly. I noticed the Pilgrims wore warm clothes, hats and shoes. The Indians didn’t wear much clothing and had feather headbands on their heads. Not all Indians wore feathers I have learned. And feathers have much meaning to indigenous tribes.
Today, November, 2018 I have learned that generations of Americans have been taught a one-sided history in homes and schools. My generation was one of them. This one-sided history has been told from the perspective of the Euro-White colonists who came to Plymouth Rock in 1620.
Today, I have learned that the Pequot Indians were massacred years later by English Puritan colonists. These Puritans took the Indians land and celebrated for three whole days in “thanksgiving”, a feast. Each time a village of indigenous people were murdered, “conquered’ , the colonists celebrated with another thanksgiving feast! So, I do not celebrate Thanksgiving the way I was taught in school.
I celebrate Thanksgiving, giving thanks to Our Creator, God, that Indigenous People are still here. Richard Pratt, the first Supervisor of the Carlisle Indian Industrial Boarding School, motto was, “Kill the Indian, Save the Man!” Well, Pratt didn’t kill the Indian in my Great-Grandmother, Sophia Huff when she was forced to attend this school in July of 1891. She maintained her Oneida language and culture despite being kept away from her home on the Oneida Reservation for eleven years! And, Pratt hasn’t killed the Indian in me! He almost did through the government’s assimilation experiment to change us savage Indians, Euro-white. The government’s assimilation experiments have wrecked havoc on generations of indigenous tribes! The reservation system and boarding school ideas by our government were failures!
Grandma Millie told me that when Sophia worked as a servant for the Quaker family in New Jersey, turkey wasn’t cooked on Thanksgiving. The Quakers usually had goose!
I am thankful to have met many other indigenous people at the two conferences held in Carlisle, Pa this past October. These conferences were held to commorate the closing of the first Indian Industrial Boarding School in this country, Carlisle. Everyone shared their boarding school stories bravely.
As for this holiday of Thanksgiving, it was originated from the Native American philosophy of giving without expecting anything in return. The Wampanoag tribe not only provided the food for the initial three day feast with the Pilgrims, but also taught the Pilgrims agriculture, hunting, etc. After this first Thanksgiving in 1621, all other Thanksgivings were celebrations by the English Settlers for having massacred another village of indigenous people!
Many classic Thanksgiving dishes are inspired by what indigenous people ate way back when. In grade school I learned that the Wampanoag had never seen food that was served at the first Thanksgiving. OMG! All the food was provided by the Wampanoag!
I am thankful for the National Native American Healing Reconciliation Committee (NABS); Barb Landis and the Cumberland County Historical Society; and many other Native/non Native organizations who are helping share the true history of indigenous people here in our country. I am so grateful Grandma Millie at 104, helped me with my book, Sky Woman Lives in Me. I am also grateful to Barbara Smith, Geoff Smith, Sandy and Ken Johnson and their sons, Honey Rosalez, Uncle Richard Elm and Uncle Gary Emerson and my other relatives who shared their stories, that helped me write my book. Well, below are four photos for you. The first photo shows me with Gerilyn Tolino, a Dine’ from the Navajo Reservation and descendant of Tom Tolino a Carlisle student. I was honored to meet her in October! The second photo is me holding my new born grandson, Clyde, in July. The third photo shows me on the floor, knee pads and all, playing with my first born grandson, Luke. This Thanksgiving I am grateful I can still crawling on the floor, playing with Luke! May Our Creator, God, bless all of us this Thanksgiving! Please do share this blog! I don’t know if Facebook is sharing this. Sincerely, Roberta (Bobbie) Capasso, a proud member of the Oneida Indigenous tribe of Wisconsin.
Sky Woman Lives in Me 