pilgrims and indians

i know that thanksgiving has already passed and that we are steamrolling into christmas, but i still wanted to quickly post this. i already showed this to most of my family and im sure other people have already seen this, but its worth a few quick thoughts. this particularly hit home not just because i grew up in claremont, but i went to condit elementary school and participated in this tradition. the two elementary schools are on the same street about a mile away from each other. i cant exactly remember what i dressed up as. i think i was a pilgrim because i feel like i remember 'hosting' the meal and i dont remember walking to the other elementary school. im sure my sister lark would remember, because we were two years apart, so whatever she was, i would have been the same. anyways, there are 6 kids in my family, we all went to condit elementary and thus we all participated in this tradition. pretty cool and also pretty typical of this issue to occur in claremont. its a great and safe community, perfect for growing up. but it is a university town, home to 5 small, liberal arts schools, so you have a lot of nonsense going on as well. anyways, here is the article, with some of my thoughts after:

"For decades, Claremont kindergartners have celebrated Thanksgiving by dressing up as pilgrims and Native Americans and sharing a feast. But on Tuesday, when the youngsters meet for their turkey and songs, they won't be wearing their hand-made bonnets, headdresses and fringed vests.

Parents in this quiet university town are sharply divided over what these construction-paper symbols represent: A simple child's depiction of the traditional (if not wholly accurate) tale of two factions setting aside their differences to give thanks over a shared meal? Or a cartoonish stereotype that would never be allowed of other racial, ethnic or religious groups?

"It's demeaning," Michelle Raheja, the mother of a kindergartner at Condit Elementary School, wrote to her daughter's teacher. "I'm sure you can appreciate the inappropriateness of asking children to dress up like slaves (and kind slave masters), or Jews (and friendly Nazis), or members of any other racial minority group who has struggled in our nation's history." 1

Raheja, whose mother is a Seneca, wrote the letter upon hearing of a four-decade district tradition, where kindergartners at Condit and Mountain View elementary schools take annual turns dressing up and visiting the other school for a Thanksgiving feast. This year, the Mountain View children would have dressed as Native Americans and walked to Condit, whose students would have dressed as Pilgrims.

Raheja, an English professor at UC Riverside who specializes in Native American literature, said she met with teachers and administrators in hopes that the district could hold a public forum to discuss alternatives that celebrate thankfulness without "dehumanizing" her daughter's ancestry.

"There is nothing to be served by dressing up as a racist stereotype," she said. 2

Last week, rumors began to circulate on both campuses that the district was planning to cancel the event, and infuriated parents argued over the matter at a heated school board meeting Thursday. District Supt. David Cash announced at the end of the meeting that the two schools had tentatively decided to hold the event without the costumes, and sent a memo to parents Friday confirming the decision.

Cash and the principals of Condit and Mountain View did not respond to interview requests.

But many parents, who are convinced the decision was made before the board meeting, accused administrators of bowing to political correctness.

Kathleen Lucas, a Condit parent who is of Choctaw heritage, said her son -- now a first-grader -- still wears the vest and feathered headband he made last year to celebrate the holiday.

"My son was so proud," she said. "In his eyes, he thinks that's what it looks like to be Indian."

Among the costume supporters, there is a vein of suspicion that casts Raheja and others opposed to the costumes as agenda-driven elitists. Of the handful of others who spoke with Raheja against the costumes at the board meeting, one teaches at the University of Redlands, one is an instructor at Riverside Community College, and one is a former Pitzer College professor.

Raheja is "using those children as a political platform for herself and her ideas," Constance Garabedian said as her 5-year-old Mountain View kindergartner happily practiced a song about Native Americans in the background. "I'm not a professor and I'm not a historian, but I can put the dots together." 3

The debate is far from over. Some parents plan to send their children to school in costume Tuesday -- doubting that administrators will force them to take them off. The following day, some plan to keep their children home, costing the district attendance funds to punish them for modifying the event.

"She's not going to tell us what we can and cannot wear," said Dena Murphy, whose 5-year-old son attends Mountain View. "We're tired of [district officials] cowing down to people. It's not right." 4

But others hoped that tempers would calm over the long holiday weekend, and the community could come together to have a fruitful discussion about Thanksgiving and its meaning.

"Its always a good thing to think about, critically, how we teach kids, even from very young ages, the message we want them to learn, and the respect for the diversity of the American experiences," said Jennifer Tilton, an assistant professor of race and ethnic studies at the University of Redlands and a Claremont parent who opposes the costumes." 5

1. ok, the first reaction to this quote is that this lady is just ridiculous and her quote is asinine. but ill try and understand the comparison. all involved groups abusing another group. the pilgrims or settler eventually did abuse the indians in various ways for centuries. i dont think any american would ever deny that. just like no american would ever deny how bad slavery was. the nazis and jews, well, thats in a league of its own, but still, it was a group abusing another group, by mass execution.

now, i dont think its worth really getting into, but its hard comparing history because while 'history repeats itself,' history is also never the same. you can compare these groups yet at the same time they are so different its not worth comparing. the way the nazis viewed the jews is the result of the brainwashing of a psychologically sick group of dictators. slavery on the american continent is a result of centuries of groups feeling a sense of superiority over another group for whatever reason. doesn't mean its alright, but its been done throughout all of history. sadly, it just extended to the american continent. pilgrims or settlers and indians was unlike anything else in all of history. literally like alien encounters. there are various reasons the two groups clashed with each other.

look, one can make historical comparisons all day long, but just as easily find differences. so while there may be the comparison that all of these groups abused the other groups and that makes it bad to dress children up like the groups; there is also the extreme difference that before any of that started, and unlike the other groups, these two groups lived peaceably with one another. no one is talking about celebrating when one group tried to destroy another group or celebrating that, rather its an extremely unique moment in history when two groups as alien and as foreign to each other as the world has ever known, got together and helped each other survive.

2. so it appears that this is more of the issue then: the costumes. at least thats what the parent seems to indicate. as i recal, the costumes involve construction paper headbands and feathers and maybe a vest made from a brown paper bag. i know that they didnt have construction paper back in the 1600's, and im not trying to be an ignorant american, but didnt indians sort of dress like that? seriously though. did they not wear headbands? with feathers? maybe a vest made of some sort of animal skin? honestly, if im off, id like to know. i dont think its proper to mock any group of people, but i dont think paper bag vest made by a kindergartener is so completely off as a representation of clothing that the indians actually wore. and im being serious. these kids are 5. they dont have much at their disposal.

are people upset that we are remembering them/stereotyping them as people that wear feathers and walk around in a loin cloth? if so, no one is saying that you do it now, just that your ancestors at one point did. if thats their beef then thats just lame. get over it. i mean, im a mormon. people will forever think i have 8 wives. people will always comment about it. you have to hope and assume they know we still dont have many wives. if they do, then you just look at them and get upset that they breathe the same oxygen as you because they are an idiot.

3. this lady is awesome. i dont know her. but you can tell she was just livid about this situation. she's the type of mother that gets so upset about the situation that she makes her child dress up as an indian and then she puts on her own pocohantus outfit to upset the demonstrators even more. the only real upsetting part is that she's probably like 43 and her body shouldnt be allowed anywhere near pocohantus mini-dresses.

4. see 3. especially mini-dress part.

5. i dont really have anything new to say here. again, i think im just missing something here. i dont understand if the issue is the costumes or upset about thanksgiving. if its the costumes, are they really that off? if its upset about thanksgiving or the message these kids are getting at a young age, i dont really understand what harmful message they could be getting this young. they are 5, so all they get out of it is that the pilgrims and indians ate one time together. it was a big feast that included turkey and rice crispy treats for dessert. and then they all got to play on the playground together.