Like many national holidays, Thanksgiving raises troubling questions about U.S. history and how we remember it. Even as it is now embedded in "Native American Indian Heritage Month," Thanksgiving still too often serves as a platform for a familiar set of lies.  I n schools, this has frequently meant racist pageants, costumes, and reenactments, or read-alouds of children's books depicting freedom-loving Pilgrims communing with friendly Indians. 

Obscured by this historical propaganda is the rich and varied history of Indigenous Peoples and the full horror of the United States' genocidal policies.  Isolating lessons about Native Americans into the Thanksgiving holiday also contributes to the disturbing data uncovered and analyzed by Dr. Sarah Shear ---- that 87 percent of state standards about Indigenous Peoples and cultures relate to a pre-1900 context and largely ignore the existence of modern Indigenous Nations.

The Zinn Education Project believes Native lives and history should be taught all year round, not just during holidays and heritage months.

	Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years Edited by Bill Bigelow and Bob Peterson Readings and lessons for grades 5 to 12 about the impact and legacy of the arrival of Columbus in the Americas.
	'Don't Take Our Voices Away': A Role Play on the Indigenous Peoples' Global Summit on Climate Change By Julie Treick O'Neill and Tim Swinehart A role play that asks students to develop a list of demands to present to the rest of the world at a climate change meeting.
	N ative American Activism: 1960s to Present By Lauren Cooper A collection of recent Native movements and activists who have continued to struggle for sovereignty, dignity, and justice for their communities.
	An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States By Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz Four hundred years of Native American history from a bottom-up perspective.

Whose History Matters? Students Can Name Columbus, But Most Have Never Heard of the Taíno People By Bill Bigelow Columbus's treatment of the Taíno people meets the UN definition of genocide. But there has also been a curricular genocide ---- erasing the memory of the Taíno from our nation's classrooms.

This resource from the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian examines a few Native communities through the prism of three main themes that are central to understanding both American Indians and the deeper meaning of the Thanksgiving holiday.  The themes are: Environment: traditional knowledge about and understandings of the natural world. Community: the role that group identity plays in Native cultures. Encounters: how interactions between cultures have affected those cultures.

	Nov. 20, 1969: Alcatraz Occupation On this day, before dawn, 78 Indians landed on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay and occupied the island. They called themselves "Indians of All Tribes" and issued a proclamation, "We Hold the Rock."
	Nov. 23, 1887: Thibodaux Massacre Part of a violent end to the Reconstruction era, at least 50 unarmed Black sugar workers were shot and killed for striking in what became known as the Thibodaux Massacre.

The Zinn Education Project believes Native lives and history should be taught all year round, not just during holidays and heritage months. You can be part of this important work by sharing our content with your networks or by making a donation.