The lessons of Thanksgiving

Re “Insulting stereotype, or harmless holiday feast?” Nov. 25

As the mother of two young girls and as a holder of a doctorate in Native American arts and cultures, I have asked myself how I would explain to my children the encounter between native peoples and Puritan Colonists that we celebrate on Thanksgiving Day.

Were it not for native peoples’ assistance to the early Pilgrims, the latter would likely not have survived. It is this generosity that we purportedly celebrate on Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, the Colonists were not quite as generous, and some of their actions contributed to the extinction of hundreds of native peoples in the Northeast -- making that celebration all the more poignant, and ultimately horrifying, for some native descendants.

Yet history is a series of complex encounters rather than one or two all-encompassing events. Allowing young children to reenact Thanksgiving Day provides a first introduction to the place American Indians hold in our history and is appropriate, provided that their later education includes an awareness of the losses native peoples endured at the hands of the Colonists.

This, at least, is the kind of education I intend to provide my two children.

Susan Croteau

Claremont

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Thanksgiving helps schools teach children about people cooperating and coming together. Perhaps these parents could learn a lesson from the Pilgrims and Native Americans?

Sara Pelly

Villa Park