Dear Congregation and Friends,
Thanksgiving is a complex holiday for me. It is my favorite holiday because there aren’t any church obligations and the only intention is to eat yummy food and hang out with loved ones. At the same time, I am always reminded of the violence that Native Americans have endured for centuries. The story told in Thanksgiving pageants across elementary schools is not the whole story.
Robert Swaney-Bordeaux is a Lakota poet who lives on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. His poetry speaks to me today:
“Sometimes my feet
carry me through,
and sometimes the weight of it all
brings me to my knees.
When it does,
I turn to the collective,
The warriors of all that is good
and they remind me
just how much power we carry
when we stack all our bones
together in resistance
to what crushes us,
together to build a world
that remembers this land,
the stars,
and all that live and grow here,
are our relatives.
And I find peace.”
In honor of this Thanksgiving Day, I invite you to get to know Robert via Instagram and support him on Patreon.
I also invite you to find out who was displaced from the land where you live by visiting Native-Land.ca.
In the KC Metro:
𐓏𐒰𐓓𐒰𐓓𐒷 𐒼𐓂𐓊𐒻 𐓆𐒻𐒿𐒷 𐓀𐒰^𐓓𐒰^ (Osage)
Washtáge Moⁿzháⁿ (Kaw / Kansa)
Očhéthi Šakówiŋ
Kiikaapoi (Kickapoo)
Let’s honor the complexity of this day, together.
See you Sunday,
Amy
Image: Earnest L. Spybuck (Absentee Shawnee, 1883–1949). "Shawnee Home Life about 1890," painted in 1910. Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma.