Educate Respect

We highly recommend seeing A Thanksgiving Play at Oregon Contemporary Theatre. Larissa FastHorse has written a witty and sly satire on a holiday where white people have a lot of baggage to unpack.

Native artists give us many entertaining ways to educate ourselves. View movies such as Smoke Signals, Pow Wow Highway and Wind River. Read books by Louise Erdrich, Janet Campbell Hale and N. Scott Momaday. Visit and attend events at the Many Nations Longhouse on the UO campus, which include storytelling, dance, song and drumming.

As a parent you can educate your children that the land in Eugene is the homeland of the Kalapulya people. Read picture books from the library about Pacific Northwest traditional stories such as Raven’s Light, Coyote in Love (Crater Lake Legend) and The Salmon Princess. Have your children follow or write to Sharice Davids and Deb Haaland, who recently became the first Native American women elected to Congress.

To learn about 21 things you can do to be more respectful of Native American cultures, search “21 things you can do to be more respectful of Native American cultures” at nonprofitaf.com.

Always gently and clearly address stereotypes your children share about Thanksgiving and Indigenous peoples: “Actually, that’s not real. Let’s find out what’s real together.”

Christopher and Deb Michaels

Eugene