Highline School District issued the following announcement.
Reflections on Thanksgiving
May your Thanksgiving break be safe and happy. We are thankful for each of you, our families, students, staff and community. Let us take this time with family to consider our shared history and recommit to a more equitable and inclusive future.
We acknowledge that the land now known as Highline is the traditional land of the peoples who lived near and cared for the Green, White, Duwamish and upper Puyallup rivers. We honor the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe, a sovereign tribal nation, and their community which holds multiple sites in Highline as sacred and culturally significant. We honor with gratitude this land and the people who stewarded it throughout generations and still do.
We are grateful for our Native students and staff members who represent multiple sovereign tribal nations out of the 574 federally recognized tribes in the United States. We honor you and the strength you bring to our Highline story.
“Thanksgiving traditionally misrepresents the relationship between Native people, the land and water Native peoples hold dear, and the acts of invaders which cause harm to Native peoples, languages, lands and lifeways to this day,” says Sara Marie Ortiz, Highline’s Native Education Program manager.
Here are resources to provide more context to the origins of this American holiday.
RESOURCES
SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN
- The Invention of Thanksgiving - video
- Thanksgiving Resources from NMAI’s Native Knowledge 360
- Why Do the Foods We Eat Matter? & Native Nations of the Pacific Northwest Map
- "The Thanksgiving Tale We Tell is a Harmful Lie. As a Native American, I've Found a Better Way to Celebrate the Holiday," by Sean Sherman, November 2019
- Native Education Program Online ResourcesPDF download (pdf)
- We Are Muckleshoot - video story of the federally recognized tribe we now know as The Muckleshoot
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