This year I was lucky enough to have four Thanksgiving dinners. The first was a Thanksgiving pot luck at our November Board of Directors meeting. The second was at Takini School. Though Takini has its short comings (none of the kids have pencils, the school counselor teaches math because they're short on teachers, juniors do the same math packets as 8th graders and there are 8th graders who can't do 7x0, 1-1, or 22-19 without a calculator), it does try to keep the Lakota culture alive and one way they did this was by having a Thanksgiving lunch for the students that was also open to community members. The Y had a ham dinner for the kids on Wednesday. We had the kids go around the table and say what they were thankful for. Dylan, a recently turned seven YMCA regular said, "AMANDA!!!" :D Courtney, Andy, and I went to Medina's house on Thanksgiving to eat with her kids, brother, and mom. We had quite the feast--a ham, a turkey, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn bread muffins, salad, five pies, a pineapple upside down cake etc etc. Kateri (Medina's 11 year old daughter) and I made the spirit plate, being careful to get a pinch of everything. The Lakota believe that the spirits can garner the energy from the food, even without ingesting it. Other than the spirit plate, my South Dakota Thanksgiving wasn't much different from my Wisconsin Thanksgivings.
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AuthorMy people understand that you children are sacred. You are precious. You are our future. -Wallace Black Elk, Lakota spiritual leader ArchivesCategories |