What Thanksgiving Means to Me: Reflections from our Native Community

Welcome to the Thanksgiving edition of Food Revolution! In this episode, we asked our Native community members to reflect on the question "What does Thanksgiving mean to you?" In response, we received reflections on the sacrifices Native ancestors made so that they and their descendants could survive, calls for the true history of Thanksgiving to be taught, reminders on the importance of families coming together to share a meal, and more.  Thank you all for listening & supporting Food Revolution during season one! We'll be taking a break for a bit before the launch of season two, but want to send a special thank you to all of our guests who have so generously shared their stories with us over the course of this season.  Full episode transcription available here.  Enjoy listening to Food Revolution? Consider donating to the Sicangu Food Sovereignty Initiative to help us in our mission to build food sovereignty and a local foods economy to empower our tribal community through food! Donations are 501(c)3 tax deductible.  Website: www.sicangucdc.orgFacebook: Sicangu Community Development CorporationInstagram: @sicangucdcTwitter: @sicangucdc   Matte (00:00:00) So this day is a day of remembrance. We remember our relatives and our ancestors, and all the hardships that they endured. We remember that even today, we are still going through challenges and struggles   Intro (00:00:12) Han Mitakuyapi, and welcome to Food Revolution, brought to you by the Sicangu Food Sovereignty Initiative. Every other week, we'll be bringing you stories of food sovereignty from community members and tribal food producers working to build a more just, equitable, and regenerative food system for the Sicangu Lakota Oyate - the Burnt Thigh Nation. Together, we're building tribal sovereignty through food, and we've set a place at the table just for you. Join us and be part of the food revolution.   Mairi (00:00:41) Hey everyone. This is Mairi with the Food Sovereignty Initiative. You're listening to the Thanksgiving edition of Food Revolution, which will be our final episode of season one. Thank you all for supporting us this season, and a special thank you to our guests on the show for sharing your stories with us.  If you're listening to this, you probably know that the Thanksgiving story has been falsified and whitewashed throughout the history of the United States. (And for more on that, you can check out our blog post titled “Thanksgiving and Native Foodways: From 1621 to 2020” on our website, www.sicangucdc.org). But giving thanks was, and continues to be, a pillar of many Native cultures both before and after colonization.  For today's episode, we asked our Native community members to reflect on the question “What does Thanksgiving mean to you?” In response, we received reflections on the sacrifices that Native ancestors made so that they and their descendants could survive, calls for the true history of Thanksgiving to be taught, and reminders on the importance of families coming together to share a meal. Without further ado, I'll let Matte Wilson, the Food Sovereignty Initiative Director, kick us off.