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A giving time of year

I remember very clearly those early days of my life when students of Indian Camp School would sort of ease into the holiday season. Halloween, while not being a real holiday was a good part of our holiday season. Thanksgiving would, of course, be the next event, and it always began with stories of how the Native Americans and the Pilgrims got together to celebrate the Pilgrims survival in the New World.     

I was a little confused as a child, wondering what was so difficult about surviving in America. I remember some of the pictures in the textbooks showing Indians and Pilgrims hunting wild turkeys.  There was an illustration of an Indian pointing, leading the way around the New World. There were even painted pictures of Indians building a fire. I believe the intended purpose of the fire was to cook a big Thanksgiving Dinner. At least that is the message that I, as a child took away from the early textbooks.

In short, Thanksgiving was a day set aside as a way of expressing gratitude for the many positive things that come our way while we are living our lives. It is truly a beautiful and healthy way of expressing a basic human emotion.

I agree with the idea of spending that special day of Thanksgiving with family and special friends. 

In some of the art from the books I mentioned above some of the Indians were wearing bone necklaces, and Eagle Feathers and they carried bows and arrows. They traveled the paths and the waterways of the continent and much of their activity was depicted in the art of that period. While most of those storybook Indians were not Osage their stories are familiar because many of those storybook Indians were Osages.

To individuals who were a part of the Osage World of that time in history, every day was truly, Thanksgiving. Beginning before dawn when they would leave their dwellings and walk a short distance to the east before stopping to offer their prayers of gratitude for all that Wah Ko’n Tah gave them each day.

Today we see, we hear and we know of the Osage People living outside of the Reservation and the opportunities that wait there. When you put those opportunities together with the complex and powerful economic, social and personal opportunities that exist for Osages and their families within the boundaries of the Osage Reservation, you have something worth thinking about.

When you consider that fact that we as a Nation control just how good and how big this kind of a government can be, it makes for something we are proud of. Because there is much in our history and culture of which we are proud.

Of course, this is nothing new to Osage People and their families.

Many of them at some point in their busy lives cross paths with each other and it seems that when that happens and they start discussing all of these things, as well as our cultural history, it must certainly be a positive experience.

In todays Osage World, we are like many other Indian People, each day can accurately be called Thanksgiving Day.


By

Charles Red Corn


Original Publish Date: 2015-12-02 00:00:00

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  • Osage News Staff

    Stories that are not primarily written by an Osage News staff member will have a “Osage News” byline. These stories include press releases and other community content that was drafted by someone externally but reviewed and approved for publication by Osage News. As an independent news organization, we strive to report news and information with fairness and balance. While being the official news organization of the Osage Nation, we base our news judgements on our loyalties to our readers and Osage citizens, and we are not directly beholden to the Executive, Legislative, or Judicial branches of the Osage Nation.

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Osage News Staff
Osage News Staffhttps://osagenews.org
Stories that are not primarily written by an Osage News staff member will have a “Osage News” byline. These stories include press releases and other community content that was drafted by someone externally but reviewed and approved for publication by Osage News. As an independent news organization, we strive to report news and information with fairness and balance. While being the official news organization of the Osage Nation, we base our news judgements on our loyalties to our readers and Osage citizens, and we are not directly beholden to the Executive, Legislative, or Judicial branches of the Osage Nation.
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