I Don’t Know What I Don’t Know
Last month while I was listening to the audiobook version of Living Resistance: An Indigenous Vision for Seeking Wholeness Every Day, I was taken aback when I heard Kaitlin B. Curtice describe how exhausting the month of November is for her. I had not considered how the combination of Native American Heritage Month and Thanksgiving Day could make November fraught for Indigenous folks like Curtice, who is an enrolled member of the Potawatomi nation.
I learned long ago that the story I was taught in elementary school about a great Thanksgiving feast shared by Pilgrims and Indians presented a false narrative - a whitewashed version of American history. However, I had been unaware of the federal holiday’s unsettling backstory until I read Curtice’s book. A heaviness draped over my heart like a blanket as I realized how easy it is for me to ignore the truth of my country’s history. I don’t know what I don’t know.
Curtice encourages readers to use the month of November as a starting point to map out ways to learn about and celebrate Indigenous cultures throughout the year. Start at home, she urges, by identifying the peoples of the land. I don’t need to use a resource like Native Land Digital to discover which Indigenous peoples stewarded the breathtakingly beautiful land I call home, since the sovereign nation of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians makes their home on the Qualla Boundary in the mountains of Western North Carolina.
After I finished reading Living Resistance, I determined my own course of action to observe Native American Heritage Month. I plan to visit the Museum of the Cherokee People to hear their stories and learn from their experiences. I will read Curtice’s new book Everything is a Story: Reclaiming the Power of Stories to Heal and Shape our Lives. I will also read through the Gospels in the First Nations Version: An Indigenous Translation of the New Testament, which has been on my bookshelf since its release four years ago.
Ask me in December what I have learned.
