November: Native American Heritage Month. Time for Thanksgiving

Welcome to November, the month of Thanksgiving and Native American Heritage Month. The Academy of American Poets has compiled a wonderful listing of "poems, essays, books, and more by and about Native American poets." If there are any teachers reading this, the Academy has also included several lesson plans and related materials. (Would those lesson plans also work for parents? Take a look, try one and see. It has to be better than the traditional distorted stories of the first Thanksgiving.) Now is also an appropriate moment to remind or inform you of an online resource that identifies territories, languages and treaties related to Native Land particularly in North America. It can be useful in identifying whose homeland you're occupying if you do a Land Acknowledgement. Much of Minnesota has been and is home of the Anishinabewaki ᐊᓂᔑᓈᐯᐗᑭ or the Santee and Dakota.

Mitákuye Oyás’iŋ (All Are Related) 

Photo by J. Harrington

Now that November is officially underway, we can theoretically prune and trim our oak trees without exposing them to oak wilt disease. It's also prime time to notice all the still green buckthorn understory while driving around. With all the reservoirs of buckthorn available for reseeding throughout the area, it becomes challenging to stay motivated to control that invasive on our property. On the other hand, it's unattractive and limits the growth of indigenous plants so we'll keep picking away at it. If only pocket gophers would eat the roots of buckthorn, or deer consume its foliage and twigs... but then that wouldn't be this imperfect world we live in, would it? Since buckthorn is a relatively recent arrival turned into an invasive species, it's doubtful there are traditional Native American practices for managing it although the use of "controlled burns," similar to the way prairies were kept open by Native Americans, is noted by one of Minnesota's conservation agencies.

MIIGWECH = thanks BII IZHAAYAN for coming(?)

Photo by J. Harrington

This month, weather permitting, might be a prime time to visit at least one of the places, other than a reservation or a casino, that honors Minnesota's Native American heritage. There's:

• The Goose Garden (near Sandstone)


• The Mille Lacs Trading Post


• The American Indian Cultural Corridor in Minneapolis

And, without leaving your chair, you can explore the bdote Memory Map. No doubt there are others we haven't mentioned or discovered yet. We look forward to learning more about this country's heritage.

Once the World Was Perfect

Joy Harjo - 1951-

Once the world was perfect, and we were happy in that world.
Then we took it for granted.
Discontent began a small rumble in the earthly mind.
Then Doubt pushed through with its spiked head.
And once Doubt ruptured the web,
All manner of demon thoughts
Jumped through—
We destroyed the world we had been given
For inspiration, for life—
Each stone of jealousy, each stone
Of fear, greed, envy, and hatred, put out the light.
No one was without a stone in his or her hand.
There we were,
Right back where we had started.
We were bumping into each other
In the dark.
And now we had no place to live, since we didn’t know
How to live with each other.
Then one of the stumbling ones took pity on another
And shared a blanket.
A spark of kindness made a light.
The light made an opening in the darkness.
Everyone worked together to make a ladder.
A Wind Clan person climbed out first into the next world,
And then the other clans, the children of those clans, their children,
And their children, all the way through time—
To now, into this morning light to you.

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Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can.