By Kerry Douglas McKennon, Libertarian candidate for U.S. Senate

For many of us, our first introduction with the indigenous people of America is in grade school during the holiday of Thanksgiving. We sit in class and learn what is believed by some to be the first Thanksgiving. As school children, we experience the natives of the land through hand drawn turkeys, construction paper pilgrim hats and feather headbands. For some even a play of that first Thanksgiving dinner starts our education regarding indigenous people of the Americas.

We often forget the message of the holiday by glossing over that meal. Every year thousands of individuals travel across town and across the country to share a meal together with their families on Thanksgiving. It has become a family tradition that so many of us cherish.

We forget that it was strangers/new friends that helped to nourish those first settlers in the New World. These first Americans that would later be seen as savages and almost wiped out by genocide are, in fact, a very generous, loving and family oriented people. The indigenous people of America come together and support each member of the tribe. Harvest is an important time to them. Long before the American Holiday of Thanksgiving, the harvest has been celebrated. The giving of thanks for the Fall harvest has always been of great importance. So it is only natural for the indigenous tribes to share their abundance from the harvest with the new settlers that were in desperate need.

As if forgetting the message of sharing and giving was not enough, we experience indigenous people first and sometimes only in elementary school. Indigenous people are so much more than the saviors of starving Pilgrims that we celebrate as the first Thanksgiving. Each of us should practice that compassionate sharing of the harvest not just on this holiday, but all year long. Today, we often forget that strong message of helping those in need that our indigenous siblings taught us hundreds of years ago.