Is Thanksgiving Offensive? Trivia Facts, & Chef Cooks the Traditional Native Way

We begin today with the question tribal members ask every year, is celebrating Thanksgiving offensive to Native Americans? Of course we all know the war which was waged against Natives in the centuries following colonization, but should that affect the yearly dinner with family? Or does the spirit of the holiday, being thankful for what we have today and having a tasty meal fit for an ancient king overcome past harms? This is one topic discussed today on the 30 minute Puyallup Native Radio Podcast

We then go over some interesting Thanksgiving trivia facts, like how Thanksgiving became a national holiday to begin with, and why is it held on a Thursday anyhow? Why do we use turkey, when it wasn’t even at the first Thanksgiving, and did you know that Canada celebrated thanksgiving in 1578, even before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock?

In the second segment, we highlight the new executive chef working for the National Museum of the American Indian, Freddie Bitsoie who will be cooking Thanksgiving dinner this year the Native way!

Finally, people keep throwing pennies at Benjamin Franklin’s grave, and now there’s a crack in his stone which has officials looking for a million pennies to get it fixed. Then, just for fun, the top 5 signs your pet turkey knows Thanksgiving is coming. No, I’m not going to spoil the joke here, listen to the show if you are interested in hearing.