Dress-up games celebrate American mythtory

Thanksgiving, like any celebration that requires families to spend time with one another, is as much about fighting as it is about food and giving thanks.

Lucky is the family that survives the enormous meal without some sort of cranberry cocktail-induced argument that leaves at least one guest annoyed, offended or sobbing facedown in the candied sweet potatoes.

No, some relative always insists on exploring a sensitive issue everyone else would rather avoid, be it Cathy’s childless marriage, Mark’s persistent acne or Jennifer’s unusual interest in reptile taxidermy.

This year the Thanksgiving drama that usually plays itself out in in-law-filled dining rooms across the country was reenacted on the larger stage of the Claremont Unified School District.

On a broad scale, the sensitive issue at hand was whether to and how to address the mistreatment of Native Americans by early American settlers when we teach children the now-mythologized history of Thanksgiving. 

On a smaller scale, the issue came down to paper hats and moccasins.

Two elementary schools in Claremont, Calif., have traditionally celebrated Thanksgiving by having students dress up as Pilgrims and Native Americans and sharing a feast.

But inevitably, a parent protested the festivities this year, calling the Native American costumes racist.

The parent, Michelle Raheja, is a professor at UC Riverside who studies Native American literature and is herself half Seneca. She was probably too busy stewing in her own angst to realize the effect her Grinch-like actions will have on her daughter, who will forever be known as “that girl whose mom stole Thanksgiving.”

Raheja explained her actions in a letter she wrote to her daughter’s teacher: “I’m sure you can appreciate the inappropriateness of asking children to dress up like slaves (and kind slave masters), or Jews (and friendly Nazis) or members of any other racial minority group who has struggled in our nation’s history.”

Certainly, Raheja is taking an extreme view of the ethically questionable way we explain Thanksgiving to elementary school children. Feathered hats and fringed vests may or may not be dehumanizing her daughter’s ancestry, as she argues. Overall, though, the point she is making is a good one: People overlook centuries of mistreatment and abuse of Native Americans on the part of white settlers because it was done more subtly and somewhat less systematically than mistreatment of other groups.

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, of course, and Raheja’s attempt to stop Claremont kids from dressing up like the Quaker Oatmeal man and extras in “The Last of the Mohicans” was not universally popular.

One mom said her son was “proud” to wear the vest and feathered headband he made to celebrate Thanksgiving. “In his eyes, he thinks that’s what it looks like to be Indian,” she said.

While some kids might be sad to put away their Native American garb, I doubt they’d be as devastated as this woman implies. Her son would have been equally happy to wear a Ninja Turtles costume to the Thanksgiving celebration.

Whether we like it or not, trivializing and stereotyping other cultures and religions is a part of how America celebrates holidays. Commercializing the birth of Christ with a staggering amount of presents is trivializing in its own way, and when we dress up like witches on Halloween, isn’t that offensive to the witches who were burned at the stake at the hands of those cheery Puritans?

Still, if someone is truly angry about the fact that their child’s culture has been reduced to the Disney version of Pocahontas, there’s no truly compelling reason to force the whole school to continue the tradition.

All the school wanted to accomplish in the first place was to depict a story in which two groups set aside their differences and shared a meal together. This could be easily demonstrated by having one group of children dress up as Ninja Turtles and the other group dress up as Power Rangers. That’s the true spirit of Thanksgiving.

At Claremont, police were eventually called in to separate those protesting the costumes and those supporting them because the opposing groups were getting increasingly angry and acrimonious. The superintendent of the school district also recieved hate mail that made him fear for his safety.

So remember, no matter how bad your Thanksgiving was, no matter how many snide comments Aunt Linda made about the stuffed iguanas decorating the mantelpiece, at least no one had to call in the police.



Laura Reeve is a junior majoring in public relations. Her column, “Folk Laur,” ran Tuesdays.

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