As a School-Based SLP, fresh out of my CF year and working with indigenous students K-12....I have faced the inevitable gut-twisting topic of Thanksgiving. It's so inevitably omnipresent, yet so incredibly instilled in our culture. In this episode, I (Lindsey, MS, CCC-SLP), discuss how I have navigated through this topic and how I have addressed it within my student's speech sessions. This episode provides content based on my personal experience with guidance from indigenous perspectives and indigenous educators and professionals. It is by no means an exhaustive episode and I am not claiming to have 'answers'. But, we agreed that it is important to get a dialogue going so that mistakes can be addressed and corrected, so that a discussion can be had, and so that inaccurate information along with the oppression of indigenous nations and persons will not be perpetuated. We acknowledge that we have a lot of equity work to do and a lot to learn from. 

My references/collaborations/intellectual contributors include:

A. Morris, “Teaching Thanksgiving in a Socially Responsible Way,” Teaching Tolerance, 10-Nov-2015. [Online]. Available: https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/teaching-thanksgiving-in-a-socially-responsible-way?fbclid=IwAR2teR5NP9iccCEjTw9UsiGYvDJBgKqmRbKqv_ztIM6f_vAq7kRkfEa0rEU. [Accessed: 19-Nov-2020]

Dr. Joshuaa Allison-Burbank, PhD, CCC-SLP (Navajo/Diné and Acoma)

Dr. Debbie Reese (Nambe Pueblo)