November 2023

During this week, when many of us gather with family and friends to reflect with gratitude on our health, families, and communities, I would like to share with you the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address: Greetings to the Natural World. Translated and published from the Mohawk version in 1993, this address is a gift of the Haudenosaunee to the world. It is a reminder that we have been given the duty to live in balance and harmony with each other and all living things.

Listening, learning, and sharing authentic lessons from Indigenous civilizations who first lived in this area is what Crow Canyon has done for the past 40 years. Learning how to correct inaccurate histories and false representations can be liberating, exciting, and important. At Crow Canyon, our lesson plans blend harvest and gratitude with a respectful understanding of Indigenous history and interaction with colonists. Students learn that the Wampanoag Tribe of the area now known as Massachusetts taught settlers to plant beans, squash and corn. Turkeys were not introduced as traditional fare until 1863, when President Lincoln created Thanksgiving as a national holiday.

We are grateful for our Crow Canyon community of friends who, like us, want to learn from those who came before us – whose wisdom and stories, lives and histories, shed light on the juxtaposition between Western family traditions and the reality of how settlers dispossessed Indigenous families and their traditions. We all are on a constant search for deeper understanding.

This year, as you reflect on the gifts of your life, we invite you to share the Haudenosaunee Greetings to the Natural World with family and friends.

In gratitude,

Liz Perry

President and CEO