A multicultural Thanksgiving

A turkey, cranberry sauce and ... lo mein?

For many families in America, Norman Rockwell’s cheerful Thanksgiving family bears little resemblance to their own Thanksgiving celebrations – or lack thereof. Whether it is an immigrant family’s first American celebration, or a fifth-generation tradition, people bring their own heritage to the holiday.

From sports teams with names like the “Redskins” to the Land O’ Lakes symbol, Native Americans are one of the most stereotyped ethnic groups in the country, especially around Thanksgiving, when decals, cartoons and figurines of happy Native Americans playing with European Pilgrims start popping up. But although there is a definite stigma to Thanksgiving for Native Americans, the majority use the fourth Thursday in November as a chance to get together and spend time with their families.

While it is a problematic holiday, said Rebecca Riall, a law student and president of the Native American Community Center of Bloomington, many Native Americans enjoy having a day to be with family, though there are likely to be snide Pilgrim jokes and political discussions around the dinner table.

“If you’ve got a day off, why not enjoy that?”

Riall said the “elementary-school story” of Thanksgiving overlooks the historical context of the first Thanksgiving; there were many intertribal disputes at the time, so the nations that befriended the Pilgrims were in fact looking for allies. The foods that many people think of as “normal” Thanksgiving foods, like turkey, squash and pumpkin, are part of a traditional Native American diet, Riall said, noting that Thanksgiving is a day when “everyone eats native food for once.”

“Teachers kind of drag Indians out of the closet for Thanksgiving, then put them back after,” she said.

Sophomore Chris Purvis, who lives in the Global Village Living-Learning Center, said immigrants and visitors from different countries also view the holiday differently.

“I think those who can relate more to the United States are more likely to adopt the holiday,” he said, referring to primarily to the Latino population.

His brother-in-law is Dominican, and Purvis said Thanksgiving at his sister and brother-in-law’s house is much more of a party, while the rest of his family tends to be more laid-back in their celebration. The food is noticeably different as well: Mexican rice is a staple, and flour tortillas with steak and chicken are common as well.

Lillian Casillas, director of La Casa, said most Latino immigrants do not know anything about Thanksgiving before coming to America but will adopt the holiday because it is a meal with the family, and also because it leads into the holiday season.

“You eat crazy, stay up with the family and sleep in on Friday,” she said with a laugh.
For many IU students, a family Thanksgiving is marked by the foods they have had every year since childhood, and those foods are often a sign of  the students’ cultural backgrounds.

Mai-lin Poon, an American graduate student whose mother is from Hong Kong and whose father is Taiwanese, said her Thanksgiving dinner includes dishes like lo mein, fried rice and steamed seafood. Poon said her family has two dinners: one for the extended family and a “hot pot night” for the immediate family. Hot pot night, a common event in China, consists of small bowls of things like pork, crab, rice noodles, mushrooms and various vegetables; everyone adds what they want to a large pot, the end result being a soup that everyone shares.

“You put into the pot what you want to eat and you cook it,” Poon said. “We all help cook.”

Casillas said there are noticeable culinary differences at a Latino Thanksgiving, like the presence of flan, chorizos and stuffing that contains ground beef.

“We have the turkey, but we also have tamales,” Casillas said.

Bloomington resident Lesya Romanyshak came to the United States from Ukraine 15 years ago; her family owns the Euro Deli on South Walnut Street, an Eastern European grocery store where they sell everything from meats and cheese to cookies and candies. While they have a turkey every year, Romanyshak said they forego certain dishes, like mashed potatoes and gravy, in favor of traditional foods like cheese blintzes, pirogues (potato dumplings) and stuffed cabbage with rice and meat inside.

Romanyshack said there is no Ukrainian equivalent for Thanksgiving, but she said her family began celebrating the holiday the first year they immigrated.

“I just feel like we’re part of America, and we want to celebrate their holiday,” she said.
Mark Trotter, assistant director of the Russian and Eastern European Institute, said celebrating Thanksgiving is often a way for new immigrants to adapt to American culture.

“For people from Russia and Eastern Europe, Thanksgiving is a novel concept,” he said, and they are quick to adopt the custom.

This is especially true when their children see friends having fun for the holiday.
“As a kid, you’re like, ‘oh, do we celebrate that?’” Poon said. “My parents, of course, didn’t want me to feel left out.”

But in those cases, it’s usually just for a family get-together, Poon said, rather than anything relating to Pilgrims or Native Americans.

She said her mom will sometimes have a Thanksgiving celebration in July because Poon could not come home in November.

“Really, it’s just focused on family.”

Poon recalled an elementary school celebration, in which she was the only non-Caucasian in her class. Everyone brought a dish to share with the class, and her mother made fried rice. No one else in her class knew what it was, and Poon said from then on, her mother chose more traditional Thanksgiving dishes for class parties.

For some, Thanksgiving isn’t necessarily a big deal either way.

“Nobody ever really got excited,” said graduate student Ahmed Khanani, who said he always heard “the standard, historically inaccurate narrative” in elementary school.
Khanani, who is from Colorado and identifies himself ethnically as Pakistani-American, said unless he is specifically invited to someone else’s home, he does not celebrate the holiday.

“Basically, we watch football and have a good time,” he said.