The land upon which NPES sits is the ancestral home of the Potawatomi People, who lived seasonally, gathered, hunted, and worshiped here since the 1690s (having migrated from the Upper Great Lakes where they'd lived for centuries). The Potawatomi belonged to an alliance of proximity, shared values, and complimentary skills called the Council of Three Fires, with the Ojibwe serving as "Keepers of the Medicine," the Odawa "Keepers of the Trade," and the Potawatomi "Keepers of the Fire," responsible for preserving the Council’s history, culture, traditions, and memories of ancestors.

For the Potawatomi, gratitude, civic duty, and preservation of culture were intertwined, as they expressed their thankfulness for life through their unique role as Keepers of the Fire. Like most indigenous peoples in the Americas, Potawatomi gratitude was specific, inclusive, and charged with spiritual purpose, their solemn responsibility to their community for the past, present, and future. And it was existential; they believed that acknowledgment and gratitude assured their survival. They took nothing for granted, especially one another and the natural world that sustained them.

In 1821 and again in 1833, the so-called "Treaties of Chicago" between the Potawatomi, their allies, and the U.S. government led to the forcible removal of native peoples from their ancestral lands in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan. The government's objectives were to seize ownership of all natural resources in the Great Lakes, segregate indigenous peoples from settlers of European ancestry, and repurpose the land and water they seized from a shared natural environment for communal hunting and gathering to one suitable for a European settler economy, with privately-owned property and speculation.

Known as The Potawatomi Trail of Death, the journey of nearly 700 miles to Kansas of about 850 Potawatomi People began in September of 1838, with soldiers pushing them west at a grueling pace, increasing the suffering of the Potawatomi and resulting in the death of 42 people, mostly children, from starvation, illness, and exhaustion. They encountered intense heat and dust at the outset, followed by weeks of blustery wind, rain, and snow before arriving in present-day Osawatomie, Kansas on November 4.

While all endured terrible physical suffering on the Trail of Death, the loss of their sacred ancestral lands must have been especially difficult for the Potawatomi as Keepers of the Fire for the Council. As high as the physical cost was, the emotional toll was incalculable, with implications for the ancestors of the Potawatomi in the nearly 200 years that followed. Despite the removal of the Potawatomi People from our present-day area--and the multi-generational physical and psychological trauma that removal inflicted--today Chicago remains home to the Midwest's largest urban Indigenous population, with over 65,000 indigenous people living in the area representing over 175 nations, including residents with Potawatomi heritage (the descendants of those who survived the Trail of Death became known as the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, and many of their ancestors returned to the Chicago area following removal). Potawatomi culture and history, even in the wake of brutal injustice and violent oppression, were not erased. While the Potawatomi and Iroquois were not allies–they were from different regions and language families, and wars with the Iroquois contributed to the Potawatomi migration south from the Upper Great Lakes--ironically, they shared common values like communal responsibility for the past, present, and future (the Iroquois measured tribal decision-making by how an action could impact the next seven generations). This Iroquois Thanksgiving Address translated into English offers a striking window into the understanding of gratitude among the indigenous nations of North America:

Today we have gathered and we see that the cycles of life continue. We have been given the duty to live in balance and harmony with each other and all living things. So now, we bring our minds together as one as we give greetings and thanks to each other as people.

What a clear and beautiful starting point for choosing to practice gratitude as a mindset and guiding principle: acknowledging the duty to live in balance and harmony with all living things, and giving thanks to each other as people. At our absolute best, isn’t this ultimately the ethic we strive for as parents and educators in our teaching, parenting, and modeling for the children we love? One powerful expression of gratitude in the Iroquois Thanksgiving Address is actually about teachers and the critical role they play in sustaining a people. While the Iroquois did not have formal schools, family members, elders, and storytellers were acknowledged and respected as enlightened teachers. It gave me chills the first time I read it.

Enlightened Teachers

We gather our minds to greet and thank the enlightened Teachers who have come to help throughout the ages. When we forget how to live in harmony, they remind us of the way we were instructed to live as people. With one mind, we send greetings and thanks to these caring teachers. Now our minds are one.

Isn't that remarkable?

This Thanksgiving I am grateful for my colleagues, NPES’ talented, compassionate, and dedicated faculty, staff, and administration. I am grateful for our engaged, curious, creative, and kind students, and for our incredibly supportive, involved, and generous community of parents/caregivers. And I am grateful for the thoughtful and mission-aligned governance, stewardship, and commitment of our Board of Trustees and all who serve on Board Committees or lead parent clubs and groups. We have so many “Keepers of the Fire” at NPES to be thankful for this November. And I wish you all a safe, peaceful, and joyful Thanksgiving holiday.