That Brunch in the Forest

Sidedoor

Smithsonian Institution

Museum, Air And Space, Society & Culture, National Museum, Tony Cohn, Sidedoor, Natural History, African American History And Culture, Postal Museum, History, American History, History Of The World, Exhibits, Art19, Pop Culture, Smithsonian, The Smithsonian, Science, Washington, National Zoo, Zoo, Dc, Exhibit

4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 14 November 2018

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 1621, a group of Pilgrims and Native Americans came together for a meal that many Americans call "The First Thanksgiving." But get this—it wasn't the first, and the meal itself wasn't so special either. The event was actually all but forgotten for hundreds of years…until it was dusted off to bolster the significance of a national holiday. This time on Sidedoor, we talk to Paul Chaat Smith, a curator at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, to explore how much of what you think you know about Native Americans may be more fiction than fact.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Side Door, a podcast from the Smithsonian with support from PRX.
0:14.2	I'm Halima Shaw.
0:17.4	A couple weeks ago, I saw an animated video about Thanksgiving. It had a stop motion vibe to it.
0:27.0	It showed images of historic documents and corny holiday decorations flying across the screen. The narrator was Smithsonian
0:35.6	curator and author Paul Chatsmith and he's Native American himself from
0:40.9	the Comanche Nation. Here's what he said at the start of the video.
0:45.0	Thanksgiving is insane.
0:47.0	It's this huge incredible disaster of highways and airports and it's crowded and the weather's awful.
0:55.0	A meal that takes days, sometimes weeks of preparation,
1:00.0	emotional turmoil fights.
1:04.0	I mean, yeah, traffic is terrible, but I guess I didn't expect a Smithsonian curator to talk about travel options in the first 40 seconds of a video about Thanksgiving.
1:14.5	So obviously I wanted to know more.
1:17.4	Turns out the video is part of an exhibition at the National Museum of the American Indian
1:21.8	called Americans, which Smith helped create.
1:25.0	I had never met Smith before, but since he's my Smithsonian neighbor, I thought I'd drop him an email.
1:31.0	He responded. and we decided to meet at the exhibition to talk.
1:37.4	I went over with Side Door producer Justin O'Neill.
1:40.6	Oh there he is. The back couch. Where he said he'd be.
1:45.0	Smith has a really fun and also dry sense of humor that might make some wonder if he's kidding or being serious.
1:52.0	Testing, one, two, three, hello Cleveland. wonder if he's kidding or being serious.
1:53.0	Testing, one, two, three, hello Cleveland.
1:55.2	Hello, Cleveland.
	...

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