Last year, a backstory listener said he would love to hear another take on Thanksgiving.

Mark Chambers from Midlothian, Virginia, suggested this story, and I think it's worth revisiting.

Here's the thing.

Thanksgiving is not just an American expression of appreciation for what we've been given.

Gratitude is universal.

For Native Americans, Thanksgiving is

understandably a national day of morning. But it's also a day of giving thanks. How do they

express that? It's a little bit complicated. I'm Patty Steele, understanding the Native American

perspective when it comes to Thanksgiving.

That's next on the backstory.

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The backstory is back.

We've all just celebrated Thanksgiving a day to celebrate gratitude, but backstory listener, Mark Chambers from Midlothia and Virginia, had an idea for a follow-up episode to our Thanksgiving story. Thank you, Mark.

For Native Americans, Thanksgiving is a day to give thanks, but for many, it's also considered a national day of mourning.

They mourn what was lost when Europeans discovered, I say that with air quotes, their land, and these completely

different cultures came together. It's a story that's been romanticized over these 400 years,

and the beginnings aren't really as romantic as we think. The Friday following

Thanksgiving is Native American Heritage Day, so it's really important to remember that North

America, and for that matter, South America weren't just vast, empty land masses. When Europeans arrived,

North America alone was home to somewhere between five and

ten million Native Americans. Hard to tell with so many different tribes. By the way, the English

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