After Five Generations, a Family Gave Back the Treasures in Its Closet by Julia Jacobs

Reporting for The New York Times, Julia Jacobs claims a few of the newspaper’s Thanksgiving column inches for the story of Native American artifacts being returned to the rightful generational descendants after more than a century in the hands of others. Jacobs treads carefully on how the belongings of Chief Spotted Tail, a Lakota leader, ended up in the possession of the Newell family. There weren’t necessarily ill doings in the original transfer of items, but it’s also clear that these pieces of Lakota history were little more than a curiosity as they moved from one generation to the next. All it took to for the headdress, clothing, and other things to be transferred to a more honorable home was for one Newell to say no when his turn to take them arrived. That’s a useful lesson as we enter into a sad new era of concerted regression by national leadership.

For Indigenous peoples, Thanksgiving has complex meaning. Oneida chef shares his thoughts. by Frank Vaisvilas

Frank Vaisvila, the Native American affairs reporter for multiple Gannett newspapers in Wisconsin, gets the perspective of Arlie Doxtator, a chief with the state’s Oneida tribe who is especially well-known for his advocacy of Indigenous American cooking. Doxtator offers a measured, stern challenge to the national myth-making around the Thanksgiving holiday. The history is far more complex than is usually acknowledged, and it’s often shunted even further aside by the most superficial trappings that have grown up around the day. Doxtator’s view is a useful corrective.

I Acted in ‘Cabaret.’ We Must Heed Its Warning. by Joel Grey

It must be true that Joel Grey knows the musical Cabaret better than any other living soul. He originated the role of The Emcee, won a Tony and a Academy Award for playing it, and is so strongly associated with the show that he’s still routinely enlisted to confer legitimacy to any new production. If he feels its important to reiterate Cabaret‘s warnings about creeping fascism, it’s best to take him seriously. This piece is published by The New York Times.