Our Clan met to have our Thanksgiving meal today. We meet early to pray and enjoy the Creator's works

Today our clan gathered for Thanksgiving.

We had our Thanksgiving today. We gathered as a clan (Black Otter Clan). I gave the prayers of thanks. I listened to problems or issues. If people in the clan have a need they tell me. I try to find what they need from others and get it to them so neither knows who else was helped. We remember our past and our heritage. We discussed today the lean years when we would have no food and would boil our moccasins in water and eat them because we were starving. But still we gave thanks. It was also my pleasure to prepare and pray over the ancestor’s plate. I prepare a plate of food and take it to the woods. I leave it for our ancestors who are still watching us. I pray over the food that someday another will do this for me. I tell our history. I learn more of our history from the elders to tell it again later. I played the flute for the folks. Not as Peace Chief but as an accomplished flute player that is in the clan. I can perform naming of new clan members and children. Often during our lives events cause name changes. A man usually will have three to as many as seven names in a life time. A Woman may have more that are only know to her and her mom and clan mother. Today we explained the Indian welcome to the children. When we greet each other we raise or right hand in greeting. Just the right hand to so we are giving and not expecting anything in return. It also showed we were not carrying weapons. It showed we do not give with one hand and have the other extended expecting something in return. We had a great day. We prayed for our sick and elders. We prayed for the animals, the creepy crawlies, the winged, the two and four legged. We prayed for them all and were blessed to see a hawk fly over head and call to us in response. It was a good day. The Creator was good to us today.