National Native American Heritage Month

November 4, 2022

Barnstormers,

Last month, we celebrated Indigenous Peoples Day over Three Sisters Soup in the Great Hall. The dish is made from three staples of the Native American diet: maize (corn), beans, and squash. When planted together, they have a symbiotic relationship. The cornstalk provides a trellis for the beans to climb. The roots of the beans contribute nitrogen to the soil, fertilizing the maize and the squash. And the broad leaves of the squash at the base of the cornstalk provide ground cover and shade that keeps the soil moist and free of weeds. There is a lesson in this meal: Three Sisters support and sustain one another by virtue of their unique qualities. 

Our celebration of Indigenous peoples continues in November with National Native American Heritage Month. In the words of Monday’s Presidential Proclamation, November is a time to “celebrate Indigenous peoples past and present and rededicate ourselves to honoring Tribal sovereignty, promoting Tribal self-determination, and upholding the United States’ solemn trust and treaty responsibilities to Tribal Nations.” It is also a time to reflect on one of the most painful chapters in our history: for nearly a decade, beginning with the Indian Removal Act of 1830, Northwest Arkansas and many other regions along the Trail of Tears witnessed the brutal and heart-breaking displacement of Native Americans from their ancestral lands.  

Last spring, Luke Raymond ‘27, one of the students in my English class, introduced me to a moving meditation on the Trail of Tears, Pat Musick’s A Place Where They Cried (2010). With Luke’s help, I found Musick’s sculpture – a haunting procession of funereal stones – in a shady grove on the northern side of Crystal Bridges (it will be relocated with the expansion of the museum). In an interview with the Wall Street Journal Magazine, Alice Walton identifies the sculpture as one of her favorites because it advances the educational mission of the museum: “One of the major roles we play as a museum is approaching and telling difficult stories, and we don’t want to shy away from them.” When asked if Crystal Bridges also has a “political mission,” she continued: "We are all about telling the American story in an honest and open and fair and equitable way and creating access for people that haven’t traditionally had access to it. . . . Our job is not to tell people what they should think. It’s to present the truth in an open way [so] that they can find their own narrative."   

At a time when our nation’s schools are becoming political battlegrounds, Alice Walton’s words hold great relevance for Thaden and our commitment to providing an “honest and open and fair and equitable” education that gives our students the ability to approach “difficult stories” with intellectual integrity, courage, and hope. Like the Three Sisters, we achieve balance and grow stronger together by bringing different perspectives and experiences to the table. That is the sustenance of a Thaden education.  

In this spirit, I invite you to complete this brief questionnaire. Your feedback will inform our ongoing efforts to celebrate and recognize the multicultural dimensions of our growing and diverse school community.

Together we fly.

Clayton K. Marsh

Founding Head of School