VERONA, N.Y. – When the first immigrants from Europe arrived on the North American shores, they were homeless and hungry. They survived thanks to the generosity and kindness of Native peoples, who helped them through the first brutal northeastern winter and shared traditional methods of agriculture that would sustain them through future seasons.

That tradition of hospitality and help is replayed throughout Indian country during the Thanksgiving season in various acts of kindness by tribal nations.

This year, the Oneida Indian Nation has forged a unique partnership with HELP USA, one of the country’s leading homeless advocacy organizations, in a spirit of unity and giving. The partners have pledged to support people who live in America in fear of losing their jobs and homes, and resolved that no one should go hungry or homeless.

Over the years, OIN has donated tens of millions of dollars to charitable organizations through the Oneida Indian Nation Foundation and other philanthropic instruments. The new partnership extends those efforts, said Ray Halbritter, Oneida Indian Nation Representative and CEO of Nation Enterprises.

“By partnering with HELP USA we are creating an opportunity to help all who live in America regain strength and pride. Capitalizing on this partnership, we hope to deliver and inspire the true spirit of giving back, the essence of our heritage.”

Maria Cuomo Cole, the chair of HELP USA’s board of directors, said “We are thrilled to have the Oneida Indian Nation as a partner in giving thanks and giving back. Together, we will work to serve hope to families and highlight the devastation our country is currently facing.”

In one of their first combined acts of giving, OIN/HELP USA will feed hundreds of homeless New Yorkers for the holidays as well as support the American Indian Empowerment Fund, a nonprofit philanthropic organization founded by the Oneida Nation that provides grants to hundreds of regional charitable organizations.

Dozens of celebrity volunteers converged at HELP USA’s Genesis RFK Apartments, a homeless shelter, just off Union Square at 13th Street and 4th Avenue in New York City Nov. 23, to serve more than 400 Thanksgiving meals to homeless families.

The Thanksgiving meal will launch OIN/HELP USA’s “Our Heritage of HELPing” campaign, a yearlong effort to raise awareness and funds to help combat homelessness and hunger in America.

“Integral to this agreement is a commitment by both parties to rediscover the origin and spirit of the Thanksgiving holiday, which dates back to Native people providing this country’s first newcomers with food and shelter. This joint initiative will also serve as a reminder to all people of the spirit of service, generosity and compassion in the face of adversity all year long,” the partners said in a statement.

Both groups have devoted substantial resources to fulfill the mission of giving and sharing in order to help put food on the table for the holiday and beyond.

The same spirit of generosity manifests in other tribal nations in other parts of the country.

The Morongo Band of Mission Indians in California donated 9,000 turkeys to those in need during the week leading up to Thanksgiving.

This year marked the Morongo Band’s 25th Annual Thanksgiving Outreach program as well as the tribe’s milestone of 50,000 turkey giveaways.

The assistance was never more needed than during this current economic downturn, said Morongo Tribal Council Member Elaine Matthews.

“We have always believed in giving, in good times and in bad. In these tough times with record unemployment, the Morongo Band of Mission Indians feels that now, more than ever, it is important to reach out and help others.”

Tribal members and volunteers worked throughout the week to distribute the turkeys to more than 65 nonprofit organizations, including food banks, churches and veterans groups in the Southern California region.

The turkeys will feed an estimated 90,000 people who wouldn’t otherwise get to enjoy a holiday dinner this Thanksgiving season.

“Every year we see hundreds of families express their thanks for Morongo’s contribution to their holiday dinner,” said Linda Phillips, program director for the San Gorgonio Child Care Consortium. “It is truly a blessing to us all.”

Morongo donated nearly 500 turkeys to 10 veterans groups.

“We’ve worked with the Morongo Band of Mission Indians for seven years, feeding hundreds of needy families from Los Alamitos to Twentynine Palms,” said Cindy Chilson, program director at American Legion Post in Banning. “Our mission is to serve our veterans, active military members and their families. With Morongo’s help, they are able to have a Thanksgiving dinner together.”

The Morongo Band has helped feed an astounding half a million people over the past 25 years.

The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community in Minnesota provides another example of Indian holiday spirit. It donates around $250,000 to nonprofit organizations each year to provide food, toys, clothing, activities and other gifts to families during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

“We’ve been blessed, and we’re grateful for the opportunity to help others,” said SMSC Chairman Stanley Crooks.

And each year dozens of Indian organizations make generous gifts to needy families.

Running Strong for American Indian Youth, whose mission is to help American Indian people meet their immediate survival needs – food, water, and shelter – while helping to create opportunities for self-sufficiency and self-esteem, delivered more than 5,000 turkey dinners to thousands of families on reservations in South Dakota and Montana during its annual Operation Turkey Dinners.

Editor’s note: Indian Country Today is a division of Four Directions Media, which is owned by Oneida Nation Enterprises, LLC.

Halbritter: The spirit of Thanksgiving Ray Halbritter is the federally recognized representative of the Oneida Indian Nation of New York and CEO of Oneida Nation Enterprises, which includes Four Directions Media, the publisher of Indian Country Today. He talked to ICT about the Oneida Nation’s new partnership with HELP USA to fight hunger and homelessness. Indian Country Today: Why did the Oneida Indian Nation reach out to HelpUSA to initiate this partnership? Ray Halbritter: For Indian people in general – and our people in particular – I think we suffer to a large extent from a particular perception that has been developed through the film industry and through the media that is not an accurate portrait of our people. There is a lack of awareness about the cultural elements that have been with us historically – the generosity of Indian people, their kindness, their different views on what land is and ownership and on and on it goes. It’s critically important that the proper perception of our people is understood by the larger community. Sometimes perception is reality and the way we were treated as a people has a lot to do with how people perceive us. If you take all the people and businesses that affect our lives from local business owners to political representatives to mayors of cities, all the way to Congress, the president and the U.S. Supreme Court, there are probably so many who only know our people through a news story or the Internet or a film they saw when they were growing up. There are subliminal images that develop into concepts, which shape the way we’re treated. If you look at the U.S. Supreme Court, none of them have probably ever met an Indian, let alone understand our people, except through the filter of the media. ICT: What do you hope to achieve through this OIN/HELP USA project? RH: We think it’s important that people know our people in a more culturally correct way and it seems only logical that once they get to know our people and culture, there will be more understanding, improved decision making and better relationships in our world. This is what we’re doing when we do the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. The idea is to help people remember the spirit of our people’s generosity and openness and kindness to the first immigrants when they were homeless and hungry. If it were not for our Native people, those first immigrants would not have survived and would not have been able to have that first Thanksgiving. Oneida Indian Nation’s partnership with HELP USA works so well, because we are continuing that history and generosity and kindness to people who will benefit from it. And that’s why our float in the Macy’s Parade is entitled the ‘True Spirit of Thanksgiving.’ In this way, we’re hoping to promote an emphasis on the kind of relationships that we really should have in America with the First Americans – one of thanksgiving, one of understanding of the culture of the people who have always lived here and who continue to live here. ICT: Will you be serving the Thanksgiving dinner to the homeless in New York Nov. 23? RH: Oh, of course. I’m going down there just to do that. It’ll be fun. We who are lucky to be blessed – as Oneida is – with our success know there are other nations still struggling, not only our people, but other people as well in this great, rich country. It’s a way to give back and share the spirit of our people. ICT: There is a noted lack of bitterness on the part of Indian people considering the history. RH: It really comes from, I believe, our cultural strength as a people. Our cultures have existed since time immemorial and they still do. I think it’s the fundamental reason why more Native Americas as a ratio than any other group have fought to defend this country. Entrepreneurs spend billions in this country for world needs – that’s a wonderful thing – but America still has great needs in its own parameters, its own boundaries. Part of the contributions that Indians have made may be more qualitative than quantitative. The contribution American Indians have made and can still make is the spirit of their cultures that are still alive. I know Indians struggle with so many losses and so many problems in their lives and the causes are often the unbridled greed of land speculators and developers. We can see how developers get by hook or by crook the wealth of American Indians, but you don’t always have to repay evil with evil. You can repay evil with kindness. ICT: Does that involve the Iroquois concept of “the good mind?” RH: Yes, the power of the good mind. The true power of something that’s intangible. The greatest gift may be that peace was considered by the Iroquois people to be one of the greatest gifts to mankind. Peace. And it was peace that was understood and achieved by the Iroquois during a time of great stress. It was a gift from the Creator, a gift that mankind doesn’t always achieve, but that doesn’t mean we stop believing it or stop striving for it, and it comes from the culture of our people. Sometimes we become overwhelmed with negativity – that’s easy to do as Indian people, but we must not forget our culture. That same culture still exists and there’s still something to be done in America by its people sharing and understanding what American Indians not only have given but continue to give to America, and that’s the true spirit of Thanksgiving.

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