OUR DAY WILL COME

From "Stories from America" by Mikhail Fomin

"It’s our Thanks Giving Day today to our popular fish – the Salmon. We are going to treat you to the Salmon today." The head of the American Indian tribe said to us, when we came to his office at the appointed time. The office of the American Indian tribe’s chief was of modern architectural design, furnished in European way. There were a lot of Native traditional culture objects like in an ethnographic museum.

When we left the office to join the holiday gathering in the green field, the hosts asked us to sit down on the grass next to the other guests and the ceremony of entertainment began.

The Salmon dish was put on the plastic plates with garnish, and we started helping ourselves, using plastic knives and forks.

During the ceremony of the Thanks Giving Day I noticed that most of the American Indians were dressed in the European way, except the dancers and singers presenting old Indian dances and songs. They spoke only English, although some of them knew their native language.

The subject of their talk was about the American Indians’ customs and traditions. They knew a great deal about this topic, judging by their talk.

Among the American Indians there were a lot of other Americans. They came here to recall their remote ancestors who were Native Americans. They remembered and respected them.

Before my departure from Russia, I read some books about the USA. There was a piece of information in those books, according to which there were 13 million Americans of Indian origin.

The custom “Potlatch" is still alive among the Native Americans. According to this custom, whenever any American Indian family stores

much food and many possessions, the family invites the whole tribe and gives a dinner party. After the party the hosts give out the rest of their food and material possessions. Each family gives a potlatch party, when it accumulated more than the others. so there are no rich and poor. It’s remarkable that this custom has come to our days since ancient times.

"It’s our day to treat our people to the Salmon. And some other day our neighbors will treat us. So the joy of life will go on forever!" It seemed to me that the kind eyes of the host women expressed this thought.

Translated by Olga Tykynaeva