How Native Americans Are Celebrating the Holiday Season With Festive Meals, Public Service and Cherished Traditions

The winter holidays and especially Christmas have different meanings to tribes and Native individuals across Indian Country as they commune with friends and family

In past years, Native friends have shared their holiday plans and traditions with Smithsonian Voices. This year we have updated this story with new photographs and quotes.

The introduction of Christianity to the Americas and the origins of Christmas can be controversial in Native circles. Europeans knowingly replaced Native people’s existing spiritual beliefs with the beliefs taught in the Bible. Cruelty and brutality often accompanied this indoctrination. Yet it is also true that some tribes, families, and individuals embraced the Bible and Jesus’ teachings voluntarily. This complicated history is reflected in the stories below.

In many communities and homes, Christian customs are interwoven with Native culture as a means of expressing Christmas in a uniquely Native way. The importance of giving is a cultural tradition among most tribes. Even in times of famine and destitution, Native people have made sure their families, elders, and orphans were taken care of. This mindset prevails into the present. Gift-giving is appropriate whenever a tribal social or ceremonial gathering takes place.

All throughout Indian Country, Native people have gathered in churches, missions, and temples to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ by singing carols and hymns in their Native languages. In some churches, the story of Jesus’ birth is recited in Native languages. Various Native churches also host nativity plays using Native settings and actors to re-enact the birth of Jesus Christ. Among Catholics, Christmas Eve Mass traditionally begins in Indian communities at midnight and extends into the early hours of Christmas Day. In tipis, hogans, and houses, Native American Church members also hold Christmas services, ceremonies that begin on Christmas Eve and go on all night until Christmas morning.

 

Music played an important part in converting Native people, establishing their practice of worship, and teaching them how to celebrate the Christmas season. Perhaps the earliest North American Christmas carol was written in the Wyandot language of the Huron-Wendat people. “Jesous Ahatonhia” (“Jesus, He is born”)—popularly known as Noël Huron or the Huron Carol—is said by oral tradition to have been written in 1643 by the Jesuit priest Jean de Brébeuf.

In contemporary times, traditional powwow singing groups have rearranged Christmas songs to appeal to Native audiences. A humorous example is Warscout’s “NDN 12 Days of Christmas,” from their album Red Christmas. Native solo artists also perform Christmas classics in Native languages. Rhonda Head (Cree), for example, has recorded “Oh Holy Night,” and Jana Mashpee (Lumbee and Tuscarora) has recorded “Winter Wonderland” in Ojibwe.

For Native artisans, this is traditionally the busy season as they prepare special Christmas gift items. Artists and craftspeople across the country create beadwork, woodwork, jewelry, clothing, basketry, pottery, sculpture, paintings, leatherwork, and feather work for special Christmas sales and art markets that are open to the public. For 20 years, the National Museum of the American Indian has held its Native Art Market a few weeks before Christmas. In addition, Native Christmas items can now be purchased directly from Native artisans online.

Native communities host traditional tribal dances, round dances, and powwows on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Among the Pueblo Indians of the Southwest special dances take place, such as buffalo, eagle, antelope, turtle, and harvest dances. The Eight Northern Pueblos of New Mexico perform Los Matachines—a special dance-drama mixing North African Moorish, Spanish, and Pueblo cultures—which take place on Christmas Eve, along with a pine-torch procession.

In the same way, traditional Native foods are prepared for this special occasion. Salmon, walleye, shellfish, moose, venison, elk, mutton, geese, duck, rabbit, wild rice, collards, squash, pine nuts, corn soup, red and green chile stews, bread pudding, pueblo bread, piki bread, bannock (fry bread), tortillas, berries, roots, and Native teas are just a few of the things that come to mind. Individual tribes and Indian organizations sponsor Christmas dinners for their elders and communities prior to Christmas. tribal service groups, churches and warrior societies visit retirement homes, children’s homes, and shelters to provide meals and gifts for their tribal members.

Many tribes begin their Christmas meal by putting out a feast plate or spirit dish for loved ones who have passed. As a special Christmas day of feasting, a prayer is rendered, and food offerings are placed outside of the home on a plate or in the sacred fire for relatives who are no longer with us. It is a sign of respect to allow your remembrances—those who have passed—to eat first. Many are experiencing their first Christmas without a loved one.

According to the Urban Indian Health Institute, nearly seven out of every ten American Indians and Alaska Natives—approximately 71%—live in or near cities, and that number is growing. During the Christmas holidays, many urban Natives travel back to their families, reservations, and communities to reconnect and reaffirm their tribal bonds. They open presents and have big family meals like other American Christians. Alternatively, some Natives do not celebrate Christmas but use this seasonal opportunity to celebrate the Winter Solstice through ceremonies and prayer.

This year we asked a new group of our Native friends “How are you going to spend the holiday season?” Here are some of their answers preceded by the locations they were submitted from:

Idabel, Oklahoma – “For Christmas, I will be healing. As a retired combat veteran, I hold spending time with my family very sacred. I live four hours from three brothers and three hours from two brothers. I don't care what we do, just being with them helps my soul heal. I pray you and your families are having a blessed and beautiful Christmas.”

White Fish Bay, Ontario, Canada – “My parents were residential school survivors, and I am also a residential school survivor. For the last 10 years, I have decolonized from Christmas. What I share with my family is, “we are Anishinaabe.” I follow my dad’s roots. He was a fisherman and lived off the land. He had a deep spiritual connection to the environment and the world around him. We will celebrate the winter solstice being family, together, and being true to who we are.”

Valencia, Spain – “I am Tsalagi (Cherokee) and have been living in Spain since 1976. I come back home every few years. I’m not a Christian but walk our traditional ways, so we/I never celebrate Christmas nor other imposed festivities. My kids are not baptized nor my grands, nor bibles at home, nor going to church. During this time of year, we come together as family. For us, behaving in a good manner is a daily attitude, and not practiced just once a year. May the Great One watch over you and yours.” 

Fairbanks, Alaska – “Visiting family and friends is a great way to stay warm in Alaska. The stillness of winter brings space for storytelling and time to scrape hides. Nothing like sipping tea and looking out the window at the Alaska Range, frozen rivers, moose, and the aurora.”

Buffalo Lake Métis Settlement in Northeastern Alberta, Canada – “We have our family get together starting on Christmas Eve, my sister has appetizers and a board game evening, then Christmas Day at my home. It will be my first time hosting Christmas for my parents, siblings, and family. The rest of the holidays we visit with our families, going to round dances and a pow-wow.”

Black River Falls, Wisconsin – “Growing up my gaga (Grandma) and mom always tried to make it special for us. No matter how things were, my mom and gaga would make sure we had a Christmas tree, that'd we'd all decorate it, that we'd bake cookies and watch the Grinch, Charlie Brown Christmas, etc., that we'd decorate the house, that we'd try to be together in joyous cheer in spite of everything. They worked hard to deliver moments of peace, love, and tranquility while building lifelong memories that I can always hold onto, and that is exactly what I needed most as a kid. Admittedly, when I was young, I was more spoiled and worried about presents but as I got older and went through life, the holidays gained much deeper-rooted meanings and today, gratitude seems to be the overwhelming feeling. Even more gratitude because I realize some families didn’t get this sort of thing, or struggled to have this same love and peace, and I feel for them entirely.”

Wilmington, Delaware – “For parts of my life I have lived next to my aunt. Since the 70s, my aunt has hosted Christmas dinner. Now that my mom is gone, my twin and I still visit that day with my family next door. But I have to say it’s a lot quieter. My mom was the one in the family that would be the most dramatic, haha.”

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma – “Christmas has always been a burden for us. Growing up, my mother provided what she could. Saying white man ruined the actual meaning of Christmas. We ate together and went to church. We were given socks and stocking caps and a sack of goodies. But again, the rich bought toys and gifts for their families, making others feel less. I grew up and married a man who provided for our children and gave 250 food baskets to others. I am alone now so I don't celebrate white man Christmas, I celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. We eat a meal and thank God for prayers and all that has been given to us.”

Lake City, Florida – “I spend it with family, remembering the good and bad, laughing it up in the end, break bread and give thanks. On New Years Day, we crawl into the sweat lodge, pray for everyone and begin a new year.”

Yorba Linda, California – “This is my first Christmas without my mom. She was the matriarch of my tribal family. Almost all of mom's family are gone. She was one of the oldest at 70. When she was with us, she and my dad would go down on our property and cut down a tree on our property and decorate it with items that we had made for the tree and gifts we were given for the tree. She also has planted a blue spruce that is her forever holiday tree. She especially liked it when it snowed, and her tree was snowcapped. My Quebecois father makes tourtière (French Canadian Pork Pie). We exchange gifts and spend time with our family. My mom would make grape dumplings, corn soup, and frybread. Christmas has always been a time for family for us.”

Keremeios, British Columbia, Canada – “I try to get all my visiting done during my time off. Spend time with loved ones. The kids are getting older and don’t need auntie as much, but we still like movies and fires for marshmallows. I will get some house cleaning down to start the new year better.
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The National Museum of American Indian will be closed Christmas Day so that the staff can enjoy time off with their friends and family.

Dennis Zotigh | Read More

Dennis W. Zotigh (Kiowa/Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo/Isanti Dakota Indian) is a member of the Kiowa Gourd Clan and San Juan Pueblo Winter Clan and a descendant of Sitting Bear and No Retreat, both principal war chiefs of the Kiowas. Dennis works as a writer and cultural specialist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.