Mrs. Parham Will Get Back to Us

As we walked along the Raritan River in the park by my house, my son Alex described his day at school-- specifically the class Thanksgiving song-- and so I mentioned to him about how Lenape Indians had lived right here next to the river by our house and he said "Daddy, that's a bad word! Mrs. Parham said that you can't say that!" and I tried to explain to him that "Indian" wasn't a bad word, that it was just a misnomer, and that in some contexts, you can still say Indians (no one wants to play Cowboys and Native Americans) but he didn't seem very convinced by my argument-- he said he would check with Mrs. Parham and get back to me.
at

5 comments:

  1. Al DePantsdownoNovember 19, 2008 at 9:36 AM

    You should have said "woo woo" Indians, so he knew who you were talking about.

    ReplyDelete
  2. DaveNovember 19, 2008 at 2:39 PM

    did michael scott say that?

    ReplyDelete
  3. celineNovember 19, 2008 at 2:59 PM

    There is an injun living 3 doors down from me here in Istanbul. She is from NV and has a huge Ikea clock hanging in her living room and made candied popcorn balls to hand out for Halloween.

    ReplyDelete
  4. DaveNovember 19, 2008 at 5:42 PM

    you better be careful you don't get scalped for spelling it "injun."

    ReplyDelete
  5. zmanNovember 19, 2008 at 9:35 PM

    I remember learning about the Lenni Lenape if first grade. Were they related to the Oritani and the Hackensacki?

    ReplyDelete