Native Americans Rally Against Hunger
LEBANON, OR - Grassroots advocate for peace, 3 Sun Thanksgiving, is rallying American communities, churches, and families to participate in a new year-round living history hobby that ultimately raises funds to open micro-lending facilities on destitute American Indian reservations. 3 Sun Thanksgiving’s founder, Carrie Franzwa, believes mainstream Americans will embrace the new concept as people come to recognize the cultural and economic advantages inherent in the movement.
Initially Franzwa is finding resistance due in large part to Thanksgiving stereotypes. “The incorrect 1690’s Puritan culture is a rather unappealing prospect for a living history hobby. The good news is 1621 New England was Renaissance English and Native Wampanoag, both of which elicit much more cultural interest and charm,” says Franzwa.
In order to help Americans explore the new hobby and concept, 3SunThanksgiving.com was launched in July of this year. As the first online Thanksgiving and Native American Heritage Day Cultural Exchange Platform of its kind in America, the website aids group participation, and provides hot topic forums and free educational resources aimed at building American cross-cultural relationships. As part of the platform’s $16 pilot fundraiser, a 140-page living history how-to guide details the re-creation of 1621 English and Native Wampanoag life.
“On the one hand we want Americans to time travel for the fun of it, and on the other hand we want to whole-heartedly support the self-help efforts of American Indians,” says Franzwa. “Native Peoples are the very poorest socio-economic segment of our society, with seven out of ten of America’s poorest counties all on Indian Reservations. Regardless of the perceived reasons for the suffering, we all win when we pull together to create economic opportunity.”
Franzwa notes that up in the Dakotas destitute reservation residents have been organizing themselves in an effort to start up cottage industries, only to be rejected or preyed upon by traditional lending institutions. “These courageous people would stand a chance if they had Grameen micro-lending facilities up there. Grameen is one of the only micro-lenders that will serve the truly destitute,” says Franzwa. “The one caveat being they require on-site facilities since they work side by side with entrepreneurs to insure their success. Only a caring greater community has the power to fund those facilities.”
In order to solicit evangelizing help and participation in the new hobby and outreach, 3 Sun Thanksgiving is focusing first on reaching larger churches throughout the western part of the country. “It will take one million initial supporters to build the first $2M micro-lending facility in the Dakotas,” says Franzwa. “Only volunteer synergy will get us to those kind of numbers.”
Carrie Franzwa is a sought after public speaker in her home state of Oregon, and is the author of seven K-8 education titles which she markets through her parent website LetsPlayHistory.org. 3 Sun Thanksgiving is an offshoot project of LetsPlayHistory.org, and is supported in part through a marketing partnership with Total Media Source out of Harrison, Ohio.
