The usual myth about Thanksgiving as a holiday is that it commemorates a supposed historical celebration of a bountiful harvest by the Pilgrims to which Native people were invited guests. While that is the general focus of Thanksgiving (except for turkey and football!), Native cultures give thanks in other ways that extends beyond one day a year.

Dr. Walter Fleming, a member of the Kickapoo Tribe of Kansas, was born in Crow Agency. His parents were Bureau of Indian Affairs employees who were working in Montana. He grew up in Lame Deer on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation and graduated from Colstrip High School, Glendive’s Dawson Community College and MSU Billings. He came to MSU in 1977 as a grad student in guidance counseling and started teaching at MSU in 1979. With the exception of a year when he taught at Dawson Community College, and when he took his coursework for his doctorate from the University of Kansas, Fleming has taught at MSU for 42 years. Despite a busy schedule as the head of the Department of Native American Studies and as a consultant and adviser for everything from Indian films to the electric switch covers in the new American Indian Hall, Fleming still teaches each semester, including an introduction to Native American studies course and a small first-year seminar.