From the Riverside County Law Library, we hope you had a wonderful weekend full of family and food. Here are some responses from the staff when asked about their favorite traditions associated with Thanksgiving:

One of our newest employees James said,” my favorite thanksgiving tradition is making pies and delivering them to friends and family.” A display of his friendliness that shines through in his new line of work as a library assistant!

Our other new recruit, Olivia, said, “playing board games with my family after dinner has been a tradition for as long as I can remember.”

Laura said, “My favorite part about Thanksgiving is seeing out-of-town friends and family we don’t often get to see.” Thanksgiving is a good opportunity to travel and see people we would not ordinarily get to see due to being busy with work.

Andy celebrates Thanksgiving by hosting her extended family, “I enjoy spending time and cooking for my family on Thanksgiving. It is my job to cook all the sides while my family brings the cider and the turkey.” We have lots of respect for somebody who takes joy in doing the hard work that goes into making a thanksgiving dinner come to life!

Finally, Rhonda says, “My favorite part about thanksgiving is falling asleep after I eat.” I’m sure most of us felt the effects of turkey’s excess tryptophan and had a nice nap following Thanksgiving dinner. So sad for those stuck with doing with the dishes!

Since we are a law library, we thought we would briefly discuss some law related topics pertaining to Thanksgiving:
The traditional Thanksgiving narrative tells a story of Native Americans and Pilgrims breaking bread on the fourth Thursday of November. However, the first national Thanksgiving was actually proclaimed by George Washington on Tuesday November 26, 1789 as a celebration of the signing of the US Constitution.

As a final note, we would like to point towards some resources that pertain to Native Americans and the law.

This is a collection of legal materials on the topic of Native Americans compiled by the Library of Congress. This includes laws, constitutions, and materials. 

These are some of the books we have on site at the Riverside branch of the Law Library that have to do with the topic of Native American law. Search our catalog here.

Written by: Yanis Azzou, Library Assistant

References:

Thomas, A Presidential History of Thanksgiving, Library of Congress. https://blogs.loc.gov/headlinesandheroes/2021/11/a-presidential-history-of-thanksgiving/ 

Native American Constitutions and Legal Materials, Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/collections/native-american-constitutions-and-legal-materials/about-this-collection/