My husband is 50 % Cherokee and 50 % Navajo . He grew up like I did , celebrating thanksgiving as a family holiday with food , family , and thankfulness . Although he was exposed to the reservation from a young age never lived there though , and was involved in native cultural events and education and whatnot , his family also raised him . this is going to sound bad . but they raised him to be more in the white culture . His father ' s family even changed their last name years ago to sound more White . This doesn ' t always go over well in the native community , and when my SIL received an awardscholarship at a native conference she was called out for being an apple red on the outside but white on the inside by a leader in the native community . This seems to happen a lot as explained by my husband as a native you want other natives to thrive in theory , but can become resentful when they actually do or if they do it in a way you don ' t seem as Native enough ? I don ' t know . This is all him explaining to me , I ' ve never been around this in particular . This is really going off subject , but , we ' ve been together 8 years and the only difference at our thanksgiving between the one I grew up with beside the people attending obviously since we spend most of my holidays with his family is that we make stuffed jalapeo peppers yum ! and his grandmas rice . I ' m not sure if this will make a difference but I ' m an American mutt Mexican , German , other white euro stuff , and a sliver of Native American however it seems like only other hispanic guysgals recognize the Mexican side of myself . We currently have a bun in the oven , and I ' m not sure yet how we ' re going to include herhis culture . I definitely think it ' s important though .