An Amah Mutsun Thanksgiving

Lea este articulo en español aquí.

For many Americans, Thanksgiving Day is a time to spend with family and eat good food. The same goes for Anna Ordonez, a member of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band.

Ordonez, 57, a Hollister resident and Realtor, closely follows the traditions passed down from her mother and her mother’s father, all descendants of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band. A mother of five, Ordonez looks forward to Thanksgiving to see her children celebrate family traditions.

“My kids are all grown up and all doing well and successful,” she said. “That’s one of the most amazing things about Thanksgiving. We all come together at my house. They all come home from wherever they are and we have the most beautiful family celebration.”

Thanksgiving at the Ordonez’s home is celebrated like any other family in the country: taking the day off, cooking, eating and spending time with family and loved ones.

“When we celebrate, we see ourselves as stewards of the land,” Ordonez said. “The Mutsun people, we’re a very close-knit family, so we take those values. We want to preserve them for all our generations to come. It’s important to us.”

The Amah Mutsun Tribal Band trust website states there are over 600 documented members in the Bureau of Indian Affairs Records, a national archive that keeps historical records of American Indians and Alaska Natives. It also states the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band are Indigenous people of south-San Francisco and north-Monterey Bay areas including the counties of San Benito, Monterey, Santa Cruz and Santa Clara.

Ordonez, does her best to locally source her food and ingredients by buying from farm stands and local supermarkets. 

While her sons deep-fry a turkey in the backyard, Ordonez cooks from traditional recipes including a bread called Semithas, tamales and her mother’s traditional stuffing, which is made from local bread Ordonez keeps frozen during the months before Thanksgiving.

Her other children help with the cooking, too.

“I try to have all the kids make a dish,” she said. 

This year, her daughter, Athena Hernandez, will make a green bean casserole and pecan pie bars, which she makes from scratch and are dairy-free.

“My stuff is not the most popular during Thanksgiving,” Hernandez said with a laugh, but eventually family members give in to try her dairy-free, sometimes gluten-free, baked goods.

Hernandez, like her mother, said buying local ingredients is important to her.

At the end of the day, Thanksgiving is more than the history of the holiday, Hernandez said.

“All of us know the history of Thanksgiving,” she said, “but we celebrate family, not the traditional Thanksgiving.”

For Ordonez and her family, tradition means big family gatherings, which expand to include friends and neighbors who are also invited to her mom’s house, Hernandez said. 

“Our door is open to everybody. All day and throughout the holiday weekend,” she said.

Ordonez says she focuses on generational blessings, instead of the generational trauma many Indigenous people have endured throughout history. She chooses to focus on the enduring strength of her ancestors.

“And that’s what I want to preserve for my children,” she said.

We need your help. Support local, nonprofit news! BenitoLink is a nonprofit news website that reports on San Benito County. Our team is committed to this community and providing essential, accurate information to our fellow residents. It is expensive to produce local news and community support is what keeps the news flowing. Please consider supporting BenitoLink, San Benito County’s public service, nonprofit news.