Talking turkey

By Staff
Gobbler Day Q&A
Tired of having the same old conversation at the dinner table this Thanksgiving Day? This year, keep everyone on their toes with a game of turkey trivia.
1. According to the National Turkey Federation, what percentage of Americans eat turkey at Thanksgiving?
ANSWER: 95 percent.
2. What are the most popular ways to serve leftover holiday turkey?
ANSWER: Sandwich; soup or stew; casserole; stir-fry; salad.
3. What is the average size of a Thanksgiving Day turkey?
ANSWER: 15 pounds.
4. What are the most popular uses of "dark" turkey meat?
ANSWER: Dark meat is used in soup and stew, rich marinades, grilling and barbecuing.
5. Which is better nutritionally – white or dark meat?
ANSWER: White meat has fewer calories and less fat than dark meat.
6. Which country consumes the most turkey?
ANSWER: According to the USDA, Israel ate the most turkey in 2001. It is followed by United States, France, Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom and Canada.
7. The turkey was once proposed to be the official bird of the United States. Whose idea was that?
ANSWER: The idea was proposed by statesman Benjamin Franklin in the late 18th century. Eventually, Congress chose the bald eagle over the turkey.
8. True or false: Turkey has even been enjoyed in Outer Space.
ANSWER: True. Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin ate foil packets with roasted turkey and trimmings as their first meal on the moon.
9. What is the ratio of white to dark meat in an average 15-pound turkey?
ANSWER: It's about 70 percent white meat and 30 percent dark meat.
10. Can turkeys fly?
ANSWER: Domesticated turkeys cannot fly. Wild turkeys can fly for short distances up to 55 miles per hour and can run 20 miles per hour.
Month set aside to honor Native Americans
The 19th century had been a hard one for the United States, marked by industrial growth and a heart-wrenching war between the states.
There was rapid expansion out west where settlers fought for land against Native Americans desperate to preserve their way of life in battles that had already been waged east of the Ohio River.
Perhaps it's fitting that November, capped by its homage to Thanksgiving Day tradition, is National American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month.
It's the perfect time to reflect on America's complex and, at times, tumultuous, relationship with its indigenous peoples – one that has embedded itself in the nation's culture and conscience.
History of Celebration
By the start of the 20th century, many had started to reflect on the importance of American Indians to the nation's history and people began making proposals for a day to honor them.
In 1914, Chief Red Fox James, a Blackfoot, rode horseback from state to state in the hope of gaining support for a day of tribute.
The following year, Arthur C. Parker, a Seneca anthropologist and social activist who was director of the Museum of Arts and Science in Rochester, New York, persuaded the Boy Scouts of America to designate a day of recognition for Native Americans.
According to the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs, in 1915, at the annual Congress of the American Indian Association meeting in Lawrence, Kansas, a plan celebrating American Indian Day was formally approved.
The group's president, Rev. Sherman Coolidge, an Arapahoe, issued a proclamation on Sept. 28, 1915, which declared the second Saturday of May as American Indian Day.
New York was the first state to observe American Indian Day in 1916.
Over the years, other states followed suit in designating a day to honor Native Americans.
In 1976, a Senate resolution authorized the president of the United States to declare the week of October 10 to 16 as Native American Awareness Week. The celebration was expanded to a month in 1990 when President George Bush approved a joint resolution designating November as National American Indian Heritage Month.
Honoring Native American Heritage
There are many ways to pay homage to Native American heritage and achievement in your community. Here are a few ideas to get you started.
For example, did you know that the word "canoe" comes from the language of the Arankawa, a Caribbean people? Or that "skunk" is thought to come from the Abnaki people?
Throughout the nation's history, American Indian and Alaska Native peoples have been the bearers of values and ideas that have become ingrained in the American spirit: the importance of the natural environment; working together with people from different cultures, religions and traditions; and the awareness that diversity can be a source of strength rather than division – values that are increasingly important in today's world.