Albuquerque Public Schools is once again drawing national scrutiny—this time for a district-wide memo that recasts Thanksgiving not as a day of gratitude, family, and American tradition, but as a moment of “mourning,” “genocide,” and “oppression.” APS now finds itself lumped in with the most aggressively woke school districts and universities in the country, prompting backlash from parents who say the district is pushing ideology instead of education.
The message came directly from APS’ Indian Education Department in its November “Indigenous Updates” bulletin. The memo declares that “many Native people do not celebrate the arrival of the Pilgrims” and describes Thanksgiving as a reminder of the “genocide of millions of Native people, the appropriation of Native lands, and the erasure of Indigenous cultures.”
The memo also aligns APS with activist groups that observe Thanksgiving as a National Day of Mourning, noting that since 1970, demonstrators have gathered on Cole’s Hill in Plymouth to mourn the holiday instead of celebrating it. APS frames the day as a time of “protest against the ongoing racism and oppression faced by Indigenous peoples around the world.”
It was only a matter of time before national media noticed. Fox News highlighted APS in a broader report on K-12 schools and elite universities working to “decolonize Thanksgiving,” replace it with “Days of Mourning,” or recast the holiday as a symbol of oppression. The report grouped APS with the University of California–Davis, Washington University in St. Louis, MIT, the University of Massachusetts, and other institutions running events like “Thanksgiving Myth-Busting” sessions, anticolonial food lectures, and classroom re-education programs.
APS’ memo fits squarely into that trend. The district’s bulletin not only reframed Thanksgiving as a symbol of historical wrongdoing, it also promoted lessons, activities, and resources that encourage teachers to challenge the “First Thanksgiving” narrative, “rethink Thanksgiving,” confront “colonization,” and push social-justice-oriented curriculum guides. These materials, included in the APS update, reference “landback,” “MMIWG2,” and other activist frameworks.
Parents in Albuquerque were not given a chance to respond—APS staff had already left for their holiday break and offered no comment when contacted.
Local residents interviewed in Old Town expressed a mix of weariness and resignation. Some supported the memo’s tone, while others said they simply “take advantage of the day off” without giving much thought to celebrations. One resident said the holiday “doesn’t hold much weight” knowing the country’s history. Another said they were “110% for anything that furthers education,” while a third dismissed Thanksgiving as “a fantasy” created for commercial gain.
But on social media, reactions were far more divided. One commenter summarized a growing frustration with APS’ ideological slant: “Anyone in their right mind can acknowledge that the events that happened to Native Americans are horrific. This holiday is about being thankful for the people and things you have in life. Both can coexist.”
Many parents and taxpayers say APS should be focusing on reading scores, math proficiency, and campus safety—not lecturing families about “mourning” and rewriting a holiday cherished by millions. After years of declining test scores and ballooning administrative DEI initiatives, critics argue this latest memo is yet another sign that APS has lost sight of its mission.
As school districts across the nation face backlash for radicalized curriculum shifts, Albuquerque Public Schools has now placed New Mexico in the national spotlight for all the wrong reasons—turning what should be a unifying holiday into another ideological battlefield.
APS has lost the plot. They should be mourning New Mexico’s abysmal test scores , not Thanksgiving.
these are the people trusted to teach our kids ? MLG solved the failures of NM education early in her administration. kids couldnt pass the year end test to graduate. so she eliminated the test. now thats real problem solving. another day of liberal democrats hating America. it never ends. dems are the most miserable people on earth. they rejoice only in failure and misery. KEEP KELLER ABQ. KEEP FAILING.
Albuquerque voted for this… This is the direction your gooberment and goobernor wants.
As she sits on her throne 60 miles away, comfortable letting out another DEI initiative in the queens throne on the toilet in Sant Fe Governors mansion… She can see it floats after dislodging from her intestinal tract….and another, yet another DEI ideal is born… Oh BTW thanks Howie Morales for all your support too! Silver City is PROUD of you.
Happy Thanksgiving, APS.
The turkey is APS.
Just another example of the direct result of libtards that keep voting for leaders that ensure last place in every measurable column for the past 30 years. And to top it off they triple down on stupid which never breaks the cycle. The majority of New Mexicans voting for this time and time again are utter morons and parasites on the system.
Losers
APS: Anti- Pilgrims schools.
I’m so ashamed of NM. I’m so very sorry I moved back but now I’m stuck. Please don’t always blame the voters. Look at what choices we have. We need honest, moral people to run for office. Few steps up to take on the demoRat trash we have now. NM the landfill or the Southwest. God help us.
Albuquerque students are being taught to hate America.
Get the children out of the public “schools” now.
I left California 12 years ago to escape this kind of trash. I will be permanently leaving NM on 11 Dec. There is a mass exodus from California. The state loses a tax payer every 1.44 minute. Estimate revenue loss is at $39 Billion for 2025. New Mexico is starting to suffer the same fate.
Thanks to gerrymandering, those in power keep embarrassing us and will continue to do so!
This is the color revolution in action. Behind the mask is socialism and communism, and let’s face it, anarchism. Like someone else said, I love Albuquerque and New Mexico, but the radicals pushing this tribalism is BS. I’ve been to the Navajo Nation and Zuni Pueblo for my job and they are good people! I honestly don’t think the older people are buying this poison and hopefully not the young ones but God forbid they move to Albuquerque and all of a sudden their white liberal teacher with the multicolored hair and septum ring tells them to hate whitey because we stole their land. Nobody is alive that lived through that. True, there was horrific things that happened to Native Americans, but we can’t change what happened. We can celebrate that native Americans saved the pilgrims from starving to death. That’s a truth. What these libtard freak socialist/communist/anarchists are pushing for is tribalism. The funny thing is most of this poison and psychological warfare is pushed by white liberals. As if they can atone for sins of the past. But they don’t look in the mirror. Nobody likes traitors and cowards who try to ingratiate themselves with the “cool kids.” APS needs to fire the jerks who pushed this garbage. Schools should be apolitical. And like someone else said, APS is failing at preparing kids for life much less further education. My son went to a certain school in the west side and was not prepared for UNM and almost crashed and burned his freshman year. When you have language arts teachers who are now combining English, Literature, and Speech into one class, which is moronic and then don’t teach anything except hand our worksheets and sit at their desk on their fat ass scrolling on their phone. That was my son’s experience his senior year. Let’s face it, tenure should be axed! Radicals who infiltrated schools are destroying and psychologically programming our kids! We need to base teachers on the average of their students test scores as a percentage. Anything below a B is subject to probation. Anything below a C is termination. Teachers caught teaching other than standard curriculum should be terminated as well!
Well said Paul!
This is another lie they are poisoning the children with. Stop allowing your children to be poisoned. Get your children out of public schools! The native people got along well with the original settlers for at least 200 years. Then the same people who goad people into killing each other and dividing the people came in and destroyed it.
This is the woke agenda embeddid in government schools which teaches kids that America is bad. It is put there to foster a distrust and hatred in Godly ideals, faith in God and the overthrow of our republic for a secular socialist nanny-state that will forever enslave them to government control and pagan values – a world turned upside down. Pray for and vote for change in New Mexico away from this Godless system of indoctrination. This is the path all socialist/communist societies take – steal the children’s minds while they are young, and they will never part from their lies.
We must push for paper ballots/same day voting, no mail-in ballots in our elections when President Trump makes his move. It’s the electronic machines that were corrupted when designed (in Venezuela) that are allowing Democrats to consistently win elections. Our votes are being stolen and over-ridden by corruption (Even the rotten rhino Republicans benefit as well). Don’t believe the lies that Democrats are in the majority in NM. It isn’t true. All of our state and national elections have been stolen for the last 20 years. All this woke nonsense and liberal control has been the result.
I guess the educators do not know the Native communities were very rough on each other, they warred with each other, stole people into slavery. All through history a bigger better Army conquers people, tripes and takes over. That is how it works, yes it sucks to be the looser but this is the way of man since the dawn of time. As of now the democrats are taking over and conservative will be thier captives. In the future Muslims will conquer the democrats. Get your children trained to fight or be the slaves of the dems and then the muslims as the dems are too ignorant to understand the process. It is great to know who is failing our children and the parents that are allowing it to happen.
Let me add to mike..in 1964 the dems started the “great society” and the racism industrial complex..this initially just dumbed people down but morphed into marxist inspired action against the imaginary “oppressor” in sexism and increased unionism. It was later normalized to hate America in culture and higher education and later distilled into shows like sesame street (4500+child psy ops episodes) and other pbs/npr offerings…is anyone really suprised ?
You can blame the Spanish for harming and enslaving the original migrants into America . In some cases they even destroyed whole tribes in Florida .
And the Aztecs killed hundreds of thousands through human sacrifice.
The only thing the democrats know is destruction and segregation. Their goal is to divide and conquer for power at all costs. They are doing what they accuse the settlers of doing.
Blame the Spanish?? It was the Spanish that brought laws , culture and civilization to what was then a barbaric land! They introduced domestic animals along with metalworking! They brought the gospel and Christianity to a people who were basically heathen. It was the red bearded Hernan Cortez and Spanish canons that stopped human sacrifice! As a descendant of these brave European men I offer no apologies for our role in America, before there was even an America!!