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CURTIS -- Music from a giant drum in exchange for a Thanksgiving feast.  On Wednesday, students at Three Lakes Academy in Curtis learned the importance of bartering in Indian communities.

Thanksgiving means different things to different groups of people.  That's a fact that could be taught in a classroom, but why?

"One of the things that we wanted to make sure that we provided our students is experiences that are kind of outside the typical daily lessons of academics to make it more meaningful for them," said Matt Hirsch, Three Lakes Academy administrator.

Students at the brand new Three Lakes Academy Charter School were offered a rare class lesson today:  a drumming presentation from the Bay Mills Indian Community, the party responsible for chartering the school, to kick off the Thanksgiving holiday.

"We brought the drum today.  His name is Aabizii.  We refer to the drum as a grandfather because of the teachings the drum also shares with us," said Mike Willis of the Bay Mills Indian Community.

Every strike of the drum represents a heartbeat--life--to the Indian community.

"One of the things we wanted to do today with our Chartering Agent, Bay Mills Community College, is to have another perspective of what Thanksgiving was all about," Hirsch explained.

The Ojibwa and other East Coast Indian communities mark Thanksgiving as a day of mourning because so few tribes still exist along the East Coast.  So their day of celebration is actually a remembrance of what once was.

"We like to celebrate, eat, feast.  That's what we are as Anishinaabe people, Indian people.  Fall just happens to be one of those special times of year for one of our gatherings, an offering of thanks to our ancestors," said Willis.

Happy Thanksgiving, however you happen to celebrate.