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Dear Native American students
Hi, my name is Enkhjin I am from Mongolia. I learned about a true story about Thanksgiving in class.
I never thought we would have similarities in our lifestyle. I didn't know you at first, but after class I changed my mind completely. Very proud that you are still preserving and protecting your traditions. In ancient times, Mongolians were nomadic, wore national costumes, and loved protected animals, but now there are very few so-called national things. Anyway, let's write a few things about our country as an introduction. I hope you will respond as well. It is clear that the Mongols conquered half of the world and boasted of their power. Because of the harsh weather in the area, they often used animal skins to make clothes, also the didn't torture. They showed how strong could be when came together, eventually got into argument. It's a pleasure to study your history; I want it to never happen again, so that all the people in the world don't forget their harmonious roots.
Thanks for accepting and reading my letter.

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Dear Native American students,

Hello my name is Khaliun, I study in 11th grade at Orkhon High. I hope you all doing well. Mongolia and Native Americans have lots of things in common.
We all have nomadic farming, and our clothes, culture is too similar. Now I'm going to introduce about Mongolians. Mongolians have some national celebrations. 'Lunar new year', this is the most awesome celebration and one of my favorites. In Lunar, we wear Mongolian traditional clothes which is called "deel" to visit the elderly, also eat Mongolian food 'buuz', salad. Our another one respectfully celebration is 'Naadam' we all wear Deel, and go to stadion to watch opening ceremony of Naadam. In Naadam, wrestling, horse race, and archery are included. And we eat Mongolian food 'Khuushuur'. My introduction of Mongolia has ending now. I like adventure, and  my dream is travel around the world. So I want to know more about Native Americans, and I hope see you soon.
Thanks for paying attention to my letter.

Sincerely, Khaliun

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Ariunzam 11B
Dear native american students,
I'm Ariunzam currently living in Mongolia which locates in northern Asia. The Mongolian culture is very odd from other asian culture the great example is being a nomad going to other places every season of the year.The other great thing is we live depending on our five main animals to live a good life. It includes sheep, goat, cow, horse and camel (for southern part of mongolia) we use these animals as much as possible for our life we use it's skin, meat, and bone even the tail for our need.
The horse is very valuable for Mongolian person because it will become your buddy for long as you are sitting on it.
Similarly the Native American culture does actually uses the animal as your resource. And sometimes hunting is very similar Mongolians do sometimes hunt as a group but not always.
The Thanksgiving is very similar to Mongolian holiday called "Tsagaan sar" it is similar in the way we join as a family and welcome the guests as our family and friends.
The one question i will be asking you is "Are you enjoying your Life?
Sincerely
Ariunzam

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To anyone reading my padlet, i hope you're having a good day.

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Dear Native American students,

Hello everyone my name is Belgutei. At the final Thursday of the November people celebrates Thanksgiving day. I had no idea that most of the Native Americans didn't celebrate Thanksgiving until this lesson. I really like to study histories but I didn't knew much about Native Americans. I was kind of curious to observe through their ancient life. There are different Native Americans at certain regions. There are more similarities than differences comparing Native American culture and Mongolian culture. Firstly, the Native men are more focused on fighting and horsemanship, and the Native women did the inside jobs of the tribe. Those facts are very similar to Mongolian culture. In Mongolia men are under the role of fighting and horsemanship and the women are more focused on doing the job of interiors. Native Americans and Mongolians daily lifestyle and tools, clothes, weapons are almost same. There is some facts that Native American people could be connected with Mongolian people because at the Ice Age time, there is some predictions that ancient Asian people walked to North America by the frozen seas and oceans. Maybe if it's right then that's the reason why the cultures are mostly same in each culture. Another thing is Native American and Mongolia has their own traditional clothes which represent them. Also our clothes is different because of our different environment and habits. Even Native Americans mostly hunts buffalo and made clothes using their furs. In Mongolia we mostly use sheep, goats fur. My question is "What is your opinion on celebrating thanksgiving?".
Lastly, the Christmas and New year eve is coming, I hope you guys enjoy your holidays and during this Covid-19 situation I wish we all stay strong and survive through this pandemic.

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Dear Native American students

Hello I'm Tsengun. When I was 5 years old I watched a documentary that is called `Ancient civilization`. The documentary shows the theory that `Where did the first Americans come from?`. In the documentary there researcher said `The easiest way to get here is by foot. The Bering Land Bridge has been the longstanding theory because that’s the clearest connection between Asia and North America, up in the Arctic, and it only appears when ice is locked up on land and sea levels drop. It’s the only place where you could walk from one side to the other.
I believed theory because our cultures have similarities. For example, believing in forest, river, mountain, and other natural formations have spirits and spirits are formed in wild animals. Always praying and thanking the spirits for what they gave us resources and safeness. Our nomadic lives are similar too. Willing to not to harm nature, herders animals, and hunting. One pack of hunters goes hunting for a long time and mostly fights with bows and swords and riding horses.
Have a good day and be careful.

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Dear Native American students,

Hi there, I hope you have had a wonderful Thanksgiving. My name is Boldbayar but I go by Boldo and I'm in 11th grade at Orkhon High. I have recently moved here from the USA which I lived in Virginia for 3 years. During my time there, I have experienced countless things and one of them was the daily life of Native Americans. The first thing that came to my mind was that there were more similarities than differences between Native American culture and my culture.
Mongolians and Native Americans have a lot of things in common. For instance, both cultures has similar clothes, accessories, tools, perhaps beliefs, and the way of living life". Mongolian culture uses animal hides for clothing and more just like the Native Americans. Also, I have learned that Native Americans have different clans and each clan has its own culture, dances, beliefs, or clothes which could relate to early Mongols. The biggest similarity, in my opinion, is that our clothes look good and have own way of defining the culture.
In our modern-day life, religions don't take a big role and most Mongolians are preferred as Buddhism. However, our ancestors were Shamanism and were close to nature, even so, I have realized that Native Americans have much more close relationship to nature than us and almost every culture believes that everything, including- every animal, living creature, plant, rock, tree, mountain, and even water- has a soul. Due to the different locations, the weather gets freezing in Mongolia, thus I believe our clothes are thicker in need of survival, while Winter starts late and ends early in the USA. To illustrate this, Native Americans lived in woods surrounded by tall mountains which means that it is easy to find woods for fire and wind not blowing often, yet Mongolians populated in the steppe region. Most importantly, it is thrilling to see you guys keeping the culture and leading it on to the next generation during this time where everything is changing dramatically which why I think is our biggest difference. For which I have observed that most Mongolian Generation Z doesn't know much about our history, culture, custom and many more which could represent me as well.
Lastly, Mongolia and Native Americans have numerous similarities, and differences that the list goes on and on. My question to you guys is that "What are your opinions about our current society in general?".

As 2021 advances towards us in a month, I wish you guys all the best and thank you for making it all the way here.

Sincerely, Boldo

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For me writing letters to unknown men is exciting, it would be nice if you could reply.

Hello, my name is Muratbek, I might be a bit formal since I don't know who will read my letter. As other im from Mongolian which is located in middle Asia, although im Asian, i don't have name like CHU-KU-SUN or something like this.

I don't know what they say about Indians in other countries, but when I was a child mama told me that Indians are very close to nature and speak with eagles and they have spiritual connection with mother earth and all these legends that Indians were skillful warriors.

I know that times have changed but it is still amazing to have blood from such a nation.

I think that our nation is close in tradition. History books write that our grandparents were able to predict weather just by looking at movements of a bird, and they lived in green plains which u cant see end with human eyes. Other thing that history teacher told us is in 13th century Mongolian king was controlling half of earth land, even they had lack of populations king preferred quality over quantity. As legend say that Mogolians was fast a storm when they ride horse and they was best snipers with bow at the time.

Maybe because of the location we lived we have different clothing traditions than Indians.

In those areas our temperature can reach - 35C(-31 fahrenheit). As we live in such condition we have really warm and thick layered clothes. Obviously we had different religions and we believed in  different gods.

I have really important questions from my childhood. Do you have some diminished accessories of Indians? Do they still function ?Do you still do some rituals from the past?

I feel sad about modernization

throughout the world, it made us lose the uniqueness of every nation. I know that some habits or old traditions still exist in every country. But the daily life of a simple employee is almost the same in every country.

Have a good day whoever you are. I don't want to talk about crisis, because it starting to annoy people, but this problem is serious so be careful.

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Dear Native American students, i'm Tavilan and today i want to share some Mongolian traditional cultures with you guys.I heard Native Americans do live in continual moving before like Nomadic Mongolians.Reason Mongolians live continually is to keep the nature as still, because nomadic mongolians live with thousands of sheep,goat,horse,cow and camel which might be too much animals in one place so it is really important to change the place year by year. But only Southern Mongolians live with camel because nature in south mongolia is so dry and mostly have desert.Cool thing about Mongolian camel is they have 2 humps.All that 5 kind of animal is called 'Tavan hoshuu mal' in Mongolia. And we do have yaks in our northern side.
In summer time we eat dairy product we made out of our herd animals milk.It is called white food 'tsagaan idee'.Famous tsagaan idee's are yoghurt, cottage cheese, dried curds and fermented mare's milk.About the tradional celebrations are Naadam and Tsagaan sar(lunar new year).Naadam is festival that people watch wrestling,archery,horse racing.
Tsagaan sar is for know the every cousins you have and visit to elders.To visit elders you should gave them little bit of gift and elders welcome you warmly, giving buuz,meat,milk tea ...(traditional foods),in the end elders gave gift to you.
From research i think Native Americans and Mongolians do have lot of similarities, things i talk about in this letter is just a few of our tradition so i hope if you search about Mongolia you can find lot more.
Thanks for reading the letter, have a wonderful day.

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Dear Native American students.

My name is Gan-Erdene. I am pleased to send a message to you all.

Although Thanksgiving was held on Thursday I didn't realize the Native Americans didn't celebrate. Which was surprising but after a lesson with teacher Gary I have learned the reason why. The history of Thanksgiving was truly tragic but I think we could relate in some way or another. Our ancestors were all nomads and hunters within their homeland. Also, I have learned that there were many tribes and they are called different names from each other such as Crow, Blackfeet, Comanche, Arapaho, and many others possibly which I haven't found out yet. The research of mine indicates that after about the 18th century when the Europeans brought horses the tribes hunted using those Horses which is very similar to the way my ancestors used to hunt. The interesting thing was that the Native Americans had a religion of animalistic. I am assuming that Native Americans Prayed to the Great Spirit. And that fact about Native America is very similar to the way our ancestors used to pray to the Blue sky wishing to claim victory on the battlefield. From my perspective, The Native Americans and The early Mongolians were both very religious. So in conclusion I believe The Native Americans and Mongolians don't have much difference.

So now I will tell you about Mongolian cuisine in other words the food that we like to eat and drink the most. There is a food called Steamed or Boiled meat. It's fairly simple to make but tastes very delicious. All it takes is just Boiling some big chunks of meat with a little bit of spice. When I mean spice It's probably just salt. That's all

Also, there is a drink called "Airag" made of Female Horse's milk. If I describe the texture of it. It's like carbonated milk but kind of citric and that makes it a sort of alcoholic drink but there is not much alcohol in it.

That's all and thank you for taking your time and reading all these. I appreciate it.

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Dear Native American students

Hey, I hope you are doing well.
My name is Oyunchimeg and I am a student at Orkhon High.

I would like to share the interesting traditions of the Mongolian people. Our ancestors were fully nomadic, changing their location in every season. Well depending on the season we do different types of work. For example in the summer, herders need to make sure the livestock get good nutrition to survive cold and harsh winter. In the fall, we need to store up enough hays also for the winter. And when it finally comes, both people and livestock can survive. As you can see Mongolians shaped their lives on the way nature changes and behaves.

Our cuisine is primarily based on meat and milk, because again our climate(too dry, windy and cold) is not suitable for agriculture. My favorite drink is AIRAG also known as MARE'S MILLK. I get to drink it as much as I want on the holidays.
Speaking of  holidays, there are two main traditional celebration. One is NAADAM-ᠨᠠᠭᠠᠳᠤᠮ- this is a really wonderful festival and happens in the midsummer. It includes horse racing, wrestling and archery for men.
Two is TAGAAN SAR-ᠴᠠᠭᠠᠨ ᠰᠠᠷ- also known as Lunar New year. People go visit their families, grandparents and  cousins to greet each other. Elders welcome them warmly, giving them meals as well as gifts.

One thing that has caught my attention is that does native Americans  ever domesticate an animal?

I hope you find some similarities within out cultures. 💖Have wonderful day ✨

Yours sincerely, Oyunchimeg

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Hello from Mongolia, my name is Bilegt-Ochir and I’m an 11th grade student in Orkhon KhaSu International School. Recently Thanksgiving feasts happened all around the world but for most people  they have no idea about the true history of Thanksgiving. I watch a lot of documentaries and I still do and years ago I learned about the history of the USA and what happened to the natives, at first I thought  their and your history might be great but soon things got grim. The most heartbreaking parts were how the new settlers re-paid your ancestor’s warm welcome and their help not by gratitude except slaughter and looting. For me Thanksgiving should be celebrated but it should be changed to mourn the deceased and/or to raise awareness about the discrimination against your people. Now let’s change the subject to cultural similarities between us, our ancestors both have been deeply connected to the nature and animals and their ways of life were similar too. Our natural religion was shamanism and the clothes are eerily similar too, both the design and the materials are similar too. Native Americans and us Mongolians use similar materials - animal bones, precious stones, silver, deer antlers, gold and copper. But if you need our help we’ll be there for you.

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Dear Native American Student,

I hope this letter finds you well.

I first learned about Native Americans from the Disney animation "Pocahontas" and you might know us from “Mulan” as Huns (our ancestors). Yes, I know that Pocahontas and Mulan both didn’t portray the reality of that time but Pocahontas gave me the first idea of Native American culture. From that time I did some internet research and when I was 7th or 8th grade we studied about Native American land and its native people in our world history class.

As I dug deeper, it was fascinating to explore connections and similarities between our heritages and our cultural heritage, education, talents, and values converged and intersected more than I ever could have imagined. Just like your culture, the land and sky play central roles in the Mongolian beliefs. In addition, we believe hills, rivers, and trees (nature itself) all have spirits and show our respect just like how Native Americans treat their surrounding nature. Moreover, during the summer festival of Naadam, before a wrestling match, Mongolian men perform an eagle dance, which you could recognize as a cousin to Native American tribes’ sacred dances.

Mongolian traditional religion is Shamanism and what our shamans wear during their sacred practice is indistinguishable to Native american dance and religious practice costumes. (There’s a picture down there) Also I know that Native Americans wear their traditional accessories such as earrings, necklaces and bracelets daily just like we used to before Mongolians gave up our nomadic lifestyle. Interestingly, Native Americans and Mongolians usually use similar materials - turquoise, bone, precious stones, semi-precious stones, silver, antlers, porcupine quills, and copper. Moreover, it’s fascinating to compare our people’s facial and body features. Mongolians have dark black hair, brown slender eyes, yellow-brownish skin and muscular bodies, which is similar to Native Americans.

Even though we’re so far away from home distance-wise, but, in terms of culture, it feels like I’m visiting a neighbor or relative.

Warm regards,

Mandakh Tselmeg

PS : Mongolians celebrate traditional new year in the beginning of spring. Does Native Americans have special traditional new year celebration?

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Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
November 29, 2020

Dear Native American students,

I researched about Native American traditional clothing, houses, culture, art, and life for many hours. Then, some things in Native American and Mongolia seemed the same to me. For examples, some tribes lived in tepees, traditional clothing varied from tribe to province, and each tribes followed its own customs and traditions etc.
The most interesting things for me were the traditional clothes and the houses. Maybe it's because I like fashion, design of house. I think I will become a fashion designer or interior designer. Now let me share with you my knowledge of Mongolian traditional house and clothing.
Our traditional home is called a "ger" and there are several types. The ger is designed to be easy to move around. It is built in fourteen actions. The ger is round in shape, which is useful for full ownership of the residential area.
Our traditional clothing is called a "deel". I think the deel is the most amazing dress I've ever worn. It has different designs depending on the nation and has many ornaments  (earrings, necklaces, hair ornaments etc.) When I was a model (I was13 hha), I tried on several national deels. It's hard to wear, but it feels really elegant and comfortable. Previously, the deel was multi-layered and thick, but now people sew it in the desired style. It's easy for people.
Thanks for reading my letter, I hope it was interesting. In the end, have a great day!

Sincerely, Altandagina

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Dear American students
Hey, I'm Uyanga. I'm sixteen years old girl from Mongolia.

I did some research last night. Then I learned that we both have shamanic background and there are certain details of our traditional clothes look similar and musical instruments also have some degrees of similarity.

A shaman wears regalia, some part of which usually imitates an animal—most often a deer, a bird, or a bear. It may include a headdress made of antlers or a band into which feathers of birds have been pierced. The footwear is iron deer hooves, birds claws, or bears paws.

Shamanistic and animistic traditions have an general term which is called "tengrism".

I'd be thrilled to learn more about this and tell you what i found out.

At the end~ my question is: Do you take any trips at the end of the school year or before the start of the holiday season?

Thanks for your attention. Have a nice day<3

Sincerely Uyanga

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Togtokhbayar 11a

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Giiguulen 11A

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Dear Native American students,

Hi, I am called Nomuunjargal, 16 years old Mongolian girl.  If anyone read it, maybe you have some questions: What country is Mongolia? Why am I writing this letter? What kind of children in this country? But do not worry since I am a little wondered and confused too. If you have a question about the culture of my country, I am trying to reply.
Although I used to live in many different places in my town and would like to travel, I have not yet visited the USA. After this virus or graduation, I am going to travel to some countries may be including the USA. And before this time as I have not written with foreign mates, I have some simple questions. What is your favorite celebration in your country? What event has happened in last?  For what? Or even what do you think during this time? What is your goal, dream, or your daily routine.
I just want to know more about anyone who reads this one. So thank you for spending time on it.
Kind regards, your Mongolian friend who is writing this letter.

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Dear, stranger

(It is pretty weird to address a letter to dear stranger during this strange times we are sharing. But I don’t know who is reading this right now and I’m so excited about it, hope you’ll answer my questions)

Hi, I’m Nomingoo, a sixteen years old Mongolian girl. To be honest, I don’t have such a knowledge about history and other countries, so I had to surf around the internet about your history, culture, traditions etc. In my opinion, we have pretty much similar traditions like predicting the weather by watching animals, living in nomadic style…

But actually, I’m not really into talking about your old times and histories, because we don’t like the way others recognize us (Mongolians) just by Ghinghis khan, horses, and nomadic life too. So I guess we’re bit concerned about it, and that’s why I’m much more interested in your current lifestyle and how are you guys living right now.

In Mongolia, we used to have a tradition named богтлох (bogtlokh), which is about getting wife, men steals (or /kidnaps/ I don’t know which proper word I can use) women who they like or love. But don’t worry, we don’t steal women now. XD And I will be pretty happy to know your old traditions like this.

Whoever reading this, I hope u had a great day

(p.s. I really love your traditional clothes and accessories.)

(p.s. p.s. I didn’t wanted to talk anything about covid19  just not to feel awkward :b)

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Dear Native American students
Hi! My name is Uranzaya, 11th grade student. I want to know more about Native American. And i researched some American Indian groups. Which is “cherokee”, “navajo” , “apache”, “iroquois” , and “cheyenne”. So i have a question. The term Indian is actually used to describe someone who is native or has heritage from India. As expected Indians have a whole different culture than Native American. Then why native Americans are called Indian? They look different, speak different language, and different beliefs. And also i want your country's culture more.
So, about our country (Mongolia) we have a lot of celebrities. Which is “tsagaan sar” it means we are meeting our families and giving presents to each other. And “naadam” i think some people heard of that before. “Naadam” in other hand it is alike as traditional sport day. Which is riding a horse, wrestle and archery. It starts in summer (July 11 to July 14). And there is a some place to watch riding a horse. It is called “hui doloo  hudag”. Does you country have a same celebrities?
And another thing is Christmas. In other countries the Christmas starts in 25 December. But we celebrate 31 December . And what about your country. When the Christmas start?
So i just listening about native Americans in our history class a lot. Therefore, i want to include my knowledge of native Americans. I hope you guys are tell me. And have a good day! Or if you have something you want to know about us. I’ll happy to help you to understand about us.

Yours sincerely
Uranzaya

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Dear Native American students
Hi! My name is Uranzaya, 11th grade student. I want to know more about Native American. And i researched some American Indian groups. Which is “cherokee”, “navajo” , “apache”, “iroquois” , and “cheyenne”. So i have a question. The term Indian is actually used to describe someone who is native or has heritage from India. As expected Indians have a whole different culture than Native American. Then why native Americans are called Indian? They look different, speak different language, and different beliefs. And also i want your country's culture more.
So, about our country (Mongolia) we have a lot of celebrities. Which is “tsagaan sar” it means we are meeting our families and giving presents to each other. And “naadam” i think some people heard of that before. “Naadam” in other hand it is alike as traditional sport day. Which is riding a horse, wrestle and archery. It starts in summer (July 11 to July 14). And there is a some place to watch riding a horse. It is called “hui doloo  hudag”. Does you country have a same celebrities?
And another thing is Christmas. In other countries the Christmas starts in 25 December. But we celebrate 31 December . And what about your country. When the Christmas start?
So i just listening about native Americans in our history class a lot. Therefore, i want to include my knowledge of native Americans. I hope you guys are tell me. And have a good day! Or if you have something you want to know about us. I’ll happy to help you to understand about us.

Yours sincerely
Uranzaya

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Hello, I hope you're doing well. My name is Ankhilmaa and i'm a junior in Orkhon Khasu Secondary school.
While studying US history, i got to know more about Native American culture. I couldn't help but notice the similarities between Mongolians and Native Americans when it comes to religion, beliefs and other cultural aspects. Correct me if I'm wrong, but from my studies, I heard that Native Americans believed in Polytheism and spirits, also that shamanism was a part of the culture. Unlike now, where most Mongolians are either atheists or buddhists, in old times, Mongolians used to believe in shamanism and practice rituals just like Native Americans.  Mongolians were fully nomadic and settled in "gers", which to me, looks a lot like Native American tepees.  I didn't know Thanksgiving wasn't commonly celebrated but our teacher taught us about it during thanksgiving. As for me, i have very little knowledge about the Thanksgiving day, as the general public in Mongolia doesn't celebrate it. In our culture, the closest celebration we have to thanksgiving is Tsagaan Sar or Lunar New Year, which is celebrated in China as well. During the Lunar New Year, the elders prepare and host the celebration at their houses while the younger or new families gather there. We go from one relative's house to another's, talking and eating the food they prepare. Out of curiosity, what celebrations do Native Americans have where families gather together? I'd like to learn more about your tradition and beliefs! I hope you have a good day and thank you for your attention. Tootles!

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Dear Brothers and Sisters of the Native Americans,
Hi, My name is Nomuun.I am seventeen years old. I wish address to my belief in Native American.For the last three months, i have been studied about Native Americans history and got a more information about Native Americans.Firstly, Let me introduce our counrties traditions .Our country has a lot in common things with your counties culture.Mongolians were nomadic.And Thanksgiving day is just like our countries 'Tsagaan Sar' .At around 1,564,116 square kilometres, Mongolia is the 18th-largest he most sparely populated sovereign state in the world.Modern humans reached Mongolia approximately 40,000 years ago during the Upper paleolithic.

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Dear Native American students,

Hi there, I know things are tough right now but please stay strong and positive. My name is Yalguun and I'm Mongolian student. To be honest, I don't know much about Native Americans culture and tradtitions. Last week our English teacher Ganbayar helped us learn about Thanksgiving. There was so many information that we didn't know it ourselves, but we had a lot to know. Although I learned about Thanksgiving, I still don't know much about your traditions. I love watching Friends, series that has plenty of episodes about how they're celebrating Thanksgiving and also I think that some Iconic scenes of Friends are from the Thanksgiving episodes. They celebrate it as an important holiday. About Mongolia, Mongolians have been  nomadic since ancient times, and it still exists but now, it associated with settled life which is more common way of living than in the past. We don't actually celebrate Thanksgiving in a special way like other different countries do. But we have our Holiday called Naadam. Naadam is celebrated every year from 11 to 13 July. The way we celebrate it is probably not similar to how you guys celebrate Thanksgiving but in the end every national festival has one purpose, to connect citizens and remind us about history, culture that our ancestors inherited to us. And lastly, I want to know about how do you feel when you're celebrating the Thanksgiving? Being a Native American and celebrating your own holiday and especially when you're celebrating it from your heart, knowing all the history behind it, how does it feels like? To me, that's all i want to know. I appreciate your time. Have a great day! xx

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My name is Tumen-jargal.
I am from Mongolia.
The Thanksgiving holiday is very similar to what we call
" Tsagaansar " and in Mongolian culture we must be polite to our elders.

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Dear Native Americans,
This is my first time writing a letter to someone I barely know. But I hope we will get to know each other!
I am 16 years old and I live in Mongolia. As for non Mongolians, they know us as our Genghis Khan and our nomadic countryside lifestyle. You could say it is a bit disappointing. Mongolia in 21th century had changed a lot.  Yes we still live as a nomadic lifestyle but our lifestyle changed a bit, we have cities and other modern buildings as well . The time when we used to ride a horse and lived in a country side was probably 100 years ago. ( we still do though but not everyone)It is slowly developing and trying to compete with other countries. We, Mongolians are cultural people. Our beliefs in nature and animals are almost the same as you guys. Oh and there is The  Lunar New Year and its purpose is to celebrate the upcoming spring. We make potato salad and buuz and eat it with our cousins and friends. It is one of the biggest traditional celebrations. As for my opinion, we also celebrate Lunar New Year to get in touch with our loved ones not to forget them. These 3 days worthy celebration is my favorite holiday. Because I get to meet with my cousins and eat delicious foods and in addition getting present is a bonus too. I wonder if you have any interesting celebration or traditional cultural things to share?

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Dear Native American students, my name is Yalalt from Mongolia and I hope you're doing well. I was never interested about this kind of article until I learn this lesson.
First of all I would like to share our country traditions and ancestors, what they did in their life and how did they survived.
Our ancestors were nomadic, change their locations in every season. There are different  season in Mongolia, and work on other things depending on season. In summer they change location to more nutrient area to get the goods and make sure their livestock is enough for the next winter so they can survive from the cold, harsh winter. Livestock raising, based on millions of head of sheep, goats, cattle, horses, and camels—often referred to as the “five animals”( tavan khoshuu mal) in Mongolia. Only roughly 1 percent of Mongolia’s land area is used to grow crops. Production is concentrated in the wetter northern parts of the country, particularly in the broad lower valleys of the Orkhon and Selenge rivers. Because of the long cold winters, only a single annual crop is possible. About three-fourths of the cropland is sown with grains—primarily spring wheat but with some barley and oats—and the rest with potatoes, fodder crops, and such vegetables as cabbage and carrots. Yields are relatively low and vary greatly from year to year. In most provinces, hay is produced for feeding livestock in winter, and emergency stockpiles are maintained. As a result I thought native Americans and Mongolians are kind of same
Do you think they are same?

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Dear Native American students,

Hi there, My name is Khongorzul i am from Mongolia.

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Dear Native American Students,

Hey, i hope you guys doing well and had super duper Thanksgiving. This is not my first time writing a letter to someone but its still hard to write one nevermind so my name is Shinesar, i am 17 years old and go in 11th grade at Orkhon High in Mongolia. I’m visiting this school since last year before i moved to Mongolia, oh and i forgot to tell you where i came from .I lived in Austria for 5 years with my family. So now i want to share you guys some Mongolian traditions that could be interesting for you. To be honest i have no idea about Native Americans. As i child, i watched many movies but have never studied. In fact there is one thing that might be true. I heard that you guys are also nomads like Mongolian. Prove me if i’m wrong. Our traditional nomads continue to live our way of life as we did in the days of Gengis Khan. They moving around in countyside to get more grass for their horses etc. and also there is most important tradition. One day you will travel to mongolia and you can’t pass this one. MmmMmm its one of the most beautiful festival in Mongolia. There is soo many tasty food , the special one called Khuushuur. Its backed flour with meat. You wanna know how this festival called? I see you are interested in, its called NAADAM. If you want more about us let me know and i am looking for your reply about your traditions bc i want to study more. I hope this was interesting and have a nice day!
Goodbye
Sincerely Shinesar

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Dear Native American students
Greetings to you all, and I hope you are having a great day. My name is Enkhjin and in this letter I will share about the culture and tradition of my home country, Mongolia.
We have an unusual way of greeting but it is used in certain occasions such as our national celebrations like Lunar New year and Naadam. This greeting is called “Zolgoh” and in this greeting two people hold both their arms out, and the younger person's arms are placed under the elder person's and grasps their elbows to show support for their elder. The two people then touch each others cheeks, usually accompanied with the phrase "Are you well and peaceful?"
Thank you for taking your time to read my letter. I hope that we can deepen our relationship with these letters and understand more of each other's culture and traditions.
With appreciation

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Dear Native Americans,

As a kid I used to watch different   animations or films illustrating the lifestyle of the indigenous people living in America, however I barely noticed a significant difference between them and us. I don't want to mention about Mongolian culture, festivals, or religion as these are highly influenced by "Tibetans" and "Chinese" who managed to introduce their culture and Buddhism during the most politically instable and weak period of our history. Thus I would be focusing more on lifestyles. The nomadic tribes were common features for us. As nomads we depended on the livestocks. So the climate conditions determined where we shall stay and where not to. Another feature I noticed is the smoking pipe. The Natives Americans used smoking pipe in ceremonies as well as for pleasure. In Mongolia there are a lot of pipe smokers especially in the rural areas or the countryside. Like Native Americans we do respect our horses a lot, hunting wild animals are also one of the pleasure and training activities we had. As for the housing the Native Americans had a variety of different houses depending on where they lived. The "Arctic domed snow house", "Algonquian mat or bark wigwam", "Plateau mud pit house", "Great Basin thatched wickiup", "Prairie earthlodge" and "Navajo sod or adobe hogan" are pretty similar to the houses we have called "ger" in terms of shape and structure and "Plains buffalo hide tipi" looks just like "urts" or "yurta" /houses used by northern Mongolians /khuvsgul//. The houses could have been made from whatever material that was available around their environment but mostly it kept its hemispherical shape. The shamanism is the religion we practiced before introduction of Buddhism in 17th century. The spiritual leaders were always there before that /called "Zairan" or "Udgan"/ which was also common in Native American tribes. There could be many more but the lack of written documents /mostly it was orally transmitted/ of our "original" traditions and cultural the influence from "Tibet", "China" and "Russia" makes it difficult to explore more about the similarities between us. Furthermore I would like to hear from you too.

Yours Sincerely,
Ratnaa Batsuuri

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Dear Native American Students,

Growing up, I never experienced the trials and tribulations of most of my nation's populace. And until I became interested in history, geography, and cultures other than my own, I really didn't know what was happening or what had happened.  To put it simply, I was ignorant.

Ignorant not only to the injustices and suffering experienced by others, but of my own people as well. That was until I heard a discussion between  my parents, my great uncle, my aunt and my grandmother about our family's history, the history of a troubled time here in Mongolia. Since then I studied history and geography with a passion. And the excuses of ignorance could no longer continue to cloud my judgement.

Mongolia and the first peoples of the North American continent share a lot in common. The deep rooted symbolism of animals, such as wolves and eagles, the respect for Mother Nature, even the Shamanistic beliefs from the days of the Huns here reflect many similar values. I am not certain about Native American Shamanism, but here in Mongolia we worship 'Ikh Tenger' or the Great Sky. In our traditional values, we deeply venerate milk and try to use every part of an animal. Many but not all of the Native American tribes were nomadic the Navajo, the Apache, the Sioux and a countless number of distinct and unique tribes dispersed throughout the Great Plains. The Mongolian people live in the vast Central Asian steppe, we too are nomads. And another similarity we share is the turbulent and often harsh histories our people experienced. Although the Mongolian people have conquered and been subjugated before. Today we stand in our frail sovereignty, while the Native Americans have had a much different perspective on history.

I can't speak for the entirety of my nation, and I can't speak as if I know your troubles and joys. I only know that we are all people and we should try to understand each other more.

Before I end this letter I want to ask you something, How will tradition keep up with today's astronomic amounts of change?

I hope you all have a wonderful future,

Bishuubazar

P.S. Please don't think I'm pretentious

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Dear fellow Native American students,

My name is Enkhsolongo, I'm a senior student in high-school of Ulaanbaatar Mongolia.

Firstly I wanted to introduce my favourite traditional aspect of Mongolian culture. It is the "Tsam dance". I really love it, because when I was little my dad was a professional  traditional dancer and he used to perform this dance on stage. Tsam dance is a part of secret tantric rituals, this dance is enriched with various Mongol cultural elements, namely the creative imagination and aesthetics of Mongol craftsmen, the roles of heroic figures of folk myths and epics, and elements of shamanism, and archaic religious phenomena. Tsam is a complex art of religion and culture, practiced as an integration of body, language, and intellectual genius into a single meaning with the help of dance movements and the charm of religious chanting and meditation. You can have a view from the photo I uploaded below.

Second of all, I wanted to ask you all a question. Up until this very moment, have you ever though that "Wow, Mongolians and Native Americans have a very similar culture, we are so alike!" ? Yes, me neither my friends. To be honest, I'm not 100% confident that you people heard about us. Obviously we're famous by our history of our great emperor the Chinggis Khaan. And we are indeed proud of our ancestors and history but we have plenty of other things that people don't know of, yet still precious and important. In this letter I wanted to share our culture and society and discuss about similarities and differences of ours and Native American's. And why WE should preserve it.

A few years back I travelled to Minnesota, USA and visited the Science Museum of Minnesota, Mille lac's Indian museum as well. It was really interesting and beautiful, I get to learn about the jingle dress dance and how its origin can be traced to the Mille Lacs Ojibwe through museum exhibits, objects, demonstrations, and tours, and shop for locally made Native American arts and crafts in the restored 1930s trading post. I really enjoyed the trip to the museum and ended up learning a lot. Although, as can be seen now, but not at that time, our culture are much the same.

Apparently the culture is a very broad subject and we can't obviously discuss everything. But what I know about what is alike between Native Americans and Mongolians is that:

Our traditional clothes, accessories etc

Respect to out mother nature

DNA similarities or face and body feature

Shamanism's sacred practise

Music

Tipis/Mongolian ger

Symbolism of animals

We are nomads

And about differences, there are a lot but to mention a few, we are different by where we live and what we used to do to survive and with our history.

By this opportunity given to me I also wanted to discuss about how "us people" with great culture and astonishing traditions are being treated in today's society.

After a few google research I learned that white settlers during the western expansion movement ended Native Americans way of life and led to the virtual destruction of Indian life and culture. Since that painful historical trauma Native Americans been fighting to preserve their way of life, their beliefs and their cultural identity.
Alike to this, The Manchu-led Qing dynasty had ruled Inner and Outer Mongolia for over 200 years. Since that day, the Qing dynasty's policy heavily influenced to Mongolian culture, especially to the southern part of Mongolia (now called the the Inner Mongolians) which was annexed by China. Recently, China made a new policy aimed at pushing Mandarin-language education to Inner Mongolian students that will phase out the local history and literature, and literally erase the culture. As a member of an amazing ethnic group I want to preserve the treasures that our ancestors left us.

Due to this problem, Mongolians protested and boycotted the Chinese government. However they all largely ignored the protests and its demands. Also protesters (parents of the students) got attacked by police. And the government of China still haven't made any change on their decision regarding this problem. Just like this example, many other people always try to harm our culture and our people when there's a slight little chance. Fortunately we fight back and this makes me feel so inspired and courageous. Even if it's not a large protest, but just a content on some social platform, it is still amazing. I see Native Americans on tiktok introducing and defending their culture and I just wish that it would be incredible if more people would do things like this. Surprisingly, most of these people on tiktok are my age, but when China banned Mongolian language in Mongolian schools, only very few of us was able to speak up... And I am indeed proud of Native Americans who TRIES to make changes, rather than just silently sit and observe.

I see people on social media mocking or stereotyping Native culture, and we face these type of problems too. As a youth, we have the power and responsibility to help our community and future generations to distinguish, recognize and appreciate the culture so that these don't disappear for good. We are all connected by our marvelous heritage and pride, and I say let's be proud of who we are. And do what we can, MORE. #indigenouspride

Best regards,
Enkhsolongo Sangibat

My question is that:
What do you think we can do as a young member of minority ethnic group, to change how our culture is being treated in this society?
It may seem like a heavy question, but please don't feel pressured ^^

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Dear Native American Students,

I'm really appreciated to write a letter for Native Americans. In this letter I want to share my search that similarities between Native Americans and Mongolian culture.

As searching through the Internet about Native American, and especially Navajo tribe’s lifestyle, it was most surprising to know that they always build their home hogan’s door facing east so that they could see the sun rise as same as Mongolia.
In Mongolia, there are certain rules when we build our traditional home called "ger".

Here is one rule, for "ger"  the door must be always faced south, so that it allows for light and warmth of the southern sun to come through the doorway as well as preventing the north-west wind from entering.

Also, I think the Native Americans have many similarities with "Khuvsgul". There are some people lived special place called Taiga in Khuvsgul. And they wears some costume's and rides deer. I think,  they thought that they are connected with earth.

Thank you for reading my letter until here. Lastly,  I have one question that I interested in. The question is... "do you guys lives peacefully?"

Letter written by Tselmeg, 12b class.

(Khuvsgul's Taiga)

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Dear Native American students,

My name is Telmuun but you can call me by my nickname Temka
I want to know Some Native Americans culture Native Americans are Indian, but why they called Indian. Just now i search why Native Americans called Indian and there is answer. Columbus (his name gives away his secret: Cristobal Colon) thought he was going to India and, being a vain and self-important man, insisted he had found it. So he named the people he met "Indians." The "American" part would come later, after everyone but Columbus had admitted his error, and the land had been named for another Italian navigator.

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Enkhtulga 12B
Dear native American students,

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Dear Native Americans
Hi my name is Anand. I'm from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Today i want to know some Native Americans culture and society. I know Native Americans are Indian, but why they called Indian. Just now i search why Native Americans called Indian and there is answer. Columbus (his name gives away his secret: Cristobal Colon) thought he was going to India and, being a vain and self-important man, insisted he had found it. So he named the people he met "Indians." The "American" part would come later, after everyone but Columbus had admitted his error, and the land had been named for another Italian navigator. You reply about your national culture and society.

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Dear Native American students,

Hi, my name's Javkhlantugs.I'm from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.I study in the Orkhon Khasu International school as a senior.Firstly it's being a great honor to share my nationalities culture and impression about Thanksgiving .In my opinion Native Americans and Mongolians have a lot of common things especially in appearance.In the monogenist concept of dividing humandkind we've been called by same name.The name is Mongoloid.This concept telling us that we've been same people but in the long term we've changed our culture and appearance because of different living standards and places.When I heard about this concept and the relatives between Mongolian and Native American I have been really surprised and happy.
Maybe this concept is being the reason why we have a lot of similarities.
In the similarities of culture we both live by using the nature sources with high respect.In Mongolia we don't make any borrows from nature especially when we use it.I hope we both have high respected connections with mother nature in nowadays.Then obviously  we have very similar anthropology.As we can see we have same colours of hair and eyes.Then we have so close numbers of measurements of forehead, head, chest and nose.
Lastly I am being really jealous to you guys for having Thanksgiving.Because Thanksgiving is a one of the greatest holiday which has a lot of benefits.I think these benefits is being the bridge between Native Americans and Americans highly respected communication.

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Dear Native American Students,

Greetings from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia!

My name is Lkhagvadulam, but you can call me by my nickname, Haguwa.

I honestly appreciate this opportunity to write this letter for you and share my thoughts about the similarities and the differences between my culture and yours. After reading many articles regarding the Native American culture and traditions, I have realized that we have a lot in common, although of course there are some unique differences because of the culture, climate as well as land.

As searching through the Internet about Native American, and especially Navajo tribe’s lifestyle, it was mos surprising to know that they always build their home hogan’s door facing east so that they could see the sun rise. In Mongolia too, there are certain rules when we build our traditional dwelling place-ger. The door must be always faced south, so that it allows for light and warmth of the southern sun to come through the door as well as preventing the north-west wind from entering. (Please see the picture of "ger" below if you're interested in.)

Also, when I saw some photos of Navajo sheep herder on Google, it was weird and wonderful to know that they also farm sheep and goats, with sheep becoming the major source of meat. It is completely the same in Mongolia too.  But I think the difference here is that Mongolian sheep herders make large seasonal as well as some small local camp-changing movements in response to ecological changes and conditions of the pasture while Navajo people used to change their places in constant search of food for survival, according to nativepartnership.org. My question here is, do you still change the places where you live? If so, how often do you move?

That's the end of my letter, thank you for reading!

I hope you would answer my questions.

Warm regards,

Lkhagvadulam.

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Dear Native American students,

First of all, I’m a student who lives in a Mongolia and I’m writing this letter to you from the other side of the earth.

I was not that interested in geography or history since I was a kid. I didn’t even have a piece of basic knowledge to start this letter, so I did tons of research about the connection between Mongolia and Native America.

The key similarity between us was a nomadic lifestyle. I know that not all Native Americans were nomadic and just a few were, such as the Navajos, the Apaches, many western indigenous people and the Native Americans on the Plains. By searching for these tribes, I noticed that ‘earth lodge’ of Native Americans on the Plains’ structure looked absolutely similar to ‘ger’ of Mongolians. Furthermore, the teepees they made were identical to ‘urts’ of Mongolian Tsaatan. (You can see the comparison from the picture I uploaded down there.) This is the primer reason why I believed that our ancestors were related before and after separated. But still, I was not sure about that because how could they go to the other side of the world. Then, even the religion of us was the same, Shamanism and we all admired and respected Nature. It can’t just be a coincidence to have so many similarities and I’m impressed by the fact that we are actually related.

Now I will introduce just a piece of our lifestyle in Mongolia. As you guys know, we are nomadic but the number of people who stayed as nomads is less than ⅓ of our population and the number of people coming to the city is increasing each year. The ‘ger’ I mentioned earlier is the home of nomads, which can be built in just a few hours. (‘ger’ is in use since 3000 years ago.). Also, the nomads nowadays do not change the place they live as much as our ancestors. (Our ancestors used to change place 4 times a year but nowadays almost all people just change it twice a year.).

I hope we all can protect our tradition and culture and I really appreciate the knowledge I got from the research.

Lastly, I want to know if there is any false information that everyone except you guys believe about Native Americans? (For example, almost everyone thinks we ride horses to get to school until now.)

Sincerely,
Ulziisaikhan.G