The National Day of Mourning is observed on the fourth Thursday of November, which fell today on November 24 this year, which also happens to be Thanksgiving in the United States. a day focused on spending time with family and indulging in delicious treats, gratitude and good times.
A national holiday that marks the harvest feast going back to the so-called
‘First Thanksgiving’ in 1621, when the Pilgrims ( the colonists who came
over on the Mayflower and arrived in Plymouth and established the first
colony.) shared a meal with the Wampanoag people.
Without
the help of the Native Americans living in the region however, the Pilgrims of
Plymouth Colony would not have likely survived their first years in the
New World. For many Americans, therefore, Thanksgiving symbolises a bond
and peace between the two peoples as they sat together at the same
table, and perhaps hope of a lasting reconciliation after centuries of
division.For
many other Americans, however, this is not a cause for celebration. It
is a reminder of the brutal acts perpetrated on the Native Americans by
European settlers and then the US government: massacres, land stealing
and relentless attacks on their cultures and livelihoods.
So today also
marked the National Day of Mourning and Unthanksgiving Day, a day of
protest that illuminates the Native American perspectives surrounding the
very first Thanksgiving, that acts as a
reminder of the inequitable treatment of them since
the 1620 Plymouth landing. The National Day of Mourning also serves as a reminder to everyone that
Thanksgiving is only one part of the story.
The official National Day of Mourning
was established by the United American Indians of New England back in
1970 when Wamsutta, an elder of the Aquinnah Wampanoag, was invited to a
Thanksgiving state dinner in Plymouth, Massachusetts – the site of the
Pilgrims’ colony – and asked to give a speech to mark the 350th
anniversary of the Mayflower’s arrival. He was politely
requested to show a copy of what he intended to say first, though.
Wamsutta, also known as Frank James, had written an impassioned and
forceful indictment of the white conquest of native lands, starting
immediately with the Pilgrims.
"This is a time of celebration for you – celebrating an anniversary of a beginning for the white man in America. A time for looking back, of reflection. It is with a heavy heart that I look back upon what happened to my people,” he said early in his 1,400-word speech. “We, the Wampanoag, welcomed you, the white man, with open arms, little knowing that it was the beginning of the end; that before 50 years were to pass, the Wampanoag would no longer be a free people.”
He went on to say: “Although time has drained our culture, and our language is almost extinct, we the Wampanoags still walk the land of Massachusetts. We may be fragmented, we may be confused. Many years have passed since we have been a people together. Our lands were invaded. We fought as hard to keep our lands as you the whites did to take our land away from us.”
In his speech, Wamsutta not only named atrocities committed by the Pilgrims, but also reflected upon the fate of the Wampanoag at the hands of settlers. The speech contained a powerful message of Native American pride. “Our spirit refuses to die,” wrote Wamsutta. “Yesterday we walked the woodland paths and sandy trails. Today we must walk the macadam highways and roads. We are uniting. … We stand tall and proud; and before too many moons pass, we’ll right the wrongs we have allowed to happen to us.”
The speech contained a revolutionary spirit, clearly inspired by the
fledgling “Red Power Movement,” which demanded equal rights and
self-determination for Native Americans. This without a doubt frightened
the state officials, whose minds were likely drawn to the 1969
Occupation of Alcatraz, a 19-month-long protest involving Native
Americans and supporters taking over the abandoned federal penitentiary
on Alcatraz Island in California. The Occupation of Alcatraz was the
first intertribal protest that garnered national attention, and it had
struck fear into the hearts of the ruling class, because it was becoming
clear that Native Americans, like African Americans and other oppressed
peoples, were saying “no more!”
A representative of the Department of Commerce and Development perhaps unsurprisingly told Wamsutta
that he would not be able to give that speech, saying “the theme of the
anniversary celebration is brotherhood and anything inflammatory would
have been out of place”. Wamsutta was given a different speech to read, Wamsutta rejected the invitation
to speak, declining the offer to “speak false words” in
thanks of the pilgrims who claimed native land and caused pain and
suffering to native people. Instead, he led a group of protestors to Cole’s Hill in Plymouth and,
standing next to a statue of the great Wampanoag leader Massasoit,
declared the first National Day of Mourning. Native American leaders made speeches about the deplorable conditions
Native Americans faced, the genocidal actions of the United States
government and the devastation caused by the Pilgrims.
The group went down to the waterfront, where they buried Plymouth
Rock in sand and painted it red. A small group of protesters made their
way to the Mayflower II, a replica of the original Mayflower, and
boarded the ship. They climbed the rigging and tore down the flag of
Saint George, the patron saint of England. They tossed a wax statue of
the captain of the Mayflower, Christopher Jones, overboard, along with
the flag of Saint George.
The protesters then made their way to a “re-creation” of the first
Thanksgiving dinner, where they flipped over tables saying that they
“would not eat the white man’s food.”
One AIM leader would later say of the first National Day of Mourning
that it “is a day American Indians won’t forget. We went to Plymouth for
a purpose: to mourn since the landing of the Pilgrims the repression of
the American Indian; and to indict the hypocrisy of a system which
glorifies that repression. We fulfilled that purpose and gained a spirit
of unity that spread across the land.” (“Russell Means Recounts NDOM,
1971”)
Since that say in 1970, Native Americans
have gathered at noon on Cole’s Hill in Plymouth, Massachusetts, to
observe a National Day of Mourning on Thanksgiving Day.
To them, Thanksgiving is a cruel reminder of
“the genocide of millions of Native people, the theft of Native lands,
and the relentless assault on Native culture.”
They participate to honor Native ancestors and the current struggles
of Native peoples to survive. “It is a day of remembering and spiritual
connection, as well as a protest against the racism and oppression that
Native Americans continue to face.”
This event is sponsored by the United American Indians of New England
(UAINE). They argue that when the Pilgrims arrived in North America,
they claimed tribal land for themselves rather than establishing a
mutually beneficial relationship with the locals. The settlers,
according to UAINE members, “introduced sexism, racism, anti-homosexual
bigotry, jails, and the class system.”
Since then, the organization along
with its supporters continues to amplify Native American perspectives
relative to the Thanksgiving holiday and other current struggles native
people face today.The National Day of Mourning is
celebrated by the Wampanoag people, who are local to the New England
area, as well as tribes across the United States, and other Americans
who show their support and recognize Native American perspectives.
At the 1972 National Day of Mourning, a young woman was attacked by
the police for wearing an upside-down American flag draped over her
shoulders. At the 1974 National Day of Mourning, Wamsutta and protesters
liberated the bones of a 16-year-old Wampanoag girl from the Pilgrim
Hall Museum.
In 1997, National Day of Mourning organizers and protesters were
attacked and brutalized by the Plymouth police, who arrested 25
protesters. The resulting court case and settlement led to the
installation of two plaques, one that marked the origin and purpose of
the National Day of Mourning, the other commemorating Metacomet (King
Philip), who led resistance against English settlers in 1675.
The settlement also ensured that charges were dropped against all 25 protesters and protected the right to march without a permit each National Day of Mourning.
While the initial National Day of
Mourning still takes place in Plymouth, Massachusetts, and will continue to do so into the future. Similar to the National Day of Mourning, Unthanksgiving Day
is a demonstration held on the fourth Thursday of November in
remembrance of the Native American lives lost following the European
settlement of the United States. The Unthanksgiving Day protest is held
on Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco Bay.
Both the National Day of Mourning and
Unthanksgiving Day protests provide a platform for Native American
peoples to share their experiences, honor loved ones lost, and advocate
for progressive measures to improve the lives of native people and their
relations with their past, present, and future and speak truth to power.
National Day of Mourning does not only focus on the past. Speakers talk about many contemporary issues,Key issues that were
addressed today included the potential overturn of the Indian Child Welfare Act
(ICWA); Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-Spirit
People (MMIWG2S); and
clemency for longtime Native American political prisoner Leonard
Peltier.
As Moonanum James, son of Wamsutta Frank James and the late co-leader of
UAINE, said to the crowd at the 2019 National Day of Mourning, “We will
continue to gather on this hill until corporations and the U.S.
military stop polluting the Earth. Until we dismantle the brutal
apparatus of mass incarceration. We will not stop until the oppression
of our Two-Spirit siblings is a thing of the past. When the homeless
have homes. When children are no longer taken from their parents and
locked in cages. When the Palestinians reclaim the homeland and the
autonomy Israel has denied them for the past 70 years. When no person
goes hungry or is left to die because they have little or no access to
quality health care. When insulin is free. When union-busting is a thing
of the past. Until then, the struggle will continue.”
Kisha James—who is an enrolled member of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) and is also Oglala Lakota—told BBC. "What we do object to is the Thanksgiving mythology."
In a powerfuil Thursday speech, James—whose grandfather dounded
the National Day of Mourning in 1970—challenged the lies of
"mythmakers" and history books, instead highlighting "genocide, the
theft of our lands, the destruction of our traditional ways of life,
slavery, starvation, and never-ending oppression."
"When people
celebrate the myth of Thanksgiving, they are not only erasing our
genocide but also celebrating it. We did not simply fade into the
background as the Thanksgiving myth says. We have survived and
flourished. We have persevered," she declared.
"That first Day of Mourning in 1970 was a powerful demonstration of
Native unity," she said, "and it has continued for all these years as a
powerful demonstration of Indigenous unity and of the unity of all
people who speak truth to power."
James noted that "many of the
conditions that prevailed in Indian Country in 1970 still prevail
today," pointing to life expectancy, suicide, and infant mortality
rates—along with the rising death rate for Native women—and taking aim
at racism and "the oppression of a capitalist system which forces people
to make a bitter choice between heating and eating."
And we will continue to gather on this hill until we are free from
the oppressive system; until corporations and the U.S. military stop
polluting the Earth; until we dismantle the brutal apparatus of mass
incarceration," James vowed.
In all of its work, whether organizing National Day of Mourning or
leading Indigenous Peoples Day efforts, UAINE seeks to unite Indigenous
Peoples, center Indigenous Peoples’ voices, learn from each other, and
educate non-Native people as well. Now more than ever, non-Native people
need to learn the truth about the impact of colonialism and listen to
what Indigenous Peoples have to say about many issues, especially
frontline Indigenous perspectives and wisdom on how to properly and
immediately address the climate crisis.
