55th NATIONAL DAY OF MOURNING TO BE OBSERVED IN PLYMOUTH, MA
AT 12 NOON ON THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2024
United American Indians of New England (UAINE) has called for the 54th National Day of Mourning in Plymouth, Massachusetts on Thursday, November 28, 2024 at 12 o'clock noon. Participants will gather by the statue of Massasoit on Cole's Hill above the Plymouth waterfront.
Since 1970, hundreds of Native people and non-Native allies have gathered annually in Plymouth on U.S. Thanksgiving Day.
According to UAINE co-leader Kisha James, who is Aquinnah Wampanoag and Oglala Lakota and the granddaughter of Wamsutta Frank James, the founder of National Day of Mourning, “Native people have no reason to celebrate the arrival of the Pilgrims. We want to educate people about the true origins of the first Thanksgiving, which were far bloodier than the ‘Pilgrims and Indians’ story in the Thanksgiving myth. The first official day of ‘thanksgiving’ was declared in Massachusetts in 1637 by Puritan Governor Winthrop to celebrate the massacre of over 700 Pequot men, women and children on the banks of the Mystic River in Connecticut. Wampanoag and other Indigenous people have certainly not lived happily ever after since the arrival of the Pilgrims. To us, Thanksgiving is a Day of Mourning, because we remember the millions of our ancestors who were murdered by the Pilgrims and subsequent generations of settlers. Today, we and many Indigenous people around the country say, ‘No Thanks, No Giving.’"
James explained that much of the day will also be devoted to speaking about contemporary issues. “More than 400 years after the arrival of the Mayflower, Indigenous people are still denied basic human rights and full control of their own homelands. Change is long past due. We are still facing many of the issues that our elders talked about in 1970 at the first National Day of Mourning. We call on non-Native people to listen to Indigenous voices, especially about how to address the climate crisis, and to join us in trying to stop the continued destruction of our homelands and waterways by greedy corporations. Native lands must be returned to our control in order to ensure a future for all of life on earth.”
UAINE co-leader Mahtowin Munro spoke about some of the current issues that affect Indigenous communities. “Participants in National Day of Mourning this year will speak about many things. We will mourn and honor the thousands of Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, Two-Spirit (#MMIWG2S) and other Indigenous Relatives. We will join the thousands demanding the identification and return of the remains of thousands of Indigenous children from the residential schools and boarding schools that were sponsored by Canada and the US in order to ‘kill the Indian’ in the children and destroy Indigenous communities. From Peru to British Columbia, from Boston to the Amazon, Indigenous peoples are defending their sovereignty, calling for land back, and insisting that nothing should happen on their lands without their freely given consent. Indigenous solidarity and resistance are international. We stand in solidarity with all the Indigenous nations opposing pipelines, mines and megadams. And I’m also sure that many of those in attendance will support the call of millions around the world to end the genocide in Gaza.”
North American Indian Center of Boston president Jean-Luc Pierite spoke on community and coalition building among the relocated and displaced Indigenous peoples within the context of American imperialism, “The history of urban Indian centers in the United States follows the legacy of termination by Congress and forced assimilation through relocation. Since 1969, Boston Indian Council and North American Indian Center of Boston foster space and time for Native organizing, cultural and social services, and Indigenous resistance through continued presence. Our membership has joined with United American Indians of New England since the first march. Today, the relocation to urban centers is not exclusive to federal Indian policy. We now see our relatives in all places touched by American imperialism. Regardless of whether we are Indigenous to Turtle Island or displaced from homelands by wars, climate change, and extractive economies, we will strive to foster community with all relations. Together, we know that now more than ever the world needs Indigenous peoples.”
Jay Teba, a representative of Albuquerque-based The Red Nation, said “National Day of Mourning is a counter-narrative that cuts through colonialism. It is sensible for the settler state to create the national holiday of so-called Thanksgiving because it is the white lie that blankets the genocide of Indigenous Peoples and perpetuates our erasure. In a world where the ruling class uses mainstream media narratives to perpetuate genocide without consequence and where education is cut to serve the idealogy of the settler state, our power is in our truth and presence. The Red Nation is traveling to so-called Massachusetts to witness the resistance of Wampanoag people and to stand hand in hand in solidarity. We wish to share this feeling with the world and make our way to amplify the truth that National Day of Mourning provides.”
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