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FILE -
Marchers
carry a
large
painting
of
jailed
American
Indian
Leonard
Peltier
during a
march
for the
National
Day of
Mourning
in
Plymouth,
Mass.,
on Nov.
22,
2001.
Denouncing
centuries
of
racism
and
mistreatment
of
Indigenous
people,
members
of
Native
American
tribes
from
around
New
England
will
gather
on
Thanksgiving
2021 for
a solemn
National
Day of
Mourning
observance.
(AP
Photo/Steven
Senne,
File) |
|
Native
American
tribes
mourn on
Thanksgiving:
'No
reason
to
celebrate'
By
WILLIAM
J. KOLE
apnews.com
Members
of
Native
American
tribes
from
around
New
England
are
gathering
in the
seaside
town
where
the
Pilgrims
settled
— not to
give
thanks,
but to
mourn
Indigenous
people
worldwide
who’ve
suffered
centuries
of
racism
and
mistreatment.
Thursday’s
solemn
National
Day of
Mourning
observance
in
downtown
Plymouth,
Massachusetts,
will
recall
the
disease
and
oppression
that
European
settlers
brought
to North
America.
“We
Native
people
have no
reason
to
celebrate
the
arrival
of the
Pilgrims,”
said
Kisha
James, a
member
of the
Aquinnah
Wampanoag
and
Oglala
Lakota
tribes
and the
granddaughter
of
Wamsutta
Frank
James,
the
event’s
founder.
“We want
to
educate
people
so that
they
understand
the
stories
we all
learned
in
school
about
the
first
Thanksgiving
are
nothing
but
lies.
Wampanoag
and
other
Indigenous
people
have
certainly
not
lived
happily
ever
after
since
the
arrival
of the
Pilgrims,”
James
said.
“To us,
Thanksgiving
is a day
of
mourning,
because
we
remember
the
millions
of our
ancestors
who were
murdered
by
uninvited
European
colonists
such as
the
Pilgrims.
Today,
we and
many
Indigenous
people
around
the
country
say, ‘No
Thanks,
No
Giving.’”
It’s the
52nd
year
that the
United
American
Indians
of New
England
have
organized
the
event on
Thanksgiving
Day. The
tradition
began in
1970.
Indigenous
people
and
their
supporters
will
gather
at noon
in
person
on
Cole’s
Hill, a
windswept
mound
overlooking
Plymouth
Rock, a
memorial
to the
colonists’
arrival.
They
will
also
livestream
the
event.
Participants
will
beat
drums,
offer
prayers
and
condemn
what
organizers
describe
as “the
unjust
system
based on
racism,
settler
colonialism,
sexism,
homophobia
and the
profit-driven
destruction
of the
Earth”
before
marching
through
downtown
Plymouth’s
historical
district.
This
year,
they’ll
also
highlight
the
troubled
legacy
of
federal
boarding
schools
that
sought
to
assimilate
Indigenous
youth
into
white
society
in the
U.S. as
well as
in
Canada,
where
hundreds
of
bodies
have
been
discovered
on the
grounds
of
former
residential
schools
for
Indigenous
children.
Brian
Moskwetah
Weeden,
chairman
of the
Mashpee
Wampanoag
Tribal
Council,
said on
Boston
Public
Radio
earlier
this
week
that
Americans
owe his
tribe a
debt of
gratitude
for
helping
the
Pilgrims
survive
their
first
brutal
winter.
“People
need to
understand
that you
need to
be
thankful
each and
every
day —
that was
how our
ancestors
thought
and
navigated
this
world,”
Weeden
said.
“Because
we were
thankful,
we were
willing
to share
... and
we had
good
intentions
and a
good
heart.”
That
wasn’t
reciprocated
over the
long
term,
Weeden
added.
“That’s
why, 400
years
later,
we’re
still
sitting
here
fighting
for what
little
bit of
land
that we
still
have,
and
trying
to hold
the
commonwealth
and the
federal
government
accountable,”
he said.
“Because
400
years
later,
we don’t
really
have
much to
show
for, or
to be
thankful
for. So
I think
it’s
important
for
everyone
to be
thankful
for our
ancestors
who
helped
the
Pilgrims
survive,
and kind
of
played
an
intricate
role in
the
birth of
this
nation.”
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