By Sara Hassan
Photos: YouTube Screenshots
For more than half a century, groups of Native Americans have been gathering on Thanksgiving to mark a National Day of Mourning at a historic site in Massachusetts. They honor their ancestors who were subject to atrocities by settlers in the 17th century. Over the years, they have also been a voice for other oppressed Indigenous groups around the world.
On a grassy hill overlooking the water in Plymouth, Massachusetts, a couple thousand people gathered last November on what US calendars call Thanksgiving Day.
Sitting in the nearby harbor next to Cole’s Hill was a replica of the original Mayflower ship that arrived in Massachusetts in 1620.
The somber occasion remembered the atrocities faced by Native Americans over the centuries. Now, the event has expanded over the years to stand in solidarity with other Indigenous struggles across the world.
The people who were gathered were energetic as they convened with a sense of unity and shared purpose.
Every year since 1970, the United American Indians of New England has hosted a National Day of Mourning in opposition to Thanksgiving Day.
That was the year when the Commonwealth of Massachusetts invited Wamsutta Frank James of the Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe to speak at a banquet in celebration of the 350th anniversary of the arrival of the Pilgrims to what is now the US.
“He went away and he wrote a speech and he came back and the event organizers told him that he could under no circumstances give the speech because it was too inflammatory,” said his granddaughter, Kisha James, who is also a co-leader of the National Day of Mourning. READ MORE…
