40th Nat’l Day of Mourning

Several hundred Native people and their supporters gathered in Plymouth, Mass., for the 40th annual National Day of Mourning, which is a protest of the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday and a day of mourning for Native ancestors who died as a result of the European invasion of the Americas.

Moonanum James, co-leader of United American Indians of New England, explained the true history of Thanksgiving. “According to popular myth, the Indians and the pilgrims sat down and had a wonderful dinner. Everyone lived happily ever after.

WW photo: Liz Green

“Here is the truth: The pilgrims did not find an empty land any more than Columbus ‘discovered’ anything. Every inch of this land is Indian land. Upon first arriving, the pilgrims opened my ancestors’ graves and took our corn and bean supplies. Later, from the very harbor we can see from here, the English sold my ancestors as slaves for 220 shillings each. The first official ‘Day of Thanksgiving’ was proclaimed in 1637 by Governor Winthrop. He did so to celebrate the safe return of men from Massachusetts, who had gone to Mystic, Conn., to participate in the massacre of over 700 Pequot women, children and men.”

James concluded: “About the only true thing in the whole mythology is that these pitiful European strangers would not have survived their first several years in ‘New England’ were it not for the aid of Wampanoag people. What Native people got in return for this help was genocide, theft of our lands, and never-ending repression.”

A veteran, James also expressed his opposition to the U.S. wars on the people of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Juan González, who opened and closed the program with prayers to the Six Directions, read a statement from Chomanelaab’ Maam Ajq’ijaab’ (Council of Maya Elders in Guatemala). He called on those there to repeat after him, “loud as thunder so President Obama can hear us: Stop the War now! Stop the hushed military invasion of Latin America now! Immigration reform now! Free Leonard Peltier now!”

The Maya Elders sent a powerful statement expressing solidarity with all Indigenous peoples, the need for all to come together to protect Mother Earth, the need for “an All the Colors of the Earth Dream rather than the American Dream/Nightmare, without the war enterprises, without the Monsantos, without the Wall Street greed, without the oil cartels, without the forked-tongue talk politicians, without the corrupted fundamentalist religions, without the World Bank, without the IMF [International Monetary Fund].”

UAINE co-leader Mahtowin Munro remarked, “What happened in Gaza last winter was so much like the murdered Lakota children and mothers and elders who were thrown into mass graves at the Wounded Knee massacre in 1890, except that the Israeli cowboys have more advanced weapons, such as tungsten DIME bombs and white phosphorus.”

She added: “The Israeli Defense Forces continue to block the delivery of basic construction supplies so that the people of Gaza are unable to rebuild their destroyed homes and schools and medical centers, and they continue to block needed medicines and most food aid. We must redouble our efforts to stop the many outrages committed on a daily basis against our Palestinian sisters and brothers. Being silent is not an option.”

Munro also noted that “about 800 undocumented workers are being held in Massachusetts prisons, including more than 200 just a couple of miles away in a Plymouth prison. Their crime: not having the proper paperwork. These ICE detainees are sometimes held for more than a year in overcrowded conditions and without adequate medical care.”

At this year’s rally, speaker after speaker called on President Obama to do the right thing and free Native political prisoner Leonard Peltier. Peltier has been imprisoned for more than 30 years on FBI frame-up charges and was recently denied parole. The prison system has said that he won’t be eligible for another parole hearing until the year 2024, when he would be 79.

The crowd—which included members of various Native nations, Latinos/as, African Americans, Haitians, Palestinians, Asians and white people—listened intently when Bert Waters from the Massachusetts Indian Commission read a statement from Peltier.

Rosalba González, a teacher, spoke about the importance of educating children about real history. Participants both laughed and groaned when González read aloud and explicated the words of a T-shirt worn by a young man detailing the horrors Native people are supposed to be “thankful” for.

Tiokasin Ghosthorse, a popular radio host on WBAI in New York, explained the importance of the meaning of the Lakota phrase “mitakuye oyasin” (“we are all related”).

Following a march through the streets of Plymouth, the crowd gathered at Plymouth Rock. James noted that his Wampanoag ancestors had taught the white settlers how to grow food and had helped to treat their sick. “We didn’t ask the pilgrims for their passports or their health insurance cards!” he said.