Indigenous people, supporters honor Day of Mourning

Photo: Alberto Barreto Cardona

Several hundred people came to Plymouth, Mass., on Nov. 24 to commemorate the 42nd annual National Day of Mourning. Celebrated by some as “thanksgiving” Thursday, this is a day when Native people and their supporters stand together and refuse to give thanks for the genocide and theft of lands caused as a result of the European invasion of Indigenous lands, in Plymouth and elsewhere.

Speakers this year included Moonanum James, Mahtowin Munro, Juan Gonzalez, Marina Diaz, Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Bert Waters, Grandmother Lizzie Walker and Stephanie Hedgecoke.

James, co-leader of United American Indians of New England, spoke about the history of the National Day of Mourning: “Those who started Day of Mourning in 1970 spoke of terrible racism and poverty. Racism is still alive and well. Our people are still mired in the deepest poverty. Whether on or off the reservation, we still mostly lack decent health care, education and housing. Our youth suicide rates, our rates of alcoholism, continue to be the highest in the nation. As the economy crumbles around us, these conditions only continue to worsen.” [Read full speech at www.workers.org]

The crowd laughed when James stated that the Pilgrims were the original “1 percent” to arrive in the New England area. Tiokasin Ghosthorse also drew a laugh and cheers when he said, “Everybody wants a piece of the American pie, but you need to remember that it is OUR bakery!”

The Occupy movement was on many people’s minds, and people from Occupy Boston, Occupy Wall Street and Occupy New Haven were among those in attendance.

Munro, co-leader of UAINE, spoke about how “the word ‘occupy’ has a different meaning for Native and other oppressed people … because that is what imperialists do when they colonize our land. They occupy us. Our Indigenous lands are already occupied; Palestine and Puerto Rico and many other places were re-occupied. So that word ‘occupy’ can push some buttons, since we feel as though our lands actually need to be unoccupied or de-occupied or decolonized.”

She also discussed how corporations are attempting to occupy every bit of the earth and skies, and added that the ruling class also tries to occupy people’s minds.

Munro concluded that “the word ‘occupy’ has been reclaimed by militant workers from Egypt, Mexico and many other places to describe occupations of factories, schools and neighborhoods. Indigenous people have in the past occupied Alcatraz and occupied the BIA [Bureau of Indian Affairs] building. Further, some of the Occupy cities, including Occupy/Decolonize Boston, have taken the important step of expressing their solidarity with Indigenous peoples and seeking Indigenous participation, acknowledging that decolonization needs to be part of the dialogue, not just occupation.” [Full speech at www.workers.org] UAINE has supported the Occupy/Decolonize movement and called on other activists to do so as well.

Gonzalez opened and closed the day with prayers and carried a message from the Council of Maya Elders: “Let the truth be told: we the indigenous people of Centro America, Sur America, Mexico, are not illegal immigrants in this land known today as United States. … We are exiled here because of the brutal political and economic imperialist policies of the USA in our homelands for more than 100 years … imposing and supporting dictators; financing murderous armies; trafficking drugs and weapons; money laundering; robbing our natural resources; sponsoring ethnic cleaning; corrupting our way of life; spoiling our future. Why do you close your eyes to the genocide against the Indigenous peoples of the Americas?”

Marina Diaz, a Guatemalan woman from the New York May 1 Coalition for Worker and Immigrant Rights, spoke of the difficulties encountered by Indigenous people who immigrate to the United States because of the destruction of their home economies by U.S. neoliberal policies. Grandmother Walker spoke of going to the United Nations to demand rights for Indigenous peoples and nations. Hedgecoke told the crowd about an August victory in the shell mound struggle in California, where Indigenous people and their allies successfully fought to stop the planned destruction of an ancient coastal sacred burial site, Sagorea Tea, at Glen Cove.

After marching through the streets of Plymouth and having a brief rally at the site of Plymouth Rock, “a monument to racism and oppression” according to James, many of the people who attended the National Day of Mourning sat down and had a true thanksgiving feast together.