Plymouth MA: 40th National Day of Mourning for Native Americans November 26

November 2, 6:27 AMBoston Cultural Events ExaminerWinchin Chala

Previous Next

Comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Boston Cultural Events Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

Day of Mourning: Photo/Nicole's- Courtesy of UAINE

Copyright 2009 Winchinchala. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Prior to contact with Europe this continent was covered with thousands of indigenous tribes of people who had been living here for centuries. Supposedly it is due to the Native Americans that the Europeans were able to withstand the harsh New England weather here, that without the natives, they would have died. Yet there are precious few statues to celebrate and honor the Native Americans throughout the country and there is no national holiday for any Native American.

The “Native American Museum” In Washing DC has an exhibit which states that contact was the beginning of a holocaust which cost the lives of upwards of “65 million” Native Americans and the systematic destruction of 500 Native nations from the Artic Circle all the way down to Tierra Del Fuego in South America.” At the museum you will hear what you never read in school, that Andrew Jackson’s soldiers would skin Native Americans and make pants out of that skin and wear them with pride, that biological warfare was used. Those history books prior to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s, painted a portrait of Europeans as “hapless explorers who were defending themselves against the “savage” inhabitants of a wilderness they “discovered.” Today the story is still being corrected. Just as the Jewish survivors of WWII continue to unravel the horror of their truth, the indigenous people across this continent continue to unravel theirs. This one has to do with the sentiments of Thanksgiving. Each year since 1970, there has been a march in Plymouth, Massachusetts. It is to mark “Thanksgiving” as a national day of mourning.

“UAINE and the history of National Day of Mourning: In 1970, United American Indians of New England declared US Thanksgiving Day a National Day of Mourning. This came about as a result of the suppression of the truth. Wamsutta, an Aquinnah Wampanoag man, had been asked to speak at a fancy Commonwealth of Massachusetts banquet celebrating the 350th anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims. He agreed. The organizers of the dinner, using as a pretext the need to prepare a press release, asked for a copy of the speech he planned to deliver. He agreed. Within days Wamsutta was told by a representative of the Department of Commerce and Development that he would not be allowed to give the speech. The reason given was due to the fact that, "...the theme of the anniversary celebration is brotherhood and anything inflammatory would have been out of place." What they were really saying was that in this society, the truth is out of place.

“UAINE and the history of National Day of Mourning:In 1970, United American Indians of New England declared US Thanksgiving Day a National Day of Mourning. This came about as a result of the suppression of the truth. Wamsutta, an Aquinnah Wampanoag man, had been asked to speak at a fancy Commonwealth of Massachusetts banquet celebrating the 350th anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims. He agreed. The organizers of the dinner, using as a pretext the need to prepare a press release, asked for a copy of the speech he planned to deliver. He agreed. Within days Wamsutta was told by a representative of the Department of Commerce and Development that he would not be allowed to give the speech. The reason given was due to the fact that, "...the theme of the anniversary celebration is brotherhood and anything inflammatory would have been out of place." What they were really saying was that in this society, the truth is out of place.

What was it about the speech that got those officials so upset? Wamsutta used as a basis for his remarks one of their own history books - a Pilgrim's account of their first year on Indian land. The book tells of the opening of my ancestor's graves, taking our wheat and bean supplies, and of the selling of my ancestors as slaves for 220 shillings each. Wamsutta was going to tell the truth, but the truth was out of place.

Here is the truth: The reason they talk about the pilgrims and not an earlier English-speaking colony, Jamestown, is that in Jamestown the circumstances were way too ugly to hold up as an effective national myth. For example, the white settlers in Jamestown turned to cannibalism to survive. Not a very nice story to tell the kids in school. The pilgrims did not find an empty land any more than Columbus "discovered" anything. Every inch of this land is Indian land. The pilgrims (who did not even call themselves pilgrims) did not come here seeking religious freedom; they already had that in Holland. They came here as part of a commercial venture. They introduced sexism, racism, anti-lesbian and gay bigotry, jails, and the class system to these shores. One of the very first things they did when they arrived on Cape Cod -- before they even made it to Plymouth -- was to rob Wampanoag graves at Corn Hill and steal as much of the Indians' winter provisions as they were able to carry. They were no better than any other group of Europeans when it came to their treatment of the Indigenous peoples here. And no, they did not even land at that sacred shrine down the hill called Plymouth Rock, a monument to racism and oppression which we are proud to say we buried in 1995.
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, Connecticut to participate in the massacre of over 700 Pequot women, children, and men.
 

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.

But back in 1970, the organizers of the fancy state dinner told Wamsutta he could not speak that truth. They would let him speak only if he agreed to deliver a speech that they would provide. Wamsutta refused to have words put into his mouth. Instead of speaking at the dinner, he and many hundreds of other Native people and our supporters from throughout the Americas gathered in Plymouth and observed the first National Day of Mourning. United American Indians of New England have returned to Plymouth every year since to demonstrate against the Pilgrim mythology.

On that first Day of Mourning back in 1970, Plymouth Rock was buried not once, but twice. The Mayflower was boarded and the Union Jack was torn from the mast and replaced with the flag that had flown over liberated Alcatraz Island. The roots of National Day of Mourning have always been firmly embedded in the soil of militant protest.”

To Participate This Year

Nov. 26, 2009
12:00 noon
Coles Hill Plymouth, MA

http://www.uaine.org