• Ar
  • Es
Al Mayadeen English

Slogan

  • News
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Sports
    • Arts&Culture
    • Health
    • Miscellaneous
    • Technology
    • Environment
  • Articles
    • Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Blog
    • Feature
  • Videos
  • Infographs
  • In Pictures
  • • LIVE
News
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Sports
  • Arts&Culture
  • Health
  • Miscellaneous
  • Technology
  • Environment
Articles
  • Opinion
  • Analysis
  • Blog
  • Feature
Videos
Infographs
In Pictures
  1. Home
  2. News
  3. Arts and Culture
  4. 'No Reason to Celebrate’: Tribes Mourn on Thanksgiving
Arts and Culture

'No Reason to Celebrate’: Tribes Mourn on Thanksgiving

  • By Al Mayadeen Net
  • Source: Agencies
  • 25 Nov 2021 17:22

Members of Native American tribes gather to mourn Indigenous peoples around the world, who were victims of prejudice and injustice for centuries.

  • 'No Reason to Celebrate’: Tribes Mourn on Thanksgiving: ‘
    Native Americans' supporters pause after a prayer on the 38th National Day of Mourning at Coles Hill in Mass., on Nov. 22, 2007

Native American tribes from around New England will gather in the seaside town where Pilgrims settled.

The tribes will not be there to offer their thanks but to mourn the Indigenous people who suffered from racism and mistreatment. 

The observance, dubbed the National Day of Mourning, will take place in Massachusetts to 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.’”

This year would mark the 52nd time the United American Indians of New England (UAINE) organizes this event on Thanksgiving Day, since 1970. 

Memorial of the colonists' arrival 

Indigenous people and their supporters will gather at noon on Cole’s Hill, a windswept mound overlooking Plymouth Rock, a memorial to the colonists’ arrival. 

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 focus on the terrible legacy of federal boarding schools in the United States and Canada, where hundreds of dead have been uncovered on the sites of former Indigenous children's residential schools.

Earlier this week, Brian Moskwetah Weeden, chairman of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council, stated on Boston Public Radio that Americans owe his tribe a debt of gratitude for helping the Pilgrims survive their first harsh winter.

  • 'No Reason to Celebrate’: Tribes Mourn on Thanksgiving: ‘
    Native Americans will hold a National Day of mourning this Thanksgiving. 

“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 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.”

  • Thanksgiving
  • Native American tribes
  • United States
  • Massachusetts

Trending Now

All
Jerry Lee Lewis

Jerry Lee Lewis, US rock’n’roll pioneer, dies aged 87

Hollywood celebrities, including famed producer Haim Saban and actress Fran Drescher, pose with IDF soldiers at the FIDF Western Region Gala.

WikiLeaks reveals Hollywood producers help conceal Israeli war crimes

Most Read

London posts job ad for mercenaries for Ukraine counteroffensive

London posts job ad for mercenaries for Ukraine's counteroffensive

  • Africa
  • 24 May
The Middle East Stabilises, Against the Backdrop of a Great Unravelling

The Middle East Stabilises, Against the Backdrop of a Great Unravelling

  • Analysis
  • 28 May
The domestically produced C919 passenger jet flies at the China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai, Guangdong province, Peoeple's Republic of China, 8 November 2022. (Reuters)

China is set to launch first commercial flight on its C919 plane

  • Asia
  • 26 May
Kissinger bears considerable culpability for assaults in Cambodia that killed as many as 150,000 civilians

Kissinger's secret war in Cambodia reveals mass killings: Intercept

  • Asia
  • 24 May

Read this

All
In this image released by the Italian firefighters, a helicopter searches for missing passengers after a tourist boat capsized in a storm on Italy's Lago Maggiore in the northern Lombardy region, May 28, 2023 (AP)
Europe

Top Israeli intelligence official dead in Italy: Israeli media

  • 29 May
The Global Campaign to the Return to Palestine honours several "Return Ambassadors" in Beirut, Lebanon, May 29 2023. (@return_ar/Twitter)
Palestine

GCRP honors 'Return Ambassadors' to Palestine in Beirut

  • Today
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, and Minister of Justice Yariv Levin attend a weekly cabinet meeting in the prime minister's office in occupied Al-Quds, occupied Palestine, May 28, 2023 (AP)
Palestine

Let AI replace Netanyahu's government, opposition's Lapid says

  • 29 May
In this picture released by the Iranian Defense Ministry on Thursday, May 25, 2023, Khorramshahr-4 missile is launched at an undisclosed location, Iran (Iranian Defense Ministry via AP)
MENA

Iran set to unveil its first ever hypersonic missile

  • 29 May
Al Mayadeen English

Al Mayadeen is an Arab Independent Media Satellite Channel.

All Rights Reserved

  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Authors
Android
iOS