North American Indian Nations National Day of Mourning

500 Years -

Rhonda Head - North American Indian Nations National Day of Mourning

Wabanaki Warrior - Mi'kmaw Indian of Mi'kma'ki

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Nov 282024

In 1637 near present day Groton, Connecticut, over 700 men, women and children of the Pequot Tribe had gathered for their annual Green Corn Festival which is our Thanksgiving celebration. In the predawn hours the sleeping Indians were surrounded by English and Dutch mercenaries who ordered them to come outside. Those who came out were shot or clubbed to death while the terrified women and children who huddled inside the longhouse were burned alive. The next day the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony declared “A Day Of Thanksgiving” because 700 unarmed men, women and children had been murdered. Cheered by their “victory”, the brave colonists and their Indian allies attacked village after village. Women and children over 14 were sold into slavery while the rest were murdered. Boats loaded with a many as 500 slaves regularly left the ports of New England. Bounties were paid for Indian scalps to encourage as many deaths as possible. Following an especially successful raid against the Pequot in what is now Stamford, Connecticut, the churches announced a second day of “thanksgiving” to celebrate victory over the heathen savages. During the feasting, the hacked off heads of Natives were kicked through the streets like soccer balls. Even the friendly Wampanoag did not escape the madness. Their chief was beheaded, and his head impaled on a pole in Plymouth, Massachusetts — where it remained on display for 24 years. George Washington finally suggested that only one day of Thanksgiving per year be set aside instead of celebrating each and every massacre. Later Abraham Lincoln decreed Thanksgiving Day to be a legal national holiday during the Civil War — on the same day he ordered troops to march against the starving Sioux in Minnesota. - Since 1970, Indigenous people & their allies have gathered at noon on Cole's Hill in Plymouth to commemorate a National Day of Mourning on the US Thanksgiving holiday. Many Native people do not celebrate the arrival of the Pilgrims & other European settlers. Thanksgiving Day is a reminder of the genocide of millions of Native people, the theft of Native lands and the erasure of Native cultures. Participants in National Day of Mourning honor Indigenous ancestors and Native resilience. It is a day of remembrance and spiritual connection, as well as a protest against the racism and oppression that Indigenous people continue to experience worldwide. - The Doctrine of Discovery is a principle that claims a nation acquires rights to land it discovers, and was used to justify the colonization of non-European lands by European nations. The doctrine is based on racist and unscientific assumptions, and has been used to seize indigenous lands and subjugate peoples. The doctrine was also introduced into United States law by Supreme Court Justice John Marshall in 1823. Marshall's interpretation of the doctrine gave the discovering nation title to the territory, which could be perfected by possession. The most recent time the U.S. Supreme Court cited the Doctrine of Discovery was in 2005 in the case City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation of New York. In the majority decision, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote that the Doctrine of Discovery gave the sovereign title to land occupied by Indigenous peoples when colonists arrived.

500 Years - Rhonda Head - North American Indian Nations National Day of Mourning