National Day of Mourning turns Thanksgiving into something more honest
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There's little similarity between the actual harvest feast in 1621 that eventually inspired Thanksgiving and the event's commemoration in popular culture.
Historians doubt that anyone ate turkey. The Wampanoags' alliance with the Pilgrims was less about forging community than about ensuring survival at a time of tremendous change. And, initially, the pious newcomers didn't even invite the Wampanoags to the revelry.
More sobering still, the yarn often spun in the US doesn't mention the fact that Indigenous people's encounter with English colonists was marked by incalculable loss from everything from genocide to disease and theft of land.
"As a holiday, Thanksgiving began in 1637 when it was proclaimed by governor John Winthrop of the Massachusetts Bay Colony to celebrate the safe return of the men who had gone to fight against the Pequot in Mystic, Connecticut," the journalist Matt Juul noted in 2014.
Juul explained, "The fighting led to the enslavement and massacre of over 700 men, women and children from the New England-based tribe, a bloody precursor to what would be centuries of strife for Native peoples in the US."
For a long time now, Indigenous people have been fighting to set the record straight.
Established in 1970, National Day of Mourning turns the fourth Thursday of November into something more honest. Many Indigenous people use the day not only to remember the suffering inflicted in the 1620s but also to point out the struggles that Indigenous people continue to face today in the form of, on top of so much else, violence against women and girls.
Here's more about this radical act of reclamation:
What are the origins of National Day of Mourning?
The day came about unexpectedly. In 1970, coordinators for the 350th anniversary of the Mayflower landing asked a respected Aquinnah Wampanoag activist named Wamsutta Frank James to speak at the banquet they were planning. (There are two federally recognized tribes of Wampanoag people: the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe and the Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe.) But the invitation hinged on one condition: He had to hand over a copy of the speech in advance.
"It is with mixed emotion that I stand here to share my thoughts," Wamsutta Frank James wrote. "This is a time of celebration for you -- celebrating an anniversary of a beginning for the White man in America. A time of looking back, of reflection. It is with a heavy heart that I look back upon what happened to my People."
The speech, which recalled horrors such as Europeans' enslavement and murder of Indigenous people, left the planners stunned.
"I think that they wanted a token Native, and I think that they were expecting him to sing the praises of the Pilgrims -- to thank them for bringing 'civilization' to these shores," Kisha James, Wamsutta Frank James' granddaughter, told CNN. "They said that he couldn't give that speech because it was too inflammatory and that they'd write him a new one. But he refused to have words put in his mouth."
Deciding that this history was too significant for the country to ignore, Wamsutta Frank James joined with other Native people to create a "National Day of Mourning" as an Indigenous response to the Thanksgiving holiday.
"Really, what we've been doing on National Day of Mourning every year since 1970 is telling the truth, explaining why we don't give thanks for what happened in the 1620s or afterward, up until the present day," said Mahtowin Munro, who is Lakota and the co-leader of the United American Indians of New England.
What happens on National Day of Mourning?
The day is a blend of commemoration and protest. Participants meet at noon on the fourth Thursday of November at Cole's Hill, which is above the Plymouth Harbor area where Plymouth Rock lies. Also located there is a statue of Ousamequin, or Massasoit, who was a leader of the Wampanoags at the time of the Pilgrims' arrival.
Those gathered on the hill start with an unrecorded spiritual ceremony. Afterward, participants attend a rally where speakers talk about a variety of issues. There's at least one person who recounts the history of National Day of Mourning. Following the rally, participants march to Plymouth Rock for a second demonstration.
"There, we talk about how, in the words of Malcolm X, 'we didn't land on Plymouth Rock. Plymouth Rock landed on us,'" explained Munro, referring to how, for Indigenous people in the region, the 1620s marked the start of colonization (or "the beginning of the end," as Wamsutta Frank James wrote in his suppressed speech).
Then, participants march to an area of Plymouth known as Post Office Square. It's where colonists displayed on a pike the severed head of Metacom, a revered Wampanoag leader who attempted to unite all Indigenous people against the English.
Though National Day of Mourning faced pushback in its early years, the event has gathered more and more momentum over the decades.
"I would say that, overall, people have become more aware that there's something wrong with the Thanksgiving myth and that there's this protest that happens every year in Plymouth," Kisha James said. "And that's reflected in our numbers. The first National Day of Mourning was about 150 to 200 people, which was actually pretty good for 1970. Now, we get between 1,500 and 2,000 annually. We also have a live stream so that people from all over the world can watch National Day Mourning."
Is National Day of Mourning only about the past?
No. Contemporary issues inform many of the speeches. Consider this year's observation of National Day of Mourning.
"We'll have a speaker from a tribal community in Louisiana that has been severely impacted by climate collapse, and specifically by Hurricane Ida," Munro said. "We'll have somebody who's just come back from COP26 talk about how Indigenous people were largely excluded from that (the event) and how world leaders are refusing to listen to what Indigenous people everywhere are saying about what needs to be done to address climate justice."
Other issues will receive attention, too, including pipeline resistance, the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and Two-Spirits, and the Land Back movement.
"Sometimes, I think that non-Native people picture us as being stuck, historically. They think of us as being stuck in the past," Munro said. "But while we talk about our history -- because if we don't, it would be completely erased -- we're active in our resistance and in what's happening now."
Kisha James echoed some of these sentiments, and in particular emphasized the importance of realizing that history is never history.
"There's a tendency not to understand that the past actually has consequences for the future," she said. "There's a tendency to acknowledge that what the Pilgrims did was bad but then act like everything's fine now."
The long, brutal history of state suppression of Indigenous voices motivated the founders of National Day of Mourning to allow only Indigenous people to speak at the event.
"The elders started that (having only Indigenous speakers) in 1970. They said that it's because every other day of the year, we're silenced or we have White people speaking for us -- as if we're incapable of speaking for ourselves," Munro explained. "They said that people need to stop for at least one day a year and just listen to Indigenous people. We also believe that non-Native people need to listen to Indigenous voices regularly, especially to understand true solutions to the climate crisis being offered by the original caretakers of the land."
全国哀悼日让感恩节变得更诚实
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1621 年最终激发了感恩节的实际收获盛宴与流行文化中对这一事件的纪念几乎没有相似之处。
历史学家怀疑有人吃过火鸡。 Wampanoags 与朝圣者的联盟与其说是为了建立社区，不如说是为了确保在巨大变化时期的生存。而且，最初，虔诚的新人甚至没有邀请 Wampanoags 参加狂欢。
更发人深省的是，在美国经常编织的纱线没有提到这样一个事实，即土著人民与英国殖民者的遭遇标志着从种族灭绝到疾病和土地盗窃等各种事情的不可估量的损失。
“作为一个假期，感恩节始于 1637 年，当时马萨诸塞湾殖民地的州长约翰温斯罗普宣布感恩节是为了庆祝那些前往康涅狄格州密斯提克与佩科特人作战的人安全返回，”记者马特朱尔指出2014 年。
Juul 解释说：“战斗导致来自新英格兰部落的 700 多名男人、女人和儿童被奴役和屠杀，这是美国原住民数百年来冲突的血腥前兆。”
很长一段时间以来，土著人民一直在努力打破记录。
全国哀悼日成立于 1970 年，将 11 月的第四个星期四变得更加诚实。许多土著人利用这一天不仅纪念 1620 年代所遭受的苦难，而且还指出土著人民今天继续面临的斗争，除此之外，还有许多其他形式的暴力侵害妇女和女童行为。
以下是有关这种激进的填海行动的更多信息：
全国哀悼日的由来是什么？
这一天来得猝不及防。 1970 年，五月花号登陆 350 周年的协调员请一位受人尊敬的 Aquinnah Wampanoag 活动家 Wamsutta Frank James 在他们计划的宴会上发言。 （有两个联邦承认的万帕诺亚格部落：马什皮万帕诺亚格部落和阿奎纳万帕诺亚格部落。）但邀请取决于一个条件：他必须提前交出一份演讲稿。
“我怀着复杂的心情站在这里分享我的想法，”瓦姆苏塔·弗兰克·詹姆斯写道。 “这是你们庆祝的时刻——庆祝白人在美国开始的周年纪念。回顾和反思的时刻。我怀着沉重的心情回顾发生在我的人民身上的事情。 ”
演讲回顾了欧洲人奴役和谋杀原住民等恐怖事件，让规划者目瞪口呆。
瓦姆苏塔·弗兰克·詹姆斯的孙女基沙·詹姆斯说：“我认为他们想要一个象征性的土著，我认为他们期待他为朝圣者唱赞歌——感谢他们为这些海岸带来了‘文明'。”美国有线电视新闻网。 “他们说他不能发表那个演讲，因为它太煽动性了，他们会给他写一篇新的。但他拒绝把话放在嘴里。”
瓦姆苏塔·弗兰克·詹姆斯 (Wamsutta Frank James) 认为这段历史对这个国家来说意义重大，不容忽视，因此与其他土著人一起创建了“全国哀悼日”，作为土著人对感恩节假期的回应。
“真的，自 1970 年以来，我们每年在全国哀悼日所做的就是说实话，解释为什么我们不感谢 1620 年代或之后发生的事情，直到今天，”马托温·芒罗说，谁是拉科塔和新英格兰美洲印第安人的联合领袖。
全国哀悼日会发生什么？
这一天是纪念和抗议的结合。参与者于 11 月的第四个星期四中午在科尔山会面，科尔山位于普利茅斯岩石所在的普利茅斯港区上方。此外，还有一座 Ousamequin 或 Massasoit 的雕像，他是朝圣者抵达时万帕诺亚格人的领袖。
那些聚集在山上的人以一个没有记录的精神仪式开始。之后，参与者参加集会，演讲者讨论各种问题。至少有一个人讲述了国庆节的历史。集会结束后，参与者游行到普利茅斯岩进行第二次示威。
“在那里，我们谈论如何，用马尔科姆 X 的话说，'我们没有降落在普利茅斯岩石上。普利茅斯岩石降落在我们身上，'”Munro 解释说，指的是对该地区的土著人民来说，1620 年代是如何标记的殖民的开始（或“结束的开始”，正如瓦姆苏塔·弗兰克·詹姆斯在他的压制演讲中所写的那样）。
然后，参与者游行到普利茅斯的一个被称为邮局广场的地区。殖民者在长矛上展示了 Metacom 被砍下的头颅，Metacom 是一位受人尊敬的万帕诺亚格领导人，他试图团结所有土著人民反对英国人。
尽管全国哀悼日在早些年面临阻力，但在过去的几十年中，该活动已经聚集了越来越多的动力。
“我想说的是，总的来说，人们越来越意识到感恩节的神话有问题，而且普利茅斯每年都会发生这种抗议，”基沙詹姆斯说。 “这反映在我们的数字中。第一个全国哀悼日大约有 150 到 200 人，这对于 1970 年来说实际上是相当不错的。现在，我们每年有 1,500 到 2,000 人。我们还有一个直播流，所以来自各地的人们全世界都可以观看国庆哀悼。”
国哀日只是过去吗？
不是。许多演讲都涉及当代问题。考虑一下今年的国庆哀悼日。
“我们将有一位来自路易斯安那州一个部落社区的演讲者，该社区受到气候崩溃的严重影响，特别是飓风艾达，”芒罗说。 “我们将有一个刚从 COP26 回来的人谈论土著人如何在很大程度上被排除在那个（事件）之外，以及世界领导人如何拒绝听取各地土著人关于需要采取什么措施来应对气候问题的意见正义。”
其他问题也将受到关注，包括管道阻力、失踪和被谋杀的土著妇女、女孩和两种精神的危机，以及土地回归运动。
“有时，我认为非本地人认为我们被困在历史上。他们认为我们被困在过去，”芒罗说。 “但是当我们谈论我们的历史时——因为如果我们不这样做，它就会被完全抹去——我们积极参与我们的抵抗和现在正在发生的事情。”
Kisha James 回应了其中的一些观点，并特别强调了认识到历史永远不是历史的重要性。
“人们倾向于不明白过去实际上会对未来产生影响，”她说。 “人们倾向于承认朝圣者所做的事情很糟糕，但现在表现得好像一切都很好。”
国家压制土著声音的漫长而残酷的历史促使全国哀悼日的创始人只允许土著人在活动中发言。
“长老们在 1970 年开始（只有土著人）。他们说这是因为一年中每隔一天，我们都沉默了，或者我们有白人为我们说话——好像我们无法为自己说话，”门罗解释道。 “他们说人们需要每年至少停下来一天，只听原住民的声音。我们还认为，非原住民需要定期听取原住民的声音，尤其是要了解由原住民提供的气候危机的真正解决方案。土地的原始看护人。”
