Today is thanksgiving and many of us know the myths told since we were in kindergarten but of course it wasnt that simple. Today is the National Day of Mourning for the United American Indians of New England. Here is the background info on the 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. 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. Read more at their website: http://www.uaine.org/ I feel I should add that I posted something similar on a political forum I have been a member of for several years and they deleted all related posts and now are reviewing my posts before approving them. That is how deep the suppression goes. I hope you all read this and at the very least know the truth about thanksgiving.
hey.. ya got casinos in the long run.. quit your bitching.. not to mention if columbus did not make it here... then spain may have done the same thing.. just like they did in central and south america. oh and mexico
I posted this in the main section but you may appreciate it: A day to give thanks? by Ward Churchill Thanksgiving is the day the United States celebrates the fact that the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony successfully avoided starvation during the winter of 1620-21. But from an American Indian perspective, what is it we're supposed to be so thankful for? Does anyone really expect us to give thanks for the fact that soon after the Pilgrim Fathers regained their strength, they set out to dispossess and exterminate the very Indians who had fed them that first winter? Are we to express our gratitude for the colonists' 1637 massacre of the Pequots at Mystic, Conn., or their rhetoric justifying the butchery by comparing Indians to "rats and mice and swarms of lice"? Or should we be joyous about the endless series of similar slaughters that followed: at St. Francis (1759), Horseshoe Bend (1814), Bad Axe (1833), Blue Water (1854), Sand Creek (1864), Marias River (1870), Camp Robinson (1878) and Wounded Knee (1890), to name only the worst? Should we be thankful for the scalp bounties paid by every English colony -- as well as every U.S. state and territory in the lower 48 -- for proof of the deaths of individual Indians, including women and children? How might we best show our appreciation of the order issued by Lord Jeffrey Amherst in 1763, requiring smallpox-infested items be given as gifts to the Ottawas so that "we might extirpate this execrable race"? Is it reasonable to assume that we might be jubilant that our overall population, numbering perhaps 15 million at the outset of the European invasion, was reduced to less than a quarter-million by 1890? Maybe we should be glad the "peaceful settlers" didn't kill the rest of us outright. But they didn't really need to, did they? By 1900, they already had 98 percent of our land. The remaining Indians were simply dumped in the mostly arid and unwanted locales, where it was confidently predicted that we'd shortly die off altogether, out of sight and mind of the settler society. We haven't died off yet, but we comprise far and away the most impoverished, malnourished and disease-ridden population on the continent today. Life expectancy on many reservations is about 50 years; that of Euroamericans more than 75. We've also endured a pattern of cultural genocide during the 20th century. Our children were processed for generations through government boarding schools designed to "kill the Indian" in every child's consciousness and to replace Native traditions with a "more enlightened" Euroamerican set of values and understandings. Should we feel grateful for the disastrous self-concept thereby fostered within our kids? Are we to be thankful that their self-esteem is still degraded every day on cable television by a constant bombardment of recycled Hollywood Westerns and television segments presenting Indians as absurd and utterly dehumanized caricatures? Should we tell our children to find pride in the sorts of insults to which we are subjected to as a matter of course: Tumbleweeds cartoons, for instance, or the presence of Chief Wahoo and the Redskins in professional sports? Does anybody really believe we should feel honored by such things, or by place names like Squaw Valley and Squaw Peak? "Squaw," after all, is the Onondaga word for female genitalia. The derogatory effect on Native women should be quite clear. About three-quarters of all adult Indians suffer alcoholism and/or other forms of substance abuse. This is not a "genetic condition." It is a desperate, collective attempt to escape our horrible reality since "America's Triumph." It's no mystery why Indians don't observe Thanksgiving. The real question is why do you feast rather than fast on what should be a national day of mourning and atonement. Before digging into your turkey and dressing on Nov. 23, you might wish to glance in a mirror and see if you can come up with an answer. Ward Churchill is professor of ethnic studies at the University of Colorado. He's the author of "A Little Matter of Genocide: Holocaust and Denial in the Americas, 1492 to the Present" (City Lights Books, 1998) and "Struggle For the Land: Indigenous Resistance to Genocide, Ecocide and Expropriation in Contemporary North America" (Common Courage Press, 1992).
Really? Millions of people murdered, land raped by massive buildings and you think casino's fix that? There is a reason why native americans have problems with drugs. But hey at least they can go to their casino's and gamble!
I dont see why your blaming us for what happened in the past. Its a part of history that if could be erased should be. Casinos dont fix anything and money wont either.
I'm not blaming anybody for anything but I think if you read Ward Churchill little blurb on the holiday he asks a pretty decent question... what are we so thankful for and at what cost did we have to get the things we are so thankful for?
The fact of the matter is, that thanksgiving has absolutly nothing to do with the pilgrims what-so-ever. Everyone knows that it didnt happen the way it was desscribbed in kindergarden. But it dosent matter. Thanksgiving is in no way a celebration of anything at this point. All it is, is a time to get together with your family, and have a nice big meal together. Its not like we sit down at the table and tell the stories of the pilgrims. And for you to say that they didnt come over for religous freedom shows that you dont know what your talking about. The puritains were persicuited horribly, and needed somewhere where they could practice their religon. They didnt even come from holland. Im not saying that it wasent horrible, because it obviously was. But its not like the people here did it. Im jewish, yet i dont sit here bitching about the hollocaust. I recongnize that people regret it, and are emaressed by it. And if you hate the culture we brought here so much, then get of your computer, and go live in the woods.
You are exactly right that these things are in the past but it is still happening today. Evidence of that is on this forum. The government doesnt need to learn from its mistakes (and indeed it hasnt) but maybe people can. Thinking something is bad doesnt change it. Sorry if I came off sounding offensive, I was merely trying to educate.
From my perspective since it was my culture that was responsible for decimating countless indigenous cultures, it is my cultures responsibility to come to terms with what it has done and in some way provide decent reperations like by no means allowing the reservation systems in the United States to represent some of the poorest nations in the world. People act as if Natives don't actually exist and if the damage is done but it continues to go on every single day. That is the importance of recognizing what Thanksgiving really represents and that is the importance of educating others about what Thanksgiving represents and doing something to make some one else's life a little better.
Half of the pilgrims were separatists from holland. They went to england to meet the rest of the separatists and the mayflower. The original voyage was to include the speedwell and the mayflower but the speedwell was sold because of leaks. The entire voyage was funded by investors that were only interested in slaves and other 'goods'. The pilgrims wanted to create a new society away from the church of england, they werent puritans. And believe me if I had the money I would be off in the Alaskan bush right now.
