Spring Break
'Day of Mourning' better describes Thanksgiving
Bryan Murphy
Issue date: 11/19/08 Section: Commentary
Typically, when one invades a country, conquers its native inhabitants and puts the vast majority of them to the sword, one does not then declare a national holiday and invite the descendants of the few remaining survivors to join in on the festivities.
But, hey, the Pilgrims were never exactly well known for their social graces.
If any particular celebration on Nov. 27 were to receive an "A" for both "Ideological Consistency," and "Moral Unobjectionability," it would probably be "The National Day of Mourning," held by United American Indians of New England (UAIE). This "Mourning-giving" commemorates the fact that, in the UAIE's own words, "many Native Americans do not celebrate the arrival of the Pilgrims and other European settlers," since the traditional holiday is a "reminder of the genocide of millions of Native people, the theft of Native lands, and the relentless assault on Native culture."
Fair enough. Taking a glimpse around just this university's campus, it's difficult to deny that New England's racial composition isn't a tad bit different from what it was before the first Pilgrim donned his first ominous little black hat and stepped onto the Mayflower. The "Day of Mourning" gets an "A" for "Legible Origins" as well - the day indisputably began in 1970 when the Commonwealth of Massachusetts invited Frank B. (Wamsutta) James, leader of the remnants of the Wampanoag tribe, to give a speech celebrating friendly Indian-Pilgrim relations at the annual Thanksgiving celebration at Plymouth Rock. Wamsutta agreed to speak, and wrote up a few words detailing the manner in which the Pilgrims landed in the New World to find empty villages wracked by plague, proceeded to rob the graves of Native Americans for supplies and then began to raise funds through slave-trading. The Commonwealth was not pleased. Wamsutta was uninvited, and he and his supporters headed to a nearby hill to stage their own day of remembrance where Wamsutta would be allowed to speak freely.
But, hey, the Pilgrims were never exactly well known for their social graces.
If any particular celebration on Nov. 27 were to receive an "A" for both "Ideological Consistency," and "Moral Unobjectionability," it would probably be "The National Day of Mourning," held by United American Indians of New England (UAIE). This "Mourning-giving" commemorates the fact that, in the UAIE's own words, "many Native Americans do not celebrate the arrival of the Pilgrims and other European settlers," since the traditional holiday is a "reminder of the genocide of millions of Native people, the theft of Native lands, and the relentless assault on Native culture."
Fair enough. Taking a glimpse around just this university's campus, it's difficult to deny that New England's racial composition isn't a tad bit different from what it was before the first Pilgrim donned his first ominous little black hat and stepped onto the Mayflower. The "Day of Mourning" gets an "A" for "Legible Origins" as well - the day indisputably began in 1970 when the Commonwealth of Massachusetts invited Frank B. (Wamsutta) James, leader of the remnants of the Wampanoag tribe, to give a speech celebrating friendly Indian-Pilgrim relations at the annual Thanksgiving celebration at Plymouth Rock. Wamsutta agreed to speak, and wrote up a few words detailing the manner in which the Pilgrims landed in the New World to find empty villages wracked by plague, proceeded to rob the graves of Native Americans for supplies and then began to raise funds through slave-trading. The Commonwealth was not pleased. Wamsutta was uninvited, and he and his supporters headed to a nearby hill to stage their own day of remembrance where Wamsutta would be allowed to speak freely.
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