Decolonize your Thanksgiving - Poster of the Week
Updated: Dec 8, 2022
Plymouth November 26, '98
Young Warriors & Women of the Lenape Nation
Offset, 1998
Pennsylvania
19519
The National Day of Mourning began as a way to tell the true story behind
Thanksgiving and address issues facing Native communities today. Since
1970, the United American Indians of New England, other indigenous
groups and their allies have gathered at Cole's Hill, Plymouth,
Massachusetts to mourn their indigenous ancestors, genocide, and land
theft at the hands of European colonizers.
While the protest takes on a solemn and spiritual tone, it is also a time to
hope for a better future, stand in solidarity with indigenous people, and a
day to acknowledge the true history behind the Thanksgiving holiday.
The first Thanksgiving (not named until more than 150 years later) refers to
a shared meal held in 1621 near the infamous Plymouth Rock, attended by
Wampanoag and newly arrived English settlers. Although the exact details
of the first dinner are unknown, Linda Coombs, a member of the
Wampanoag tribe asks people to remember that the coming together of
families on Thanksgiving comes at a cost, “...land was taken from us so they
could live here. Everything was done to annihilate our culture and people. If
they think that’s too dramatic, then they don’t understand the history.”
To learn about ways to decolonize your Thanksgiving, we encourage you to
visit the following websites:
Decolonize "Thanksgiving": A Toolkit for Switching the Narratives of History | Native Outdoors
What Really Happned at the First Thanksgiving? The Wampanoag Side of the Tale | Indian Country Today
Resources to Decolonize Thanksgiving | Earth Island Journal
References:
United American Indians of New England (UAINE) | Homepage