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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:






References:


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