How are you planning to celebrate the National Day of Mourning? Food?
Feast? Football? Family? Pre-Black Friday shopping? Will you spend
time with your children cutting out hand traced turkeys and making
Pilgrim hats? Baking? Skyping distant relatives? Visiting with
relatives?
Since the winners write the history books, children
are taught in school that the National Day of Mourning was a day when
"Indians," also known as Native Americans or, members of the Wampanoag
tribe to be exact, sat down with "pilgrims" who were thankful for
"discovering" the new land, making friends with the Wampanoag tribe,
escaping religious persecution and sharing a meal of peace, love and
joy. Amen.
Some stories are just that, stories. About the only
thing true with that nice story is that the Wampanoag's were helpful to
the European strangers who landed on their shore. The truth is that
the white settlers in Jamestown had to resort to cannibalism to survive
and it was the Wampanoag tribe who helped them get through the bitter
winter, mostly to prevent the white settlers from digging up Wampanoag
graves.
Columbus didn't discover North America, or Plymouth. He
got lost and stumbled upon the island of Haiti where there was already
an indigenous people there. Christopher wrote in his log that he was
thankful for the bounty of human cargo God gave him and then enslaved,
raped and murdered most of the tribe. They were the Arawak.
Furthermore, it was the Vikings, not Columbus, who first made contact
with Native Americans in the area known today as Boston. Leif Erikson
was the first European and the first Christian to plant his feet on
American soil 500 years earlier than Chris and, as such, he deserves
more a place in the history of our country than Columbus does.
Back
to the Pilgrim mythology, they did not come here to escape religious
persecution (much like what they inflicted on the American Indians who
already had their own religion) but they came here as part of a
commercial venture. It is also true that the pitiful settlers would
not have survived here had it not been for the aid of the Wampanoag
tribe. What did the Wampanoag get in return? Mass murder, forced
relocation, theft of land, alcoholism, disease, starvation, genocide,
jail and repression. All that, for which we are apparently thankful,
spread across the continent as the Europeans pushed westward and did
much the same to all other tribes.
The government gave settlers
free land on the outskirts of their new cities and settlements. Many
poor farmers, their families and prospectors took advantage of the free
land and began spreading west. The Native Americans would protest and
push back. The settlers complained to the military who would then come
out and confront the Native Americans. This did not end well for the
"Indians." We would kill one of them and they would come back and kill
one of our settlers. We would go back and kill five of them. They
would come back and kill five of us in return. We would go back and
kill twenty five of them, and on it went. As settlers encroached into
Native American lands, the Native Americans attacked. Atrocities took
place on both sides. When certain Native American villages refused to
surrender the "savages" accused of murdering whites, Andrew Jackson
ordered entire villages destroyed. The free land given to families also
created a buffer zone. If the Native Americans attacked, they would
attack the outskirts first, protecting the cities and towns and
wealthier class. After all, as it is today, the poor are expendable and
very useful for political gain. Hitler used the Jews, the Puritans
used "witches." Harry Anslinger used blacks and jazz musicians, and
politicians today continue disenfranchising the underclass for their own
political gain.
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.
Thanksgiving is by far the greatest monument to racism.
There are many people who would say that these events happened over 300
years ago and it is not their fault. This is true. We can at least
demand that our schools teach the truth and that we acknowledge the
terrorism and genocide our ancestors committed - for religious freedom.
We don't need to give up our Thanksgiving customs, traditions, Black
Friday sales and parades, but let us at least know that for the Native
American culture that this day is for them, the National Day of Mourning
and that they have little to be thankful for.
For Further reading - HISTORY IS A WEAPON
http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/zinncol1.html
"The
greatest single acts of terrorism to date were not perpetrated by Osama
bin Laden, but by the US military when it dropped atomic bombs on the
civilian people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki."
From a speech by Moonanum James on the 32nd National Day of Mourning, 2001.
Ever hear about Evacuation Day?
http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/fri-november-22-2013-
