Thanksgiving is not a day of celebration for all Americans. For many Native American communities, Thanksgiving marks a date to remember the genocide of millions of Native Americans over the last 4 centuries.
Plymouth, Mass., police officers lead away a handcuffed American Indian protester in this November 1997 photo. A group of 25 American Indians and supporters, arrested during a 1997 Thanksgiving protest in Plymouth, are challenging the charges against them on the grounds the government has no jurisdiction over the land. The American Indians say they never ceded the site of the first Thanksgiving to the Pilgrims.
In Plymouth Massachusetts, the seaside town where the Pilgrims settled, the United American Indians of New England will convene their 50th annual National Day of Mourning which has been held every Thanksgiving Day since 1970. The focus of the event is to recall what organizers describe as "the genocide of millions of native people, the theft of native lands and the relentless assault on native culture."
But Thursday's gathering will have particular resonance and, indigenous people say, a fresh sense of urgency.
Plymouth is putting the final touches on next year’s 400th-anniversary commemorations of the Pilgrims' landing in 1620. And as the 2020 events approach, descendants of the Wampanoag tribe that helped the newcomers survive are determined to ensure the world doesn't forget the disease, racism, and oppression the European settlers brought.
"We talk about the history because we must," said Mahtowin Munro, a co-leader of the group.
"The focus is always on the Pilgrims. We’re just going to keep telling the truth," she said. "More and more nonnative people have been listening to us. They’re trying to adjust their prism."
As they have on every Thanksgiving for the past half-century, participants will assemble at noon on Cole's Hill, a windswept mound overlooking Plymouth Rock, a memorial to the colonists' arrival.