Tribes to mourn on Thanksgiving: ‘No reason to celebrate’

By WILLIAM J. KOLE
Associated Press

Members of Native American tribes from around New England are gathering in the seaside town where the Pilgrims settled — not to give thanks but to mourn. Thursday’s solemn National Day of Mourning observance in downtown Plymouth, Massachusetts, will recall the disease and oppression that European settlers brought to North America. It’s the 52nd year that the United American Indians of New England have organized the event on Thanksgiving Day. The tradition began in 1970. Organizers say that for many Indigenous people, Thanksgiving “is a reminder of the genocide of millions of Native people, the theft of Native lands and the erasure of Native cultures.”