THANKSGIVING
DAY NEWSLETTER #9, NOVEMBER 25, 2021, NATIONAL DAY OF GRATITUDE, MOURNING, AND
ATONEMENT. And BLACK FRIDAY/BUY NOTHING DAY NOV. 26.
Compiled
by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and Ecology
http://omnicenter.org/donate/
CONTENTS NATIONAL DAY OF MOURNING #9, 2021
James W. Loewen, Truth
about First Thanksgiving
Cole’s Hill, Frank James,
Massasoit
Matt Taibbi, the Pilgrims and the
Taliban
4 essays from Popular
Resistance.org
UAINE, Kisha James, 52nd Day of Mourning in Plymouth
Thanksgiving March to Free Indigenous Kids
Racism and Human Rights
Protest of Arresting Journalists of Wet’suwet’en
Day of Mourning #8, 2020 and
others
Buy Nothing Day: OMNI’s 3
Newsletters
TEXTS
ITEMS ARRIVING AFTER
NEWSL 8 Published
The
Truth About the First Thanksgiving
James W. Loewen
Origin myths do not come cheaply. To glorify the Pilgrims is
dangerous. The genial omissions and false details our texts use to retail the
Pilgrim legend promote Anglocentrism, which only handicaps us when dealing with
all those whose culture is not Anglo.
https://mronline.org/2021/08/26/the-truth-about-the-first-thanksgiving/
Cole’s Hill and
the Story Behind This Week’s Indigenous “National Day of Mourning” By
Joseph Nevins, co-author of A People’s
Guide to Greater Boston Most people in the United States will celebrate
Thanksgiving this week. Meanwhile, many Native Americans and their supporters.
Cole’s Hill
and the Story Behind This Week’s Indigenous “National Day of Mourning.” By Joseph Nevins,
co-author of A People’s Guide to Greater Boston. (I read this 11-29-20. --D)
Most
people in the United States will celebrate Thanksgiving this week. Meanwhile,
many Native Americans and their supporters will observe a “Day of Mourning.”
These conflicting holidays are at the center of the ongoing struggle over
the country we call the United States – how it came to be, and what it will
become.
Like Thanksgiving, the Day of Mourning has its origins in Plymouth,
Massachusetts, or “America’s Hometown” as the heavily-touristed town calls
itself. In the entry below from A People’s Guide the Greater Boston, my
co-authors, Suren Moodliar and Eleni Macrakis, and I tell a story of Cole’s Hill in Plymouth, where the first
Day of Mourning took place and where indigenous activists and allies
continue to gather each year on the fourth Thursday of November. Cole’s Hill is
one of many sites that make up the book’s “Native Greater Boston tour.” The
tour extends from the cities of Haverhill and Lowell, north of Boston, to sites
in Boston proper and on the South Shore of Massachusetts, where Plymouth is
located.
The
following passage is an excerpt from The People’s Guide to Greater
Boston
Cole’s Hill
In
1970, for the 350th anniversary of the 1620 arrival of English settlers in
Plymouth, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts invited Frank
James, a leader of the Aquinnah Wampanoag nation, to address that
year’s Thanksgiving celebration. Also known as Wamsutta, James prepared a
speech and submitted it to the feast’s organizers. On reading the text, the
organizers presented James with an ultimatum: Read a radically revised speech
written by the organizers or the invitation would be retracted. James chose his
own words.
“We forfeited our country. Our lands have fallen into the hands
of the aggressor. We have allowed the white man to keep us on our knees. What
has happened cannot be changed, but today we must work towards a more humane
America, a more Indian America, where men and nature once again are important;
where the Indian values of honor, truth, and brotherhood prevail.”
—Frank James, 1970
On the
appointed day, James delivered his original speech before a gathering of
hundreds of indigenous people on Cole’s Hill, inaugurating the first annual Day
of Mourning. He did so in the shadow of a statue depicting the 1600s Wampanoag sachem Massasoit and
directly across from the fabled Plymouth Rock. In his speech, reflecting the
period’s national reawakening of Indian pride and militancy, James reviewed the
history of indigenous-settler relations. Noting that the hospitality
exemplified by the first “thanksgiving” dinner of 1621 was to be “the beginning
of the end,” he observed that “before 50 years were to pass, the Wampanoag
would no longer be a free people.” In an aligned set of actions earlier that
day, Russell Means and Dennis Banks,
prominent national leaders of the American
Indian Movement, led protestors to briefly take over the Mayflower
II site, cover Plymouth Rock with sand, and disrupt the town-sponsored
Thanksgiving parade.
Statue
of Massasoit, overlooking Cole’s Hill at dawn, 2010. Credit: Andrew Todd
Phillips
Every year since, the United American Indians of New England have rallied at
noon on the third Thursday of November on Cole’s Hill before marching through
Plymouth Village Historical District and hosting a potluck lunch at the nearby
First Parish Plymouth Church. Adding historical import to the meal is the fact
that the church is built on the site of the original Plymouth Plantation and
fort (built in 1621). Today the rally draws indigenous activists and allies
from all over the Americas.
Day of Mourning, Cole’s Hill,
2018. Credit: Brynne Quinlan
Cole’s
Hill overlooks Plymouth Harbor, home to the Mayflower II, a
replica of the original Pilgrim vessel. It also features a town-sponsored
plaque with a tersely worded statement explaining the significance of the
National Day of Mourning as a “protest of the racism and oppression which
Native Americans continue to experience.”
“What is this you call property? It cannot be the Earth for the land is our
Mother nourishing all her children, beasts, birds, fish, and all men. The
woods, the streams, everything on it belong to everybody and is for the use of
all. How can one man say it belongs to him?”
—Massasoit, circa 1630s
. . . .Every
November, modern Americans wear Pilgrim hats for fun. The Pilgrims crossed the
Atlantic to escape fun. They were horrible people. A settler
named Thomas Morton had the audacity to erect a Maypole and the Pilgrims burned
his house down and had him “fett into the bilbowes,”
i.e. put in leg irons. The ideal Plymouth male hated women but was aroused by
pennies. He employed punishments like whipping, the “ducking stool,” and the
cleft stick, which was a split piece of wood he’d cram on your tongue for
lying, whispering in church, or other speech offenses.
The Pilgrim was the Anglo-Saxon version of the Taliban and his spirit —
in the form of the censorious Yankee cheapskate who drove his sex impulse ten
miles underground, in secret coprophilia sessions with paid ladies and
gentlemen — lived on in America for centuries. This was before we even get to
how he actually treated the indigenous population.
The catch was that the
Pilgrims were escaping an even worse group of people, the English aristocrats
of the sixteenth century. These were dandies in codpieces who wore the whitest
possible face-powder, so no one would mistake them for someone who had to work
outside. They’d made it the law of the land that everyone had to worship a
faith created to legalize the urges of an obese hypersexualized serial killer of
a king, who saw plots everywhere and beheaded a string of courtiers and brides.
As Eddie Izzard would say, Thank you for flying Church of England,
Anne Boelyn!. . . .
|
The following 4 items are from Popular Resistance.org (11-25-21). Be the people's resistance media!
Forward
this email to a friend and share the articles on social
media.
52nd
National Day Of Mourning To Be Observed In Plymouth
 By UAINE,
Popular Resistance. According to
UAINE youth coordinator Kisha James, who is Aquinnah Wampanoag and Oglala
Lakota and the granddaughter of Wamsutta
Frank James, the founder of National Day of Mourning, “We Native
people have no reason to celebrate the arrival of the Pilgrims. We want
to educate people so that they understand the stories we all learned in
school about the first Thanksgiving are nothing but lies. Wampanoag and
other Indigenous people have certainly not lived happily ever after since
the arrival of the Pilgrims. To us, Thanksgiving is a Day of Mourning,
because we remember... -more-
Thanksgiving
March To Free Indigenous Kids From Immigration Cages
 By Last Real
Indians. An informal
group of Northwest Indigenous warriors, headed by veteran Native rights
protector Sid Mills, announced last week they plan to join a march in
Southern California to demand the release of Indigenous children from
immigration detention facilities. The four-day event, called The March
for Freedom, will begin in Los Angeles on the National Day of Mourning,
known to non-Native people as Thanksgiving, and will end on Sunday,
November 28, at the Otay Mesa Detention Facility in San Diego. “Thousands
of children are separated from their families at the border every year
and held in detention camps... -more-
Race As A
Factor In Human Rights Abuses
By Camille Landry, Alliance For Global Justice. This section of our Human Rights in the U.S. 2021 Report
will examine key areas of inequality and the ongoing human rights
violations that characterize Black life in the U.S. that constitute
violations of basic human rights. Because we are
addressing human rights and not merely civil rights
violations, this oppression is not an internal matter to be addressed
only by the governments, processes or people of the United States, but
rather a crime against humanity that is properly addressed and
adjudicated upon a world stage. -more-
Violence
And Intimidation Leave Bloody Imprint On Honduran Elections
 By Zoe
Alexandra, Peoples Dispatch. On Sunday,
November 28, 5.5 million Hondurans will participate in the general
elections to elect the president, 128 deputies to the National Congress,
298 mayors, and 20 deputies to the Central American Parliament. The
electoral process has been strongly criticized by members of the
opposition and human rights organizations inside and outside Honduras due
to the serious violation of the basic rights of the political opposition
and the right of the people to a peaceful and legal electoral
process. For Olivia Zúniga Cáceres, congresswoman of the Party for
Liberation and Refoundation from the... -more-
Tudor's
Biscuit World Workers Seek A Rare Fast Food Union
 By Hamilton
Nolan, In These Times. Despite the
political successes of the “Fight For $15” movement, actual
unionized fast food restaurants are rare. Burgerville workers
in Portland, Oregon recently reached an agreement on a union
contract after a years-long effort, and Starbucks workers
in Buffalo and elsewhere have scheduled union elections at a number
of stores. Now, 25 employees of a Tudor’s in tiny Elkview,
West Virginia are joining them in the vanguard of fast food organizing by
seeking to unionize with UFCW Local 400. Yesterday, they filed for
a union election with the NLRB. -more-
Let’s Find
Alternatives To Striking
 By Rasmus
Hästbacka, Organizing Work. While the LO,
TCO and Saco top officials suffer from consensus fundamentalism,
opposition among the grassroots often suffers from a fixation on strikes.
Among the grassroots labor movement in Sweden, a call for big strikes or
even a general strike is often heard. Strikes were called in response to
the current attack on the Swedish Employment Protection Act, low wages,
and attacks on the right to strike. In 2019, an attempt was made to stage
a symbolic strike to highlight the climate crisis. As far as we are
aware, no workplace was shut down. -more-
NAJA Calls
For Refocus Of News Coverage Of Wet’suwet’en And Arrests
 By NAJA News
Room. The Native
American Journalists Association condemns the Royal Canadian Mounted
Police for standing in the way of news gathering and storytelling by
arresting journalists on Wet’suwet’en Yintah. We are also deeply
concerned that the news attention on Indigenous people occupying and using
their traditional unceded territory only sees heightened media attention
when there are police raids and arrests. NAJA recognizes the right of
sovereign Indigenous nations to invite journalists to their unceded
territories and to embed for fair, accurate, truthful storytelling and
news gathering for public consumption. -more-
Two Most
Widely Used Pesticides Likely Harm Majority of Endangered Species
 By Nathan
Donley, Center for Biological Diversity. The Environmental Protection Agency has determined that
the endocrine-disrupting pesticide atrazine and cancer-linked
pesticide glyphosate are each likely to harm more than 1,000 of
the nation’s most endangered plants and animals. The finalized evaluations
found that use of the herbicide glyphosate is likely causing harm to
1,676 of the plants and animals protected under the Endangered Species
Act. Atrazine is likely harming 1,013 protected species. “It’s no
surprise that these chemical poisons are causing severe harm to imperiled
wildlife since U.S. use exceeds 70 million... -more-
As an independent media source free of
advertising, we rely on your support.
addressing human rights and not merely civil rights
violations, this oppression is not an internal matter to be addressed
only by the governments, processes or people of the United States, but
rather a crime against humanity that is properly addressed and
adjudicated upon a world stage. -more-
Violence
And Intimidation Leave Bloody Imprint On Honduran Elections
By Zoe
Alexandra, Peoples Dispatch. On Sunday,
November 28, 5.5 million Hondurans will participate in the general
elections to elect the president, 128 deputies to the National Congress,
298 mayors, and 20 deputies to the Central American Parliament. The
electoral process has been strongly criticized by members of the
opposition and human rights organizations inside and outside Honduras due
to the serious violation of the basic rights of the political opposition
and the right of the people to a peaceful and legal electoral
process. For Olivia Zúniga Cáceres, congresswoman of the Party for
Liberation and Refoundation from the... -more-
Tudor's
Biscuit World Workers Seek A Rare Fast Food Union
By Hamilton
Nolan, In These Times. Despite the
political successes of the “Fight For $15” movement, actual
unionized fast food restaurants are rare. Burgerville workers
in Portland, Oregon recently reached an agreement on a union
contract after a years-long effort, and Starbucks workers
in Buffalo and elsewhere have scheduled union elections at a number
of stores. Now, 25 employees of a Tudor’s in tiny Elkview,
West Virginia are joining them in the vanguard of fast food organizing by
seeking to unionize with UFCW Local 400. Yesterday, they filed for
a union election with the NLRB. -more-
Let’s Find
Alternatives To Striking
By Rasmus
Hästbacka, Organizing Work. While the LO,
TCO and Saco top officials suffer from consensus fundamentalism,
opposition among the grassroots often suffers from a fixation on strikes.
Among the grassroots labor movement in Sweden, a call for big strikes or
even a general strike is often heard. Strikes were called in response to
the current attack on the Swedish Employment Protection Act, low wages,
and attacks on the right to strike. In 2019, an attempt was made to stage
a symbolic strike to highlight the climate crisis. As far as we are
aware, no workplace was shut down. -more-
NAJA Calls
For Refocus Of News Coverage Of Wet’suwet’en And Arrests
By NAJA News
Room. The Native
American Journalists Association condemns the Royal Canadian Mounted
Police for standing in the way of news gathering and storytelling by
arresting journalists on Wet’suwet’en Yintah. We are also deeply
concerned that the news attention on Indigenous people occupying and
using their traditional unceded territory only sees heightened media
attention when there are police raids and arrests. NAJA recognizes the
right of sovereign Indigenous nations to invite journalists to their
unceded territories and to embed for fair, accurate, truthful
storytelling and news gathering for public consumption. -more-
Two Most
Widely Used Pesticides Likely Harm Majority of Endangered Species
By Nathan Donley, Center for Biological Diversity. The Environmental
NAJA Calls
For Refocus Of News Coverage Of Wet’suwet’en And Arrests
By
NAJA News Room.
The Native American Journalists Association condemns the Royal Canadian
Mounted Police for standing in the way of news gathering and storytelling
by arresting journalists on Wet’suwet’en Yintah. We are also deeply
concerned that the news attention on Indigenous people occupying and
using their traditional unceded territory only sees heightened media
attention when there are police raids and arrests. NAJA recognizes the
right of sovereign Indigenous nations to invite journalists to their
unceded territories and to embed for fair, accurate, truthful
storytelling and news gathering for public consumption. -more-
As an independent media source free of advertising, we rely on your
support.
|
|
|
|
Our mailing
address is:
Popular Resistance
402 East Lake Ave.
Baltimore, MD 21212
|
|
|
CONTENTS: OMNI THANKSGVING DAY
NEWSLETTER #8, 2020 (Not a day for giving
thanks by all US citizens not even to Europeans: Native Americans and educated,
thoughtful, ethical European Americans join the millions of people around the
world who, considering this a Day of Egregious Hypocrisy, Mourn.)
A Day of
Mourning 2020 https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2020/11/thanksgiving-day-newsletter-8-national.html
A Native American Point of View
About Face: Veterans Against the War
2019
400th Anniversary 2020
Another Native American POV
White Nationalism
Black
Friday Buy Nothing Day
Amazon Workers
War Resisters League
Rain Forest Actions Network
Making
Connections
Native Americans and Palestinians
Thanksgiving
Day 2019
https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2019/11/thanksgiving-day-day-of-mourning.html
BUY
NOTHING DAY 2021: REBUILD,
RECLAIM, RECYCLE, REDESIGN, REDUCE, REIMAGINE, REINTERPRET, REINVENT, REMAKE,
REMEMBER, REORGANIZE, REPAIR, REPLACE, REPRIORITIZE, RESPECT, RESTORE, RESTRUCTURE,
RETRENCH, RETURN, REUSE
OMNI BUY NOTHING DAY NEWSLETTERS 1-3
https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2021/11/omni-buy-nothing-newsletters-1-3-nov-24.html
BND is also another niche in resistance to the climate
catastrophe.
END DAY OF REMEMBERING AND MOURNING #9, NOVEMBER 25, 2021
No comments:
Post a Comment