National Day of Mourning

On Thanksgiving Day, 1970, Wampanoag leader Wamsutta Frank James was invited to speak at the Massachusetts commemoration of the 350th anniversary of the Mayflower landing at Plymouth. However, after reviewing his speech, organizers of the event told Wamsutta that he could not present what he wrote—he would have to read a speech written by a PR team. Wamsutta refused.

Instead, Wamsutta Frank James, alongside other native leaders, held their own ceremony on Cole’s Hill in Plymouth, Massachusetts. During this gathering, indigenous people dispelled the mythology around “The First Thanksgiving” and highlighted the historic and continued injustices indigenous people in America face. Since then, every fourth Thursday of November, indigenous people from across the US gather at the same place to mourn the loss of indigenous autonomy and share their side of the story.

Below is the text from Wamsutta Frank James’s original suppressed speech, 1970:

I speak to you as a man— a Wampanoag Man. I am a proud man, proud of my ancestry, my accomplishments won by a strict parental direction ("You must succeed - your face is a different color in this small Cape Cod community!"). I am a product of poverty and discrimination from these two social and economic diseases.

I, and my brothers and sisters, have painfully overcome, and to some extent we have earned the respect of our community. We are Indians first - but we are termed "good citizens." Sometimes we are arrogant but only because society has pressured us to be so.

It is with mixed emotion that I stand here to share my thoughts. This is a time of celebration for you - celebrating an anniversary of a beginning for the white man in America. A time of looking back, of reflection.

It is with a heavy heart that I look back upon what happened to my People. Even before the Pilgrims landed it was common practice for explorers to capture Indians, take them to Europe and sell them as slaves for 220 shillings apiece. The Pilgrims had hardly explored the shores of Cape Cod for four days before they had robbed the graves of my ancestors and stolen their corn and beans.

Mourt's Relation describes a searching party of sixteen men. Mourt goes on to say that this party took as much of the Indians' winter provisions as they were able to carry. Massasoit, the great Sachem of the Wampanoag, knew these facts, yet he and his People welcomed and befriended the settlers of the Plymouth Plantation. Perhaps he did this because his Tribe had been depleted by an epidemic. Or his knowledge of the harsh oncoming winter was the reason for his peaceful acceptance of these acts. This action by Massasoit was perhaps our biggest mistake. We, the Wampanoag, welcomed you, the white man, with open arms, little knowing that it was the beginning of the end; that before 50 years were to pass, the Wampanoag would no longer be a free people.

What happened in those short 50 years? What has happened in the last 300 years?