Native-Americans Protest at Plymouth Rock
A group of about 200 Native-Americans protested Thanksgiving on this day with a demonstration at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts.
Representatives from 25 tribes from around the country declared it a “national day of mourning.” One leader stated that the landing of the Pilgrims from England in 1620 “was the start of everything bad that has happened to the American Indian.” Several members of the group attempted to “bury” the original Plymouth Rock by pouring sand over it. Another 25 boarded the replica of the Mayflower, the ship that brought the Pilgrims to America.
The rise of the Native-American civil rights movement included protests at other symbolic locations, including Alcatraz Island, the site of a former U.S penitentiary (November 20, 1969). See also the Christmastime “No Salmon, No Santa” protest regarding fishing rights on December 23, 1963.
Watch the anniversary of the protest in 2012: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTXPiRQWJo8
Learn more: Paul Smith and Robert Allen Warrior, Like a Hurricane: The Indian Movement from Alcatraz to Wounded Knee (1996)
Read about the Alcatraz occupation: Kent Blansett, A Journey to Freedom, Richard Oakes and the Red Power Movement (2018)
Learn more at the Native American Rights Fund: http://www.narf.org/