Americans celebrate a holiday they call Thanksgiving. It is a time where they share food and time with families, watch commercialized parades on TV, and then (some) finish their day by watching a professional football game.

For indigenous people whose traditional territories are encroached upon each and every day, "Thanksgiving" is actually a day of Mourning. In this episode of Native Opinion, we take our listeners to the National Day of Mourning event hosted by the United American Indians Of New England. Listeners will hear indigenous perspectives on a wide variety of subjects at this event during the American lie of a holiday called "Thanksgiving."

For myself, I do spend time with my family, and share a nice meal. However, I am NOT celebrating this day as a holiday. Instead, today is one of my national days of mourning. I am thinking about my Pequot ancestors who unwillingly gave their lives for this country. Not through a military war, but instead, they had their lives destroyed by this country through acts of genocide. Their deaths were literally celebrated by the first colonial settlers under the first established American colony in Massachusetts. That celebration in 1637 marked the first American thanksgiving.