The popular mythology of Thanksgiving, which the United States celebrates tomorrow (November 22), Whitewashes the Wampanoag people’s bravery and ignores their descendants’ ongoing fight against cultural genocide. Many Indigenous people opt out of this historical erasure by traveling to Alcatraz Island for the Indigenous People’s Sunrise Ceremony on Thanksgiving.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the event, known to some as “Unthanksgiving Day,” commemorates a pivotal event in 20th century Indigenous activism: the occupation of the former penal island by Richard Oakes and a coalition of Indigenous activists from November 1969 to June 1971. The action, whose participants operated under the banner Indians of All Tribes, took place at a time of heightened Native American activism via the American Indian Movement, whose leaders Dennis Banks and Russell Means also participated in the occupation. Dr. Dean Chavers wrote for Indian Country Today that this takeover led to major policy wins for Native Americans.
Source: Unthanksgiving: Indigenous People’s Sunrise Ceremony Honors Resistance Over Revisionism
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