Freedom for Leonard Peltier and Palestine: National Day of Mourning at Plymouth Rock

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News

Freedom and liberation for Leonard Peltier and Palestine echoed across Plymouth Rock on the National Day of Mourning, as Indigenous Peoples exposed the myth of the pilgrims' thanksgiving and the facts of the United States, a government that is founded on genocide, massacres and slavery.

"Though they have entombed me in concrete and steel, I am a free man," Peltier said in a statement to the 55th gathering of the National Day of Mourning on Plymouth Rock, gathered in the pouring rain, and hosted by the United American Indians of New England on Thursday.

Peltier said, "They rounded up our people, and put us in concentration camps they call reservations. We remain a free people. The true shackles are those caging the souls of those who oppress us."

Kisha James, Wampanoag of Aquinnah, began with the words of her grandfather Wamsutta, words that the exploiters tried to silence. James exposed the myth of the turkey-laden celebration of genocide.

"The first Thanksgiving was declared in 1637 by Governor Winthrop of the Massachusetts Bay Colony to celebrate the massacre of over 700 Pequot men, women, and children on the the banks of the Mystic River in Connecticut," James said.

"Let us not forget that this country was founded on the ideology of white supremacy, the widespread practice of African slavery, and a policy of genocide and land theft. Let us not forget that under the pipelines, skyscrapers, mines and the oil rigs lie the interred bones, sacred objects and villages of our Native ancestors."

"Let us not forget that this is a country that continues to glorify murderers such as Christopher Columbus, that worship slave owning presidents such as Washington and Jefferson and even carves their faces into the sacred Black Hills of the Lakota."

The Day of Mourning at Plymouth Rock resounded the treachery of the settlers who arrived here and sounded out solidarity with the resistance in Palestine, exposing the genocide of stolen and murdered children now deep within the DNA.

"When I grieve the tens of thousands of children in Gaza who are orphans, I mourn the generations of Native children who have been stolen from their homes," Lea Kayali, with the Palestinian Youth Movement, told the gathering.

Kayali said this genocide in Palestine is more than the heart-wrenching stories that you've heard.

"Genocide is the theft of all that is familiar."

"It is the grotesque and unnatural contortion of what we once called life -- twenty kilograms of human remains in a plastic shopping bag; hamstrings of prisoners meant to stand naked for days on end without food; an ambulance shredded and left in the street like a meatball of entrails mechanical; the low hum of drones swarming like autonomous hornets in your ear drums."

"Genocide is manufactured."

"It is the Machinery of Colonialism that makes a mockery of natural life," Kayali said.

With the sounds of "Freedom for Leonard Peltier," the National Day of Mourning urged President Biden to free Peltier.

"Peltier is a political prisoner in a country that denies it has political prisoners," Chali'Naru Dones, Massachusetts representative for the United Confederation of Taino People, told the gathering.

"Leonard Peltier is now 80 years old. For nearly five decades Indigenous activists organizers and allies have rallied behind the fight to free Leonard Peltier."

"Numerous constitutional violations took place throughout Leonard Peltier's trial, during which he experienced obvious racism. He has had ongoing health concerns and his status as an elder is fragile. He should have been released years ago."

"It's hard to fathom and grasp how we're all once again in Plymouth for another year advocating for his release, at another National Day of Mourning."

"A member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe, Peltier is a political prisoner in a country that denies it has political prisoners. He has been incarcerated since his arrest in 1976," Dones said.

The grandson of Dr. Herbert Waters, Jr., continued the tradition of his grandfather and read the statement of imprisoned Leonard Peltier to the gathering.

Peltier, who has spent five decades incarcerated, placed in solitary confinement many times, and recently was in the hospital with worsening health problems, did not back down.

"I've been warning for five decades now of the threat we face from the oppressors. Fascism is spread through those who have taken power and is staining the Earth blood red," Peltier said.

"What I stated in 1982 stands true, the forces of Liberation must and shall come together to fight as a united front in unity of the four colors."

"Do not let them take our children. They started with boarding schools. Now it is the insanity, insanity they call government. They want to govern us out of existence."

"We will endure, they cannot take the sacred fire we carry."

Read the statements at Censored News:

Leonard Peltier's Statement to the National Day of Mourning
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/12/leonard-peltiers-words-for-national-day.html

Freedom for Leonard Peltier urged at National Day of Mourning
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/12/freedom-for-leonard-peltier-urged-at.html

In the Legacy of Her Grandfather, Tisha James Destroys the Myth of the Pilgrims Thanksgiving
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/11/in-her-grandfathers-legacy-kisha-james.html

Palestinians and Native People: Unity and Revolution at Plymouth Rock
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/11/palestinians-and-native-people-unity.html