For some Native peoples, today is a Day of Mourning.

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Published on Thursday, 26 November 2020 09:02
Written by editor

MayflowersKill brings you Indigenous perspectives on why for many Native peoples it's a National Day of Mourning.
#MayflowersKill

Dear friend,

“Many Native Americans do not celebrate the arrival of the Pilgrims and other European settlers. To them Thanksgiving Day is a reminder of the genocide of millions of their people, the theft of their lands, and the relentless assault on their culture. Participants in the National Day of Mourning honor Native ancestors and the struggles of Native peoples to survive today.”
• National Day of Mourning Rock (Plymouth, MA)

Despite the genocide, land theft and violence that still ripple throughout the continent, Native peoples continue to resist and defend their land and identities.

“It’s virtually a miracle we are still here. We are the descendants of a People who survived attempted genocide- the loss of our Ancestors’ lives, the erasure of our spirituality, culture, lands, and natural resources... We are painfully aware that history cannot be allowed to repeat itself.”
• Chairwoman Cheryl Andrews-Maltais, Aquinnah Wampanoag

Yet this history is being repeated in other parts of the world, including RIGHT NOW in the Amazon, where uncontacted tribes are threatened by forced deadly contacts with outsiders who bring land theft, violence, COVID 19 and other foreign pathogens. Moreover, recent fires set within uncontacted tribes’ territories to clear the rainforest for logging and ranching threaten their lands and their future.

“Land grabbing, deforestation and arson directly threaten the lives of our uncontacted relatives. The destruction of the territories that are their only sources of life, from where they obtain their food, could end in their extermination.”
• Ângela Kaxuyana (Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon)

But it’s not too late. Where uncontacted tribes’ lands are protected from outsiders, they survive and thrive. Join indigenous peoples in the fight to #StopBrazilsGenocide: Send an email to Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and his ministers saying that the fires MUST be stopped and indigenous territories protected. Send an email Follow #MayflowersKill to hear and share more Indigenous perspectives. FacebookFacebook TwitterTwitter InstagramInstagram P.S. Unlike many NGOs, we reject government funding so our integrity is never compromised. We rely entirely on your donations to keep fighting for tribal peoples worldwide. Please donate today. Without you, there can be no Survival.
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