PLYMOUTH, Mass. - While many non-Native Americans sit down with their friends or families for a holiday meal tomorrow, some Indigenous communities in Massachusetts will gather in Plymouth - not for Thanksgiving, but for what they call the National Day of Mourning.

Since 1970, Indigenous residents have protested on this day, as a reminder of the genocide of millions of Native people, the theft of Native lands and erasure of Native cultures. Mahtowin Munro, a co-leader with United American Indians of New England, said it's a protest against racism and oppression that Indigenous people still face.

"In particular, on National Day of Mourning, through our work," she said, "we've been popping a hole in the bubble that is the national myth about the Pilgrims, the Thanksgiving myth."

In American school lessons, Munro said, Pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving meal are glorified. But she said this obscures the
truth of what happened - and that according to Native historians, the first proclaimed "day of thanksgiving" actually followed the massacre of up to 700 Pequot men, women and children in what is now Connecticut.

According to the most recent Census survey, more than 90,000 Native American and Alaskan Native people live in the Commonwealth. Munro added that even more Indigenous people from Mayan and Andean cultures often are categorized as Hispanic or Latino. She said there are many more Indigenous residents of Massachusetts than non-Natives realize, who have to combat persistent stereotypes and assumptions.

"As Indigenous people, we're taught to give thanks every day, and we do," she said. "But we're not going to give thanks for the invasion of Native homelands and the theft of our land, and the oppression of our people."

She said the General Assembly is considering five pieces of legislation that address Indigenous concerns. One bill would create and implement Native curricula in schools, since there currently is nothing about contemporary Indigenous cultures. Others would ban the use of Native mascots in schools, create Indigenous People's Day statewide, protect sacred Native American heritage items and improve educational outcomes for Native students.

Indigenous leaders are traveling through the Northwest to highlight the plight of dwindling fish populations in the region.

The All Our Relations Journey is in Lewiston today and Saturday to call for the removal of four lower Snake River dams that are a barrier to salmon migration. Julian Matthews, a coordinator for Nimiipuu Protecting the Environment, will speak at the event and said saving the endangered salmon in Idaho waters is crucial for tribes.

"We don't want to go out and catch a couple of fish, man," he said. "This is a treaty right as per our agreement, and we want the U.S. government to hold up their end of it. And if the salmon go extinct, then they're not."

The journey started in Olympia earlier this week and is at Hells Gate State Park in Lewiston today and Saturday. It will be in Seattle on Sunday.

Matthews said abundant salmon populations also ensure orcas on the West Coast are fed. He explained that the term "journey" refers to humans' shared connection with the environment.

"We're looking at all our relations as the orcas, salmon, people, forests and living things being connected," he said. "So we're all related."

The campaign is traveling with an eight-foot steel sculpture created by the Lummi Nation in Northwest Washington. It's urging the Biden administration and Congress to protect and restore the region's endangered fish populations.


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Little Priest Tribal College in Winnebago says its student body and campus are growing - and so are its options for people to study in STEM fields.

Little Priest has always offered some health and science courses, but college Vice President of Finance and Operations Mark Vasina said the two-year school is also creating pathways to higher education for its graduates.

It has transfer agreements with several area colleges - in many cases, with free tuition for getting a bachelor's degree - including Wayne State in Wayne, Nebraska, and Briarcliff University in Sioux City, Iowa.

Vasina said one Briarcliff agreement allows Little Priest health-science grads to earn a nursing degree in two years, tuition free.

"Here on the reservation, we have the Twelve Clans Hospital, and they have a constant need - as all over the country - for nurses," said Vasina. "But they also need other lab technicians, and people who are trained in science and technology applications."

This month, Little Priest broke ground on a 12,000 square foot science building. In addition to government agencies, the reservation is home to Ho-Chunk Farms, which employs some of the school's diversified ag students.

Vasina says Little Priest is helping to build a skilled workforce in an area where employers sometimes struggle to fill positions because of the town's small size and distance from metropolitan areas.

An ongoing issue on the Winnebago reservation is water quality, because of excessive mineral content and other contaminants. Vasina pointed to water monitoring as another local need for STEM-trained individuals.

"We also have our EPA," said Vasina. "We have water testing, we have our Department of Natural Resources - all of these programs are starving for qualified individuals who are trained in modern lab techniques."

And Little Priest offers dual-enrollment courses at three area high schools, which Vasina said is one way they generate interest and promote readiness in potential future students.

"We're reaching backwards into the high school and middle school," said Vasina, "as well as forward to the four-year schools, so that students can recognize that coming here leads them into something even greater and better beyond."

The college celebrated its 25th anniversary this month and is seeing record enrollment. Since summer 2020, tuition has been free for all students.

Today is National Voter Registration Day, and in Montana, Indigenous advocates are working to register people and get out the vote.

As part of its civic engagement initiative, Western Native Voice is encouraging Indigenous Americans to register to vote and cast a ballot in the next election ... and they are doing it via a drive-through voter registration effort in Billings.

Adam Beaves-Fisher, deputy director of government and political relations for Western Native Voice, is strongly encouraging Indigenous people to register, get involved in the democratic process and continue to be engaged, contrary to what has happened in the past.

"Native Americans have been disenfranchised from the process historically, as well as voting in lower rates," Beaves-Fisher explained. "We're really making sure that we're creating that tradition across our communities: not only voting, but being engaged in the civic process."

The event takes place in the Western Native Voice office parking lots on 25th Street West in Billings. It starts at 11 a.m. and runs until 7 p.m.

Beaves-Fisher pointed out staying involved in the process is important for every American voter, but especially so for Indigenous people who face unique barriers when it comes to casting a ballot. He added it has become increasingly important for Native Americans to have a louder voice in the democratic process because of the barriers they have faced in the past.

"Some of the real barriers are just life in rural Montana," Beaves-Fisher observed. "When you have consolidated polling locations, uneven registration hours or voting hours, changing laws about the process creates a lot of confusion for every voter."

Today's drive-through event will feature a variety of voter-related activities, including updating voter registration information, signing up for mail-in voting and first-time voter registration.