PRINTER'S NO. 2459
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA
HOUSE RESOLUTION
No.
159
Session of
2021
INTRODUCED BY RABB, HILL-EVANS AND BURGOS, DECEMBER 1, 2021
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON STATE GOVERNMENT, DECEMBER 1, 2021
A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Recognizing November 25, 2021, as the "National Day of Mourning"
in Pennsylvania.
WHEREAS, The "National Day of Mourning" has been celebrated
on the United States' Thanksgiving holiday since 1970 by
Indigenous people and their allies to honor Indigenous ancestors
and Native resilience; and
WHEREAS, This Commonwealth is home to the land and the rich
cultural history of many Indigenous peoples, including the Erie,
Iroquois, Lenape, Munsee, Nanticoke, Shawnee and Susquehannock,
with more than 12,000 Native peoples living in Pennsylvania
today; and
WHEREAS, The Thanksgiving holiday, since its inception, has
been a celebration of Pilgrims and other European settlers
taking possession of Indigenous lands in North America; and
WHEREAS, The actions of European settlers stemmed from an
idea of cultural superiority which, for centuries, served as the
rationale for murdering, displacing and dehumanizing Indigenous
peoples in the United States, where the right to personal
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liberty is supposed to be guaranteed; and
WHEREAS, The notion of cultural superiority so deeply
infiltrated this Commonwealth that a group of White men from
what is now the greater Harrisburg area viciously murdered many
peaceful Conestoga men, women and children in December 1763,
justifying their crimes on unbased claims that the Conestoga had
provided aid and intelligence to other hostile groups; and
WHEREAS, In 1782, a group of White militiamen from
Pennsylvania slaughtered approximately 90 unarmed Christian
Native people in the mission settlement of Gnadenhutten, Ohio,
after making false claims about the victims' role in raids on
frontier settlements, fueled by the racist and unjust ideologies
that were all too pervasive among Pennsylvanians and other
American colonists at the time; and
WHEREAS, This Commonwealth witnessed the shameful treatment
of Native peoples throughout its history, especially at the
Carlisle Indian Industrial School, the first boarding school for
Native children run by the Federal Government, in an attempt to
exterminate Native culture; and
WHEREAS, The Carlisle Indian Industrial School was the model
by which hundreds of other Native boarding schools were created
in order to force Whiteness and Americanization on Indigenous
children from across the nation; and
WHEREAS, Through all 39 years of the Carlisle Indian
Industrial School's operation, until its closing in 1918, this
Commonwealth was complacent in the acts of cultural erasure,
religious indoctrination and physical and emotional abuse that
occurred within its walls; and
WHEREAS, Of the thousands of Native children sent to these
federally run schools, many never returned to their families,
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including the 186 who lie in graves at the Carlisle Indian
Industrial School after dying of disease, neglect or abuse; and
WHEREAS, The residents of this Commonwealth have the
responsibility to confront the history of oppression toward
Indigenous peoples and proactively recognize that the
Thanksgiving holiday, for many, is a reminder of the
introduction of colonization in North America and of the ensuing
genocide of millions of Native peoples, the theft of Native
lands and the condemnation of Native cultures; and
WHEREAS, In 1970, at a Thanksgiving celebration in Plymouth,
Massachusetts, an Aquinnah Wampanoag tribal leader who was
scheduled to speak was asked to censor his remarks after
compiling a speech that recognized the theft of Indigenous land,
graves and belongings committed by the Pilgrims after their
arrival in North America; and
WHEREAS, This Aquinnah Wampanoag tribal leader, Wamsutta
Frank James, withdrew as a speaker at the Thanksgiving event,
refusing to be silenced; and
WHEREAS, From this act of protest came a counter-
commemoration, now known as the "National Day of Mourning,"
which is recognized by both Native and nonnative people to
consider Thanksgiving from the perspective of Indigenous peoples
and draw attention to the genocide of Native people, theft of
their lands and assault on their culture; and
WHEREAS, Today, hundreds of years after the cross-cultural
feast many refer to as the "first Thanksgiving," Indigenous
peoples across the nation continue to fight for their rights and
spend the Thanksgiving holiday in mourning for the loss of
Indigenous life and culture, in protest against the racism and
oppression experienced by Indigenous peoples across the globe
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and in celebration of the culture and resiliency of Native
people; therefore be it
RESOLVED (the Senate concurring), That the General Assembly
recognize November 25, 2021, as the "National Day of Mourning"
in Pennsylvania; and be it further
RESOLVED, That the General Assembly recognize that racist
policies and attitudes toward Indigenous peoples exhibited
within this Commonwealth and beyond are a result of the
misguided and reprehensible ways that the colonization,
otherization and exploitation of people of color across the
globe have taken place under the justification of White European
cultural superiority; and be it further
RESOLVED, That the General Assembly call on all
Pennsylvanians to spend this Thanksgiving holiday in recognition
of the European colonists' brutal mistreatment of Native people
from the moment they arrived in North America; and be it further
RESOLVED, That the General Assembly recognize the resiliency
of Native peoples in the face of severe oppression at the hand
of White colonizers in this Commonwealth and across the nation,
and that the Thanksgiving holiday must be a reminder of the full
history of our nation; a history that includes tragedy,
inequality and injustice, and that the holiday should provide an
opportunity for all Pennsylvanians to join in our continued
fight toward justice and harmony today.
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