English · Lycée général (C1 to C2), Bac pro (B1 to B2)

Session 6: Other voices: a National Day of Mourning

Read one step, do it, then move on.
Step 1

Recap check

Recap check
  1. What is the only eyewitness account of 1621?
  2. Who proclaimed a national day of Thanksgiving in 1863?
  3. Use is said to have in a sentence about 1621.
Answer key
  1. Edward Winslow's letter of December 1621.
  2. Abraham Lincoln.
  3. For example: The Pilgrims are said to have eaten turkey.
Step 2

Objectives

Step 3

Documents

Key document

In 1970, for the 350th anniversary of the Pilgrims' landing, Wamsutta Frank James, an Aquinnah Wampanoag man, was invited to speak. When the organisers read his speech in advance, he was not allowed to deliver it as written. He spoke instead on Cole's Hill in Plymouth on Thanksgiving Day, and the first National Day of Mourning was held. It has taken place every year since.

Read the source: Pilgrim Hall Museum, National Day of Mourning · United American Indians of New England, the speech

"I speak to you as a man, a Wampanoag Man."
Wamsutta Frank James, 1970
"Although time has drained our culture, and our language is almost extinct, we the Wampanoags still walk the lands of Massachusetts."
Wamsutta Frank James, 1970
Another viewpoint

Today the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe and the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) are federally recognised nations. The National Museum of the American Indian offers teachers resources that include Wampanoag perspectives on the story.

Step 4

Task 1

Read the extracts: who is speaking, to whom, and why?
Step 5

Task 2

List the arguments to keep celebrating and the arguments to rethink the holiday.
Step 6

Task 3

Compare with France: are there commemorations that are contested?
Step 7

Gap-fill worksheet

Word bank: mourning 1970 Wampanoag contested Cole's Hill
  1. The National Day of is held on Thanksgiving Day.
  2. It began in .
  3. Wamsutta Frank James was .
  4. He spoke on in Plymouth.
  5. A memory that some people question is a memory.
Answer key
  1. mourning
  2. 1970
  3. Wampanoag
  4. Cole's Hill
  5. contested
Step 8

Homework

Write a 120-word paragraph: “Thanksgiving means different things to different Americans.” Use admittedly, however and on balance.
Answer keyModel answer: Admittedly, for many families Thanksgiving is a day of gratitude and sharing. However, for some Native Americans it recalls the loss of land and lives, which is why a National Day of Mourning has been held in Plymouth since 1970. On balance, the holiday can be celebrated while its history is told more fully.