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Every fourth Thursday of November, tens of millions of Americans celebrate Thanksgiving<\/a>, chiefly by devouring a huge meal of turkey<\/a>, potatoes, squash, corn and pumpkin pie, and watching parades or American Football<\/a>. The national holiday marks the harvest feast going back to the so-called \u2018First Thanksgiving\u2019 in 1621, when the Pilgrims \u2013 the colonists who came over on the Mayflower<\/a> <\/em>\u2013 shared a meal with the Wampanoag people.<\/p>\n Without the help of the Native Americans living in the region, the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony would not have likely survived their first years in the New World. For many Americans, therefore, Thanksgiving symbolises a bond and peace between the two peoples as they sat together at the same table, and perhaps hope of a lasting reconciliation after centuries of division.<\/p>\n For many other Americans, however, this is not a cause for celebration. It is a reminder of the brutal acts perpetrated on the Native Americans by European settlers and then the US government: massacres, land stealing and relentless attacks on their cultures and livelihoods. Since 1970, the fourth Thursday of November has also been known as the National Day of Mourning.<\/p>\n In that year, Wamsutta, an elder of the Aquinnah Wampanoag, was invited to a Thanksgiving state dinner in Plymouth, Massachusetts \u2013 the site of the Pilgrims\u2019 colony \u2013 and asked to give a speech to mark the 350th anniversary of the Mayflower<\/em>\u2019s arrival. He was politely requested to show a copy of what he intended to say first, though. Wamsutta, also known as Frank James, had written an impassioned and forceful indictment of the white conquest of native lands, starting immediately with the Pilgrims.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a time of celebration for you \u2013 celebrating an anniversary of a beginning for the white man in America. A time for looking back, of reflection. It is with a heavy heart that I look back upon what happened to my people,\u201d he said early in his 1,400-word speech. \u201cWe, the Wampanoag, welcomed you, the white man, with open arms, little knowing that it was the beginning of the end; that before 50 years were to pass, the Wampanoag would no longer be a free people.\u201d<\/p>\n Listen: Claudio Saunt tells the story of the forced expulsion of tens of thousands of Native Americans from their lands by the US government in the mid-19th century, on this episode of the HistoryExtra<\/em> podcast:<\/strong><\/p>\n