Frank Wamsutta James’ keynote speech at the first annual National Day of Mourning in 1970 challenged the 350 years of false narratives centered around the first Thanksgiving and inspired the over 500 Native Americans in attendance to unite and push for greater equality, while mourning the mistreatment they have endured for centuries. By describing significant historical examples of the Wampanoags’ struggle to maintain their land and control, presenting contrasts of how Native Americans are perceived compared to how they actually are, and by implementing pathos to heighten the emotions and motivation of the crowd, James was able to deliver a successful speech to issue in the “beginning of a new determination” for the Native American, with progress continuing to be made over 50 years later.
In Section 1, James reflects upon the fact that the 350 years leading up to his speech has been distorted to lessen the suffering of the Wampanoag, making Thanksgiving a time to mourn rather than to celebrate. He uses contrast to highlight the divide between the honor he feels in being a Wampanoag and the sadness he feels in remembering the ways that his ancestors were mistreated. James begins the speech optimistically by saying “I am a proud man, proud of my ancestry”, but later adds “[i]t is with a heavy heart that I look back upon what happened to my People.” The purpose of this juxtaposition in the opening lines of the speech is to immediately draw in the audience to his conflict about being a proud Wampanoag in America. James also contrasts what he sees as the two distinct viewpoints on Thanksgiving between white Europeans and Natives. He says that for white Europeans: “This is a time of celebration for you – celebrating an anniversary of a beginning for the white man in America.” Conversely, as a Native American, it is a time for mourning the atrocities they have suffered. James uses description to review the historical circumstances surrounding the Europeans’ domination of the Wampanoags after landing at Plymouth in 1620. In particular, James recounts how the Wampanoag Sachem Massasoit entered into a peace treaty with the Pilgrims in 1621, creating an alliance with the Europeans that ultimately destroyed the Wampanoags. James states: “[Massasoit] and his People welcomed and befriended the settlers of the Plymouth Plantation...This action by Massasoit was perhaps our biggest mistake. We, the Wampanoag, welcomed you, the white man, with open arms, little knowing that it was the beginning of the end…” This description strategy is a way for James to make references in his speech to the specific facts that illustrate how Native Americans are misunderstood as the result of a false narrative created by white people. He discusses the real story of how the Wampanoags educated the Pilgrims about survival on the land, believing that land was a resource for all people, not to be owned by one group at the exclusion of another. James explains how the Wampanoags “understood that there were boundaries, but never before had we had to deal with fences and stone walls. But the white man had a need to prove his worth by the amount of land that he owned…” James continues to describe how the Pilgrims eventually stole the land and forced the Wampanoags to live on reservations, as second-class citizens in their own country. He says, “[t]he Indian, having been stripped of his power, could only stand by and watch while the white man took his land and used it for his personal gain.” In this way, James shows the audience that, after years of being suppressed, now is the time for Native people to take action.
In Section 2 of Frank Wamsutta James’s speech, he develops the claim that although Wampanoags have struggled to survive over the past 350 years, they continue to endure terrible adversity while attempting to regain more control over their lives and their self image. He achieves this by contrasting how Native Americans are viewed versus what their lives are actually like. James explains that “history wants us to believe that the Indian was a savage, illiterate, uncivilized animal,” however, in reality, the “Indian feels pain, gets hurt, and becomes defensive, has dreams, bears tragedy and failure…” James’ purpose in exposing the truth of how American Indians actually feel is to give them a sense of humanity and allow the Wampanoags to reclaim their identity as more than just the stereotypical savages that American history portrays them to be. James also emphasizes how the white European version of the first Thanksgiving assigns to Europeans the role of “organized and disciplined people” while the Native Americans are categorized as an “unorganized and undisciplined entity.” American settlers used this false narrative as justification for taking away land belonging to Natives, forcing them onto reservations, and requiring them to give up their cultural practices to join western civilization. James’ use of contrast continues as he describes the changes in the Wampanoag surroundings over time: “Yesterday we walked the woodland paths and sandy trails. Today we must walk the macadam highways and roads.” This is to say that, over the last 350 years, the white man destroyed the nature in which the Wampanoags lived by paving man-made roads, but the Wampanoag people are still here and will continue to persevere through oppression. Additionally, Frank Wamsutta James uses pathos to further motivate and inspire his audience to rally behind the Native Americans’ fight for their rights. By portraying Wampanoags as “a silent people,” James is hoping to anger the crowd into no longer keeping quiet. He wants his audience to “choos[e] to face the truth” because that is the only way real change will be made. Furthermore, James preaches that even though “time has drained our culture…our language is almost extinct…we were conquered…American prisoners of war…wards of the United States Government,” however, “our spirit refuses to die.” James’ choice to express the pain and suffering felt by his people over history helps ignite a feeling of strength and hope that Natives must continue to fight to reclaim their position in this country.
In Section 3 of the speech, Frank Wamsutta James speaks about Thanksgiving as a beginning. He establishes a contrast between the “beginning of a new life for the Pilgrims” 350 years ago and the opportunity for a new beginning in 1970 for the Native Americans. James also uses cause and effect to show how Natives have changed since the Pilgrims arrived. He says that after living amongst the white man for 350 years, Natives have the ability to speak the language, compete for jobs, be heard and listened to, but “still have the spirit and determination…to remain as Indians.” Now 350 years later, the Wampanoag can talk, write, and do new jobs. James says that right now, they’re in a low position, but they’re eager to earn people’s respect. He says this position is “rightfully ours” because they were the first ones there, who took care of the land, before anyone else. This speech was supposed to be given at a Thanksgiving celebration but he wasn’t allowed to. In his speech, he says that “our presence here this evening is testimony that this is only the beginning” because it shows the Natives should be respected and listened to.
By using the rhetorical strategies of contrast, description, and pathos, Frank Wamsutta James demonstrates throughout his speech that the suffering of Wampanoags over 350 years can no longer be tolerated and Native Americans must advocate for change. In this way, he challenges the audience to support his “Day of Mourning” as a more authentic commemoration of Thanksgiving and take back their power as indigenous people. After James’ death in 2001, the organization he founded in 1970, United American Indians of New England (“UAINE”), has continued to observe and expand the National Day of Mourning in Plymouth, proving that his speech inspired a movement.