2020 National Day of Mourning

2020 National Day of Mourning Livestream

Watch the 2020 National Day of Mourning Livestream on Youtube

Livestreamed Event Speakers:
KimimilaSha (Kisha) James
Samantha Maltais
Mahtowin Munro
Chali’Naru Smilez Dones (reading statement from political prisoner Leonard Peltier)
Melanie Angel & Sharnell Cepa Seaboy (Rename Custer Park)
Tela LandBack Troge & Kelly Haddo-Namo Jimoseyang-Tunuppasog (Shinnecock Warriors of the Sunrise)


Prerecorded National Day of Mourning Content

Watch the Prerecorded National Day of Mourning Content on Youtube

Prerecorded Content Speakers:
  • 00:10 - Melissa Harding Ferretti, Chair, Herring Pond Wampanoag Tribe
  • 06:52 – Music: Frank Waln/My People Come From the Land
  • 10:53 - “We Wear Because We Care” (courtesy of Wade Fernandez/Menominee Nation)
  • 15:07 - Skyler Williams/Six Nations of the Grand River - #1492LandbackLane
  • 20:07 - Shinnecock Sovereignty Camp Message
  • 29:50 – #MMIWG2S - Information about Missing & Murdered Women, Girls & 2-Spirits
  • 35:20 – Message from the Council of Maya Elders/ Consejo de Ancianos (Juan Gonzalez and others)
  • 40:15 - Kukuwes Wowkis – Mi’kmaw fishing rights struggle in Nova Scotia
  • 42:43 - Nick Estes/The Red Nation
  • 55:34 - Lyla June Johnson + Jamaica Osorio/America Is Not Real
  • 59:12 - Elena Ortiz/The Red Nation
  • 1:05:44 - Savannah Ortiz/The Red Nation
  • 1:08:23 - Sheldon Raymore/Two Spirit People
  • 1:10:40 - Khaled Barakat, Palestinian writer
  • 1:15:37 - Beverly Longid, BAYAN (audio clear, image not clear)
  • 1:18:22 – Dance: Eli Pabon/#BOMBANTILLANA from Boston 2020 Indigenous Peoples Day march
  • 1:19:08 - Múkaro Agüeibaná (aka Roberto Borrero), Taino Kasike
  • 1:21:36 - Matt Remle/Defund The Pipelines
  • 1:26:33 – Music: Jacinda Beals
  • 1:30:36 – NAMRA North American Megadam Resistance Alliance (multiple speakers – excellent video!)
  • 2:04:32- Music: Eldred Mesher
  • 2:08:20 - Sarah Wunderlich/Oneida – Jonathon Tubby and Native deaths in police custody
  • 2:29:38 - Lucy Pagoada Quesada, Honduran Resistance Council and US/Canada coordinator of Libre Party
  • 2:37:59 – Oiwitv: kū haʻaheo: Protect Sacred Mauna Kea Struggle
  • 2:42:28 – Music: Lyla June/All Nations Rise
  • 2:46:48 - Within Our Lifetime (Palestinian solidarity)
  • 2:50:29 – Jean-Luc Pierite, North American Indian Center of Boston
  • 3:02:48 - Cordillera Peoples Alliance (Indigenous resistance in Philippines)
  • 3:07:22 – Urban Atabex NYC
Drawing of Leonard Peltier

Message to National Day of Mourning 2020 from Leonard Peltier

Download Leonard Peltier's Statement

For more information about the case of Native political prisoner Leonard Peltier, and to find out how you can support, please go to the International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee website.

Greetings my relatives, friends, loved ones, and supporters.

First of all, I want to thank you for the privilege of being allowed to express my feelings about this “Day of Mourning” as we call it, and “Day of Thanksgiving” as the rest of the US calls it. Sometimes I’m at a loss for words to express all the thoughts I have going on in my head after 45 years of imprisonment.

I do want to express my appreciation for our ancestors before us, who fought so hard that we would live today. I want to express my feelings of remembrance for the ones who were overpowered by the weapons of war coming from Europe and the pandemics they faced. Though we have been attacked by the invaders from Europe, over and over in every way possible, and everything that has been done to destroy us, our culture, and traditions, we still survived until today because we are an expression of the Creator’s Will and an expression of the Creator’s Truth. We are a manifestation of that truth, that all mankind should live within the boundaries of those laws.

There is nothing that came from Europe that has made this portion of the Earth a better place to live, but like all nature, we have survived, and nature continues to survive, though mankind is on the edge of destroying itself. The truths that our people spoke of, the need to live in harmony with each other, the Creator, the Mother Earth, and respect one another’s’ approach to spirituality, when expressed by non-Indians becomes a sensation around the world. We must continue to speak our truth, to live our truth, and to support one another, for there lies our survival. The most powerful weapons that we can obtain is knowledge of truth and love for one another, and the practice of that truth and love.

We must unite and work together every chance we can and embrace all others who are of like-mind and willing to work to correct this worldwide pandemic of greed and selfishness that has infected the whole earth and mankind.

On this Day of Mourning, let us again remember our relatives before us, who fought every challenge imaginable that we might survive, and in our prayers say “Thanks for not giving up. Thanks for giving your lives that we might live.” And to all of you out there, I want to say thanks for not giving up on me and my quest for freedom. May the Creator bless you in every way. You brother always, in all ways.

In the Spirit of Crazy Horse and Resistance,
Mitakuye Oyasin,
Doksha,
Leonard Peltier

Downloads for National Day of Mourning 2020

PDFs: Word Docs: