Black Friday: Occupiers Join Indigenous People to Protest Mall on Burial Grounds

By Lauren Smiley Fri., Nov. 25 2011 at 9:45 AM

Categories: Occupy, Occupy Bay Area

Occupiers = modern day pilgrims minus the brutality on Native Americans?

The Occupy movement is all about raising consciousness of the dark colonial underpinnings of Thanksgiving. Yesterday morning, Occupiers were up before dawn to broadcast the Indigenous People Sunrise Ceremony on Alcatraz Island at Frank Ogawa Plaza in Oakland -- to remember that the real Thanksgiving wasn't actually a celebration of peace between the pilgrims and the Native Americans.

(Wait, were the pilgrims the original occupiers? Colonizing space in protest of the 1 percent ruling their lives back in Europe? How would have history been different if the pilgrims had instead just camped out on the king's yard?)

Today, while the rest of the world is out supporting the 1 percent by spending their last dime on Black Friday sales, Oakland Occupiers are once again joining forces with Native Americans at the Bay Street Mall in Emeryville. They are protesting the construction of the shopping center a decade ago atop the shellmounds -- or traditional burial grounds of the Ohlone people.

Occupy Oakland voted unanimously earlier this week to join in the Black Friday protest, "acknowledging the centuries of genocide that have taken place against the Native inhabitants of this land; the United States has, in fact, been 'occupied' for over 500 years."

Aha, we're onto something!

The protesters will be at the corner of Ohlone Way and Shellmound Street from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m.to tell the Black Friday hoards that their stepping all over sacred land as they make their way to the shops to buy the latest gadget.

Sadly, at this point, there's not much to be done about it, which leaves us just feeling guilty -- as we do about so many things the day after Thanksgiving.

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