Native Americans mark ‘National Day of Mourning’ on Thanksgiving [Video]

PASCO COUNTY, Fla. — Not long after the sun rose on Thanksgiving Day in Pasco County’s Anclote River Park, Sheridan Murphy arrived with plans not to eat turkey and dressing, but to mark National Day of Mourning as indigenous sites face threats across the state. 

“We have burial sites all over the state that are under attack: Brickel in Miami, Suni Sands in Jupiter,” said Murphy, executive director of the Florida Indigenous Alliance. “Of the parks that they were going to turn into golf courses and resorts and pickleball, most of them had burials that would have been impacted. And so, it’s a constant struggle to get that protected.”

There were also threats at Anclote River Park, where plans to build a restaurant near a historic Native American mound generated pushback. 

“They backed off the restaurant and some of the other things they had planned for here. In discussions about …