Native American Heritage Day: Why It Falls the Day After Thanksgiving

For most families, the Friday after Thanksgiving is for leftovers, long walks and shopping. Since 2008 it has also had a name. Congress called it Native American Heritage Day, and it chose the date with care. The day before, many Americans tell a story about Pilgrims and Indians sharing a meal. The day after, the law asks people to look at the nations behind that story, as they are now.

This piece is about that one Friday. Our separate articles cover November’s Native American Heritage Month and the Thanksgiving holiday itself. Here we look at why the day sits where it does, what the Wampanoag people say about the 1621 harvest gathering, the National Day of Mourning held in Plymouth the day before, and a few plain ways to spend the day.

In October 2008, Congress passed House Joint Resolution 62, which became Public Law 110-370, the Native American Heritage Day Act of 2008. It was approved on October 8, 2008, and it named a single date: Friday, November 28, 2008.

The law spells out its reasons in a list of findings. It begins with the plain fact that Native Americans are the descendants of the original inhabitants of what is now the United States. It notes Native military service from the Revolutionary War onward, and contributions in agriculture, medicine, music, language and art. Then it explains the date. Naming the Friday after Thanksgiving, it says, will underscore the government-to-government relationship between the United States and Native American governments.

That phrase matters. Tribes are not only cultures or communities. They are governments, with their own lands, courts and citizens. Putting the day next to Thanksgiving moves attention from a picture of Native people in the past to nations that are here now.

A year later, Public Law 111-33, the Native American Heritage Day Act of 2009 (approved June 26, 2009), spoke of the Friday after Thanksgiving “of each year”. Both laws ask the public, schools and governments to mark the day with programs and activities about tribal governments, Native cultures, traditions and languages, past and present.

The people at the center of the Thanksgiving story are the Wampanoag. By 1621 they had lived for some 10,000 years at the coastal place they called Patuxet, where the English built Plymouth. The Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) says its people have lived on Noepe, now Martha’s Vineyard, for at least 10,000 years, and that the Wampanoag Nation once included more than 67 distinct tribal communities. Six visible communities remain today.

The English arrived at a terrible moment. Between 1616 and 1619, diseases brought by European colonizers killed up to 90 percent of New England’s Native population, a disaster now called the Great Dying. The Wampanoag were weakened and facing pressure from the Narragansett. In April 1621 the English and the Wampanoag signed a treaty, each promising to help the other if attacked.

That fall, the Wampanoag leader Massasoit, also known as Ousamequin, came to the harvest celebration with about 90 men. The English colonist Edward Winslow wrote that they came “with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted.” Neither Winslow nor Governor William Bradford used the word thanksgiving for it.

Wampanoag historians describe it as diplomacy between two nations getting to know each other, not a friendly dinner that settled anything. Darius Coombs, cultural and outreach coordinator for the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, told Smithsonian Magazine that the Wampanoag “had to be invited” to bring that many men so far. On what came after, he said, “We don’t blame the Pilgrims, but they set it up so it could happen.” Linda Coombs, a Wampanoag historian and program director at the Aquinnah Cultural Center, put the cost simply: “It’s because land was taken from us so they could live here.”

In 1970, Massachusetts marked 350 years since the Pilgrims landed. Officials invited Wamsutta Frank James, a Wampanoag man, to speak at a state dinner. When they saw his draft, which drew on a Pilgrim account of opening Wampanoag graves, they told him that anything inflammatory would be out of place, and they offered him a speech written for him. He refused to give it.

Instead, Native and non-Native people gathered in Plymouth on Thanksgiving Day and declared it a National Day of Mourning. United American Indians of New England (UAINE) has held it there every year since. People meet at noon on Cole’s Hill, above Plymouth Rock, and then march through the historic district. In 2026 that is Thursday, November 26, the day before Native American Heritage Day.

UAINE calls it “a day of remembrance and spiritual connection,” as well as a protest of the racism and oppression Native people still face. In 1998 the Town of Plymouth put up a plaque on Cole’s Hill, on behalf of UAINE, recording what the gathering means. So the long weekend holds two observances side by side: on Thursday, mourning and protest; on Friday, a day Congress set aside for heritage. Both say the same thing: Native nations are still here, and the story is not finished.

Every town in the United States sits on land that was home to Native nations, and often still is. A quick place to start is the Native Land map from Native Land Digital, a Canadian non-profit that describes itself as Indigenous-led. Type in an address and it shows the territories, languages and treaties connected with that place. The map has been online since 2015.

Read the fine print, too. Native Land Digital says its map does not represent official or legal boundaries of any Indigenous nation, and it suggests contacting the nations themselves for definitive information. Treat the map as a list of names to learn about, not as the last word.

The group is also clear about what a land acknowledgment is not. It warns that acknowledgments can easily become a token gesture, and its own guide says, “It’s not about ticking a box — it’s about building respect and connection.” It suggests starting with your own reflection rather than a script, learning the history of the place, offering something back when you reach out to a nation (“Reciprocity matters”), and pairing words with real commitments. One line from the guide is worth keeping in mind all weekend: “Indigenous Peoples are not in the past. We are here.”

The law asks for programs, ceremonies and activities, but it leaves the details to us. Here are a few that fit an ordinary long weekend.

• Visit a museum or cultural center run by or with Native people. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian opened on the National Mall on September 21, 2004, and also runs a museum in lower Manhattan. Admission is free. Many tribes run their own museums and cultural centers, such as the Aquinnah Cultural Center on Martha’s Vineyard. Check hours first, since holiday weekends vary.

• Read Native authors. A good place to start is Joy Harjo, a citizen of the Muscogee Creek Nation, whom the Library of Congress named the 23rd U.S. Poet Laureate in 2019, the first Native American to hold the post. Then look for writers from the nations whose land you live on.

• Support Native-owned businesses and artists, and check what you buy. The Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990 makes it illegal to sell art or crafts in a way that falsely suggests they are Indian-made. The Indian Arts and Crafts Board advises checking a seller’s or event’s authenticity policy, and asking vendors in writing whether work was made by tribal members or certified Indian artisans.

• Learn from the nations themselves. Tribal websites often have history pages written in their own words. The Aquinnah tribe’s page on Wampanoag history is a good example to read alongside this one.

• Talk about it at home. The day after a big family meal is a natural time to talk about what you heard on Thursday and what you learned on Friday.

Try a land-and-table hour. It takes about an hour, works for one person or a whole household, and asks only for a phone or laptop and some curiosity.

1. Find the land. Type your home address into the Native Land map and write down every nation it names.

2. Go to the source. For one of those nations, find its official website. Read how it describes its own history and where its people live today.

3. Learn one specific thing. A place name in the nation’s language, a current project it is working on, or an event it hosts that is open to the public.

4. Make one real commitment. Buy from a verified Native artist, plan a visit to the nation’s museum or cultural center, or put a public event on your calendar. Native Land Digital’s advice is to pair words with action.

5. Bring it back to the table. Over leftovers, share what you found. Ask everyone what they knew about the land under their feet before today.

Thanksgiving tells one story about one meal. Native American Heritage Day asks for the rest of the story, from the people who have been here the whole time.

Named & credited

Ritual OS

Practices from the world's traditions, named for where they come from.

Ritual OS matches you with short practices from the world's traditions. Each one is named with its tradition and where it comes from, so you always know whose practice you are borrowing. It adapts them week by week, and you can do them alone or with the people close to you.

Always credited to its tradition and place

Free iPhone beta

Kithmark

Everyone who was at the table, on one map.

After a holiday weekend, people scatter again. Kithmark gives each person in your life their own page, and its People map shows where everyone is with their local time. Keep a private record of how things stand, in plain words, never scores, encrypted on your phone.

Free in the iPhone beta · Android coming soon

How our apps help

Ritual OS names every practice with its tradition and where it comes from, so honoring a source becomes a habit rather than an afterthought. Kithmark keeps the people from your Thanksgiving table on one map, with their local time, and holds a private, plain-words record of how things stand between you, encrypted on your phone. Neither app can replace learning from Native nations directly. They can help you remember to keep doing it.