Bill mandating genocide history curriculum sent to Baker, United American Indians hold “National Day of Mourning”

Sam Doran SHNS

Before gaveling out for a long Thanksgiving weekend, the Senate sent Gov. Charlie Baker bills affecting affordable housing in Ipswich, the Woburn Public Library’s trustees, and a prospective Haverhill police officer, along with a bill mandating genocide history curriculum in Massachusetts middle and high schools.

“While past crimes against humanity cannot be undone, we must learn from them,” Senate President Karen Spilka said in a statement Wednesday. Said Education Committee Co-Chair Rep. Alice Peisch: “While racial, ethnic, national, and religious violence has existed throughout the past and continues in the present, recent events suggest our collective knowledge of some of history’s worst atrocities is waning.”

While considering the bill this year, lawmakers pointed to a number of recent anti-Semitic incidents and a high percentage of people unfamiliar with basic details of the Holocaust. Some activists are also calling for more attention to local history.

United American Indians of New England held its 52nd “National Day of Mourning” in Plymouth on Thursday to “remember the millions of our ancestors who were murdered by uninvited European colonists such as the Pilgrims,” the advocacy group’s youth coordinator Kisha James said in an advisory. The group’s co-leader Mahtowin Munro said the first “official” Thanksgiving was held by Puritans in 1637 “to celebrate the men from Massachusetts (including Plymouth) who had safely returned after massacring over 700 Pequot men, women and children on the banks of the Mystic River in Connecticut.” Both the Senate and House are adjourned until Monday morning.