The Boston City Council has again voted to designate Thanksgiving as a “National Day of Mourning,” approving a resolution that reframes the holiday through an ideological lens and marks the second consecutive year the city has adopted the label.

The 2025 resolution recognizes November 27 as a “National Day of Mourning” and asserts that the colonization of North America led to violence, land loss, cultural erasure, and the systematic destruction of Native peoples. The measure also condemns what it calls the “English colonists invasion” of Indigenous land. According to the city’s own data, Native Americans make up less than one percent of Boston’s population today.

The resolution was introduced by Councilor Benjamin Weber and Council President Ruthzee Louijeune, with Councilor Henry Santana listed as an original co sponsor. A nearly identical measure passed the Council in 2024.

Speaking in support of the resolution, Weber said that Thanksgiving is “a yearly haunting reminder of the devastation that was brought upon” Native residents.

The text cites the origins of the National Day of Mourning in 1970, when Wamsutta Frank James of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) organized a gathering in protest of traditional Thanksgiving narratives. That observance has continued annually among Indigenous activist groups in New England.

The Council’s designation is symbolic and has no legal authority. It does not change Thanksgiving’s status as a federally recognized holiday, nor does it alter how residents or businesses may celebrate. No new programs or city actions are tied to the resolution.

Supporters of the measure say the designation acknowledges historical injustice and Indigenous resilience. Critics argue that recasting Thanksgiving as a day of mourning injects political messaging into what has traditionally been a unifying holiday centered on family, gratitude, and national tradition. Opponents also note that symbolic resolutions of this type do not address present day issues facing Boston and can distract from core municipal responsibilities.

Boston is one of several cities where elected officials have used symbolic resolutions to reframe national holidays in recent years. While the measure carries no practical effect, it reflects ongoing divisions over how American history should be interpreted and taught in public institutions.