On Thanksgiving day 1997, Indigenous mourners and their allies were brutalized by more than 150 Plymouth police, county sheriffs, and state police resulting in 25 arrests. In particular, anti-Black racism from the police occurred as a Kazi Ajagun Toure, a Black freed former political prisoner and anti-imperialist was attacked and had a loc pulled from his head. Two Black women were arrested and left in handcuffs hours after handcuffs were removed from other detainees. Cultural Survival reports that the "resulting court case and settlement led to the installation of two historical plaques in Plymouth with an Indigenous-written historical account, the charges being dropped against all 25 protesters, and acknowledgment of the right to march without a permit each National Day of Mourning."

Aquinnah Wampanoag elder and lifelong advocate for Indigenous rights, Wamsutta Frank James was uninvited to the 350th anniversary 'celebration' of the Pilgrim landing at Plymouth rock after his planned speech was read by the colonial authorities organizing the event. The speech was published in newspapers around the country and Wamsutta decided to hold a counter event which became the first National Day of Mourning for Native Americans. Hundreds of Indigenous peoples from across North America traveled to support the Wampanoag leader and to demonstrate against the celebration of colonial white washing. Native demonstrators painted Plymouth rock red, boarded the replica Mayflower, removed the flag of Saint George, the patron saint of England, and threw overboard a wax statue of the captain. The National Day of Mourning for Native Americans continues today still organized by United American Indians of New England.