Indian Resistance

mensaje 11.01.2008 13:58
Fighting for Mother Earth... Walk San Francsico to Washington in February - A five-month journey across America aimed at raising awareness about protecting the earth, sacred sites and the next generation will come into the Inland area in early March. Also in Resistance: Apache and Lakotas...
Longest Walk San Francsico to Washington begins in February - Cross-country walk to make Inland stop

A five-month journey across America aimed at raising awareness about protecting the earth, sacred sites and the next generation will come into the Inland area in early March.
The trek by foot, which is called the Longest Walk 2, commemorates a similar walk from San Francisco to Washington, D.C., in 1978 by activists wanting to draw attention to American Indian issues.
This year's walk will take a more southern route than the original walk. It will kick off in Davis on Feb. 11, and head south to Yucca Valley and east along Highway 62.
Along the way, participants are set to pick up trash, recycle and visit sacred sites that communities are trying to preserve. The walk will culminate with a symbolic exchange from elders to youth, said Tashina Banks Moore, national communications coordinator for the event. "There seems to be momentum across the country and around the world to bring attention to how we as humans are living in our own communities," Moore said. "More and more, it's important for us as individuals to be responsible."

About 200 people are signed up to walk the entire 4,400 miles, Moore said, but hundreds more are expected to join for shorter distances. She said the group is working to get community support, such as providing places to stay, food or cultural exchanges. Riverside resident Karen Wright, 55, is trying to boost local awareness about the walk. She cannot participate because she is caring for her elderly mother. Instead, she purchased T-shirts and patches to give away to those who might be able to walk. She is also spreading the word on the Internet. "The walk isn't just for Indians. It's for anyone who cares about Mother Earth," said Wright, who is not American Indian. "I see people not planning for future people and the future of the earth and that's not good."

Dennis J. Banks, a co-founder of the American Indian Movement, helped organize the 1978 Longest Walk.
It shed light on the movement and the people and helped defeat 11 legislative bills threatening American Indian sovereignty, according to event organizers. Moore said it was a huge catalyst for change, drawing the support of several thousand people, including boxing great Muhammad Ali and actor Marlon Brando at the end.
 http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_D_walk07.34a4469.html

APACHES RISE TO DEFEND HOMELANDS FROM HOMELAND SECURITY paches rise to defend homelands from Homeland Security
Monday, January 7, 2008
By Brenda Norrell
 http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
brendanorrell@gmail
Human Rights Editor
UN OBSERVER & International Report
RIO GRANDE, Texas – Apache land owners on the Rio Grande told Homeland Security to halt the seizure of their lands for the US/Mexico border wall, during a national media conference call Monday. It was the same day that a 30-day notice from Homeland Security expired with the threat of land seizures by eminent domain to build the US/Mexico border wall.
"There are two kinds of people in this world, those who build walls and those who build bridges," said Enrique Madrid, Jumano Apache community member, land owner in Redford and archaeological steward for the Texas Historical Commission.

"The wall in South Texas is militarization," Madrid said of the planned escalation of militarization with Border Patrol and soldiers. "They will be armed and shoot to kill."It was in Redford that a U.S. Marine shot and killed 18-year-old Esequiel Hernandez, herding his sheep near his home in 1997.
"We had hoped he would be the last United States citizen and the last Native American to be killed by troops," Madrid said. Dr. Eloisa Garcia Tamez, Lipan Apache professor living in the Lower Rio Grande, described how US officials attempted to pressure her into allowing them onto her private land to survey for the US/Mexico borderwall. When Tamez refused, she was told that she would be taken to court and her lands seized by eminent domain. "I have told them that it is not for sale and they cannot come onto my land."

Tamez is among the land owners where the Department of Homeland Security plans to erect 70 miles of intermittent, double-layered fencing in the Rio Grande Valley. Tamez said the United States government wants access to all of her land, which is on both sides of a levee. "Then they will decide where to build the wall. It could be over my house." Tamez said that she may only have three acres, but it is all she has. Tamez' daughter Margo Tamez, poet and scholar, said, "We are not a people of walls. It is against our culture to have walls. The Earth and the River go together. We must be with the river. We must be with this land. We were born for this land." Margo Tamez said the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples now guarantees the right of Indigenous Peoples to their traditional territories.

Rosie Molano Blount, Chiricahua Apache from Del Río said the Chiricahua Apache have proudly served in the United States military."We are proud to be Americans," Blount said, adding that the Chiricahua have always supported the United States government. Now, with the increasing harassment of people in the borderzone, Blount said the people have had enough. "Ya Basta! Enough is enough!" Blount said, repeating the phrase that became the battle cry of the Zapatistas in Mexico struggling for Indigenous Peoples' rights. Blount said there needs to be dialogue concerning the issues at the border, but not forced militarization or a border wall. She also directed a comment at Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. "Don't come here and divide our families Chertoff. You believe this is the only way to do things."

Michael Paul Hill, San Carlos Apache from Arizona, described how US border agents violated and molested his sacred items, including a sacred stone, Eagle feather and drum used in ceremonies while near the border at Redford in August. "They called me a foreigner." Hill described how Border Agents told him that he might "get away" with crossing the border in Nogales, Arizona, with ceremonial items that were not manhandled, but not in Texas. "It was incredibly frightening," said Margo Tamez who was also there. She pointed out how the escalating militarization at the border is terrorizing people as they go about their lives, working, with their families and in their ceremonies.

Isabel Garcia, cochair of Derechos Humanos in Tucson, Arizona, said,"Arizona has been a laboratory for the criminalizing of the border." Pointing out that the Arizona border is the ancestral homeland of the Tohono O'odham, she said, "These borders are where people have lived since time immemorial." Garcia described the climate of militarization and abuse by Border Patrol agents. Garcia pointed out that "cowboy" Border Agents ran over and killed18-year-old Tohono O'odham Bennett Patricio, Jr., while he was walking home in 2002. His mother, Angie Ramon, is still seeking justice for the death of her son. Garcia also described the deaths from dehydration and heat in the Sonoran Desert in southern Arizona, where failed border policies have pushed migrants walking to a better life into treacherous desert lands. "Two hundred and thirty-seven bodies were recovered in one year and most were on the tribal lands of the Tohono O'odham."

Further, Homeland Security recently waived 22 federal laws to build the border wall in the San Pedro wilderness area in Arizona, she said. Attorney Peter Schey, director of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law in Los Angeles, said America does not need a"Berlin Wall."
Schey, renowned immigrant rights attorney, said Section 564 of the Homeland Security section of the Omnibus Appropriations Bill supersedes earlier legislation. Homeland Security is now required to have consultation with the communities. Schey said this means real consultation and real consideration of the community's input and data. Schey took his first action on behalf of Texas property owner Dr. Tamez on Monday, the same day that a 30-day notice to Texas land owners expired with the threat of eminent domain land seizures looming. Schey informed Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to halt the impending seizures of private lands. Schey said Section 564 strikes provisions of the earlier Secure Fence Act and requires Homeland Security to consult with property owners like Dr. Tamez in order "to minimize the impact on the environment, culture, commerce, and quality of life" in areas considered for construction of the border fence."Furthermore, we believe that the new statutory provisions invalidate the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for fence construction published on the Department's behalf on November 16, 2007, pending completion of the required local consultations and other requirements as outlined in the Omnibus Bill," Schey told Chertoff in the letter.

Meanwhile, Homeland Security declared that it will use the principle of eminent domain to take possession of land currently held by private ownership. DHS has also presented waivers requesting that the landowners grant DHS personnel access to their property for a twelve-month period in order to conduct surveys for the intended construction project. The property owners were informed that if theydo not voluntarily allow the federal agents on their property, theU.S. government will file a law suit so that DHS authorities can have unimpeded access to private land, despite the owners' opposition. DHS has stated that it will seize property even without the consent of landowners if necessary to complete the construction of the border fence. Many landowners, as well as civic leaders and human rights activists,oppose the U.S. government's plans to allow federal law enforcement agents access to private property. The government's demands and aggressive tactics are in conflict with settled rights of private property ownership and are particularly disconcerting to the Indigenous peoples' communities impacted by this undertaking.

The Texas communities along the international boundary zone are largely made up of Native Americans and of land grant heirs who have resided on inherited properties for hundreds of years. DHS plans to complete the Texas portions of the fence before the end of the 2008 calendar year.
DHS has already built walls along much of the California and Arizona international boundary zone with Mexico despite opposition from the government of Mexico.
Also see: Austin Statesman: 'Attorney says Homeland Security must reconsider border wall in Valley'
 http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/01/08/0108fence.html


LAKOTAS WITHDRAWL FROM THE US

"LAKOTA NATION" CONFIRMED - THEY ARE NOT PART OF THE U.S. – PRECEDENT FOR OTHER INDIGENOUS PEOPLES? CAN RETHINKING OF "U.S." & "CANADA" BEFAR BEHIND?
Mohawk Warriors support Lakotas' withdrawl from the US
By Kahentinetha Horn
Mohawk Nation News
Dec. 25, 2007. The times, they are a changin'. Go to the  http://www.lakotafreedom.com/ website. There you'll see Canupa GluhaMani of the Strong Heart Warrior Society of the Lakota Nation cutting up his colonial driver's license. He's doing this because on December17th 2007 the Lakota delivered their "Declaration of Continuing Independence," just in time for the Winter Solstice.

The history of Lakota with the U.S. is long, complex and tragic. They knew something had to change. After the Wounded Knee Occupation of 1973, the International Indian Treaty Council was established. From June 8 to 16 1974 the Council called for a "Western Hemisphere"Conference at Standing Rock Sioux. Over 5000 delegates of 97Indigenous Peoples from the Americas gathered. The "manifesto"that was created on that occasion supports the rights of all Indigenous Peoples to live free and take whatever actions are necessary to uphold our sovereignty.

It is rumored that President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, a powerful world leader, said today that he is considering recognizing the Lakota as an independent nation. Withdrawing from the treaties is entirely legal. It is within the laws on treaties passed at the Vienna Convention and putinto effect by the U.S. and the rest of the international community in 1980.
The Lakota never relinquished their lands and have always refused to accept payment estimated close to $1 billion to give up their sovereignty and nationhood. Offering to buy us out means they are acknowledging our sovereignty.

They declared the obvious. The lands belong to the various Indigenous peoples and are clearly defined by the treaties. Where there are no treaties, the U.S. and Canada are squatters. Plain and simple! The indigenous people have the same rights under international law as anyone else, whether a country chooses to acknowledge it or not,as in South Africa. Our vast tracts of land, which have been cared for by our ancestors, continue to be ours despite the delusional fraudulent claims of the colonizing states.Treaties concluded through bribery and with colonial puppets,instead of with valid representatives of our people, are not legal.

It should be borne in mind that most, not all, of the treaties ever made with the colonizers granted them only very limited rights that fall far short of the greedy advantages they imagined. They had no intention of ever living up to any treaty. They were hellbent on stealing everything. The U.S. and Canada came as profiteers and fraudulently tried to steal all our assets.

Such documents were concocted in clear violation of international law then and now. This requires the informed consent of the people concerned. No state can incorporate another unless a clear majority of the people has expressed consent through fairly conducted democratic processes based on a clear question.

The Six Nations Confederacy ( see also: Six Nations - http://de.indymedia.org/2007/03/169833.shtml ) and the Algonquins are the titleholders of most of the eastern half of what is known as the colonies of Canada and northeastern U.S. Our Indigenous laws prohibit alienation of our lands. We hold them as trustees for the coming unborn generations. We refuse to surrender our lands. The implementation of the Indian Act and federal Indian law is genocidal.According to article VI of the U.S. Constitution, treaties represent the Supreme Law of the Land binding each party to an inviolable international relationship. Those without treaties with the colonists hold their lands independent and free. The only legal authority is Indigenous. Article II sets out the primary nation-to-nation relationship.

In Canada Section 109 of the British North America Act 1867 respects the primary authority of the Indigenous peoples.The U.S. and Canada have violated the independent Indigenous Peoples by "clerical" action, edicts and pronouncements violating our international treaty rights and authority.

The Lakota declaration of withdrawal from the Treaty of Laramie 1868 is vested in the power of the Lakota people and the children. One individual does not represent the nation. The nation represents the individual. The withdrawal is for the people, elders, mothers, father sand children including the unborn faces beneath the ground.

The Treaty of Laramie was never honored. It's been a colonial catastrophe, which was not its intent on our part. Indigenous children are still being taken away putting them out of balance from learning the traditional life ways. The true way is to be free and left to govern and look after our own with the teachings of the animal nations. This is about the Lakota Nation and the Animal People who are no longer here. "We are the Lakota Nation of Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota,Wyoming and Montana". We are alerting the Family of Nations of our action with the backing of Indigenous, international and U.S. law.

Should all Indigenous nations of Onowaregeh, Turtle Island, assert our freedom and independence, what would happen? The action of the"Lakota" is going to have repercussions far and wide.The colonists would go out of business, especially the oligarchs. They would have to work out agreements with all the Indigenous people on whose land they are squatting. Indigenous "liens" on buildings,development, resource extraction and all activities on our land will have to be governed and executed by us. Each Indigenous nation will assert our power over our lands, assets and resources. The colonies of U.S.and Canada will just have to become law abiding. They will have to learn to respect indigenous and international law. This will not bring catastrophe for the ordinary people living on our land. They just have to come to terms with the reality that they are living within our jurisdiction,that they are visitors on our land and that they are required to follow our law.The pointlessness of their former reliance on their handpicked "Indian"puppets set up by the colonial Indian Act band councils and federal Indian law tribal councils will become obvious. These sell-outs will have to live amongst their relatives without colonial power and support.Whisky, money and guns will lose their mystical attraction.
The Lakota call upon the world to support this struggle for sovereignty and treaty rights. They pledge their assistance to all sovereign people who seek their independence.The Lakota have invited those living on their lands to join them. Lakota will issue permits to them, passports, driver's licenses and other documents. Living there would be tax free providing the residents renounce their U.S. citizenship.

The Lakotah are to open negotiations with the State Department of the U.S. government to establish diplomatic relations. They are setting up offices in Washington and New York City.Are we going to see the other nations of Turtle Island asserting sovereignty? Don't let those "dirty rotten lawyers" meddle or intervene.They're not the ones who decide what the law is. The law belongs to the people. As our ancestors told us, "One nation will take the issue so far.Then another will take it further. Until we all regain everything that is ours".So who's next?

Kahentinetha Horn
MNN Mohawk Nation News
 http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2007/12/mohawk-warriors-support-lakotas.html
Canupa interview about Oyate Lakota with Wikimedia
Canupa discusses the Lakota movement:
 http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Canupa_Gluha_Mani_speaks_about_Lakota_Oyate%2C_Lakota_freedom
Nia:wen,
Kahentinetha Horn
 http://us.f381.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To= Kahentinetha2@yahoo.com
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