- archive I

There were stars
before the sky was turned black by warguns
of alien armies who wished to put flame to
the land, searing scars of inhumanity and greed.
The echoes still roar
hollow eyed sockets of false reality still see those rockets,
scorching the earth with titles of manifest destiny, against whom
they stood,
they who are we
Indigenous Peoples
understood.
The stars will
return in the sky.


Tupac Enrique Acosta
chantlaca@aol.com

Tlazolli

The concept of title in relation to land is a mythological construct, in which the world view of cultural identity is embedded and perpetuated across generations.

The simple reason is of course that the land is eminence itself, preexisting and outlasting any human society. The relationship with the land, with the material world which emerges from the land, is then defined and evidenced by the traditional systems of inheritance and identity which perpetuate these teachings to the generations of the future. This is universal for all societies, but it is the traditional Indigenous Peoples from around the globe that create identity through ecological relationships to the constellations of families, mountains, rivers, deserts, nations, oceans and stars that define our homelands in the universe.

The societies of the European settlers do not.

The present systems of the United States and other governments states of the hemisphere which derive their justifications for jurisdiction over the land on the Divine Right of Kings to Dominion over the Earth and its Peoples, is pure myth. Or better said, it is false myth -- a dead story with no teaching to teach but only a power grab to justify.

It cannot even hold coherence before the science of its own culture, now finally clarified that matter-energy are aspects of relationship to life, inflected by the world view of each individual, family, clan, tribe, community, nation, and culture.

To claim ownership by land title today in view of the above is the equivalent of proclaiming that the world is flat. It is the position of a lost world, and a false reality.

Tlazolli is the weaving of elements, our tie to the Tonantzin - Mother Earth, the umbilical cord that connects Heaven and Earth.

The word for the place of connection: MEXICO

TEZCATLALLI

Espejo de la Tierra
Earth Mirror

The day will come
when
the shards of rubble,
will be swept away;
the remains
of loved ones will be carefully laid to rest in places
at that moment where
worlds that were
will also be
no more, and
new world's
Discovery brought us all a shudder of horror
to have lost they who through knowing them,
being
with them and of them,
made us
human.

The day that comes,
comes for us all.
The coldest winds before that dawn,
the shards of humans being inhuman
to each other and themselves, look for the broken places in our
mind
and heart,
look to wounds searching for caves of fear, far beyond the chasing
conscience of the One:

At that moment shall appear,
When the ground is finally clear,
A shining dust
A mirror of earth, and she will speak again.
"What have you done to my children?"
And foundations of Heaven's Earth, respond -
In justice of war gods unbound.

Tupac Enrique Acosta
chantlaca@aol.com

La Leyenda de la Verdad y La Doctrina del Poder
Por Tupac Enrique Acosta

La Leyenda es el telar de la Historia. Así como también se dio a conocer por el gran mitólogo de la cultura occidental, Joseph Campbell, es una verdad de que todos los pueblos y culturas del mundo nos encontramos tejiendo una conciencia común: una leyenda para el futuro, que tiene como eje dual la necesidad del ser humano a conocer la realidad su naturaleza, y a la vez, la naturaleza de la realidad.

En el mundo de la Leyenda, hay ley y hay frontera. La ley proclama que NO puedes aislarte del mundo para conocerla, tienes que entregarte hasta el corazón para saber quien eres. La frontera es todo el horizonte del conocimiento humano desde sus principios históricos en todas partes del planeta, pero esta es nomás una frontera que nos invite a tocar la puerta con respeto y, si llegamos con el pasaporte de la humildad, nos cruzamos a ser recibidos a visitar el mundo misterioso de la sabiduría.

Si violamos la ley, intentando de aislarnos en castillos de arrogancia, racismo, nacionalismo, prejuicio religiosa, miedo, ignorancia y mentira tenemos que entregar la llave de nuestra cárcel auto construido, al sheriff de La Doctrina del Poder. Tal vez este esta mal nombrado, por que en verdad NO TIENE PODER , nomás tiene la llave que nosotros mismos le hemos dado que abre la puerta hacia la liberación. (En la actualidad, el sheriff se presenta en el campo global como el Estado Nacional. Para entretenernos nos tira un albur que son las campañas electorales. O nos manda a guerras fratricidas [son todas] y religiosas [también son todas]).

Algunos intentan escapar. Algunos intentar soñar del mundo como de veras es, sin fronteras falsas y ordenado mejor por la autoridad real del amor y la justicia. Estos intentan a despertar los demás, haciendo campaña política como la del DREAM ACT para que se reconozca que “La escuela es para los que la trabajen.” Algunos hacen sonar los caracoles de sus raíces milenarias, y siguen caminando hacia la humanidad global.

Mientras, por otros lados y en otros tiempos, el sheriff en un pánico propio (his panic) llama la Migra avisándole que intenta cruzar la frontera una doncella escapada conocido en el Mito como “Snow White”. La migra es una bruja fea que vive en el mundo de la mentira y por eso no puede ver ni a si misma en el Espejo. Ya saben todos como se relata lo resto del cuento, pero la verdad es que no. NO ha despertado todavía la doncella, sigue capturada por la fuerza del mal, fuerza falsa del odio y la oscuridad de una conciencia colectiva que pretende desconocer la realidad de ser cómplices con Las Doctrinas del Poder.

“Ese sol ya se acabó, este nuevo ya empezó.” Son los versos del canto tradicional de nuestro Pueblo Izkalotlan, invocando la memoria de la Leyenda de la Verdad y la profecía del Sexto Sol, el Sol de la Justicia. En su humilde casa, El Nahuacalli, los cantadores del Sexto Sol se reúnen este Sábado el día 13 se Setiembre desde las 8:30 AM hasta las 4:00 PM en la Conferencia Anual de Derechos Humanos -TONATIERRA.

Además de tocar los temas de campañas de Derechos Civiles como la de CADENA y el Dream Act entre otros, el público será informado sobre las acciones en la arena de Derechos Indígenas tomado por el TLAHTOKAN AZTLAN al llegar al Foro Permanente de Cuestiones Indígenas del Las Naciones Unidas en Mayo pasado. La Coalición de Derechos Humanos de Tucson también estará con nosotros. Bienvenidos a todos.

El lema de la Conferencia Anual de Derechos Humanos TONATIERRA para este año es:
Los Hijos de Maíz y el Camino a Cancún

Las Doctrinas del Poder que serán sacudidas de su normalidad serán:

La Doctrina de Descubrimiento y Las Coronas de Europa - 12 de Octubre de 1492
La Doctrina de la Colonización del Continente y los Pueblos De América 1492-2003
La Doctrina Monroe - EEUU 2 de Diciembre de 1823
La Doctrina de la Guerra Perpetua - EEUU 2003

Para mayor información:
TONATIERRA
NAHUACALLI
802 N. 7th Street Phoenix, AZ 85006
Tel:(602) 254-5230
www.tonatierra.org

El Viento de Aztlan
Primavera Xihuitl Nahui Acatl Spring
2003

TONATIERRA joins today with other community organizations of Indigenous Peoples from throughout the continent in calling for the proclamation of Cesar Chavez Peace Day in conjunction with all present and future commemorations of the labor leader's historic movement for social justice.

"It is unconscionable for community agencies and leadership to promote the imagery of Cesar Chavez without living up to the principles of non-violent community organizing to combat social injustice." said Gustavo Gutierrez of TONATIERRA, a longtime advocate of farm worker rights and past organizer for the United Farm Workers AFL-CIO under Cesar Chavez.

"The present Iraq war campaign of the Bush administration is an extension at the international level of the same practices of corporate greed and violation of human rights that we fought so hard against in the farm worker movement." he continued.

Referring to the current position taken by the United Farm Workers Union against the war in Iraq, the TONATIERRA representative recalled how he personally witnessed Cesar Chavez write a letter in support of his own son's refusal to be drafted into the armed forces of the United States of North America.

In a recent communication to the office of President Bush, the UFW stated that regarding US military intervention in Iraq, "Such a use of U.S.military force would require thousands of young men and women, many of them people of color, to fight overseas in the name of democracy. Yet President Bush's war in Iraq would do lasting harm to democracy here at home."

TONATIERRA has also joined with other Indigenous Peoples of North America who, acting in collective sovereign responsibility to protect the Mother Earth, have established at the Nahuacalli an office for the Indigenous Peoples Peace Initiative. The Nahaucalli is an embassy of Indigenous Peoples located in Phoenix.

Ehecatl
El Viento de Aztlan
Nican Izkalotlan, Aztlan
Yei Tochtli Nemontemi Nahui Acatl

PHOENIX - While Yellowstone's buffalo were being slaughtered and President George Bush craved war, Indigenous from the Americas gathered for the resurrection of their spiritual destinies to protect the earth and all that is sacred.

With equal intensity to the destruction in the world, Indians from the Arctic came defending the caribou homeland, Navajos from Big Mountain, Ariz., called for protection of Black Mesa and Lakota from Pine Ridge, S.D., urged solidarity in rekindling the spiritual fortunes of mankind.

United Nations Representative Wilton Littlechild, Cree, joined the circle of many nations on top of South Mountain, a mountain sacred to the Salt River and Gila River O'otham, as Lakota and others made prayer offerings at sunset on Friday, March 7, beginning a three-day conference here.

Littlechild, representative of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, said that for the first time, spiritual priorities are emerging from the United Nations as a result of input from Indigenous nations.

Speaking during a noon press conference, Zuni Pueblo Councilman Dan Simplicio said a proposed coal mine of the Salt River Project has already resulted in the removal of nine of his people from their graves.

"Those are our ancestors that were never intended to be disturbed," Simplicio said.

The proposed Fence Lake Project is in the vicinity of the Zuni's sacred salt mines in New Mexico. Simplicio said salt has properties that sustain life, while coal mining robs the earth of life.

"A basic ingredient that gives us life is salt," he said. "Mining takes away life."

Sarah James of the Gwich'in Steering Committee in the Arctic spoke of the need to protect the Porcupine Caribou Herd and the sacred place known as "Where Life Begins," from proposed oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge-Coastal Plain.

"We are fighting in a good way without compromise with the direction of our elders," James said, adding that all sacred sites are connected as all life is connected.

" We have that pride we need to unite with one voice without compromise."

The noon press conference at a downtown Phoenix hotel was attended by only one Arizona media outlet, a Spanish language newspaper.

During the conference, Kee Watchman, Navajo resisting relocation in Arizona, said Navajos have lived on their ancestral homelands at Cactus Valley and Big Mountain for 1,000 years.

Although some of the elders passed to the spirit world in recent years,Watchman said Navajo and Hopi living traditional lives continue to teach the young ones and make their prayers in reverence for the sacred plants and animals in their trust.

Robert Nutlouis, Navajo youth from Pinon, Ariz.,said the coal slurry of Peabody Coal is robbing the people of Black Mesa of their only source of water, the aquifer. Nutlouis pointed out that the Navajo Nation Council was originally established for the purpose of signing energy leases and today the council continues to sell the resources and ignore the suffering of the Dineh.

Ernest Moristo spoke of efforts to protect the Baboquivari Mountains, the home of the Tohono O'odham's sacred being Itoi, from tribal development near the Arizona and Mexico border.

Tonya Gonnella Frichner shared the history of the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy. Lakotas Leonard Little Finger, Richard Broken Nose, Joann Tall and Rosalie Little Thunder offered prayers and spoke of the need for a spiritual unity to restore mankind.

The Chiapas women's theater, FOMMA, performed with four Mayan women playing multiple roles of men and women in a script they wrote revealing the struggles of Indigenous women. The lively, masked Tecuani traditional dancers of Coatepec Guerrero, Mex., followed.

The Tlahokan Aztlan gathering, March 7 - 9, is being held at the NAHUACALLI, Embassy of the Indigenous Peoples , 802 N. 7th St.in Phoenix. Tonatierra and the Seventh Generation Fund are cosponsors of the conference. The telephone is 602-254-5230.

El Viento de Aztlan
Otoño Xihuitl Yei Tochtli 2002 Fall
TONATIERRA
October 9, 2002

The Wars of Petropolis

Indigenous Resistance in Mexico
In January of 1994, the Council of Indigenous Nations and Organizations of the Continent (CONIC) organized a delegation of representing 35 Indigenous Peoples' organizations of our continent that converged in Chiapas, Mexico. Responding to the call for indigenous observers to the areas of armed conflict between the EZLN and the Mexican federal army, the CONIC delegation was historical in its own right, lending support to the uprising of the Maya Nations that had achieved international recognition under the banner of the EZLN. At that time, the issue of Indigenous Autonomy was not yet included in the agenda of demands being brought forward to the world community; descriptions of context of the conflict was drawn mostly from the issues of the NAFTA debate and the struggle against the economic globalization model of the neo-liberal regimes worldwide.

What follows is an excerpt from the TONATIERRA Preliminary Report of January 28, 1993, issued by the CONIC International Solidarity Delegation:

Coincidentally, the site of one of the principal confrontations between the Zapatistas and the Mexican military took place in the area of Ocosingo where the national Mexican oil company PEMEX has drilled petroleum wells that have confirmed a major underground reservoir. The wells are not being developed, but being held in strategic reserve supposedly to be exploited by foreign contracted companies.

According to information from the respected Mexican weekly PROCESO, the information regarding the petroleum field was extracted from a US Government Accounting Office report, and documents exchanged be Allan Mendelowitz and Sam Gejdenson, negotiators for the US in the North American Free Trade Agreement NAFTA.

For a complete copy of the 1993 CONIC preliminary report, contact TONATIERRA at: email: chantlaca@aol.com

Síntesis - National Indigenous News Service from Mexico The following is an article from La Jornada, an extract from the news service being provided by AIPIN, the National Indigenous Press Association of Mexico. To request to be a recipient of this excellent news service, contact AIPIN through Genaro Bautista at: lallaba@yahoo.com.mx

Indígenas prohíben a Pemex usar sus caminos

La Unión de Comunidades Indígenas de la Zona Norte del Istmo (Ucizoni), de Oaxaca, informó a Petróleos Mexicanos que apartir de ayer su personal "no podrá utilizar los caminos" de 15 ejidos y comunidades de cuatro municipios de la región para llegar a las válvulas y los tubos del sistema Teapa-Salina Cruz, ante la respuesta "limitada y poco precisa" que la para estatal dio a sus reclamos de reparación de daños y construcción de obras comunitarias, a las que la empresa se había comprometido. En una carta enviada a la gerencia corporativa de desarrollo social de Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), firmada por el presidente de la Ucizoni, Rosalino Castro Juan, se indica que también se acordó en asamblea "que si no hay una respuesta satisfactoria, nuestras 66 comunidades y otras que ya se sumarán, bloquearán de manera indefinida la carretera transístmica el 12 de octubre". Se afirma también que "desde hace casi 100 años, en el istmo de Tehuantepec se saca petróleo de tierras de pueblos nahuas, chontales y popolucas, y desde hace casi 50 los tubos de petróleo están enterrados en predios de pueblos mixes y zapotecos. Mucha riqueza se saca de nuestra tierra, muchos se han vuelto ricos, y nuestros pueblos, que son los dueños desde mucho antes, son pobres y vejados, esto es lo que queremos cambiar, ya no queremos que Pemex nos siga tratando de esa manera." En la misiva, con copia a Xóchitl Gálvez, de la Oficina de Representación de los Pueblos Indios, y a Raúl Muñoz Leos, director general de Pemex, Castro Juan manifiesta que en la asamblea, celebrada ayer en la comunidad de Estación Sarabia, Guichicovi, se analizó con seriedad su propuesta del día 24 de los corrientes, misma que se consideró "limitada y poco precisa, pues no señala la fecha de inicio de los trabajos de los caminos ni qué tipo de obras de rehabilitación se comprometen a hacer." ( La Jornada)

Nueva Estrategia de Seguridad Nacional de Estados Unidos
FRENTE INTERNACIONAL DE DERECHOS HUMANOS
Consejo Internacional Ejecutivo
Emperadores 168 esquina con Sevilla, Portales,
"Benito Juárez", D.F. 03300
Tel/Fax 56 04 96 22 E mail: fmpdh44@hotmail.com
México, D.F., 20 de septiembre de 2002

Los comentaristas estadounidenses expresaron que luego del triunfo militar debería ser derrocado Saddam Hussein y disponer de las reservas petroleras que ascienden a 112,000 millones de barriles de petróleo, de los cuales 44,000 millones ya fueron objeto de contrato por parte de Irak con China, Rusia, Alemania, Francia y otras naciones, contratos que serían anulados si no participan en la acción armada en contra de Irak, volúmen petrolero que beneficiaría a las empresas Exxon Mobil, Chevron Texaco, BP y Shell que se repartirán el botín de 1.32 billones de dólares (al precio actual de 30 dólares el barril), pero si sigue subiendo el precio la cuantía aumentará. Esta es la petrocracia que ha creado la grave tensión internacional. El caso de Irak fue tema de debate electoral en Alemania en donde el Canciller Schroeder se opuso a que se ataque a Bagdad. México por ser país productor de petróleo y generador de electricidad debe preocuparse porque puede ser victimado con la aplicación de esta nueva estrategia que es contraria al Derecho Internacional: tal es el trasfondo de la devaluación del Peso Mexicano luego de la salida del País de más de 50,000 millones de dólares, en espera de que por pobreza extrema sean vendidas distintas empresas y la presión culminará hasta lograr adquirir las energéticas. Tales son los rasgos de la petrocracia en México."

(For the complete article from which this segment is extracted, contact the Email address: fmpdh44@hotmail.com)

September 27, 2002
Contact: Tupac Enrique Acosta
Tel: (602) 254-5230 or Fax: (602) 252-6094
Email: email: chantlaca@aol.com

Phoenix, AZ - TONATIERRA today joined the international solidarity movement calling for the Bush administration to give full disclosure to the true motives and beneficiaries of the present call for war on Iraq. Denouncing the call for congressional approval to unilaterally declare war, Tonatierra representative Tupac Enrique Acosta, demanded accountability from President Bush at a rally in today in Phoenix against US war plans. "In this era of ENRON Economics and the domination of the international corporate regime, wherein 51 of the world's largest 100 economies are not nation states but corporations, where is the accountability for domestic policies that benefit the select and self serving few?"

April 15, 2003

Statement by Tony Blackfeather
Tetuwan Oyate, Teton Sioux Nation Treaty Council
"If you want to understand the invasion in Iraq, ask an Indian" http://www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout4.php&id=842&blz=1

City of Phoenix
Office of the Mayor
A Proclamation
INDIGENOUS PEOPLES DAY

WHEREAS, the United Nations has proclaimed The International Decade of the World's Indigenous People for the period of 1995-2004 by General Assembly Resolution 50/157 of 21 December 1995; and

WHEREAS, the main objective ofthe International Decade of the World's Indigenous People is the strengthening of international cooperation for the solution of problems faced by indigenous people in such areas as human rights, the environment, development, health,culture and education; and

WHEREAS, a major objective of the Decade is the education of indigenous and non-indigenous societies concerning the situation, cultures, languages, rights and aspirations of indigenous people; and

WHEREAS, an objective of theDecade is the promotion and protection of the rights of indigenous people and their empowerment to make choices which enable them to retain their cultural identity while participating in political, economic and social life, with full respect for their cultural values, languages, traditions and forms of social organization;and

WHEREAS, the City of Phoenix is honored to derive the origination of its name from the history of the Indigenous Peoples recognized in the territory as the Hohokam; and

WHEREAS, the City of Phoenix is further honored to receive Mr. Wilton Littlechild, representing the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in regional consultation with the Indigenous Nations of Tlahtokan Aztlan.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, SKIP RIMSZA, MAYOR of the City of Phoenix, Arizona, do hereby proclaim Friday, March 7, 2003 as INDIGENOUS PEOPLES DAY in Phoenix.

Given under my hand in these free United States in the City of Phoenix, on the fifth day March two thousand three, and to which I have caused the Seal of the City of Phoenix to be affixed and have made this proclamation public.

(Signature of Skip Rimsza)
Mayor

Attest:
Signature of Susan I. Holden
Acting City Clerk