United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
Fourth Session - New York, May 19-27, 2005

Indigenous Peoples and Millennium Development Goals
Human Rights and Education

Recommendation and Action of Implementation
Submitted by: Tlahtokan Nahuacalli
Izkalotlan, Aztlan

Recommendation:

That in the implementation of convening of an expert seminar to assess data relating to mother tongue medium education (MTM), as recommended by the Expert Paper E/C.19/2005/7 submitted to the Fourth Session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, that a special attention be given to the concept of literacy, as defined by the diverse Indigenous Peoples in relationship to the development of prototype models of MTM learning systems and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples;

That in pursuit such data assessment and evaluation of model systems of learning and education, the Permanent Forum direct attention and resources to initiatives of the Indigenous Peoples in this regard and pursue action oriented strategies of engagement with such initiatives, example:

Action of Implementation
Nican Tlacah Ilhuitl - Hueyi Xinachtlahtokan, March 12, 2006, Izkalotlan, Aztlan

Background:

As with other crimes against Humanity, colonization was declared as a violation of international law by United Nations resolution GA1514 (1960), which states, “All Peoples have the Right to Self Determination”;

As Indigenous Peoples of the Continent Abya Yala, Itzachilatlan (the Americas) victims of colonization for centuries at the hands of imperial powers and colonizing government states, we continue to suffer from the effects of weapons of mass destruction in the form of constructs of social systems predetermined by the imposition of Doctrine and reinforced by paradigms of education.

Principle among these is the Doctrine of Denial, namely the denial of history by predetermining with ethnocentric prejudice the criteria of distinction between “historic” and “prehistoric” in terms of Human Cultural Identity and thus recognition of Universal Human Rights. The result is a systematic violation in particular of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in terms of History, Presence, and Destiny.

As consequence, the Doctrine of Denial is a denial of the basic Human Rights of our Indigenous Peoples, one which is perpetrated and supported by the “officialization” of versions of history as legitimate in terms of the colonizing legal systems. Instruction in these “official versions of history” are shielded from intellectual evaluation in the context of Indigenous Rights, and Universal Human Rights of all Peoples, by an imposed prejudicial construct of context that is inherent to the dominant definition of “literacy” as being the derivative of alphabetization, in exclusion of all other learning systems and script technologies.

Colonization thus perpetuates this crime against the cultural identity of our Indigenous Peoples, which are termed “prehistoric”, not for lack of history but for achieving integral systems of learning and literacy beyond the linear, and alphabetized script systems of the colonizing intellectual regimes. These regimes of intellectual domination are then projected as the norm and goal of all literacy projects across the planet.

The implications in terms of the correlations between Millennium Development Goals, Human Rights and Education of the Indigenous Peoples are especially significant in a Rights Based approach to the issues, as language and law are twin precepts that emerge from the First International Instrument of Humanity and archive of the Nican Tlacah: Huehuetlahtolli - Mother Tongue Media.

Tlazocamati.

Tupac Enrique Acosta, Yaotachcauh
Tlahtokan Nahuacalli

NAHUACALLI
Embassy of the Indigenous Peoples
PO Box 24009 Phoenix AZ 85074

printable .doc or .pdf formats

Pronunciamiento Político y llamado a los Pueblos Originarios de Abya Yala  (América).

La lucha de resistencia y proyección de los Pueblos Indígenas en América por sus territorios e identidad se extiende hoy a cada rincón del continente. A su frente encuentra al modelo capitalista - neoliberal que pretende imponer el proyecto imperial de dominación y saqueo sin límite. Este modelo no tiene identidad ni nacionalidad. Sin embargo su sostenedor son los países que buscan afirmar el poder y la hegemonía mundial: EE UU y Canadá.

Estos son los dos actores que identificamos de un conflicto que no acaba: un modelo económico que no tiene identidad ni nacionalidad (pero sí claros responsables) y los Pueblos indígenas del continente Abya Yala . Entre estos dos protagonistas centrales del conflicto se encuentran los mas de 30 Estados de Centro y Sud América que deben tomar una decisión: distanciarse de la hegemonía estadounidense ó replicar esa política de opresión y represión al interior de sus Estados. Subordinarse a EEUU ó plantearse políticas soberanas, junto a sus pueblos.

En este contexto, el gobierno canadiense esta patrocinando una “Cumbre Indígena en Buenos Aires” Argentina, una semana antes que se reúnan los presidentes de todo el continente incluido Bush. No podemos aceptar esta intromisión del gobierno de Canadá mientras sus compañías siguen explotando, contaminando nuestros territorios y conjuntamente con Estados Unidos son los que están imponiendo la inhumana globalización económica. Esta cumbre tiene por objeto utilizar a las organizaciones Indígenas, pues se llevará a cabo una semana antes de la Cumbre de los Presidentes, en Buenos Aires que esta a 420 kilómetros y con una agenda manipulada y orientada hacia convertir en mercancía nuestra cultura y territorio. La intención es muy clara: dividir al movimiento Indigena y separarnos de toda la sociedad civil y de los pueblos que por miles acudirán a Mar del Plata a debatir el futuro y denunciar la política globalizadora que se ha impuesto en nuestro continente. Se va afianzar así, la Manipulación, Colonización y Control que ejerce Canadá y EEUU sobre las sucesivas Cumbres.

Una Cumbre busca denunciar y acordar propuestas políticas para resguardar nuestros Derechos y Territorios y la otra cumbre busca desarrollar acuerdos comerciales y ofrecer al libremercado nuestra vida y recursos, auspiciada por los gobiernos del norte, que son los responsables.

Por lo tanto hacemos un llamado a nuestros hermanos de las organizaciones Indígenas del continente a no dejarse manipular por una cumbre que solo sirve a los propósitos políticos de los estados del norte, y los invitamos fraternalmente a sumarse a la Cumbre Continental de Pueblos y Organizaciones Indígenas, en Mar del Plata, para realmente deliberar sobre nuestro futuro y enviar un mensaje claro a los gobiernos y a la sociedad civil desde allí mismo.

Los Jefes de Estados de 34 países estarán reunidos los días 4 y 5 de noviembre en la ciudad de Mar del Plata, Argentina, en la IVª Cumbre de las América organizada por la OEA.  En el centro de atención de este evento - donde nosotros no podemos faltar - está el debate sobre mecanismos de control y explotación de las riquezas de nuestros territorios, biodiversidad, conocimientos tradicionales. 

Se perfeccionarán los instrumentos de saqueo y destrucción: aceitando la OMC, los diversos TLC’s, la imposición del ALCA, creando nuevas amenazas para el pago de la fraudulenta deuda externa, militarizando nuestras regiones para contener y reprimir la resistencia, criminalizando nuestras demandas e imponiendo las privatizaciones de los principales servicios públicos. En definitiva profundizando la pobreza, la desigualdad, la exclusión y fundamentalmente, avanzando hacia el exterminio ideológico de todo pensamiento cultural que cuestione la hegemonía y masificación de los países del norte.

Por esto nos movilizamos desde todos los extremos del continente. Llegaremos desde los valles y las pampas, las selvas y los desiertos, los cerros y los nevados, los mares y los ríos, para que el mundo nos escuche. Llegaremos desde territorios donde la conservación de la biodiversidad es una forma de vida, pero que hoy está amenazada de muerte sino se revierte la devastación y en muchos casos la invasión ya consumada, a manos de las multinacionales y en complicidad con los Estados. No es una lucha nueva. Solo retomamos y valorizamos la historia del movimiento indígena continental según nuestra historia común y nuestros criterios culturales: Primer Encuentro Continental – Quito, Ecuador 1990 – Segundo Encuentro Continental – Temoaya, México 1993 – Primera Cumbre Indígena Continental, Teotihuacan, México 2000  - Segunda Cumbre Indígena, Abya Yala, Quito, Ecuador 2004.

Para enfrentar tanta impunidad tenemos la fuerza y el poder que nuestros abuelos, nuestros antepasados, nos transfieren para venerar y defender a la generadora de vidas que es nuestra madre naturaleza. Las instituciones políticas, culturales y sociales que tenemos son la base sobre las cuales construimos la alternativa a tanto sinsentido. Como estaremos frente a los responsables directos de nuestra situación, nuestro análisis debe ser claro:

¿Qué legitimidad tienen EEUU y Canadá para imponer la libre competencia a Pueblos Originarios que nos hemos sostenido en base a la reciprocidad, redistribución y complementariedad diferente al mercado?
¿Cuáles van a ser los mecanismos y resguardos que vamos a implementar para garantizar la existencia de nuestros pueblos en un mundo de mercado que ejerce su poder cada vez mas concentrado y determinado por controles macroeconómicos?
¿Qué modelo de Estado vamos a demandar, donde la diversidad que representamos (cultural-biológica-geográfica) está instalada en los mismos ecosistemas estratégicos en los cuales se encuentran los recursos naturales “competitivos” que el mercado exige?
¿Cómo vamos a implementar la diversidad, con nuestros sistemas de identidad colectivos, con nuestras instituciones basadas en representaciones legitimadas comunitariamente y portadoras de principios de derecho sostenidas en milenios, ante un modelo de relaciones ciudadanas, sostenidas en la corrupción, el clientelismo, las “partidocracias” de la democracia empresarial de los Estados?
Debemos revertir el contexto de los siglos de colonización y la implementación del sistema de la OEA como organización regional de la ONU en actualidad,  siendo violación del derecho de “libre determinación” de los pueblos proclamado por las resoluciones 1514 y 1541 de la Asamblea General de la ONU en 1960.

Para esto, buscamos la transformación de los actuales Estados en Estado Plurinacionales donde se pueda ejercer previamente:

La Libre determinación como Pueblos Originarios preexistentes a la conformación de los modernos estados.
El control de nuestros territorios que habitamos por historia y derechos y los cuales son inalienables, imprescriptibles e inembargables.
Modelos de desarrollos propios en base a conocimientos y prácticas que garantizan la reproducción de nuestros pueblos y nacionalidades en armonía con nuestro entorno y que tienen como base propios criterios de bienestar y equilibrio
La Autonomía en los ámbitos políticos, jurisdiccionales, fiscal, territorial, de competencias culturales, etc.

Hoy, el desafío es muy fuerte y debemos construir una clara articulación con los movimientos sociales y culturales del continente, quienes crean que debe prevalecer la diversidad ante la libre competencia. Con los que resisten violencia y desalojos, traslados de sus territorios, represión cultural y física, los que siguen creando en medio de tanta impunidad.  Todo esto con el objetivo de encontrarnos en Mar del Plata el 30, 31 de Octubre y 01º de Noviembre como organizaciones y Pueblos Indígena.

MARICIWEU – JALLALLA – KAUSACHUM!  Todos Unidos avanzando!
Por ONIC – Organización Nacional Indígena de Colombia - LUIS EVELIS ANDRADE CASAMA
Por – AIDESEP – Asociación Interétnica de Desarrollo de la Selva Peruana Perú, HAROLDO SALAZAR ROSSI
Por Kus-Kura, Proyecto Ecológico Kan Tan- COSTA RICA  José Carlos Morales
Por el Comité Inter-Tribal, BRASIL, Marcos Terena<
Por el Enlace Continental de Mujeres Indígenas –ECMI: Margarita Gutiérrez
Por Instituto Wara-BRASIL Azelene Kaingang
Por Congreso General Kuna, Panamá, Representante  Héctor Huertas
Por CIDOB – BOLIVIA, Presidente de Confederación Indígena del Oriente Boliviano, Saúl Chávez
Por la Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas del Ecuador – C.O.N.A.I.E.- ECUADOR Luis Macas
Por Indigenous Environmental Network – I.E.N., ESTADOS UNIDOS, Tom GoldTooth
Por TONATIERRA - AZTLAN, Tupac Enrique Acosta
Por Abya Yala Nexus, ESTADOS UNIDOS Nilo Cayuqueo
Por el  Consejo de Organizaciones Lencas de Honduras, COPINH – HONDURAS, Salvador Zúñiga
Por Organización Fraternal Negra de Honduras, OFRANEH - HONDURAS.
Por Comisión de Juristas Indígenas en la República Argentina
C.J.I.R.A.- ARGENTINA, Dr. Eulogio Frites  – Dr. Eduardo Nieva
Por la COORDINACION DE ORGANIZACIONES MAPUCHE – ARGENTINA, Jorge Nahuel, Werken – Huilipan Verónica, Werken- Comité Operativo Local - Comunidades y Organizaciones Indígenas – Argentina

Secretaría de la Cumbre Continental de Pueblos y Organizaciones Indígenas
Lavalle 437 4º ‘B’. (CP 1047) Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires –
Tel./Fax: 0054 11 4326 2940
E-mail: cumbrecontinentalindigena@yahoo.com.ar
http://www.cumbreindigenabyayala.org

Ancient prophecy is modern reality

© Indian Country Today July 28, 2005.
by: Editors Report / Indian Country Today

Christians don't have a monopoly on prophecies that tell of an ''end of times'' or an end of an ''era.'' Many tribal nations, significantly the Hopi and the Haudenosaunee, but including many others such as Cree and Lakota in the North and Maya, Lokono and Maquiritari in the South, have prophecies within their spiritual traditions that describe an ''end of times,'' an era very similar to our present times and depicting or describing prophetic signs apparent to those who watch for such things. The signs, according to each culture and prophecy, reveal that major changes are afoot.

The Christian tradition is compelling in that it dictates a clear scenario for believers that accepts, on faith, the belief in the resurrection of Jesus' physical body from death itself. The resurrection myth propels to an end-tale with the return of the living Jesus. This ''Second Coming'' is to gather those who had believed in him as the only way to salvation. These would, in fact, be resurrected and ascended into heaven to live in eternal grace with their Lord. Everyone else, unfortunately, ends up in hell for torture and pain throughout eternity.

There are those who say that the Second Coming, which is also described as ''the Rapture,'' is already guiding American foreign policy. Certainly, it appears that the true believers within the present circle of U.S. policy makers and of many media outlets are steering toward connecting the worldly events in their various fields and departments to the sign of the coming Rapture. No doub t, many fully expect to be among those who board the celestial ship to life eternal. These analysts, mostly but not exclusively on Christian radio and television shows, conjecture for millions of Americans that propelling Israel as a major super military power in the Middle East and invading and occupying a whole country - Iraq - at the ''cradle of civilization,'' portends the acceleration of the struggle between ''good and evil,'' expectedly toward Armageddon, the final mother of all battles, after which comes the return of the living body of Jesus Christ.

Perhaps this is so, or perhaps it overstates the Christian case; but no one can deny we live in the age of terrific religious fervor, when more and more of humanity attaches itself to essential or elemental stories that are the basis of whole religions, whose dictates and strictures can often clash and expand into dangerous areas - including that of self-fulfilling prophecy. We are also in an era when the resources of the Earth that have fueled and supported industrial lifestyles are quickly diminishing. This is where some of the Indian prophecies come in.

John Mohawk, Seneca historian and Indian Country Today columnist, recalled not long ago the mutual visits by Hopi and Haudenosaunee traditionalists as early as 1948, where a prophetic tradition, popularly referred to as ''the purification,'' was exchanged. This was way before the ecology movement, before ''New Age'' and even before the ''energy crisis.'' The elder Indian spiritualists from the Hopi of that time not only had prophecies of meeting ''Indians from the East,'' they actually fulfilled their own tradition and traveled east to meet and tell the Haudenosaunee about it. The sincere exchange of views that followed saw these and other Native peoples review and renew their prophetic traditions and this dialogue, largely unrecorded, has gone on for more than a half a century after the 1948 visit.

Unlike the faith-based Christian liturgy, what the Hopi tradition warned about involved patterns of human activity on Mother Earth that had profound and predictable consequences. They expressed, as have most Indian traditionalists to this day, that the greed for material possessions and technological gadgetry had the potential to severely affect the systems of the earth and that this was in fact happening within Western civilization, which they were witnessing, and that they had been told they should warn all peoples about the impending changes and disasters.

No one listened then and too few are listening now, as the ancient Indian warning is diluted by modern economic and political concerns, but the message does resonate with observers of our current energy crisis who tell us of major and very difficult changes ahead for most of humanity.

The American ''way of life'' predicated on the wanton consumption of cheap oil is in its last throes. Quantitative reality points to severe developing problems with industrial civilization and its dependent systems. We are entering what a well-researched book recently excerpted in Rolling Stone magazine terms the ''end of the cheap-fossil-fuel era.'' (''The Long Emergency'' by James Howard Kunstler, Rolling Stone, March 24, 2005.)

The term ''global oil-production peak'' is very important in this context. This is the ''turning point,'' when global production will generate ''the most oil it will ever produce in a given year,'' after which annual production can only decline. U.S. oil production peaked in 1970 at 11 million barrels per day. Currently some 20 million barrels a day are consumed just in the United States, which produces 5 million and imports the rest.

There is now developing consensus that the global oil-production peak, expected by 2010, is happening now - in 2005. The remaining half of the world's oil deposits is in large measure unextractable; that which is extractable is increasingly difficult and costly to extract, of poorer quality and located mostly in places hostile to the United States. The industrial world's principal source of energy, which underwrites everything about the international and particularly the industrial economies - from transportation to heat to food to the hugely integrated range of most other production - is drying up fast.

The new energy crisis is permanent. The cheap energy, cheap food and cheap living produced by cheap oil has no detectable replacement that can sustain the current industrial lifestyle. And not only oil, but natural gas is also declining (by five percent a year), with steeper declines expected. Most power plants built after 1980 and half the homes in America run on gas. Nuclear energy, touted by some once again, comes from plants such as Three Mile Island and has many serious unsolved problems, in long-term radioactivity control and waste storage, which generate intense opposition in the population.

It gets worse: clean water is also diminishing fast. Already, globally, more than a billion people don't have safe drinking water. About 15 million children under the age of 5 die miserably each year from drinking polluted water. (See: ''With a Push From the U.N., Water Reveals Its Secrets,'' William J. Broad, The New York Times, July 26, 2005.)

The news on declining oil and water, and on costly extreme weather disasters, is sobering. The convergence of forces now seen as permanent reveals trends that will severely change life as we know it, limiting Western technological society and altering the familiar economics and social planning of the 20th century.

Large-scale social change could help. But while these threats compound, the American media and major news channels grow shrill while losing the ability to tell schlock from substantive and useful information. Socially asleep at the wheel and led by the easy profits of ''reality'' shows, infotainment of bizarre cases and celebrity gawking, most basic reporting is replaced by hackneyed pundits repeating their spin on channel after channel. Public trust and doctrines of fairness are now hostage to profit incentives. No major idea or power in the current society is likely to be challenged, investigated and analyzed for fear of losing its corporate or governmental support.

Breaking through this wall of disregard for natural reality was the intent of the elders who came out of their remote communities to tell their prophecies and perceptions in the mid-20th century. Because they did not call for miracles over life and death, because they did not request we ''act on faith,'' their admonitions merit attention more than ever today: they said that the new way of using up the earth will have dire consequences; indeed, the new reality is of a world where the promise of industrial progress is much reduced.

The elder Indians spoke of food self-sufficiency and of fighting tenaciously for your lands as the basis of tribal survival. They urged the younger generation to stay close to the earth, aware of the sources of good water and land for growing useful plants and animals as the ''real economy.'' They spoke of staying physically active and the people striving to work together in harmony. Even back then, they warned the leaders to prepare for a future of great un certainty. ''Prepare from the ground up,'' they said. ''Community by community and family by family, learn to do these things for yourselves.''

Given the callous disregard for these life-threatening issues by America's current political and media leadership, the elders' advice - to do for ourselves and to prepare to meet all conditions - might be as good as we are likely to get.

Raiz de Aztlan
Crece y madura
En Los ojos de nuestros
Hijos y hijas.
Sus pies, floating
On the
Memory
of river water.

As with many other indigenous traditions from the length and breadth of the Western Hemisphere, there exists with the Xicano-Azteka historical accounting and recounting the theme of transformation of the worlds, the arrival and traveling of the people through great periods of change, epochs of distinct character for humanity and the Earth. These cycles, which include aspects of both light and shadow, take their names from the count of calendric symbols that describe the Tonatiuh, the power of the sun, for that era. They have been described as the Five Suns, and their historical narration is found in the Kuauhxicall, an Azteka stone monolith sometimes called the Sun Stone, or the Aztec Calendar. This calendric system is well recognized for the mathematical and astronomical exactness with which it continues to serve the indigenous nations of Itzachilatlan, Abya Yala – Las Americas. Distinct from the count of time, and thus the sense of history, of the so called “West”, our calendar is not linear but cyclical. History for us has a human face not technological. It is astronomically measured in terms of generations, a common proportion that is inextricably colored by our orientation in space, and that of our home the Mother Earth – in this universe of the Four Directions.

It has always been good to wonder. We as Indigenous Peoples of the continent have been wondering for over 500 years now about the arrogance of the European-American presence on our homelands, their claims of “Discovery”, and the moral and legal justifications given to not only colonize the continent, but to shield an ongoing colonization from impartial intellectual scrutiny. At a time in world history when the concept of nation-state that grew to dominate international law and politics from its foundations in feudal Europe is increasingly being recognized as inadequate, where will the European- Americans abandon their racist concept of state and nationality? When will they give up on being “white”?

This question is not meant to be rhetorical, but if the discussions in progress between mainstream environmental activists and organizations and the communities of color are to establish working collaborations, the institutionalized racism inherent in all sectors of European-American society must be addressed. The foundations of environmental racism must be exposed, in particular as they reflect the political doctrines of genocide and colonization of the native nations of the Americas. Environmental racism is a term gaining popular recognition daily, but the attempts by the Environmental Protection Agency to jacket the issue by calling it, “environmental equity” is like turning toxic pollution into a multi-cultural festival. It doesn’t address the root of the problem. Was not the slaughter of the vast buffalo herds of the Great Plains an example of environmental racism???

From an indigenous perspective, the issue of environmental racism as it has become to be defined is only the latest manifestation in contemporary industrial and economic mode of an assault that began 500 years ago in the Americas. On May 3rd and 4th of the year 1493, Pope Alexander VI issued the Papal Bull Inter Cetera by which he granted “dominion” to the European Christian Royalty justifying a claim for title to the territories of the Western Hemisphere under the concept of Discovery. Beyond the question of “dominion”, the philosophical basis for living “off of” and not “with” the land, the right to Discovery was restricted to the European. It became a race concept when it was codified and made a legal identity as “white”. The U.S. Civil Rights laws to this day use as the standard for juridical evaluation the “rights of white persons ”. Again, the question from indigenous people: “How did it come to pass that one branch of the family of mankind has isolated and elevated itself to define a superior race identity based on skin color?” When will this form of American apartheid be exposed?

In the spring of 1984, an alliance of indigenous nations met in the construction zone of a Central Phoenix highway and began an effort to communicate to the World our understanding of this problem, and attempt to initiate a solution. The site called, La Ciudad, had been an ancient settlement of the people known as the Hohokam. These were the original constructors of the canal systems that when modernized led to the establishment of the Phoenix of today. There had been removed from the site some one hundred cremations which were taken to the state university for study. It was the old “Discovery” and “dominion” doctrine once again, which was not surprising considering that the original Papal Bull of 1493 has never been revoked and continues to serve as the legal justification for all the Nation-states claiming jurisdiction in the Americas. The gathering of the alliance at the site lasted four days, and one result was the initiation of a campaign to revoke the Doctrine Discovery as a violation of the Human and Environmental Rights of the aboriginal peoples of the Americas.

This linkage between Human Rights and Environmental Rights is a movement which now, nearly ten years later, is gaining momentum throughout the world. And around the world, it is indigenous nations that are leading the movement. The same doctrines of political and racial exclusion that are the foundation of environmental racism within the United States are an integral part of the international order as well. As Indians are not “persons” within the meaning citizenship of the U.S. Constitution, Indigenous Peoples are not considered Peoples within the United Nations but only indigenous populations. Defined as minority populations, the indigenous nations of the world are precluded from invoking rights of self-determination established by international norms, and are forced to take drastic actions against the efforts of Nation-states to illegally claim their territories, such as happened as Wounded Knee South Dakota in 1973.

The Wounded Knee confrontation of 1973 resulted in a trip to the United Nations in New York by the Lakota Chiefs. Their intentions were to speak on the floor of the General Assembly as sovereign nation, with a valid treaty with the United States Government- the Treaty of 1868. It was nearly twenty years before a Lakota spoke on the floor of the General Assembly. The occasion was the inauguration of the International Year of Indigenous Peoples, declared by the United Nations for the year 1993. Indigenous representatives from throughout the world arrived to express with a natural dignity the message of the caretakers of the Earth. The continental and worldwide resistance to the glorification of the Columbus Quincentenniary by the colonizer governments had forced the United Nations to listen to the true nations of the world. That, and the undeniable and impending ecological catastrophe threatening the planet, which the indigenous people hold the key to averting, signaled the arrival of the new but yet ancient power for all mankind – a new sun.

There were concrete proposals presented to the General Assembly. One was the revocation of the Papal Bull of 1493. Another was to collaborate with the UN Sub-Commission on Prevention Discrimination and Protection of Minorities for the purpose of advancing the linkage between Human and Environmental Rights. But what was most evident was that the great transformations sweeping the world are destined to place the bloc of indigenous nations, some 300 million around the world, as the major global counter factor to the New World Order. In fact this has always been so. It has always been the people of the land who care for the Earth as a sacred mother to the generations of all life. It has always been the tradition of the indigenous nations to look upon our Father Sun as the source of life for all humanity. Within the aboriginal nations of the world is the accumulated wisdom and knowledge of the entire human experience, not only the past 500, 2,000, or 5,000 years. And for the true nations of the world, there is only one race- the human race.

To we in Itzachilatlan (the Americas) has fallen a great responsibility in this global effort to reestablish the path of balance for the human family. Across North and South America the Indian Nations are in movement, uniting in anticipation of the historical moment that will surely come soon now. It always was there, in our calendar and in our prophesies. The Confederation of the Eagle and the Condor has been reinvoked, and wind of their wings bring a great change. This transformation has been called the coming of the Sun of Justice. With roots in indigenous precepts of natural law, the equilibrium of nature, and the integral part that humanity has in the web of life is the aboriginal concept of justice observed in harmony with the natural world of reciprocity. Environmental Justice.

Fall 1993

TREATY  of  TEOTIHUACAN

NAHUACALLI
Embassy of the Indigenous Peoples
Continental Cultural Exchange Project
From the Yukon to the Andes
June 12-14th, 2005
802 N. 7th Street
Phoenix, AZ
Tel: (602) 254-5230  

Nohuanyolqueh - Good Greetings Relatives, By the time the 15 representatives of the Tlingit Nations arrive in Phoenix on Sunday June 12th, they will have traveled far from their home in the Yukon Territory of British Columbia Canada, and yet they will not even be half way to their final destination as Cultural Ambassadors to the Quechua Aymara Nations of Tawatinsuyo.  They are Elders, storytellers, craftsmen, artists, dancers, musicians and media experts on their way to Peru to complete a cultural journey of reunification and spiritual strength, demonstrating the unbroken cultural identity – North and South - of the Indigenous Peoples of the entire continent Abya Yala, Itzachilatlan – the Americas.  

During their four day stay in Phoenix, the delegation will be hosted by the Nahuacalli – Embassy of the Indigenous Peoples in central Phoenix.  A series of cultural exchanges are planned, including visits to the O’Odham Nations communities and informal get-togethers with our local community of Indigenous Peoples.  There are needs: transportation, food and above all – your presence and prayers.  If you are interested in participating or want to help out in any way, contact:

Tupac Enrique Acosta, Yaotachcauh Tlahtokan Nahuacalli Tel:(602) 254-5230  

Email: chantlaca@aol.com  

Cuarto Foro Permanente Para Las Cuestiones Indgenas
De Naciones Unidas En Materia De Derechos Humanos.

Mayo 2005

Intervencin Del Caucus De Migracin Y Desplazamiento De Los Pueblos Indgenas. (Guatemala, Mexico, El Salvador, Panama,
Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Estados Unidos Y Canada)

  Somos los que con dolor y coraje dejamos atrs a nuestras familias, huyendo de la pobreza y el hambre, de la violencia y la represin de la que somos victimas, los que luchamos por el respeto de nuestros Derechos y por salir de la marginacin y miseria , somos los mismos que, con la esperanza en la mano y la tristeza en la espalda, caminamos largos das y noches, buscando no mucho, sino lo suficiente para sobrevivir, educar y mantener a nuestros hijos. Somos los que cruzan los desiertos, montaas, ros y mares aguantando el calor, el fri y la soledad.

Somos los que morimos ah en la frontera y en los caminos y nadie dice nada.

Nosotros los que ahora nos llaman inmigrantes o extranjeros en nuestra propio territorio,

Somos las mujeres que tenemos que usar una ropa en la que no nos sentimos cmodas por temor a la discriminacin y el racismo y a ser reconocidas y ser deportadas, sin embargo mantenemos el legado de nuestra Cosmovisin.

ESTADOS UNIDOS:
Somos a los que se nos dice da a da que no somos bienvenidos y bienvenidas en los Estados Unidos y en otros pases de refugio. Se crean leyes racistas y discriminatorias como la Ley 200 de Arizona , donde nos niegan el Derecho a acceso a la salud, a la educacin de nuestros hijos, el Derecho a trabajar, el Derecho a la libertad de movimiento.

Las polticas antiinmigrantes de Estados Unidos desatadas despus de Septiembre 11 del 2001 han tenido un impacto en nuestra comunidad, un grave ejemplo de esto es el surgimiento del grupo paramilitar, mercenario, supremacista, autodenominado Minutemen. que estuvo patrullando la frontera de Arizona durante pasado mes de Abril, practicando abiertamente su racismo, xenofobia mediante la caza de personas que intentaban cruzar la frontera y el mas reciente grupo llamados Patriotas de Guayuma y que el Gobierno Federal no tomara ninguna medida en contra de estas practicas inhumanas, es indignante.

Otro ejemplo es, hace dos semanas el presidente George W. Bush firmo una ley que se llama REAL ID, donde bajo el pretexto de la seguridad de la nacin se violaran los Derechos mas elementales y los Derechos civiles en la que los mas vulnerables seriamos las y los Indgenas, con esta ley pondra al Departamento de seguridad Nacional por encima de la Ley, al entregarle el poder absoluto y sin precedente de no acatar las leyes Federales, estatales y municipales, incluyendo Leyes de carcter Ecolgico, Laboral,

Civil y penal, al igual que las Leyes estipuladas para salvaguardar los Derechos de los Pueblos Indgenas- con el objetivo de facilitar la construccin de muros y caminos en la franja fronteriza. La decisin de no acatar estas leyes federales, no podr ser revertida por las cortes y tampoco ser sujeta a una revisin administrativa, an si el accionar del Departamento de seguridad Nacional causa daos y prejuicios a habitantes, comunidades, el medio ambiente, etc.

E l REAL ID complicara el proceso de asilo poltico para quienes huyen de la persecucin y buscan refugiarse en los Estados Unidos.

El REAL ID obligara a los estados de Estados Unidos de no proporcionar licencias de conducir a emigrantes indocumentados, que sin duda incrementar la discriminacin y provocar violaciones a los Derechos Civiles.

PANAMA Y COSTARRICA:
Actualmente Costarrica no reconoce el pueblo Ngobe-Bugle por consiguiente no se le respeta sus Derechos como ciudadanos, se le priva de sus derechos elementales, al cabo que se impone medidas restrictivas en la frontera que afecta el libre movimiento de los indgenas.

PERU:
En el Per durante la violencia poltica, en las dos ultimas dcadas muchas comunidades Andinas y amaznicas han sido arrasadas, ocasionando un promedio de 2 millones de desplazados internos que estn ubicados en las periferias de las grandes ciudades, en una situacin calamidosa sin un techo propio y sin ningn servicio bsico con enfermedades, los nios sin educacin y sin ningn trabajo digno para poder sobrevivir.

COLOMBIA :
Es preocupante la situacin de los Pueblos Indgenas en cuanto a migracin se refiere ya que debido a la constante lucha que el Gobierno ejerce en contra de los grupos armados ilegales, los Pueblos transfronterizos se vuelven mucho mas vulnerables. Es el caso de los Wayu, que poseen territorio en los estados de Colombia y Venezuela, quienes han sufrido durante los ltimos 5 anos un indiscriminado exterminio por parte no solo de los grupos ilegales sino tambin de la fuerza publica. Esto ha conllevado a que mas de 1000 indgenas Wayu hayan abandonado su territorio. En la actualidad, los que han migrado forzosamente hacia Venezuela, no han recibido todava el estatus de refugiados y son considerados extranjeros en su propia tierra, y los que se encuentran dentro de Colombia, no reciben las atenciones oportunas, mientras son perseguidos, hostigados y amenazados por defender sus derechos sobre el territorio ancestral.

GUATEMALA:
En la dcada de los 70s y los 80s varios grupos tnicos del Pueblo Maya de Guatemala se vieron obligados a abandonar sus territorios debido a la violencia desatada por la Guerra civil que dejo mas de 200,000 entre muertos y desaparecidos, la cual se vieron obligados a emigrar hacia Estados Unidos y otros pases, en donde tuvieron que enfrentar no solo las barreras imaginarias de frontera, sino tambin las del idioma. En la actualidad, sufren de las aplicaciones de las polticas en contra de los migrantes en Estados Unidos, que disminuyen cada vez ms las posibilidades para desempearse en trabajos dignos y poder recibir los beneficios pblicos como licencias de manejo, salud y educacin. Las violaciones a sus derechos se incrementan ms con la aplicabilidad de Real ID, y los sentimientos antimigrantes y racistas existentes.

Seora presidenta y dems miembros y miembras del foro permanente respetuosamente, proponemos las siguientes recomendaciones:

1. Que a travs de la ONU se exija los Estados Unidos de Norteamrica una regularizacin migratoria urgente y ordenada que incluya la reunificacin familiar, la restauracin de los Derechos y libertades civiles, la proteccin de los Derechos Laborales.

2. Hacemos un llamado a los organismos de la ONU a que insistan en el respeto a los Derechos Humanos de migrantes y Pueblos Indgenas en la regin fronteriza sur, tanto de Estados Unidos como la de Mxico y tambin en las regiones fronterizas de Colombia con Venezuela y el Ecuador, y tambin el pleno respeto a los Derechos Humanos de los desplazados por los conflictos armados como los de Colombia y Per, Guatemala y Mxico. no queremos ms muertes de Indgenas.

3. Reafirmamos la tradicin ancestral de los pueblos indgenas de su ejercicio del Derecho a la libre movilidad, y su reconocimiento en la actualidad; y tambin su Derecho al arraigo en sus territorios tradicionales, y a no ser desplazados como resultado de la imposicin de polticas econmicas, conflictos armados, y otros fenmenos que lesionan sus derechos humanos colectivos e individuales.

4. R espeto de los Derechos colectivos y el reconocimiento la poblacin Indgena Ngobe-Bugle se le garanticen su respectivo derechos laborales de vivienda y seguridad social como pueblo indgena migratorio.

5. Que a travs de la ONU se exija a los gobiernos que desarrollan estrategias de guerra como el Plan Colombia, Plan Patriota, Tratado de Libre comercio, Plan Puebla Panam, iniciativa para la regin Andina entre otros. Detener estos acuerdos que solo aumentan las causas subyacentes de las migraciones de los Pueblos Indgenas.

6. Que el foro permanente exija al gobierno Peruano la verdad, justicia y la implementacin del plan integral para las Pueblos indgenas desplazados por la violencia poltica y que se traduzca en la atencin integral y cumplimiento de los derechos econmicos, sociales y culturales.

7. Que el foro permanente solicite la recuperacin de las tierras comunitarias para la poblacin desplazados.

8. Que se brinde todo el apoyo necesario pera que la comunidad Andina-Amazonica pueda sembrar, cosechar y comercializar sus productos.

9. Que existan centros de salud integral, en particular sobre salud mental.

10. Que exista una reparacin econmica para las familias (en primer grado) de los desaparecidos, discapacitados, hijos, viudas y mujeres violadas durante la violencia politica.`

Muchas gracias.

http://www.tonatierra.org/
http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/index.html

  Intervencion del Los Pueblos Indigenas: Derechos Humanos - Migracion

United Nations Headquarters, New York
Thursday May 19th, 2005

It was an informal meeting of good will and dialogue between the legation of the Indigenous Peoples in attendance at the Fourth Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, and the representative of the Holy See, the Vatican State.  When the Nican Tlacah were presented the opportunity to identify themselves, in relation to the initiative being discussed to revoke and rescind the Papal Bull of Alexander VI 1493, the Yaotachcauh of Tlahtokan Nahuacalli stated, “ I would say we are Nations” and then turning to the Representative of the Holy See, asked:

“Wouldn’t you?”

The response:  “Yes, Yes …..Yes, Yes.”

For more information on the developments regarding the above, including the call to the Conscience of Humanity being circulated at the Permanent Forum during the current session concerning the issue of the Vatican Papal Bulls which have served as intellectual instruments of justification for Genocide, Ecocide and Crimes against Humanity, see:

http://ili.nativeweb.org
http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/index.html

United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
Fourth Session

Indigenous Peoples and Millennium Development
Goals Human Rights and Education

Recommendation and Action of Implementation
Submitted by: Tlahtokan Nahuacalli
Izkalotlan, Aztlan

Recommendation:

That in the implementation of convening of an expert seminar to assess data relating to mother tongue medium education (MTM), as recommended by the Expert Paper E/C.19/2005/7 submitted to the Fourth Session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, that a special attention be given to the concept of literacy, as defined by the diverse Indigenous Peoples in relationship to the development of prototype models of MTM learning systems and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples;

That in pursuit such data assessment and evaluation of model systems of learning and education, the Permanent Forum direct attention and resources to initiatives of the Indigenous Peoples in this regard and pursue action oriented strategies of engagement with such initiatives, example:

Action of Implementation
Nican Tlacah Ilhuitl - Hueyi Xinachtlahtokan, March 12, 2006, Izkalotlan, Aztlan

Background:

As with other crimes against Humanity, colonization was declared as a violation of international law by United Nations resolution GA1514 (1960), which states, “All Peoples have the Right to Self Determination”;

As Indigenous Peoples of the Continent Abya Yala, Itzachilatlan (the Americas) victims of colonization for centuries at the hands of imperial powers and colonizing government states, we continue to suffer from the effects of weapons of mass destruction in the form of constructs of social systems predetermined by the imposition of Doctrine and reinforced by paradigms of education.

Principle among these is the Doctrine of Denial, namely the denial of history by predetermining with ethnocentric prejudice the criteria of distinction between “historic” and “prehistoric” in terms of Human Cultural Identity and thus recognition of Universal Human Rights.  The result is a systematic violation in particular of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in terms of History, Presence, and Destiny.

As consequence, the Doctrine of Denial is a denial of the basic Human Rights of our Indigenous Peoples, one which is perpetrated and supported by the “ officialization” of versions of history as legitimate in terms of the colonizing legal systems. Instruction in these “official versions of history” are shielded from intellectual evaluation in the context of Indigenous Rights, and Universal Human Rights of all Peoples, by an imposed prejudicial construct of context that is inherent to the dominant definition of “literacy” as being the derivative of alphabetization, in exclusion of all other learning systems and script technologies.  

Colonization thus perpetuates this crime against the cultural identity of our Indigenous Peoples, which are termed “prehistoric”, not for lack of history but for achieving integral systems of learning and literacy beyond the linear, and alphabetized script systems of the colonizing intellectual regimes. These regimes of intellectual domination are then projected as the norm and goal of all literacy projects across the planet.

The implications in terms of the correlations between Millennium Development Goals, Human Rights and Education of the Indigenous Peoples are especially significant in a Rights Based approach to the issues, as language and law are twin precepts that emerge from the First International Instrument of Humanity and archive of the Nican Tlacah: Huehuetlatolli - Mother Tongue Media.

Tlazocamati.

Tupac Enrique Acosta, Yaotachcauh
Tlahtokan Nahuacalli

NAHUACALLI
Embassy of the Indigenous Peoples
PO Box 24009  Phoenix AZ 85074

TONATIERRA Tel: (602) 254-5230 Email: chantlaca@aol.com www.tonatierra.org

Tlahtolli Nahuacalli - Nican Tlacah Ilhuitl - Izkalotlan, Aztlan

United Nations Permananent Forum on Indigenous Issues Fourth Session
New York, 16-27 May 2005

Side Event Challenging the Doctrine of Discovery Christianity,
the Papal Bulls and Manifest Destiny

Co-sponsored by the American Indian Law Alliance and the Seventh Generation Fund  
Tuesday, 17 May 2005 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm
United Nations Church Center 777 UN Plaza,    
Second Floor (directly across 1st Avenue from the U.N.)  

The panel will discuss the importance of rescinding the Papal Bulls of the XV and XVI centuries.  For hundreds of years now these critical documents issued by the Catholic leadership have resulted in the unequal application of international and domestic law.  The adverse affects of the Papal Bulls continue to threaten the survival, cultural integrity and equal legal standing of Indigenous peoples.  

Invited Panelists include:   Chief Oren Lyons, Onondaga Nation Faithkeeper Ms. Tonya Gonnella Frichner, American Indian Law Alliance Ms. Esmeralda Brown, Southern Caucus of NGOs, United Methodist Office for the UN Mr. Alex White Plume, Oglala Lakota Mr. Steven Newcomb, Indigenous Law Institute Mr. Birgil Kills Straight, Oglala Lakota Dean James P. Morton, Interfaith Center  

 American Indian Law Alliance 611 Broadway, Suite 632
New York, NY  10012 212-477-9100
aila@ailanyc.org http://www.ailanyc.org/

II Continental Summit of Indigenous Peoples and Nations Abya Yala Kito Kara Territories Quito, Ecuador July 21-25, 2004  

Issue:  Call for Tribunal of Justice, by all Humanity, in the Court of the Indigenous Peoples Abya Yala regarding the Doctrine of Discovery of the Americas, specifically the ongoing colonization and genocide perpetrated with the guise of intellectual authorization of the Papal Bull INTER CETERA of Pope Alexander VI, 1493.  

Action: We call for a permanent tribunal of justice at all levels of humanity across the globe, to    address this issue in the historical and legal context of the universal principles of justice and jurisprudence of the Indigenous Peoples.  

Precedent: Geneva, August 1, 1991  
Chief of State of the Vatican Pope John Paul II Rome, Italy

The indigenous delegates present at the Palace of Nations, in Geneva, Switzerland, in debate regarding the Universal Declaration of the rights of Indigenous Peoples, convened by the "Working Group on Indigenous People" of the United Nations, hereby present and declare:  

In view of the declaration on May 3, 4, 1493, of the Papal Bull INTER CETERA, by which territories of Indigenous Peoples are conceded to Spain and Portugal, without taking into account the material or spiritual rights  of the Indigenous Peoples in the case of ABYA YALA (America) and other parts of the world;  

In defence of the sacred rights of the indigenous people, and in promotion of human dignity and harmony that should reign among humanity on this planet;  

For all these purposes:  

1) We demand from the Vatican state a denunciation of the unilateral treaty of Pope Alexander VI (TORDESILLAS) as being contrary to the Universal Human Rights of Peoples.  

2) Whereas the year 1993 completes 500 years of a supposed spiritual conquest without clear rectification of this universal injustice, allowing the nation-states that have benefited from the inheritance of Pope Alejandro VI to continue programmes of genocide and ethnocide, denying the indigenous people the recuperation of a harmony based on reciprocal human respect, we demand that the Papal Bull of May 3, 4, 1493 ÍNTER CETERA be annulled.  

3) We direct John Paul II to accede to universal concepts of justice including the spiritual and material rights of Indigenous Peoples, in furtherance of life, harmony of human beings with our Sacred Mother Earth, and the spiritual peace of the Great Creator in accord with the cosmovision of each one of our Indigenous Peoples, free from all oppression.  

Thus we proclaim in the name of Human Dignity, in harmony with our Mother Nature and in the Spirit of Truth.  

Signed,  

The indigenous delegates, and organizations.  

****

II Cumbre Continental de Pueblos y Naciones Indígenas Abya Yala Territorio Kito Kara Quito, Ecuador Julio 21-25, 2004

  Resolución para Acción Presentado a la Plenaria Entregado por: 
Tlahtokan Nahuacalli, Izkalotlan Pueblo, Aztlan  

Tema:  Un Llamado por un Tribunal de Justicia, por toda la Humanidad, en la Corte de los Pueblos Indígenas de Abya Yala, para hacer juicio en la cuestión de la Doctrina de Descubrimiento de las Americas, específicamente la colonización y genocidio actual perpetrado bajo la autorización intelectual de la Bula INTER CETERA del Papa Alejandro VI, 1493.  

Accion: Hacemos un llamado por un tribunal permanente de justicia en todos niveles de la sociedad global, para hacer juicio en la cuestión, desde el contexto histórico y legal de la justicia universal en concordancia con la jurisprudencia de los Pueblos Indígenas.  

Precedente:  
Ginebra, agosto 1 de 1991  
Señor Jefe de Estado Vaticano Papa Juan Pablo II Roma, Italia.  

Los delegados indígenas presentes en el Palacio de las Naciones en Ginebra, Suiza, debatiendo la Declaración Universal de los Derechos de los Pueblos Indígenas convocados por el "Grupo de Trabajo sobre Pueblos Indígenas" de las Naciones Unidas, por este medio nos presentamos y declaramos:  

En vista que en los días 3 y 4 de mayo de 1493, el Papa Alejandro VI emitió la Bula ÍNTER CETERA, por la que concede territorios de los Pueblos Indígenas en el caso de ABYA YALA ("América") y otras partes del Mundo, sin el CONSENTIMIENTO INDÍGENA ni el Derecho de Gentes, tanto en el plano espiritual como en el material ;  

En salvaguarda de los sagrados derechos de los Pueblos Indígenas, la dignidad humana y la armonía que debe reinar entre nosotros los humanos en este Planeta,  

Por todos estos propósitos:  

1) DEMANDAMOS al Estado del Vaticano, denunciando el tratado unilateral del Papa Alejandro VI (TORDESILLAS), por ser contrario a los Derecho Humanos Universales.  

2) Que el año 1993 se cumplen 500 años de una supuesta conquista espiritual y sin que se verifique fehacientemente una rectificación de esta injusticia universal, donde permita recuperar la armonía con el respeto humano de los Pueblos Indígenas y reparar el genocidio y etnocidio cometido por los Estados que recibieron los beneficios de la herencia del Papa Alejandro VI, exigimos que se derogue la Bula ÍNTER CETERA de 3 y 4 de mayo de 1493.  

3) Que Juan Pablo II debe atenerse a la validez universal del concepto de Justicia distributiva incluyendo los Pueblos Indígenas con sus derechos espirituales y materiales, en pos de la vida y de los seres humanos en armonía con nuestra Madre Tierra y la Paz Espiritual con el Sumo Hacedor, de las cosmovisiones de cada uno de nuestros Pueblos Indígenas, libres de toda opresión.  

Que así lo exigimos en nombre do la Dignidad Humana en armonía con nuestra Madre Naturaleza y en el Espíritu de la Verdad.  

Firmas,  

Los delegados indígenas y sus organizaciones.
www.tonatierra.org  
www.cumbreindigenabyayala.org

Modern and Classic Nahuatl Course

www.tlahui.com

Las universidades tradicionales forman –-o mejor dicho deforman-- para competir, para ser más que los otros, el éxito como la manifestación plena del egoísmo. Así crean y recrean un ambiente académico terriblemente neurótico en donde sólo los más aptos son aceptados, verdaderas máquinas de datos, de conocimientos, fabricados para la conquista y el dominio de los demás.

En Tlahui educamos para cooperar, para trabajar solidariamente en conjunto. Más que la capacidad de recordar datos retenidos de manera compulsiva, la inteligencia es la aptitud para encontrar relaciones entre los pensamientos y generar otros nuevos. Es la habilidad para encontrar la información que permita comprender y resolver problemas. El conocimiento es un bien colectivo que se desarrolla mucho mejor en la cooperación y la solidaridad.

Rechazamos cualquier tipo de discriminación, incluyendo la intelectual. La raza, sexo y edad jamás han determinado la inteligencia. Podemos aceptar que la efectividad intelectual es distinta entre las personas, pero su capacidad es siempre semejante, más que eso, en el proceso de enseñanza – aprendizaje, con frecuencia los lentos al principio son los que llegan más lejos.

El náhuatl es más que una lengua, es parte fundamental de la cultura, sentimientos y espíritu de un pueblo. Su estudio implica el compromiso humanista que resulta de la comprensión de lo que fue y es hoy el pueblo náhuatl. Los estudiantes y profesores comparten las aspiraciones de libertad y prosperidad que abrigan los corazones de quienes se niegan a aceptar como inamovible el estado de marginación y miseria a la que se le ha confinado a las comunidades indígenas.

http://www.tlahui.com/nahuatl/index.html

Indigenous Peoples Oppose National Geographic & IBM
Genetic Research Project that Seeks Indigenous Peoples DNA

Press Release
Dated: April 13, 2005

Released by: Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism
Contact: Debra Harry dharry@ipcb.org or Le`a Kanehe lkanehe@ipcb.org
Tel: 001 (775) 574-0248
Cell: 001 (775) 338-0079

(Nixon, NV) The Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism (IPCB) is alarmed at the launching of new global genetic research project that will focus on the collection of Indigenous peoples DNA. The National Geographic Society and the IBM Corporation announced the launch of the Genographic Project today that purports to “help people better understand their ancient history.” The project, funded by the Waitt Family Foundation, expects to collect 100,000 DNA samples from Indigenous peoples around the world. The taking of samples will be coordinated by ten worldwide regional research centers. With centers in Australia, Brazil, North America and Southeast Asia, Sub-Sahara and South Africa, this project is certain to affect many Indigenous peoples around the world.

The IPCB, an Indigenous organization that addresses issues of biopiracy began its work in 1993 to oppose the Human Genome Diversity Project (HGDP), a project so fraught with ethical and scientific problems it failed to get endorsement from the National Science Foundation, or UNESCO. Debra Harry, who is Northern Paiute and serves as IPCB’s Executive Director, noting this new project’s similarities with the HGDP, said, “This is a recurrent nightmare. It’s essentially the same project we defeated years ago. Some of the actors are different, but also some are the same. With the founder of the HGDP serving on this new project’s advisory committee, I can’t help but think this is simply a new reiteration of the HGDP.”

The HGDP faced international opposition by Indigenous peoples who considered the project an unconscionable attempt by genetic researchers to pirate their DNA for their own means. That experience has led to strong advocacy by Indigenous peoples to insure human rights standards are entrenched in research. Cherryl Smith, a Maori bioethicist from Aotearoa (New Zealand) said, “Indigenous groups around the world are much more aware of biopiracy, and our own human and collective rights in research. In the past ten years, we have developed extensive networks of Indigenous peoples who are knowledgeable and active in defense of their rights.”

Le`a Kanehe, a Native Hawaiian who serves as the IPCB’s Legal Analyst, gives the example of the Havasupai Tribe, who filed a lawsuit in 2004 against Arizona State University for the taking and misuse of their genetic samples. “Indigenous peoples are holding scientists accountable for use of their genetic material without prior informed consent, which is the accepted legal standard.” The tribe authorized diabetes research, but later discovered their samples were used for schizophrenia, inbreeding and migration theories.

The Genographic Project press release claims that an international advisory board will oversee the selection of Indigenous populations for testing as well as adhering to strict sampling and research protocols. The HGDP was unable to secure federal or UN support for failure to meet ethical concerns and standards. The Genographic Project has striking similarities to the HGDP. Dr. Jonathan Marks, genetic anthropologist and board member of the IPCB, said, “The HGDP was terminated because of intractable bioethical issues. Has IBM and National Geographic been able to remedy those issues? I don’t think so.” Harry is similarly concerned that the Genographic Project is an attempt to escape public and legal scrutiny by going private.

Kanehe says that “It’s interesting how in the past racist scientists, such as those in the eugenics movement, did studies asserting that we are biologically inferior to them; and now, they are saying their research will show that we’re all related to each other and share common origins. Both ventures are based on racist science and produce invalid, yet damaging conclusions about Indigenous cultures.”

IPCB Chairperson Judy Gobert (Blackfoot), said, “These kinds of projects have to stretch to claim any tangible benefits to Indigenous peoples. Somehow, the Genographic Project has led its Indigenous participants to believe its work will insure their people’s cultural preservation. There is a huge disconnect between genetic research and cultural preservation.” Smith says, “If they really want to help promote Indigenous peoples cultures there are more productive ways and methods for doing so.”

Noting the project’s goal to map the migratory history of humankind through DNA, Marla Big Boy, a Lakota attorney on IPCB’s board, says, “Our creation stories and languages carry information about our genealogy and ancestors. We don’t need genetic testing to tell us where we come from.” Big Boy notes with concern that the project proposes to do studies on ancient DNA. “We will not stand by while our ancestors are desecrated in the name of scientific discovery.”

The IPCB is calling on all Indigenous peoples, and our friends and colleagues to join in an international boycott of IBM, Gateway Computers (the source of the Waitt family fortune), and National Geographic until it’s demand that this project be abandoned are met. Harry said, “We are prepared to stop projects that treat us as scientific curiosities. We must act to protect our most vulnerable communities from this unwanted intrusion. We resisted the HGDP, and we will defeat this proposal as well.”

For more information contact:

Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonism ipcb@ipcb.org www.ipcb.org

Indigenous Peoples Oppose Genetic Research Project - The Recurrent Nightmare