my title was: 'Western Shoshone challenge the Bush Administration'

Western Shoshone protest war

Posted: November 29, 2004
by: Brenda Norrell / Indian Country Today

PHOENIX, Ariz. - Western Shoshone Carrie Dann urged American Indians not to be a part of the slaughter of women and children in Iraq. Dann called on Native young people instead to rise to defend Native nations, as the Bush administration steamrolls America and Iraq for corporation gain.

''This government has treated indigenous people as the enemy and now they are fighting this war for them,'' Dann said, speaking at the Nahuacalli Indigenous Embassy in downtown Phoenix.

Dann said America's promise of democracy has never been fulfilled to Indian nations; their treaties were never honored.

''I have not seen democracy in action as far as indigenous people are concerned.''

Upholding the Western Shoshone Treaty of Ruby Valley of 1863, Dann said President Bush's signature on a bill for payment for Western Shoshone land was an illegitimate exercise of power.

''Western Shoshone land is not for sale,'' Dann said.

Dann questioned whether the Iraqi people would be subjected to a U.S. orchestrated government, designed to enrich oil corporations, in the same manner that American Indian tribal governments were initiated by the U.S. government for the purpose of seizing their land and energy resources.

''American Indians have been controlled by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Is there going to be a Bureau of Iraqi Affairs? Are they going to be treated the way we are treated?''

''It is a war against indigenous people of that land for one reason, for the petroleum, for the oil. We are fighting for a corporation.''

Referring to the colonization of this country, she said Indian people once welcomed newcomers who later massacred them. ''We are being oppressed today by the same people we welcomed.''

Dann said it is wrong for indigenous people to be involved with taking the lives of women and children in Iraq. ''It is not the indigenous belief to hurt women and children. I do not think we have a right to do this.''

Although Pres. Bush said Americans are liberators and not conquerors in Iraq, Dann said she sees no proof of liberation or democracy in Indian country.

''If it can't happen here, I can't see that it will happen there. Our young people should not be going to fight for democracy over there, when it is not working for us here.

''They should defend their own nations first,'' Dann said, urging them to use their educations to protect their own people.

While the United States continues to violate the human rights and property rights of American Indians, she said the spiritual essence of their lives is being violated. ''We are tied to this land.''

Speaking on behalf of the generations yet to come, Dann said she is taking a stand for the land, water and air and the spiritual and cultural ways that bind indigenous people together.

''Our indigenous lands are sacred and they are not for sale.''

Julie Fishel, staff member at the Western Shoshone Defense Project, said Pres. Bush has promised to represent all Americans and Native people should hold him accountable. Pointing out that Bush spoke recently of America's ''moral values,'' Fishel said American Indians have not seen proof of this.

''The treatment of the first people of this land is so atrocious,'' Fishel said, pointing out America's failure to honor Indian treaties. She said Western Shoshone have been under increased pressure from the Bush administration in recent years and the U.S. Interior for the past seven years.

The Bureau of Land Management is upholding impound notices for Western Shoshone livestock in Nevada on Aboriginal territory secured by the Treaty of Ruby Valley of 1863.

Threats and pressures are escalating for Western Shoshone. Some who have not paid trespass fines are being told the matter will be turned over to the IRS, making it possible for the U.S. to seize their bank accounts and private lands.

The pace of gold mining exploration has been accelerated in the region of their sacred mountain, the place of their creation stories.

Urging a united presentation to the United Nations, Fishel urged indigenous people to join the Western Shoshone with their stories of human rights abuses and the seizure of their lands by corporations, working in collusion with the United States government.

Tupac Enrique Acosta, coordinator for Tonatierra Community Development Institute at the Nahuacalli Indigenous Embassy, held the sacred staff of the Eagle and Condor of the Peace and Dignity Runners across the American continents from the north and south.

Opening the presentation, Enrique said Phoenix is Aboriginal O'odham territory and in every direction are the remains of the descendants of the Hohokam whose spiritual presence remains.

Enrique welcomed the Western Shoshone, with a message from his people from the south. ''These are our relatives. Our history, our languages and our blood are tied together.''

Enrique shared the support by resolution for the Western Shoshone from the 2nd Annual Continental Summit of Indigenous Peoples and Nations of Abya Yala (Americas) in Ecuador.

The support follows the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights' final report in 2003, stating the United States claims to Western Shoshone land are illegal and contrary to international human rights law. The Commission concluded that the United States had used illegitimate means to assert ownership of the lands.

The press conference at the Nahuacalli was held as U.S. forces continued to attack Fallujah on Nov. 9, after a hospital in the city was bombed in violation of the Geneva Convention.

Pointing out the targeting of Native youths for recruitment in the U.S. military, Enrique said a call is being made to all indigenous nations to stop sending their young people to Iraq. He urged Indian nations to send a strong message: ''We are not sending indigenous people to this war.''

Indigenous people, he said, uphold the warrior tradition and want to fight for honor, but he said there is no honor in the war in Iraq.

Enrique said indigenous people have a sacred responsibility and obligation to carry forward this message of peace on behalf of all indigenous people struggling to be recognized as nations.

Enrique spoke of hope in America.

''At some point in the future this nation will regain its dignity.''

Photo courtesy Jolynne Woodcock Carrie Dann	Brenda Norrell Indian Country Tupac Enrique Acosta

Nican Tlacah Ilhuitl
Indigenous  Peoples  Day
March 12, 2005
 
Message to the City of Phoenix
 


Tlahtokan Aztlan, the annual Traditional Gathering of Indigenous Nations is now set to be hosted once again at the Nahuacalli, Embassy of the Indigenous Peoples located in downtown Phoenix on March 12th, 2005.  As in years past he day will be celebrated by the official Proclamation of Nican Tlacah Ilhuitl – Indigenous Peoples Day by various entities of governance ranging from regional municipalities, the State of Arizona, the County of Maricopa, and the Nations of the Indigenous Peoples themselves.  The City of Phoenix, through the Office of the Mayor, has always held a lead role in these events.

In fact in 2003 it was the City of Phoenix Human Relations Commission who greeted Mr. Wilton Littlechild, Rapporteur of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues who then received from the City of Phoenix the Proclamation of Indigenous Peoples Day. For Indigenous Peoples Day 2005, we have once again extended invitation to Mr. Littlechild and other dignitaries of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues to attend.  As we move forward in the planning phase for the Nican Tlacah Ilhuitl 2005, we count on the City of Phoenix to continue to support and participate in a series of community events related to Indigenous Peoples issues.

With support from the Barrio Garfield, and other partners from both the Urban and Sovereign Indian Nations of the territory, we shall be integrating an Economic Summit as part of the events of this coming year’s Indigenous Peoples Day.  The TIANKIZCO, Indigenous Peoples Fair Trade Zone shall serve as focus for this summit, being a project moving into implementation with support from the Economic Development Administration of the US Department of Commerce in the form of a first phase planning grant, and other initiatives of local support including TONATIERRA.

Two themes of special interest which have echoed in the town halls and the many meetings where current downtown development plans have been discussed are the transition concepts of the Knowledge Economy and Biosciences.  Historically and culturally, these two concepts have always been intertwined among the life sciences of the Indigenous Peoples.  Contemporary writers in the field refer to the search for memes, essential units of meaning, as the basic constructs of human culture and social stability.  Comparable to the search for information and knowledge in the more limited field of genetic research, the search for meaning is more than just the search for answers.  It is an aspiration to wisdom, which in the economic sense would describe a reciprocal ecological relationship with the land, and the world in global dimension.

We now present to the City of Phoenix the Nican Tlacah Ilhuitl 2005 as an anchor event in furtherance of the highest and best use of our collective and individual interests on behalf of our long range community sustainability.

The four gourds of an ocean planet

article by Eric Jackson, photos by Susan Little
www.thepanamanews.com/pn/v_10/issue_21/community_01.html

On October 27 people from many of the indigenous nations of the Americas --- some of whom had run in relays all the way from Tierra del Fuego in the south or Alaska in the north --- met on the Bridge of the Americas at the terminus of their Peace and Dignity Journeys. After the several dozen travelers from the north and south met at the middle of the bridge, the group set up camp near the west end of the span, at the old Thatcher Ferry landing, for the Continental Ceremony of the Tears of the Eagle and Condor.

There they built a ceremonial fire, and one by one the travelers came to the fire, paid their respects in the four directions, and held the sacred staffs they carried in the fire's smoke.

Most participants carried more than one staff --- one from his or her own community, and one or more from communities that did not have the human or financial resources to send anybody to Panama, but at least wanted to participate through their revered symbols. These sacred staffs were as diverse as the many original nations of the Americas. Many were decorated with feathers or fur, others topped with crystals. Bows and arrows, blowguns and darts, and canoe paddles in the Pacific Northwest style were among the symbols sent by the different communities.

One of the journey's organizers from the north, Arizona resident Tupac Enrique Acosta, asked "What did you call this continent before 500 years ago?" It was not a linguistic trivia question. Acknowledging that the different indigenous nations of the Western Hemisphere have their distinct languages and cultures, he nevertheless asserted that "We are all one continental people, speaking with one voice."

"Before the Spanish came," Acosta said, "there was contact between us and the Kuna." In this event at least, those ties were re-established. Lucindo "Kuala" Gómez, a Kuna, was deeply involved in making the preparation for this part of the intercontinental event.

Kuala noted ancient Kuna legends that predicted that men white like the inside of a banana and black like charcoal would come to rob and kill. That came to pass, and now, he said, "the Great Western culture is dominating our culture," taking advantage of divisions among the Kuna, fragmenting the indigenous comarcas with mining concessions and educating children to forget their languages and cultures.

The ceremony, Kuala said, was "to cure Mother Earth of everything bad the white man brought."

One of the metaphors alluded to by a number of people in the camp was of the Panama Canal as an unhealed wound across the continent, and of the Grandmother Sea teaming up with the Sacred Fire to heal the coastline of the Americas. Thus the Four Gourds of ocean waters, from the northeast, southeast, southwest and northwest coastlines of the hemisphere, sprinkled upon the fire.

Sarah James, who hails from Arctic Village in Alaska, agreed with Acosta and Kuala about the ancient ties. "We used to have communication by runners --- that's how we knew what was going on on the other side of the world. We need to bring this back."

James is politically active in her own community, which depends on hunting and fishing, and particularly upon the caribou herd that migrates through her part of Alaska and Canada's Yukon territory. She is also a veteran of international affairs, including as a participant in the international indigenous summit that took place in 1990 in Ecuador, the Rio de Janeiro earth summit and a visit to Nicaragua during that country's Contra War, a time when much of the Miskito homeland was turned into a war zone by non-indigenous forces. To her, the 1990 gathering in Quito, from which this and several other Peace and Dignity Journeys as well as other projects flowed, represented "the rebirth of the Indian nation."

On the home front, James is very concerned about the survival of the caribou herd, which she points out is, unlike some of North America's other herds, purely wild rather than a hybrid of wild caribou and domesticated reindeer. She believes that global warming and possible oil drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Reserve could either drive the herd to extinction or change its migration in ways inimical to her community's interests. While in Washington ANWR and its environs may be viewed as a series of mineral exploitation grids on a map, and to many environmentalists it's the final unspoiled frontier, it's a way of life for Sarah James. "From time immemorial caribou is our life --- it's our shelter, our song, our culture, our food on the table. We call ourselves the Caribou People."

With the global warming problem, James fears a more direct harm than merely being stripped of a culture and deprived of the bulk of a traditional food supply. As the ozone layer thins at the poles, she said, "my people are the ones who are going to get burned up first, even though we're not the ones doing the polluting."

Potential ecological catastrophe is not James's only hometown concern. She lives in a community where there are hardly any jobs, but which owns 1.8 million acres of land, including the mineral and water rights, and is thinking in terms of how these assets can be managed to give the young people more opportunities than a subsistence economy permits, while at the same time preserving a traditional way of life.

While James spoke mainly of the practical realities of daily life, Acosta emphasized spiritual terms --- for example declaring that "[t]he loom of history and prophecy, of memory and dream, already shows in symbolic scriptures the message for the future generations. The message is now clearly seen, and understood. It is Father Sky who is the author; it is Tonatzin, our sacred Mother Earth, who records the weave for the whole world, and for eternity." His was a fitting approach for an essentially spiritual event. However, he also added that in addition to the cultural and spiritual sides of the international movement that assembled 14 years ago in Quito, there are also important economic and political aims.

To most of the people with whom The Panama News spoke, however, it would be a mistake to compartmentalize the movement's aims into separate components. Moreover, opinions about the terminology to be used varies within the group. For example, talking to René, a Quechua born in Potosi, Bolivia who ran in the relays all the way from Tierra del Fuego to Panama, the use of the word "religious" to describe the ceremony around the fire would be mistaken. "Everyone carries his or her understanding," he explained, and the use of the word "religious" might mean one thing to some people and a different thing to others, and then when that word gets translated from one language to another the possibilities for misunderstanding multiply. "We are not religious. We are traditional people," he emphasized.

And while James talked about the rebirth of the "Indian nation," others don't like some of the other words that describe the original inhabitants of this hemisphere, or for that matter naming this side of the world after the Italian adventurer Amerigo Vespucci. "'India' comes from Greek for 'without God,'" Kuala argued, adding that the European roots of the word "indigenous" means "without origins." Discarding the terms "Indian," "indigenous," "Native American" and aboriginal, people of the traditional cultures tend to fall back on their own languages and their own names for themselves, which in the great majority of cases translate to English as "the people."

As Cecilio Maciel, a teacher from Paraguay and a member of the Angaite ethnic group, put it: "There are no Indians, nor indigenous. Aboriginals, natives --- that's what we are. It means people."

The differences go beyond the semantic. For instance, at the ceremony there were participants from Panama's Kuna and Ngobe nations, but no Embera, Wounaan, Bokota, Naso or Bri Bri on hand. The elected political leaders of this country's indigenous communities and the symbols of the Christianity that any indigenous Panamanians have embraced were also absent. As Kuala put it, "Many say that we're crazy for this ceremony. But they're crazier than all, because they get their religion from Israel."

There were also different attitudes about dealing with the press, beyond the unity around the point that it would be inappropriate to photograph the ceremony around the fire. One woman who came from the Yukon spoke of Canada's Aboriginal Peoples Television Network as a reality in her community, and among the Paraguayan institutions that Maciel described were media in his country's original languages. However, many of the others in the group came from communities without their own mass communications media, and everyone was aware of a long train of abuses by the corporate mainstream media. Thus some of the Peace and Dignity Journey participants wanted to exclude the press entirely, and most of the rest wanted to deal with the media only through selected spokespeople. In any case, this event was not staged for the press and that's a concept that many of the ignorant savages of the press corps found difficult to fathom. As far as this reporter can tell, The Panama News, Canal Once and the magazine that's published for COPA airline flights were the only news organizations that showed up and were willing to play by the organizers' rules --- and even then there were some awkward moments about picture taking.

The runners and other participants from North and South America camped out here for four days, both by the bridge and at a hotel and in a vacant building near the Lottery headquarters. A few stayed a bit longer. The impressions of Panama that they shared with this reporter were generally positive. "I am enchanted by your customs," Maciel said. "I have rested well, they have treated us well, and there has been no discrimination."

TONATIERRA
Community Development Institute
PO Box 24009
Phoenix, AZ 85074

PRESS RELEASE
November 9, 2004
Contact: Tupac Enrique Acosta
(602) 254-5230, or (775) 397-1371

Indian Wars Continue in Nevada 2004

Western Shoshone Nation Calls Bush Administration Land Bill a Fraud

Phoenix, AZ – As open war rages in Fallujah, Iraq the home front faces an insurgency of its own, one where the Indigenous Nations stand with principles of spiritual nonviolence to assert their ancestral responsibilities as the true caretakers of the homeland. Western Shoshone Nation elder Carrie Dann will speak today at a press conference in Phoenix to address the violation of the 1863 Ruby Valley Treaty between the United States and the Western Shoshone Nation. The issue was addressed by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), which in January of 2003 sentenced in a final report by the Commission that the United States claims to Western Shoshone land are illegal and contrary to international human rights law. The IACHR also concluded that the United States had used illegitimate means to assert ownership of the lands. Said Carrie Dann, "It's disgraceful how the United States makes international statements about human rights and then commits this kind of assault in our own backyard. It destroys their credibility and moral authority".

After an exhaustive review, the Commission concluded that the United States has been violating the human rights of the Western Shoshone, including the right to equality before the law, the right to judicial protection and due process, and the right to property. The ruling was highly critical of the Indian Claims Commission’s handling of the Dann Sisters’ case. It is the first time that the US has been formally found in violation of international human rights in its treatment of Indigenous Peoples within its border.

In attempt to silence the opposition by the Western Shoshone Nation to the theft and illegal mineral expropriation of Western Shoshone territories, third largest gold producing area in the world, the Bush administration has moved to silence the legitimate land claims of the Western Shoshone under the 1863 Ruby Valley Treaty with a domestic monetary settlement which the Western Shoshone call a fraud and illegal act of aggression against the Western Shoshone Nation.

Press Conference
4:00 PM
NAHUACALLI
802 N. 7th Street, Phoenix

NAHUACALLI
Embassy of the Indigenous Peoples
October 13, 2004

Brothers and Sisters of the Indigenous Nations of the Continent:
Nohuanyolqueh,

Good greetings once again from the Indigenous Nations and Pueblos of Aztlan. May your the powers of Memory, Conscience, and Will of your altepetl continue to guide the life of your nations, and also that we may collectively define with greater strength and clarity our presence and future in the international and global arena.

In the early spring of the year 2003 a traditional gathering of our Nations and Pueblos of the Aztlan territories convened at the Nahuacalli, Embassy of Indigenous Peoples in Izkalotlan. Mr. Wilton Littlechild, rapporteur of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues attended this regional consultation in his official capacity as member the Permanent Forum, an advisory body under the Economic and Social Council of the UN. The official documentation within the UN system of this traditional gathering, Tlahtokan Aztlan, which consists of the Declaration of Aztlan and recommendations in the form of a Plan of Action is found at:

E/C.19/2003/CRP.2

The convocation of the Tlahtokan Aztlan as a regional consultation of our Indigenous Nations and Pueblos was given under the dual mandate of the principles which direct our movement: Tradition and Liberation. These same principles guided us to convene the First Continental Indigenous Summit of Teotihuacan, Mexico in 2000 organized by the Council of Indigenous Nations and Organizations of the Continent (CONIC). It was at this summit that the Treaty of Teotihuacan was ratified in traditional manner, proclaiming before the world and in representation of the Indigenous Peoples of the Continent, an international indigenous accord with four areas of mutual commitment:

1. Spiritual Alliance
2. Political Solidarity
3. Cultural Understanding
4. Pochtecayotl - Economic and Commercial Agreements of Exchange

Drawing from the power of spiritual offering, the instruments of the archive of reality, to now present before the Indigenous Pueblos and Nations of the Continent the Sacred Staffs of the Confederation of the Eagle and the Condor, we submit that:

1. An official point of reference has been established within the international processes which warrants collective evaluation at the continental level of Indigenous Nations, Pueblos and Organizations. A platform and context of empowerment in the international arena which we ourselves have constructed, not the government states, now exists which could serve as a permanent root or guiding principle for the international work, which lies ahead. As precept to the concept of self determination, it is necessary that our powers of self definition remain INDOMITABLE.

2. This political space now established within the international arena should be incorporated as a basic element of our empowerment strategy, implementing other regional consultations such as Tlahtokan Aztlan in other regions of the continent. If we are successful in organizing such consultations within the complementarity already established under our TREATY of TEOTIHUACAN, the uniting of strength as Indigenous Nations and Pueblos of the continent is inevitable.

At the Continental Indigenous Summit of Teotihuacan México 2000, the dynamics of intercontinental communications among the Indigenous Nations, Pueblos and Organizations was discussed at length, and a proposal was adopted: Implementation of the continental networks of communication would be in dual format - via the modern technologies, and with the Sacred Fire.

As follow through on this commission, and as responsible organization in the Aztlan territories we now deliver this report that the delegates of the Continental Confederation of the Eagle and the Condor, upon presentation of the Declaration of Teotihuacan 2000 and the Great Seal of the Treaty of Teotihuacan, these were reaffirmed at the II Continental Summit Abya Yala of Indigenous Nations and Pueblos held July 21-25 in Quito, Ecuador.

We are the ancestors of the future generations. Please contact our office, for updates regarding the work of implementation of the mandates of our Treaty of Teotihuacan, and the call to the Altepetl Nican Tlacah now set for March 12, 2005 in Izkalotlan.

Tlazocamati. Tupac Enrique Acosta
Yauhtachcauh, Tlahtokan Nahuacalli
chantlaca@aol.com

NAHUACALLI
Embajada de los Pueblos Indígenas
c/o TONATIERRA
Tel: (602) 254-5230
P.O. Box 24009 Phoenix, AZ 85074

Tlatol : Message to the Continent

Augusto 2004

BOICOT INTERNACIONAL CONTRA WALMART Y COSTCO-COMERCIAL MEXICANA POR LA DEFENSA DE NUESTRO PASADO Y EL ESTADO DE DERECHO

El Frente Civico pro Defensa del Casino de la Selva y el El Frente Cívico en Defensa del Valle de Teotihuacan  convocan:

A ACTUAR EN CONTRA DE WALMART Y COSTCO COMERCIAL MEXICANA. EMPRESAS CORRUPTAS DESTRUCTORAS DE NUESTRO PATRIMONIO EN TEOTIHUACAN, EL CASINO DE LA SELVA, TEXCOCO.

Demandamos que se clausuren las tiendas en  Teotihuacan, el Casino de la Selva, de Texcoco, Atizapan y Cd. Sahagun ahora violentadas por empresas transnacionales.

POR MÉXICO – PROMUEVE NO COMPRAR O CONSUMIR EN WALMART, COSTCO COMERCIAL MEXICANA, AURRERA O RESTAURANTES CALIFORNIA  o VIPS

Fcpcdls: www.laneta.apc.org/procasino

Frente Norte Teotihuacana
Friday October 8, 2004

Relatives,
Yesterday I was on a radio program, Native America Calling out of Albuquerque, the theme of which was Wall Mart at Teotihuacan.

A Wall Mart representative was also on the on-air panel, along with another reporter calling in from Mexico City.

I am not pleased to report that although I had one intervention at about midway into the hour program, I was not given any more opportunities (although I attempted repeatedly) to intervene and rebut the Wall Mart positions which went out uncontested for the most part. My mike was dead (phone line). We are still evaluating what actions to take, yet in conversation yesterday with Maya Vision in California, we had an intial discussion regarding:

Frente Norte Teotihuacana

This information we have also shared with the ANIPA (Asociacion Nacional Indigena Plural por la Autonomia) of Mexico , who will be sending a representative north during the first week of November , Lorena Gutierrez, to present on Issues of the Indigenous Pueblos of Mexico (including the issues of Sacred Sites in Mexico - Teotihuacan)

For your consideration and advise.

Tupac Enrique Acosta
chantlaca@aol.com

Background information:
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2267/is_2_70/ai_107489499

"Like millions of indigenous people elsewhere, Mexican Indians demand rights to cultural self-determination. They insist on the right to live according to traditional usos y costumbres , to self-government in accord with local practices and customs. They demand recognition as collective units, and have fought for the inclusion of the term pueblo--peoples--in the constitution. Their claims for collective rights include bilingual education, the right to local and regional autonomy, and to communal land as the basis of the cultural reproduction of the group.

These demands are seen by many as a threat to both emergent and established democracies. Demands for collective rights are in tension with the commitments of liberal democracies to individual rights. Moreover, demands for autonomy and self-determination are perceived to be threatening to the national identity of the state. If democracy rests in part on an ideal of "the people" as a cohesive group that has the capacity to deliberate together to achieve consensus, then the demands of some of the people for autonomy, and for recognition of their difference, threaten to undermine the fabric of the national culture. At an extreme, the very borders of the state are at stake, as groups make demands for self-determination and even independence.

By and large, theorists of democracy and multiculturalism have failed to develop an account of the contemporary salience of such demands for cultural recognition, focusing instead on theories of human identity to explain the politics of indigenous rights claims. They argue that demands for cultural recognition are an expression of the individual's attachment to his or her cultural group. As Will Kymlicka says, the bond between individuals and their cultural groups is simply "a fact ... whose origins lie deep in the human condition, tied up with the way humans as cultural creatures need to make sense of their world, and that a full explanation would involve aspects of psychology, sociology, linguistics, the philosophy of mind, and even neurology" (Kymlicka, 1995: 90). Charles Taylor argues that human identity is constituted by cultural group membership, and an individual's sense of self worth is thus deeply tied to the value that others attach to his or her cultural group. As a result of this "new understanding of the human social condition," cultural recognition can be construed as a necessary component of individual recognition, and misrecognition can reasonably be considered a form of oppression (Taylor, 1994: 25-26). If cultural group attachment is a feature of the human social condition, liberal theory had better deal with cultural group rights if it is to be relevant.

Against this backdrop, the contemporary emergence of cultural claims for recognition is seen as a result of the homogenizing threats of modernity, and the frequency with which previously insular cultural units come into contact with one another and with the penetrating reach of the liberal state and neoliberal economic policies. Demands for cultural recognition seem to stem from a protective instinct in defense of the familiar and the local. Taylor states, for example, that "in pre-modern times people didn't speak of 'identity' and 'recognition'--not because people didn't have (what we call) identities, or because these didn't depend on recognition, but because these were then too unproblematic to be thematized as such" (1994: 35). It is only in the present era that the possibility of misrecognition has generated the conditions of oppression. In a sympathetic vein, Seyla Benhabib argues that "the continuing subjection of tradition to critique and revision in a disenchanted universe make it difficult for individuals to develop a coherent sense of self and community under conditions of modernity" (1992: 81). The demand for cultural recognition springs from a crisis of identity as human beings are buffeted by misrecognition and incoherence in a (modern or postmodern?) world.

Deborah Yashar strikes a similar chord in her analysis of the recent emergence of a Latin American indigenous rights movement as a defensive reaction against external threat to the community. Yashar argues that corporatism, coupled with the failure of the state to penetrate the countryside in most Latin American countries, protected indigenous ways of life in a de facto autonomy of neglect. By adopting neoliberal economic policies that privatize communally held land and extend market forces into rural areas, however, the state began in the mid-1980s to threaten the coherence and traditions of indigenous life (Yashar, 1998, 1999). In general terms, Taylor, Benhabib, and Yashar argue that cultural group identity is salient because it is newly threatened by the coexistence of competing groups and commitments in contiguous spaces, and by the homogenizing drive of globalization.

While such theories seem to capture something of the human social condition in an atomized world in which we all suffer from weakened attachment to family and community, they capture little of the strategic and political context in which such claims are formulated and advanced. Using a case study of the emergence of the Mexican indigenous rights movement, I argue that indigenous claims for autonomy and collective rights are not an expression of the universal human need for cultural recognition. Nor do they reflect a retreat to the familiar realm of identity in the face of the incoherence and atomization of a globalizing world. Nor, finally, are they primarily an attempt to safeguard traditional practices, beliefs, and forms of life from the threat of modernity and homogenization.

Instead, indigenous identity is the condition of participation in a global political dialogue.

"The politics of indigenous identity: neoliberalism, cultural rights, and the Mexican Zapatistas"
     Courtney Jung

Septiembre 10, 2004

C. Lorena Guerrero Moreno
Tuliman, Guerrero, Mexico
Delegada de la Asamblea Nacional Indigena Plural por la Autonomia , y de la
Coordinadora Nacional de Mujeres Indigenas

PRESENTE:
Por este medio confirmamos la INVITACIÓN para que puedas visitarnos y compartirnos las experiencias sobre el trabajo que han desarrollado con los pueblos y comunidades indígenas de México; en particular, participes en una serie de Foros y Reuniones de trabajo con nuestros pueblos y comunidades con los temas: “MORATLIDAD MATERNA, DERECHOS SEXUALES Y REPRODUCTIVOS DE LAS MUJERES INDÍGENAS”, del 17 de octubre al 15 de noviembre del 2004.

Te reiteramos que todos los gastos de traslado y estancia serán cubiertos por nuestra organización.
Esperamos que la presente facilite los trámites y gestiones para tu viaje, entre estos la reposición de tu VISA ante la Embajada de nuestro país en México, que como nos habías confirmado, te fue expedida con una vigencia de 10 años.
Seguros de tener la dicha de tu pronta visita que permita estrechar aún más lo lazos de amistad y hermandad entre nuestros pueblos, recibe fraternos saludos

ATENTAMENTE,

Tupac Enrique Acosta, Coordinador
TONATIERRA

Frente Norte Teotihuacana - Boycott Wallmart

Columbus Day: Celebrating a holocaust

by: Brenda Norrell / Indian Country Today

"Then, as one of the cavalrymen later told it, while his compatriots were slaughtering and mutilating the bodies of all the women and all the children they could catch, he spotted the boy trying to flee," wrote David Stannard in "American Holocaust."

"There was one little child, probably three years old, just big enough to walk through the sand," wrote a Calvary man.

"The Indians had gone ahead, and this little child was behind following after them. The little fellow was perfectly naked, traveling on the sand. I saw one man get off his horse, at a distance of about seventy-five yards, and draw up his rifle and fire - he missed the child. Another man came up and said, 'Let me try the son of a bitch; I can hit him.'"

"He got down off his horse, kneeled down and fired at the little child, but he missed him. A third man came up and made a similar remark, and fired, and the little fellow dropped."

Stannard, board member of the new American Indian Genocide Museum being established in Houston, said the most massive act of genocide in the world followed the arrival of Columbus in the Americas.

"The danger lies in forgetting," said Elie Wiesel, in a book of oral histories of the Jewish Holocaust.

"Forgetting, however, will not effect only the dead," Stannard said. "Should it triumph, the ashes of yesterday will cover our hopes for tomorrow."

"To begin, then, we must try to remember."

When Columbus first sighted land on Oct. 12, 1492, the American Indian Holocaust began. The Spanish were driven by their lust for gold and silver and the English fueled by their desire for property. Christians killed with zeal those they believed defiled with sin. Spain needed labor and set up missions in order to convert Natives. The English, however, did not bother. Their goal was exterminating the Indian race.

"Just 21 years after Columbus' first landing in the Caribbean, the vastly populous island that the explorer had re-named Hispaniola was effectively desolate; nearly 8 million people - those Columbus chose to call Indians - had been killed by violence, disease, and despair."

Within a handful of generations, following their first encounters with Europeans, the vast majority of indigenous peoples in the Americas were exterminated.

Overall, 95 percent were obliterated.

"What this means is that, on average, for every 20 Natives alive at the moment of European contact - when the lands of the Americas teemed with numerous tens of millions of people - only one stood in their place when the bloodbath was over."

While remembering the millions that were tortured, enslaved, murdered and eliminated by spread of diseases, Stannard said it is important to remember that each was a sacred and treasured human life.

Putting a human face on the Indian people who died, like the little boy whose remains were mangled at Sand Creek, Stannard said life should be remembered, as one reads of the Jewish Holocaust and horrors of the African slave trade, because the genocide has never stopped.

The Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States observed that 40,000 people simply "disappeared" in Guatemala during the 15 years preceding 1986. Another 100,000 were openly murdered.

"That is the equivalent, in the United States, of more than 4 million people slaughtered or removed under official government decree - a figure that is almost six times the number of American battle deaths in the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War combined."

Almost all the dead and disappeared were Indians, direct descendants of the Mayas. Still today, indigenous in the Americas are tortured and slaughtered, their homes and villages bombed, while more than two-thirds of their rain forest homelands have been intentionally burned and scraped into ruin.

Hispaniola was only the beginning.

© 1998-2004 Indian Country Today.

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The Offering of Cemanauak

The Four Gourds : World Water One

Tupac Enrique Acosta

The Sacred Staffs of the Peace and Dignity Journeys are now at the doorway of Kuna Yala, both North and South, ready to fulfill their mission of regenerating the Memory, Conscience, and Will of the Indigenous Nations of the continent.  The continental ceremony of reunification of the tears of the Eagle and the Condor will initiate on October 27.

As sacred instruments, what gives the staffs their power is the spiritual offerings which they have been gifted by each one of the creators, the runners, those who dreamt the vision, and all of the Indigenous Nations which realized the dream across the length and breadth of our mother continent, North, Central and South.

The weaving in now nearly complete.  The loom of history and prophecy, of memory and dream, already shows in the symbolic scriptures the message for the future generations.  The message is now clearly seen, and understood.  It is Father Sky who is the author; it is Tonantzin, our sacred Mother Earth who records the weave for the whole world, and for eternity.

And now the stars lend an ear, stretching slightly closer in order to better hear what their great great grandchildren of the Human Family, those of Abya Yala Itzachilatlan, will say.  In the moment of silence it is heard, it is felt.  The great seal of the Sacred Fire appears and from the coast of the continent the grandmother Sea initiates the healing of the entire planet.

Without a coastline there is no continent.  The Sacred Staffs have done their part.  The physical skeleton, the bone and blood infrastructure of our continental culture has been reincarnated in present tense: it is evident.  The Sacred Staffs now ask for the Four Gourds o f Ocean Waters: from the North East, South East, from the North West and South West coastline. Of these they shall partake and orient themselves once again to their origin and destiny, an offering of ocean.

La Ofrenda de CEMANAUAK

La Cuatro Jícaras: World Water One

Tupac Enrique Acosta

Los Bastones Sagrados de Las Jornadas de Paz y Dignidad se encuentran en las puertas Norte y Sur de la Kuna Yala, listos para cumplir su misión de hacer renacer la Memoria, La Conciencia, y la Voluntad de los Pueblos Indígenas del continente.  La ceremonia continental de la reunificación de las lagrimas del Águila y el Cóndor, del Cóndor y el Águila será iniciado el día 27 de octubre.

Como instrumentos sagrados, lo que  los hacer entonar su fuerza de sagrado el esfuerzo espiritual que se les ha ofrendado, cada uno de sus creadores, de sus corredores, de sus que sonaron la visión, y de los Pueblos Indígenas que lo hemos realizados por lo largo y ancho de nuestra madre continente Norte, Centro, y Sur.

El tejido ya mero esta completo.  El telar de la profecía y historia, de la memoria y el sueno, ya enseña sus códigos como mensaje clara para las futuras generaciones.  Ya se ven. Es el Padre Sol que lo esta escribiendo, es la Tonantzin, Madre Tierra los esta recordando para todo el mundo y, la eternidad.

Y ahora las estrellas se prestan su oído, acercándose un poquito para escuchar lo que van a decir su nietos la familia humana, los hijos de Abya Yala Itzachilatlan.  En el momento de silencio se oye, y se siente.  El sello del Fuego Sagrado aparece y desde la costa del continente las aguas del la Abuela Mar inician la curación de todo el planeta.

Sin costa no hay continente. Los bastones y los corredores han hecho su parte: El Hueso, -la infraestructura de nuestra cultura continental esta encarnado: es evidente. Ellos les pide entonces ahora, las Cuatro Jícaras de su costa Noreste, Sureste, Nor poniente, y Sur poniente para tomar un refresco y orientarse hacia su origen y destino: la ofrenda del mar.

www.peaceanddignityjourneys.com
www.tonatierra.org

Fernando Suarez del Solar, Azteca Father of U.S. Soldier Killed in Iraq, Speaks Out Against War in Iraq

Phoenix, AZ - A forum on the community impact of the present war in Iraq will be joined next week by Fernando Suarez del Solar at the The NAHUACALLI, Embassy of the Indigenous Peoples, in Phoenix.  On March 27, 2003, Fernando Suarez del Solar lost his son, Jesus, when Jesus stepped on a US a cluster bomblet while fighting in Iraq.

Since then, Fernando, has been traveling around the country with Military Families Speak Out (MFSO) and Global Exchange speaking out against the invasion and occupation of Iraq. In December he traveled to Iraq with Global Exchange and a group of military families to listen to the needs and desires of the Iraqi people, and returned home to meet with members of congress, UN officials and the media to call for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.  

Fernando Suarez del Solar will speak at:
NAHUACALLI
802 N. 7th Street
"Community Impact of the War in Iraq"
Monday, October 11th
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM

Contact: Tupac Enrique Acosta (602) 254-5230

At great risk to his own life, Fernando traveled to Iraq to pay his last respects to his son, and to see first-hand how the war was affecting both U.S. soldiers and the Iraqi people.  Fernando sees no contradiction between supporting the troops and being against the war.  His greatest passion is working with young people, particularly Hispanic youth. He is deeply troubled by the military's heavy recruitment of Hispanic youth in low-income communities. 

Fernando Suarez del Solar declared last year: “In the name of my son Jesus Alberto Suarez del Solar, in the name of the over 500 Americans who have died, in the name of the mutilated Iraqi children, in the name of all the mothers who weep for the loss of their children, in the name of the brave soldiers who cry out for the loved ones they left behind, I beg you, I implore you, let us act now! Enough death and destruction. Bring the troops home!”

Fernando’s commitment to end this war began when his son, Jesus Suarez del Solar, a 20-year-old Marine, died. The military told the Suarez family that Jesus died from gunshot wounds in battle, but they later discovered that Jesus stepped on a US cluster bomb and bled to death in the remote Iraqi desert near Diwaniya. Jesus left behind a bereaved young wife and a one-year-old son. He also left behind a grief-stricken mother, three sisters, and his father, Fernando Suarez del Solar.

Prior to his son’s death, Fernando lived a quiet life in Escondido, California, where he immigrated from Tijuana with his wife and children in 1997. The 48-year-old father made a modest living working as a cashier at a 7/11 store and delivering newspapers.

TONATIERRA has issued a personal invitation to all other organizations of Indigenous Peoples and other community leaders in Phoenix to attend the community forum, in order to bring a much needed critical evaluation to the tragic impact and discriminatory burden being suffered by our local community in relation to the war in Iraq, and other policies of the present administration in Washington.

Said Tupac Enrique Acosta, speaking of the Indigenous Peoples Peace Initiative which will organize the event at the Nahuacalli, “We must disarm the global regime of nationalism of the state. The psychologies of hatred and competition under which the government states of the world would have us sacrifice our humanity and our children to senseless wars will no longer be tolerated".

On Tuesday, October 12th, at 7:00 PM Mr. Suarez will participate in Voices of Dissent, at ASU Neeb Hall, along with local and national representatives taking action against the Bush administration's Iraq war policies.

More information at:

Carta abierta al Sr. Bush

A los medios de comunicacion
A la opinion publica
A todos los miembros del ejercito de USA con esposas hispanas.

El dia Lunes 27 de Septiembre 2004, la sra. Patricia Delgado Acosta, esposa del Sargento Frank Cavadiana con mas de 23 años de servicio en el Army, herido en combate durante su servicio en la guerra en Irak, condecorado por su valor en batalla y por su servicio a este pais, desabilitado de su audicion casi el 100% , con dos ataques cardiacos, y padre de un niño de 10 años de edad, fue DEPORTADA encadenada  como una criminal, a su pais de origen Ecuador, despues de haber pasado mas de un mes encarcelada y haber perdido cerca de 30 libras de peso.,es incleible que este valiente servidor del ejercito de USA, quien fue a una guerra a defender la democracia y la libertad,segun palabras del Sr. Bush, quien fue herido en esta guerra inmoral, no pueda defender a su propia espoza!!! donde esta el apoyo que el Sr. Bush pregona a los militares? donde esta la justicia a esta familia? donde estan esos valores familiares que la Sra. Bush dice que su espozo defiende? porque a nuestros soldados no se les ayuda a mantener a su familia unida? es que solo es importante las fabulosas ganancias que esta guerra proporciona a su Vicepresidente Sr. Bush?

Ya son mas de 1000 miembros del ejercito muertos, mas de 2000 familias destrosadas, y ahora, tambien empesaremos a ver familias de militares destrosadas por migracion? donde esta la justicia!!!!

Sr. y Sra. Bush, en nombre de las familias de militares, en nombre de mi hijo muerto en esta guerra, reclamo justicia!!!!!! usted prometio ayuda a los soldados o es que fue otra mentira mas?

El proximo 2 de Noviembre el pueblo se lo demandara!!

POR UNA GENERACION LLENA DE PAZ Y AMOR!!
EL GUERRERO AZTECA
Que dios les bendiga.
Atentamente:
Fam. Suarez del Solar.
Padres del "GUERRERO AZTECA"
Jesus Alberto Suarez del Solar Navarro Lance Corporal USMC
1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division
fernando@guerreroazteca.org
Fvsuarez2000@yahoo.com.mx
www.guerreroazteca.org

Proyecto Guerrero Azteca, es un sitio donde podras contribuir a mejorar las expectativas de nuestros jovenes, ensenandoles que el servicio militar no es la mejor opcion para continuar sus estudios, la carrera militar es, para aquellos que realmente quieren servir a nuestro pais desde las armas, pero no como alternativa para estudios superiores.

I am very angry, very sad and frustrated by this situation.

Open letter to President George W. Bush

To the national media for publication purposes.

To the Public Opinion.

To all USA army members with Hispanic/Latino wives.

On Monday September 27, 2004, Mrs. Patricia Delgado Acosta, wife of Sgt. Frank Cabadiana was deported from USA

Mr. Cabadina has more than 23 years of service in the Army. He was injured in battle during his service in the war in Iraq, decorated by his bravery and values in battle in service for this country.

Due to the war, Mr. Cabadiana lost almost 100% of his ear sense, had already suffered two hearth attacks. He's father of a 10-year-old boy.

Mrs. Acosta Delgado was deported and chained like a criminal to Ecuador, after she spent a month imprisoned and to have lost near than 30 pounds of weight

It is incredible that this brave servant of the US Army who went to a war to fight for democracy and liberty according to Mr. Bush- and was injured as a result of this immoral war cannot defend his own wife!!!

Where is the so-called support that Mr. Bush promises to his troops?

Where are those family values that the Mrs. Bush says that her husband defends?

Why he doesn't help those soldiers to keep united their own families?

It is because you Mr. Bush only care about the fabulous profits this war provides to your Vice-President?

At this time there are more than 1000 US soldiers died in Iraq, more than 2000 devasted families, and now, we will start to see military being destroyed because immigration?

Where is the justice!!! Mr. and Mrs. Bush, or is this another lie?

On November 2 the people will speak against you!

****************************
More Background Information:
FOCUS: "Bush Lied, My Son Died"
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/100104W.shtml

Fernando Suarez del Solar in Phoenix - TONATIERRA

http://www.guerreroazteca.org/