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United Nations Asked to Intervene in Corporate
Attack on Indian Sacred Places
By Brenda Norrell
United Nations Observer
http://www.unobserver.com
NEW YORK -- The best way to ensure the future for Indigenous children
is to protect the Native lifeways and sacred places of the Earth,
Native Americans told the United Nations during the Permanent Forum
on Indigenous Issues.
Sacred places critical to survival and spiritual sustenance are
now under attack by political and corporate interests targeting
Indigenous Nations.
Such precious lands are revered by a bear, a deer, a forest, the
water and the peoples - - by an entire ecosystem, said the statement
presented to the United Nations by Tia Oros, of Zuni Pueblo, Special
Projects and Program Director of the Seventh Generation Fund.
During the forum in New York, the Seventh Generation Fund asked
the United Nations to immediately intervene and appoint a United
Nations Special Rapporteur for the Protection of Sacred Places.
The Rapporteur would gather testimony from Indigenous people,
whose communities are targeted, or impacted, by resource exploitation
and environmental injustice. The testimony would then serve to inform
the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
The action comes after a coalition of 105 Indigenous Peoples from
35 Indigenous Nations met in Phoenix, Ariz., in March at a traditional
gathering of spiritual leaders and elders, Tlahtokan Aztlan. United
Nations Representative Wilton Littlechild, Cree Nation, attended
the gathering.
Presenting the collective response from Phoenix, Oros told the
United Nations that the destruction of sacred sites reverberates
throughout the landscape and the spiritual significance of all life
is jeopardized.
Sacred places and ceremonial sites are being destroyed at an increasing
rate by resource exploitation and development projects.
"Indigenous peoples are rapidly losing our places of prayer, ritual,
and history that are critical to the survival of our distinct cultural
and spiritual existence," Oros said.
The United Nations was asked to intervene in the protection of
Indigenous burial sites and the repatriation of items taken from
ancestral and grave sites.
With dams and development destroying sacred places and habitats,
the United Nations was asked to ensure the protection of Indigenous
water rights and protection of Indigenous migrant workers, lifeways
and traditional food sources.
The coalition, organized by Tonatierra in Phoenix, the Seventh
Generation Fund and the American Indian Law Alliance, stressed the
need to protect Indigenous Nations from intellectual property theft.
With the increase of genetically-altered crops, there is a need
to protect Indigenous communities from the destruction of biotechnology.
Human rights violations of Indigenous communities bisected by international
borders, such as the Tohono O'odham, Cocopah and Yaqui in Arizona,
were also pointed out.
With the immediate threat to the caribou in the Arctic, the international
community was urged to demand the protection of animals held sacred,
including the salmon, buffalo, caribou, panther, bear, eagle, condor,
alligator, wolf, woodpecker, wild turkey and many other sacred species.
The international peace, security of all peoples, cultures and
lands, stability of traditional governance systems, and respect
for the all of Creation, are essential for a harmonious future for
the world's children.
The presentation was made to the Permanent Forum on Indigenous
Issues, which was established as an advisory body to the Economic
and Social Council, at the United Nations in New York, May 12-23.
In New York, the Tlahtokan Aztlan Plan of Action was accepted
as a conference room paper. It recommends the forum make a request
of UNESCO to organize a workshop for the protection of sacred places
and ceremonial sites. The workshop would identify protective mechanisms
and address restoration and reparation of Indian lands.
Among the Indigenous Nations and organizations supporting the
intervention was Zuni Pueblo in New Mexico, now struggling to protect
its sacred Salt Lake, their cherished Salt Mother, from mining.
Already their ancestors have been unearthed.
The Salt River Project, a regionally based electric power company
has targeted the site and intends to mine over 80 million tons of
coal near Zuni Salt Lake.
The United Nations was advised that the Salt River Project plans
to center its coalmine in the Sanctuary Zone.
"Like a great vampire, the mining operation will siphon water
from this fragile desert ecosystem by pumping 85 gallons per minute
of groundwater from the same aquifer that feeds the lake.
"This will absolutely damage ancient pilgrimage trails, desecrate
hundreds of burial places, and ruin cultural sites. Already some
of our ancestors' remains have been wrongfully removed from their
resting places to prepare for mining. Sadness lays hard on our lands,"
Oros said.
Meanwhile in Arizona, Navajos on Black Mesa maintain their 30-year
resistance to forced relocation and oppose the coal mining which
drains water from their aquifer and poisons their air, land and
water.
Near the border of Mexico, the Baboquivari Mountain, Home of the
Creator, the elder brother of the Tohono O'odham and Pima Nations,
is targeted for desecration, by outside tourism interests. In the
family of sacred mountains, springs, and traditional alters of the
Sonoran desert, the Baboquivari Mountain is an essential member.
In Albuquerque, a line has been drawn in the sand for the Petroglyph
National Monument where the ancestors have etched sacred messages
to inform and guide spiritual leaders for generations to come. The
Petroglyphs constitute a sacred site and shrine for all Pueblos,
and contain shrines of the Pueblo Indian Tribes. Some etchings date
over 10,000 years, and the site continues to be used today.
The city of Albuquerque proposes two commuter highways that would
dissect the Petroglyph National Monument and would be a desecration
of this religious place.
Running to the forum session from the north, Indigenous runners
carried two bundles of sacred staffs of the Confederacy of the Eagle
and the Condor on a 500-mile spiritual run through the territories
of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy.
Wilton Littlechild, of the Cree Nation and a member of the Permanent
Forum, took the staffs into the forum when runners arrived on May
14. The staffs remained there throughout the day, guarded by the
Peace and Dignity runners.
The staffs have traversed the continents of North, Central and
South America three times since 1992. They are carried by the spiritual
runners of the Peace and Dignity Journeys, in fulfillment of a traditional
mandate of the Indigenous Nations, known as the Confederation of
the Eagle and the Condor.
Beginning their run at the western door of the Six Nations Confederacy
in Towanda, N.Y., runners ranged in age from 14 to 73. They ran
to Onondaga, where they were hosted, before running to the United
Nations.
"We have made this journey to the door of the United Nations Headquarters
as an assertion of our self-determination, our right to self-definition
and spiritual fulfillment as indigenous nations of the Earth," Gustavo
Gutierrez, coordinator of the Peace and Dignity Journeys for North
America, told the Permanent Forum.
The United Nations announced that In 2004, runners will carry
the staffs from Alaska to Kuna Yala, Panama, to a ceremony of peace
and unification for the peoples of the world. The staffs are currently
in the care of the Okanagan Nation of British Columbia, Canada.
The United Nations was asked to intervene in the protection of
sacred sites by the Seventh Generation Fund for Indian Development,
with the Pueblo of Zuni-Zuni Tribal Council, the American Indian
Law Alliance, the Teton Sioux Nation Treaty Council, the Tonatierra
Community Development Institute, the Mo'o Guk Amjedkam, the SAGE
Council, the Buffalo River Dene Nation and the Beaver Lake Cree
Nation.
At the Permanent Forum, more than 1,500 people from 500 Indigenous
groups worldwide attended the session whose theme was "Indigenous
Children and Youth." Roberto Mucaro Borrero, Taino from Puerto Rico,
called the meeting to order on a conch shell. Tadodaho Chief Sidney
Hill, spiritual leader of the six-nation Haudenosaunee group, gave
a traditional blessing.
Native American sacred sites in the United States include, but
are not limited, to:
- Zuni Salt Lake, New Mexico (Zuni, Acoma, Laguna, Hopi, other
Pueblo, Apache, Dine?)
- Petroglyph National Monument, New Mexico (Pueblos)
- Sandia Peak, New Mexico (Pueblos)
- Mt. Taylor, New Mexico (Pueblos, Dine')
- Mount Boboquivari, Arizona (Tohono O'Odham)
- Mt. Graham, Arizona (Apache)
- San Francisco Peaks, Arizona (Pueblo, Hopi, Dine')
- Black Mesa, Arizona (Hopi, Dine')
- Red Butte, Arizona (Havasupai)
- Rainbow Bridge, Arizona (Dine')
- Arctic Wildlife Refuge, Alaska (Gwichin)
- Bear Butte, South Dakota (Lakota, Nakota, Dakota, Cheyenne)
- Black Hills, South Dakota (Lakota)
- Mato Tipila, Wyoming (Lakota)
- Medicine Wheel, Wyoming (Arapaho, Cheyenne)
- Yucca Mountain, Nevada (Western Shoshone)
- Dr. Rock, California (Yurok, Karuk, Tolowa)
- Little Medicine Mountain, California (Yurok, Karuk)
- Gaviota Coastline, California (Chumash)
- Western Gate, California (Chumash)
- Quechan Indian Pass, California (Quechan)
- Medicine Lake, California (Pit River, Modoc, Shasta, Wintu)
- Mt. Shasta, California (Pit River, Modoc, Shasta, Wintu)
- Puvungna, California (Tongva, Acjachemen)
- Arlecho Creek, Washington (Lummi)
- Snoqualmie Falls, Washington (Snoqualmie)
- Columbia River Hills, Washington/Oregon (Klickitat)
- Semiahmoo, Washington (Lummi)
- Mount Hood, Oregon (Warm Springs, Tygh)
- Pipestone National Monument, Minnesota (Many tribes)
- Cold Water Springs, Minnesota (Dakota)
- Ocmulgee, Georgia (Muscogee)
- Moccasin Bend, Tennessee (Cherokee)
By Brenda Norrell,
United Nations Observer
brendanorrell@gbronline.com
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