We the representatives of Indigenous Peoples attending the Tlahtokan Aztlan affirm our inherent and inalienable rights as the Indigenous Peoples of the world. These rights, bestowed upon us by our Creator are reaffirmed each dawn through our sacred relationship to Mother Earth and by our collective responsibility to our elders, women, men, youth and children to uphold peace, equity and justice, in harmony with all our relations in the natural world. As representatives of the Confederation of the Eagle and the Condor, the Indigenous Nations and Pueblos of Tlahtokan Aztlan hereby reaffirm our mutual commitment under our Treaty of Teotihuacan, and proclaim to the world the following, with a view to our responsibility to safeguard Mother Earth, our traditions, our cultures and our lifeways for our children, youth and the generations yet unborn:

We reaffirm that the UN Declaration for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples contains the minimum standards for the protection of Indigenous Peoples' rights throughout the world. We continue to strongly support the establishment of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and the continuation of the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations.

As peoples, we reaffirm our rights to self-determination and to own, control and manage our ancestral lands and territories, waters and other resources in accordance with our ancestral responsibilities. Our lands and territories are at the core of our existence - we are the land and the land is us; we have a distinct spiritual and material relationship with our lands and territories and they are inextricably linked to our survival and to the preservation and further development of our knowledge systems and cultures, conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and ecosystem management.

As Indigenous Peoples, we the have the right to determine and establish priorities and strategies for our self-development and for the use of our lands, territories and other resources. We demand that free, prior and informed consent must be the principle of approving or rejecting any project or activity affecting our lands, territories and other resources.

Economic globalization constitutes one of the main obstacles for the recognition of the rights of Indigenous Peoples. Unsustainable extraction, harvesting, production and consumption patterns lead to climate change, widespread pollution and environmental destruction, evicting us from our lands and creating immense poverty and disease. We are deeply concerned that the activities of multinational mining corporations on Indigenous lands have led to the loss and desecration of our lands. These activities have caused severe health problems, interfered with access to our sacred sites, destroyed and depleted Mother Earth and devastated our cultures.

We demand that UN member states, governments and civil society work in conjunction with Indigenous Peoples to ensure that Indigenous Peoples' sacred ceremonial and culturally significant sites and areas are preserved, respected and protected from destructive exploitative development. We urge the UN to protect our rights to our sacred and ceremonial sites and ancestral remains, including access to burial, archeological and historic sites.

Our traditional knowledge systems must be respected, promoted and protected; our collective intellectual property rights must be guaranteed and ensured. We reaffirm our commitment to disallow any attempts to assert patents, copyrights or trademarks for products, data and/or processes deriving from our traditional knowledge and genetic material.

We urge the United Nations to promote respect for the recognition, observance and enforcement of treaties, agreements and other constructive arrangements concluded between Indigenous Peoples and States, or their successors, according to their original spirit and intent, and to have States honor and respect such treaties, agreements and other constructive arrangements.

We call on the United Nations to ensure the right of Indigenous Peoples to full, direct and effective participation at the international, national and regional levels in all matters that affect our lives, rights, lands, cultures and survival.

We call for a UN World Summit on Indigenous Peoples to review the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples. Since the goals and objectives of the Decade have not been achieved, we call on governments and the United Nations to proclaim a second International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples (2005-2014).

In Nelhuayotl, In Aztlan

1. The United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues provides a unique arena for the recognition of the economic, social, political, and cultural conditions of the world’s Indigenous peoples as well as allows for our diverse peoples to share an ancient Earth-based ecological paradigm for all our survival with the rest of the world community.
2. We, the 105 tribal leaders and Indigenous community representatives of over 35 different and distinct Indigenous Nations from throughout the North American continent, gathered in peaceful discourse during March 7-9, 2003 at the Tlahtokan Aztlan (in the traditional territories of the Tohono O’Odham Nation, now known as Phoenix, Arizona, United States) and gave our strong support and endorsement of the mandate of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues as established by the ECOSOC.
3. The overwhelming consensus of the Tlahtokan Aztlan participants affirmed this year’s theme of the 2003 Permanent Forum that focuses on Indigenous Youth and Children. The holistic health, well-being, identity, and vitality of Indigenous youth, children and those relations not yet born, were the prominent issues underscoring all discussions throughout the Tlahtokan Aztlan. These items remain of paramount concern to Indigenous peoples for the continuity of our respective peoples as distinct cultures and for our communities to thrive in the future. We recognize that the plan of action outlined in this document has an impact on all Indigenous peoples, and will resonate to future generations. If Indigenous peoples’ rights are not fought for, and won, in our generation, the continuity of our peoples and cultures cannot be assured for the seventh generation to come.
4. We urge the community of nations to realize that that international peace, security of all our peoples, cultures and lands, stability of our traditional governance systems, and respect for the all of Creation, are essential for the achievement of a just and harmonious world for Indigenous youth and children of today and for our future generations.

1. The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples has been completed since 1993, and approved by the Subcommission on Human Rights in 1994. The delegates at the Tlahtokan Aztlan recognize that the approval of this essential document to assure the most minimal standards for Indigenous Peoples’ rights is long overdue. We implore the community of nations to support and approve the United Nations UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples this year, 2003, before the end of the first Decade of the World’s Indigenous Peoples in 2004.
2. We demand that the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples be approved as currently drafted, including all 45 articles as written. Further, we stipulate that all references to Indigenous Peoples will be done with the plural word of “Peoples” and that this will be the established standard terminology and henceforth, used in all written United Nations documentation.
3. The end of the current Decade of the World’s Indigenous Peoples looms before us without remedy or redress of the major concerns and issues of Indigenous Peoples worldwide. Poverty, dislocation, war, human and land rights violations, treaty abrogation, racism, and other impacts on Indigenous Peoples remain prevalent and urgent in Indigenous communities worldwide. We demand that governments and the United Nations proclaim and establish a second Decade of the World’s Indigenous Peoples 2005 – 2014.

1. We recognize and support the longstanding and insightful work of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations established 1982. This body has been a focal point of illuminating the issues of survival for Indigenous Peoples of the world community. In its breadth of experience, this Working Group has also acknowledged the special needs for human rights protections for the world’s Indigenous peoples.
2. We urge the United Nations to continue supporting the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations including recognition of the Working Group’s critical work for Indigenous peoples worldwide and many accomplishments of this body within the international community.

1. The cosmology of many Indigenous peoples indicate that we originated or evolved from the spirit of the Earth and in so doing, we have a strong metaphysical relationship with the physical landscape and the places of our origin. Through our original instructions, sacred teachings and millennia of astute observations within our respective homelands, Indigenous peoples understand the Earth as sacred and further, that there are some very special places that have a unique “spiritual” energy. Such “places” shall be referred to as “sacred places” in this document.
2. In the traditional Native worldview, these places are considered sacrosanct and integral to the complex web of life. A sacred place is critical to the well being of everything that relies on it for physical survival and spiritual sustenance. Such precious lands are revered by a bear, a deer, a forest, the water and the peoples - - by an entire ecosystem. Destruction of sacred sites reverberates throughout the landscape and the spiritual significance of all life is jeopardized.
3. Sacred places and ceremonial sites are being destroyed at an increasing rate every day by resource exploitation and related 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. We demand redress of these issues through international investigation, led and guided by mechanisms within the United Nations.
4. All legal and legislative remedies to protect sacred places and ceremonial sites from destruction by governmental and corporate development entities have been exhausted at the Nation State level. We adamantly demand that the international community recognize the essential nature of sacred places and ceremonial sites including, but not limited to the following listed locations (primarily impacted Indigenous tribes in parenthesis) in the United States:
• 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)

1. We demand that the community of nations give the highest level of protection to prevent the continued desecration of Indigenous Peoples burial sites under all circumstances.
2. Further, Indigenous Peoples demand the right to have all ancestral remains and funerary objects that have been removed from any and all grave sites for any purpose at any time to be immediately repatriated to our designated Indigenous leaders.

1. Animals: Indigenous Peoples maintain unique and longstanding totemic relationships with the vast diversity of animals and their spiritual essence. We believe that there is a metaphysical connection between Indigenous peoples and Native species of our homelands and that this is a critical, interdependent relationship that assures mutual benefit and survival. The extinction of such species would result in the extinction of the Indigenous peoples therein connected. These animals include, but are not limited to the salmon, buffalo, caribou, panther, bear, eagle, condor, alligator, wolf, woodpecker, wild turkey and many other sacred species that face the threat of extinction due to resource exploitation and related habitat destruction. We urge the international community to take the immediate action necessary to assure the survival and healthful longevity of Native species and to protect their intrinsic relationship with the health of Indigenous peoples and cultures with particular focus on the following animals in North America:
• Salmon of the Pacific Northwest Coast
• Buffalo of the Great Plains
• Caribou of the Arctic Wildlife Refuge
2. Plants: Indigenous Peoples’ traditional knowledge includes a deep understanding of the natural healing properties of Native plant species of our traditional territories. These plants are useful for medicine, ceremony, sustenance, and the expression of our material cultures. Many sacred Native plant species are under serious threat of extinction due to such threats as resource extraction, herbicide spraying, and genetic modification for economic exploitation. For the continued health of Indigenous Peoples and our future generations, we urge the community of nations to take the immediate action necessary to protect the integrity of sacred Native plant species.

1. The subsistence lifestyles of Indigenous Peoples of North America are reliant on the health and broad diversity of our aboriginal ecosystems. Hunting, fishing, gathering, agriculture, and animal husbandry are the cornerstones of traditional food systems and have historically maintained the nutritional health and long-term well-being of our Nations.
2. We urge the international community to protect the customary hunting, fishing, gathering, and agricultural sites from destruction, invasion, or other impacts that may limit or restrict access and use of such areas.
3. Additionally, we implore the international community to assure the promotion and protection of traditional food systems and ancient seed stocks of Indigenous Peoples from exploitation on the world market and against the impacts of genetically modified species that invade our communities and harm our bodies.

1. In light of global warming, extended periods of severe drought, depleted reservoirs, have heightened the issues of water rights, use, and health for Indigenous Peoples of the world. Specifically, the conditions in southwestern region of the United States where drought conditions exceed more than a decade, the demand on regional river and ground water supplies surpasses availability.
2. Long established riparian rights of Indigenous Peoples substantiated by treaties and customary use, have been breached. Development and the explosion of agri-business in our territories have contaminated significant supplies of clean groundwater sources. Indigenous Peoples access to and use of potable water due to dams and diversion.
3. Water is critical for the survival of life. We demand that the international community launch an immediate investigation through its appropriate channels to review water allocation and access formulas that impact the established rights of Indigenous communities, the health of our peoples and future generations.

1. Indigenous Peoples’ knowledge, innovations, expertise and practices developed over centuries of interaction with the local environment is generally collectively owned and must be protected from appropriation, commodification, or other economic or personal interests. This includes a demand for the protection of Indigenous Peoples’ artistic expression including traditional designs, material cultures, pharmaceutical knowledge, horticultural practices, fisheries, forestry, ceremonial practices and spiritual understanding, songs, languages and all else that distinguishes Indigenous Peoples as unique cultures of the world.

1. As an integral part of the rich biodiversity of the natural world, Indigenous Peoples’ unique genetic composition includes particular characteristics, knowledge and other distinguishing elements that continue to be targeted for exploitation, research, modification or other developmental interests. Our distinctive genetics contribute to the biodiversity of the world and demand protection from exploitation for any purpose whether medical, anthropological, or commercial.
2. We assert that the community of nations should uphold the rights of Indigenous Peoples for prior, free and informed consent in regard to the approval or rejection of any development or biotechnology on our persons, lands, or resources.

1. Indigenous Peoples’ whose nations and territories have been dissected by international borders such as Mexico and the United States (Yaqui, O’Odham, Kickapoo, and many other Indigenous Nations) assert the sovereign right to uninhibited ingress and egress across international borders.
2. We demand that the world community of nations respect these inherent rights of Indigenous Peoples and to take necessary actions to assure full compliance. This adherence is particularly significant for Indigenous Peoples’ fulfillment of responsibilities for governance cultural, spiritual, economic, and other meaningful engagement.

1. Indigenous Peoples who comprise the most significant portion of migratory workers in North America are vulnerable by their circumstances and often adversely impacted by established laws and practices of nation states. We demand that the human rights of these millions of workers be given the utmost consideration and that they be protected from abuse, exploitation, or other actions.
2. It is incumbent on the community of nations to respectfully communicate with Migratory Workers about their rights. We implore that the United Nations and world community become more knowledgeable of the unique cultures, customs, languages, and needs of such workers.

1. Since Indigenous Peoples cannot currently access an international judicial process to litigate infringements against our peoples, lands, cultures, rights and resources, and in light of centuries of invasion, conquest, oppression, and domination of Indigenous Peoples worldwide, we demand that the United Nations establish an Indigenous Peoples’ international court of justice.

1. The thousands of Nations of Indigenous Peoples worldwide meet and exceed the definition and criteria set by the UN to be recognized as independent nations. We have clearly established territories, distinctive languages, unique cultures, sovereign governance systems, and communal histories that set Indigenous Nations as distinctive and apart from other members of the world community.
2. We demand that our many nations be granted full respect and recognition by the international community as sovereign, independent nations. Further, we implore the United Nations and the world community to establish an Indigenous Peoples’ Embassy within its auspices.

1. We call for a United Nations World Summit on Indigenous Peoples to be convened within the next two years.
2. This Summit should be guided by the leadership of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and will fully review of the goals, accomplishments and objectives of the International Decade of the World’s Indigenous Peoples.

Tribal Summit Details Case for Sacred Lands

Sean L. McCarthy
The Arizona Republic
Mar. 10, 2003 12:00 AM

Is Yucca Mountain in Nevada sacred ground or a nuclear dumping ground?

Does the Salt River Project's mining plan at Zuni Salt Lake desecrate a deity near the Arizona-New Mexico border?

To dozens of tribal nation leaders, representing groups stretching from Alaska to Guatemala, the questions are rhetorical; the solutions, international. They converged on Phoenix this weekend for a three-day summit of North America's indigenous nations, drawing an appeal they'll present to the United Nations.

"The overarching goal is to establish recognition and respect for Indigenous Peoples," said Tupac Enrique Acosta, who organized the summit, called Tlahtokan Aztlan.

Desecration of sacred sites by industrial development threatens that respect.

"The American Indians are still looked at as an impediment to progress," said Manuel Pino, an Acoma Nation member who teaches American Indian studies at Scottsdale Community College. "We look at these issues as environmental racism and a denial of our rights to spirituality."

They'll plead their case to the United Nations, which has created an annual forum in May to discuss issues related to Indigenous Peoples. J. Wilton Littlechild, one of 16 serving on the U.N. forum, attended the Phoenix summit.

"We have no source within this country because the laws are stacked against us," said Patricia Paul, a Western Shoshone Nation member from Nevada.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0310indigenous10.html

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Attest:
(Signature of Susan I. Holden)
Acting City Clerk

March 10, 2003

Honorable Mayor Skip Rimsza
City of Phoenix
Office of the Mayor
200 West Washington
Phoenix, AZ 85003

Dear Mr. Rimsza,

It is said that the historical biography of the United States in America began with the writings of Alexis De Tocqueville, a European aristocrat who described in glowing terms of appreciation the American traits of democracy. In contrast to the stratified social castes of the elites of European society, De Tocqueville presented the case that the universal appreciation of Human Rights, a fundamental principle of any democratic society, would achieve its best hope of political expression as the European immigration streams entered, conquered and "civilized" the new continent. Historically, most primary sources of reference to this period admit to the fact that the term "Americans" referred to the Indigenous Peoples of the continent from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, and correspondingly our Nations, Confederations of Nations, civilization and societies of millennial presence.

To read De Touqueville's writings today the stench of racism pervades the presentation, yet it is masked with a political perfume, the cultural bias of the world view mythically termed "the Western World". From the Indigenous Peoples perspectives, the concept of democracy was a principle which was delivered to the relatives of the 13 colonies, simultaneously with the understanding that this principle was not solely individual by nature, but collective in precept, and achieved international expression historically with the Treaty of Understanding known as the "Two Row Wampum".

How shall the future generations evaluate the principles of humanity, or the expressions of defense of democracy that we offer as justification for warfare at the international level, if the Sacred Places and world visions of Indigenous Peoples continue to be denied and defiled?

Let the Peoples of each Nation speak for themselves, according to their self determined systems of self governance, tradition and autonomy. We of the Tlahtokan Aztlan shall listen and record for the future generations in the Archive of Aztlan the sincerity and intentions of all who shall now stand under these principles - In Nelhuayotl, In Aztlan.

We express our sincere appreciation for the Proclamation from your office as Mayor of the City of Phoenix, naming March 7, 2003 as INDIGENOUS PEOPLES DAY.

Tlazocamati.

Tupac Enrique Acosta
TONATIERRA

Nahui Cuauhtzintzin,
Nahui Cuauhtzintzin,
Ipan Aztlan Patlanih

Hualmohuicah,
Hualmohuicah,
Moyollotzin

Chichimecayotl,
Chichimecayotl,
Iyollotzin in Aztlan

United Nations
Economic and Social Council
Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
Second Session
New York Headquarters
May 12-23, 2003

Baboquivari Mountains
O’Odham Nations Sacred Site

Recommendation for Action:
Assessment of the status of the Sacred Sites of the Indigenous Peoples for the purpose of Protection of the Rights of the Future Generations.

Greetings Mr. Chairman and members of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. My name is Ernest Moristo of the coyote clan of the Tohono O’Odham Nation, and I am accompanied by Dennis Manuel of the Buzzard Clan. We are the NUKUTHAM of Baboquivari Mountains, Home of Creator, I’Itoi of the O’Odham Nations.

We support the request by many other Indigenous Peoples, delegates to this second session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, in calling for an assessment of the status of sacred sites of the Indigenous Nations, with particular focus on the destructive effects of economic development plans upon the Himdag (Way of Life of the People) as a violation of Indigenous Rights of the Future Generations.

Baboquivari Mountain is the most important sacred site in a family of mountains, springs, and traditional altars of the Indigenous Peoples of the Sonoran Desert. This powerful and beautiful desert land has been home since time immemorial to the O’Odham whose traditional territories and sacred sites extend from Arizona into Northern Mexico.

The responsibility for the caretaking of the Baboquivari Mountains is by established by the traditional O’Odham Himdag Way of Life through the NUKUTHAM, the hereditary family that uphold this responsibility to the Creator for all People.

Baboquivari is in danger of being desecrated by development plans that could destroy the sacred nature of the Mountains, and the unique desert environment which surrounds the shrine.

In our area, the tribal court systems established under the internal self government model which has been implemented by the US government on our territories has been the main instrument used to undermine our efforts to fulfill our responsibilities as NUKUTHAM. The ancestral war shaman and protector of the sacred Baboquivari territories, known as Mo’o Guk passed down the sacred bundle and these responsibilities to the current generation of Nukutham which is who we are today.

We carry this responsibility for all the O’Odham Nations and Peoples. We ourselves are of the grassroots people.

The tribal council system was imposed on the O’Odham in the 1930’s. Over time we have seen how this system has misrepresented itself by claiming to be the guardian of the interests of our Indigenous Nation. In fact the ECONOMIC and SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT plans currently proposed by the local Baboquivari District Council of this system, are endangering the sacred nature of our shrine and the unique desert environment which surrounds the Mountain.

We recommend that Baboquivari Mountains be given a high priority for an investigation by the United Nations as part of a global assessment of the sacred sites of the Indigenous Peoples for the purpose of protecting the Rights of the Future Generations.
.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Submitted by:
Mo’o Guk Amjedkam
Moristo Family
P.O. Box 545
Sells, AZ 85634
Email: moo_guk@hotmail.com
www.tonatierra.org

http://www.tonatierra.org
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