No subject

“The General Assembly, 
Solemnly proclaims the necessity of bringing to speedy
and unconditional end colonialism in all its forms and
manifestations…”

For over 3,500 years our relatives have been
contending with colonization under the Aryan
philosophy of racial and cultural superiority in their
traditional territories, ever since even before they
were invaded by Alexander the Great. They also, like
we native nations of this continent are mistakenly
called Indians. They call themselves the ADIVASI, one
of the Indigenous Peoples of the Indian subcontinent.
Along with the Adivasi, the Maori of Aotearoa (AKA New
Zealand), the multiple and diverse Indigenous Nations
from the former Soviet Union territories, the Inuit
Circumpolar Conference, the Hawaiians, Pacific
Islanders, Indigenous Peoples of the Southeast Asian
Peninsula as well as the Mainland, we joined as the
Indigenous Nations of Itzachilatlan (AKA the
Americas), Africa, Europe and Australia to witness and
strengthen the global political position of the
Indigenous Peoples upon the inauguration of the UN
Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, May 13, 2002 in
New York. 

The Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues is a 16
member body of independent experts, eight of whom are
nominated by the government states, and eight
nominated by the Indigenous Peoples themselves in a
process that reflects 7 geo-cultural regions of the
world with one rotating seat. Established as an
advisory body to the Economic and Social Council, the
Permanent Forum creates for the first time within the
global system of governance that is the United
Nations, a vehicle by which the Indigenous Peoples and
Nations can represent their interests directly to the
UN. The inaugural session of the Permanent Forum was
opened by the Tadodaho (traditional chief) from
Onandaga, guardians of the Grand Council Fire of the
Haudenosaunee Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy, upon
whose traditional territories the UN building itself
stands.  Among the Xicanos of Aztlan, there exists an
especially strong tie of culture and kinship with the
Haudenosaunee that goes back to the Wounded Knee
conflict of 1973, and further still to Mad Bear
Anderson's continental Unity Caravan under the White
Roots of Peace and the initiative he led to Cuba,
attempting to achieve international recognition for
the Haudenosaunee passport and nationality on a par
with that of the US or any other government state.
More profoundly, among the archives of traditional
memory of the Tezcatlipoca Aztlan, there exists the
teaching of relations between the founder of the Six
Nations Confederacy, called the Peacemaker, and the
disciples of the teachings of Quetzalcoatl Ce Acatl in
Mexico. 

As the first week of the Permanent Forum drew to a
close, a sense of urgency and acknowledgment united
the indigenous representatives at the UN. The
Indigenous Peoples - our nations, communities, and
families are on the front line of the assault being
systematically waged as the global multinational
corporate structure voraciously extracts natural
resources and spews contamination in order to maintain
industrial dominance of the current consumer market
model of economic globalization. At the Permanent
Forum, the Indigenous Nations testified repeatedly
that time is running out to rectify the relationship
of the human society globally in order to achieve
sustainability within the natural ecosystems of the
Earth.  It will soon be too late for words, too late
to reverse the effects of the petroleum based
industrial model that has pushed the world into the
scenario of what will inevitably be the terrible
effects of global warming, environmental degradation,
and deforestation. 

Among the Indigenous Caucus convened at the UN in New
York, it has also become mutually acknowledged and
reinforced at each international conference where the
Indigenous Peoples are in attendance, that the
Indigenous Peoples worldwide are the best hope as a
strategic political bloc with global context, history,
and coherence that is not controlled by the fractured
allegiances or ideologies of the nation state
paradigm, nor captured by the values of the
multinational corporate regime of global resource
expropriation. At the core of this mutual
acknowledgment is an appreciation for the spirituality
of the ancient and diverse Indigenous Peoples as
caretakers of the Earth. This enduring foundation has
provided the precept of a planetary constitution that
describes the Indigenous Nations and Peoples as a
global confederation of families, communities, tribes,
organizations, nations, and Nations of Nations in
alliance. In this hemisphere, this precept is known as
the prophecy of the Eagle and the Condor.

When Pope Alexander the VI, himself a member of the
infamous Borgia family, issued the Papal Bull Inter
Cetera on May 3-4, 1493 the precursor estates that
have led to the present colonial nation state
formation on this continent were given their
empowerment in terms of the international legal system
of the so called “West.”  It was under the
jurisprudence of this international decree, clothed in
the religious authority of the Vatican, that the
colonization, terracide and genocide of this
hemisphere acquired its initial justification as a
civilized action, again in terms of the “West”, and
specifically for the representative political powers
of the time: the royal families of Spain and Portugal.
Under this edict, the geographical fact of discovery
was tied to the politico-religious act of dominion
implemented with exclusivity in favor of the European
American invaders.  This Papal Bull has never been
abrogated or annulled and remains in effect.

The New World was such for the West not just in the
geographical sense, it was new and revolutionary in
the fact that the Indigenous Peoples social contract
that gave context to the political infrastructure of
the culture emanated through a spirituality of
reverence for the elemental forces of nature, in which
there was no concept of things outside of nature or
“supernatural.”  Nor was the human identity given
preference or exclusivity as the being the dominant
personality of society, which included all other life
forms of winged, crawling, swimming, and other
creatures in the natural world order.  It was these
egalitarian political precepts that upon arrival in
the Europe of the 1500’s, gave germination to the
revolutions of liberation which eventually toppled the
rule by royalty in this hemisphere, and gave birth to
the modern republic-states presently internationally
recognized and in status as members of the UN. In the
transition, however, from colony to republic, not one
of the newly formed nation states of the hemisphere
has revoked the initial claim to jurisdiction
established under the Papal Bull of 1493, known as the
Doctrine of Discovery.   

In fact, although the UN General Assembly resolution
1514 proclaims colonization as a violation of
international law, and the criteria and protocols for
decolonization clearly are relevant and should be
applied to the indigenous nation territories, a
Doctrine of Denial and complicity exists among the
government states of the western hemisphere to block
implementation by the Indigenous Nations and Peoples
of the right to decolonization.  In other words, the
processes of decolonization applied after World War II
to the African continent and other colonial
territories is not to be repeated or made inclusive of
the Indigenous Peoples. To accomplish this duplicity,
the government states of the United Nation systems
have refused to accede to identifying the Indigenous
Peoples as Peoples, referring to us "indigenous
populations" only or in the singular as “indigenous
people” thus precluding the right to self
determination and collective rights within the global
matrix which is the established international legal
system of the so called “civilized world.”  Specific
to North, Central and South America, the government
states of the continent have colluded to enforce the
Doctrine of Denial under the international legal
system and the United Nations, within which these
governments are recognized as "indigenous to the
hemisphere" thus shielding them collectively as
violators of UN General Assembly Resolution 1514. 

The call for a permanent forum within the United
Nations system for Indigenous Peoples derives from the
historical resistance movement of the Indigenous
Peoples and Nations worldwide to colonization.  In the
implementation, the UN has established within the
Economic and Social Council the Permanent Forum on
Indigenous Issues. The concept of a forum is a
description of social space, wherein a dialogue is
possible.  Any true dialogue requires a minimum of two
perspectives, a dynamic of duality must be present at
all phases of the process, including design,
implementation, and evaluation. Within the diplomatic
language of the international system, unless the
Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues is to be simply a
disempowering token exercise for the Indigenous
Peoples, there must be recognition from the start that
the Permanent Forum operates under a Dual Mandate. 

We have arrived at the moment in history of the world
where a dialogue among civilizations and world views
is necessary at the global level.  Only so will the
hope for Peace and Dignity with justice for our human
society survive, established through a sustainable
ecological relationship with the Mother Earth itself
as foundation.  This is the Mandate of the Indigenous
Peoples; it supersedes that of the United Nations
system; it is an expression of the jurisprudence of
indigenous international law: it is the path of
Tradition and Liberation. 


Tupac Enrique Acosta 
TONATIERRA 
P.O. Box  24009 
Phoenix AZ   85076 
Email: chantlaca at aol.com 

http://www.tonatierra.org 

CONIC 
Council of Indigenous Organizations and Nations of the
Continent 

CONIC is comprised of indigenous organizations with a
12 year track record of intercontinental organizing
and solidarity as Indigenous Nations and Pueblos.  As
a unique model of native empowerment, one that is
maturing into proactive positions on native issues
across the continent, the CONIC provides the
continental platform of context for TONATIERRA in the
present era of globalization. TONATIERRA is a leading
force among the CONIC member organizations,
collectively pursuing the process of organizational
development across the continent, guided by the
ancestral values and history of our Native Nations on
the path of self determination and sustainable
community development. 
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