Raiz de Áztlan
Crece
y madura
En
Los ojos de nuestros
Hijos
y hijas.
Sus
pies, floating
On
the
Memory
of
river water.
March
21, 2003
As
with many other indigenous traditions from the length and breadth of the
continent of Abya Yala, there exists with the Xicano-Azteka historical
accounting and recounting the theme of transformation of the worlds, the
arrival and traveling of the people through great periods of change, epochs of
distinct character for humanity and the Earth.
These cycles, which include aspects of both light and shadow, take their
names from the count of calendric symbols that describe the Tonatiuh, the power
of the sun, for that era. They have been
described as the Five Suns, and their historical narration is found in the
Tonalmachiotl, the Kuauhxicall - an Azteka stone monolith sometimes called the
Sun Stone, or the Aztec Calendar.
This
calendric system is well recognized for the mathematical and astronomical
exactness with which it continues to serve the indigenous nations of
Itzachitlan, Abya Yala [Las Americas].
Distinct from the count of time, and thus the sense of history, of the
so called “West”, our calendar is not linear but cyclical. History for us has a human face not
technological. It is astronomically
measured in terms of generations, a common proportion that is inextricably colored
by our orientation in space, and that of our home the Mother Earth - in this
universe of the Four Directions.
*******
It
has always been good to wonder. We as
Indigenous Peoples of the continent have been wondering for over 500 years now
about the arrogance of the European-American presence on our homelands, their
claims of “Discovery”, and the moral and legal justifications given to not only
colonize the continent, but to shield an ongoing colonization from impartial
intellectual scrutiny. At a time in
world history when the concept of nation-state that grew to dominate international
law and politics from its foundations in feudal Europe is increasingly being
recognized as inadequate, where will the European-Americans abandon their
racist concept of state and nationality?
When will they give up on being “white”?
This
question is not meant to be rhetorical, but if the discussions in progress
between mainstream environmental justice activists and organizations and the
“communities of color” are to establish working collaborations, the
institutionalized racism inherent in all sectors of European-American society
must be addressed. The foundations of
“white” supremacy and environmental racism must be exposed, in particular as
they reflect the political doctrines of genocide and colonization of the native
nations of this continent. Environmental
racism is a term that has gained popular recognition, but the attempts by the
Environmental Protection Agency to jacket the issue by calling it,
“environmental equity” is like turning toxic pollution into a multi-cultural
festival. It doesn't address the root of
the problem. Was not the slaughter of
the vast buffalo herds of the Great Plains an example of environmental racism?
From
an indigenous perspective, the issue of environmental racism as it has become
to be defined is only the latest manifestation in contemporary industrial and
economic mode of an assault that began over 500 years ago. On May 3rd and 4th of the year 1493, Pope Alexander VI issued
the Papal Bull Inter Cetera by which he granted “dominion” to the European Christian
Royalty justifying a claim for title to the territories of the Western
Hemisphere under the concept of Discovery.
Beyond the question of “dominion”, the philosophical basis for living
“off of” and not “with” the land, the right to Discovery was restricted to the
European. It became a race concept when
it was codified and made a legal identity as “white”. The U.S. Civil Rights laws to this day use as
the standard for juridical evaluation the “rights of white persons”. Again, the question from Indigenous Peoples:
“How did it come to pass that one branch of the family of mankind has isolated
and elevated itself to define a superior race identity based on skin
color?” When will this form of American
apartheid be exposed?
In
the spring of 1984, an alliance of indigenous nations met in the construction
zone of a Central Phoenix highway and began an effort to communicate to the
world our understanding of this problem and attempt to initiate a
solution. The site called, La Ciudad,
had been an ancient settlement of the people known as the Hohokam. These were
the original constructors of the canal systems that when modernized led to the
establishment of the Phoenix of today.
There had been removed from the site some one hundred cremations which
were taken to the state university for study.
It was the old “Discovery” and “dominion” doctrine once again, which was not surprising
considering that the original Papal Bull of 1493 has never been revoked and
continues to serve as the legal justification for all the Nation-states
claiming jurisdiction in the Americas.
The gathering of the alliance at the site lasted four days, and one
result was the initiation of a campaign to revoke the Doctrine Discovery as a
violation of the Human and Environmental Rights of the Indigenous Peoples of
Abya Yala [Americas].
This
linkage between Human Rights, Environmental Justice and the Rights of Mother
Earth is a movement which now is gaining momentum throughout the world. And around the world, it is Indigenous
Nations that are leading the movement.
The same doctrines of political and racial exclusion that are the
foundation of environmental racism within the United States are an integral
part of the international order as well.
As Indians are not “persons” within the meaning citizenship of the U.S.
Constitution, Indigenous Peoples are not considered Peoples within the United
Nations but only indigenous populations.
Defined as minority populations, the indigenous nations of the world are
precluded from invoking rights of self-determination established by
international norms and are forced to take drastic actions against the efforts
of Nation-states to illegally claim their territories, such as happened as
Wounded Knee South Dakota in 1973.
The
Wounded Knee confrontation of 1973 resulted in a trip to the United Nations in
New York by the Lakota Chiefs. Their
intentions were to speak on the floor of the General Assembly as sovereign
nation, with a valid treaty with the United States Government- the Treaty of
1868. It was nearly twenty years before
a Lakota spoke on the floor of the General Assembly. The occasion was the inauguration of the
International Year of Indigenous Peoples, declared by the United Nations for
the year 1993. Indigenous
representatives from throughout the world arrived to express with a natural
dignity the message of the caretakers of the Earth. The continental and worldwide resistance to
the glorification of the Columbus Quincentenary by the colonizer governments
had forced the United Nations to listen to the true nations of the world. That, and the undeniable and impending
ecological catastrophe threatening the planet, which the indigenous people hold
the key to averting, signaled the arrival of the new but yet ancient power for
all mankind - a New Sun.
There
were concrete proposals presented to the General Assembly. One was the revocation of the Papal Bull of
1493. Another was to collaborate with
the UN Sub-Commission on Prevention Discrimination and Protection of Minorities
for the purpose of advancing the linkage between Human Rights and Environmental
Justice Rights. But what was most evident was that the great transformations
sweeping the world are destined to place the bloc of indigenous nations, some
300 million around the world, as the major global counter factor to the New
World Order. In fact, this has always
been so. It has always been the people
of the land who care for the Earth as a sacred mother to the generations of all
life. It has always been the tradition
of the Original Nations to look upon our Father Sun as the source of life for
all humanity. Within the cultures of the Indigenous Peoples of the
world is the accumulated wisdom and knowledge of the entire human experience,
not only the past 500, 2,000, or 5,000 years.
And for the true nations of the world, there is only one race- the human
race.
To
we in Abya Yala - Itzachitlan [the Americas] has fallen a great responsibility
in this global effort to reestablish the path of balance for the human
family. Across North and South Abya Yala
the OrigiNations are in movement, uniting in anticipation of the historical
moment that will surely come soon now.
It always was there, in our calendar and in our prophesies. The Confederation of the Eagle and the Condor
has been invoked, and wind of their wings bring a great change. This transformation has been called the
coming of the Sun of Justice, the Sun of Consciousness. With roots in indigenous precepts of natural
law, the equilibrium of nature, and the integral part that humanity has in the
web of life is the ancestral concept of justice observed in harmony with the
natural world of reciprocity and equilibrium.
Environmental Justice.
TONATIERRA
802
N. 7th Street Phoenix, AZ 85006
Mail: P.O. Box 24009 Phoenix, AZ 85074
www.tonatierra.org
(Authors
note: The piece above was written en 2003, four years before the UN Declaration
on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and before the Climate Justice and Rights
of Mother Earth were articulated in the global agendas of the UN system)
###
YouTube:
Return to Aztlan
In Neklhuayotl, In Aztlan
November 9, 2018
A report from the site of the National Chicano Youth
Liberation Conference of 1969 at the headquarters of the Crusade for
Justice in Denver, Colorado by Tupak Huehuecoyotl, Izaloteka.
The Spirit of the Roots of Truth: In Nelhuayotl, In Aztlan.
****************************
Nohuanyoqueh,
The
following is a transcription of the intervention submitted to the United States
Government representative to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in
Geneva, Switzerland in 1987. It is being offered here as an initiative of the
Archives of Aztlan, www.tonatierra.org
In
Geneva in 1987, we met with traditional leaders from the Indigenous Peoples of
South Africa, chieftains of the Zulu who were living in exile in Switzerland
due to their trade union activism. We discussed the points that we were
bringing forward and compared our histories and knowledge. Upon reading our
position paper which called for the reopening of the question of integration of
the territories within the bounds of the US control in light of the current
international instruments and protocols for decolonization, these leaders
immediately drafted a parallel document that exposed as identical the legal
tactics of the British-Boer regimes to those of the British-American techniques
of colonization.
From
the Archives of Aztlan:
Tlahtokan
Izkalotl
Chicano
Spiritual Council
Aztlan
Traditional Nation
November
2, 1989
The
Honorable George Bush
President
of the United States
The
White House
Washington,
DC
On
August 3rd, 1982 we wrote a letter to the Department of Justice requesting a
clarification of our legal status as native "inhabitants" of the
territories relinquished to the United States under the Treaty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo-1848 and the Gadsden Treaty of 1853. The response from the
representative for the Civil Rights Division by Mr. James M. Schermerhorn was
to the effect that the US Attorney General was only authorized to render legal
opinions to you as President, and the heads of the executive departments of the
federal government. The pertinent declarations and inquiries of our initial
correspondence are as follows:
Aboriginal
Title – Aztlan
It
is a common assumption that by Treaties of Guadalupe Hidalgo 1848 and the
Gadsden Purchase of 1853 that the US acquired clear title to the territories
therein described. Yet, the Native Nations populating these territories - legal
holders of aboriginal title and sovereignty, never relinquished these powers to
the government of the Mexican Republic of 1848. The case of Pit River, and the
California Tribes with their unratified treaties are a testament to this fact
as is the Hopi Nation. Thus, the land right acquired by these treaties is not
one of clear title, but only a franchise to pursue extinguishment of the Indian
or Aboriginal Title.
Citizenship
The
falsehood that all Mexicanos in the relinquished territories became full US
citizens as a result of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo has as it basis the 8th
Article which states:
".
. . but they shall be under the obligation to make their election within one
year from the date of the exchange of ratifications of this treaty; and those
who shall remain in the said territories after the expiration of that year,
without having declared their intention to retain the character of Mexicans,
shall be considered to have elected to become citizens of the United
States."
In
fact, for those Mexicano inhabitants of the territories who were nonwhite
(non-European) no such opportunity was legally available. This is evidence by
US naturalization law then in effect which required the racial identity of
"WHITE" to be eligible for naturalization. Secondly, the California Constitution
of 1849 limited the political rights of citizenship to "white male
citizens of Mexico." Thirdly, the territorial acts of New Mexico and Utah,
1850, also restricted participation to "free white males." Fourthly,
the 14th Amendment opening US nationality to nonwhites was 20 years away (1868)
and finally as stated in the 1868 Convention regarding citizenship of Emigrants
between US and Mexico, Article 1:
"The
declaration of an intention to become a citizen of one of the other country has
not for either party the effect of naturalization."
In
view of these facts, did the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo identify the
"white" and "nonwhite" Mexican inhabitants of the
territories as separate and distinct populations within its provisions?
Specifically, please clarify the identity of "established" vs.
"not established" Mexicans as stated in Article 8.
Finally,
if no distinction was made in the treaty, what is the explanation of the US
Government for the division of Mexicanos into "white" and
"nonwhite" classes in Federal, State and Territorial Governments
since it was through these mechanisms that US Citizenship was to be acquired?
Clearly,
these are questions of law that must be evaluated before a foundation of
justice based on truth can exist for the Xicano Mexicano Peoples and indeed for
all the aboriginal sovereignties of the treaty territories. What is essentially
called into question is the process of integration of the territories into the
political domain of the United States, which in addition to the defect in
popular participation outlined above, must be reevaluated in terms of current
international legal standards. We remind you of the United Nations Resolution
1541 (XV), Principle V:
"Once
it has been established that such a prima facia case of geographical and
ethnical or cultural distinctions of a territory exists, other elements may
then be brought into consideration. These additional elements may be, inter
alia, of an administrative, political, juridical, economic or historical
nature. If they affect the relationship between the metropolitan State and
territory concerned in a manner which arbitrarily places the latter in a
position or status of subordination, they support the presumption that there is
an obligation to transmit information under Article 73 e of the Charter."
Mr.
President, in consideration of the above, we are requesting that you intercede
with the power of your office and direct the current Attorney General to render
a legal opinion regarding the question we have posed.
We
attentively await your reply.
Sincerely,
Tupac
Enrique Acosta
TLAHTOKAN
IZKALOTL
