Wednesday, November 23, 2011

DECLARACION DE TEOTIHUACAN 2000


Cumbre Indígena Continental Teotihuacan, Mexico
28 al 30 de octubre de 2000

La Cumbre Indígena Continental reunida al pie del Centro Ceremonial de Teotihuacan, y al cumplirse el Segundo Milenio del calendario Gregoriano y los 508 años de la invasión europea, los delegados y delegadas indígenas representando a los diversos Pueblos Originarios del continente:


DECLARAMOS Y REAFIRMAMOS ante el mundo lo siguiente:


Los Pueblos Indígenas de Abya Yala [las Américas] reafirmamos nuestros principios de espiritualidad comunitaria y el inalienable derecho a la Autodeterminación como Pueblos Originarios de este continente. En esta era de globalización económica impuesta por los grandes capitales de las empresas trasnacionales y los llamados países industrializados, que amenaza nuestra existencia misma, los Pueblos Indígenas de los diferentes Estados que vivimos en el continente, estamos organizados y aunando esfuerzos de coordinación y solidaridad para salvaguardar los sagrados derechos de nuestros Pueblos para las generaciones futuras.




CONSIDERANDO:


Que, si bien ha habido algunos logros en materia de derechos Indígenas a nivel de acuerdos internacionales, los llamados Estados Latinoamericanos y Anglosajones del Norte, continúan negando nuestros derechos y libertades fundamentales. Que, si bien el convenio 169 de la OIT adoptado hace mas de once años, reconoce varios de nuestros derechos, la mayoría de los Estados gobiernos, no lo han ratificado, y aquellos que lo han hecho, han tomado medidas para debilitar sus contenidos y el espíritu del mismo.


Que, el Proyecto de Declaración de los Derechos de los Pueblos Indígenas en la ONU, después de 16 años de constante lucha y esfuerzos de los representantes Indígenas, los estados coloniales siguen negando la aprobación de la misma.


Que, el proyecto de Declaración Americana de los Derechos de los Pueblos Indígenas en la Organización de Estados Americanos (OEA), sus actuales contenidos no incluyen los derechos y libertades fundamentales de los Pueblos Indígenas. Esto es una consecuencia directa de ser un instrumento elaborado desde la visión de los Estados, y sin la participación plena de los representantes de los Pueblos Indígenas.


Que, si bien el Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica reconoce ciertos derechos Indígenas, en su articulo 8J del mismo, en la practica las companias trasnacionales con el acuerdo de los gobiernos, han intensificado la política de saqueo y expropiación de los recursos naturales y la Biodiversidad que se encuentran en los territorios Indígenas, causando destrucción ecológica y afectando los derechos colectivos de nuestros Pueblos.


La idea de un Foro Permanente para los Pueblos Indígenas en la ONU, contó con el legítimo apoyo de los indígenas, sin embargo en el transcurso del proceso, su mandato se ha debilitado y se ha excluido el concepto de Pueblos Indígenas, lo que no satisface plenamente las aspiraciones indígenas.


Que, la política financiera impuesta por el Fondo Monetario Internacional, FMI, el Banco Mundial y el Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID), con la complicidad de los gobiernos, han impuesto políticas de ajuste para beneficiar el consumismo desmedido de los países del Norte. Esto ha acentuado la dependencia, la opresión y el empobrecimiento de los Pueblos Indígenas y los sectores populares.


Que, a pesar de instaurarse las llamadas democracias en el continente, la violación a los Derechos Humanos, al derecho a una vida digna, la libertad y el derecho a definir nuestro propio destino como Pueblos diferentes, reconocidos en la Declaración Universal de los Derechos Humanos, estos siguen siendo negados por los estados coloniales.


Que, los Acuerdos de Paz en Guatemala y San Andrés en Chiapas (México) han sido solo promesas de justicia para los Pueblos. La represión en contra de líderes Indígenas continua como ser: Honduras, Chile, México, Perú, Bolivia, Guatemala. El Plan Colombia apoyado por Estados Unidos traerá más represión, militarización y sufrimiento para los Pueblos Indígenas y no Indígenas en Colombia.
Tenamaztle 1555
POR LO TANTO:


Los delegados Indígenas reunidos en esta Cumbre Continental, REAFIRMAMOS:


1. Los indígenas seguimos estando guiados por nuestras normas culturales, espirituales, lingüísticas e históricas, por tanto, seguimos siendo Pueblos Indígenas, con derechos imprescriptibles e inalienables que le asisten a todos los Pueblos del mundo.


2. Los Pueblos Indígenas desarrollamos nuestra cultura en determinados espacios territoriales, en donde se han establecido vínculos espirituales, lingüísticos, que conforman nuestra identidad milenaria.  Sin embargo, hemos sido despojados en el proceso de conformación de los Estados Nacionales. Los territorios, los recursos de la biodiversidad constituyen derechos inalienables e imprescriptibles para los Pueblos Indígenas.


3. Los Pueblos Indígenas, reafirmamos el principio y el derecho a la Libre Determinación, considerando que este derecho representa la columna vertebral de todos los otros derechos que nos asisten.


DEMANDAMOS:


1. Exhortamos a los Gobiernos del mundo a que apoyen y adopten el Proyecto de Declaración de los Derechos de los Pueblos Indígenas de Naciones Unidas, en el marco del Decenio Internacional de los Pueblos Indígenas del Mundo. En vista a que el Programa del Decenio, es un compromiso de los gobiernos ante la comunidad internacional.


2. Llamamos a los Gobiernos que conforman la Organización de Estados Americanos (OEA), a que reactiven el dialogo sobre el Proyecto de Declaración de los Derechos de los Pueblos Indígenas, y que el Grupo de Trabajo convoque a una nueva sesión sobre el instrumento. Asimismo, se garantice la más amplia participación de los Pueblos Indígenas en el proceso, potenciando el Comité Indígena como forma de enlace con las organizaciones interesadas.


3. Que los Estados renuentes a la ratificación del Convenio 169 de la OIT, ratifiquen el instrumento como una señal de su voluntad política en la protección y reconocimiento de los derechos de los Pueblos Indígenas.


4. Que los Estados reconozcan a los Pueblos Indígenas y sus derechos, en sus constituciones políticas, garantizando su participación, protección de su tierra y territorio y asegurando el derecho a decidir su propio destino.


5. La Asamblea general de delegados decidió continuar la coordinación de la unidad indígena continental en una próxima Cumbre que se realizara en Ecuador en el año 2001, organizada por la Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas de Ecuador (CONAIE) con el apoyo de todas las organizaciones participantes en esta Cumbre.


6. Esta Cumbre Indígena Continental hace un llamado fraternal y de unidad a todos los Pueblos Indígenas para fortalecer el proceso organizativo y de comunicación para que juntos podamos reconstruir un futuro mejor para generaciones venideras.

¡POR LA LIBREDETERMINACION DE LOS PUEBLOS INDIGENAS Y LA RESTITUCION DE SUS TERRITORIOS!

Firmado por 36 Organizaciones Indígenas de todo el Continente

CONIC
Council of Indigenous Organizations and Nations of the Continent Center for Communications and Coordination - North


P.O. 24009
Phoenix, AZ    85074
Tel: (602) 254-5230
www.tonatierra.org



Email: chantlaca@tonatierra.org



Contact:  Tupac Enrique Acosta

Sunday, November 13, 2011

World Water One: The Four Gourds of an Ocean Planet

The Offering of Cemanahuac
The Four Gourds of an Ocean Planet
photo by Susan Little

Panama News November 7, 2004
article by Eric Jackson, photos by Susan Little


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 Tonantzin, 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."
Self Determination
 
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 many 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."

Foto by Susan Little





The Offering of Cemanauak
The Four Gourds
World Water One

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, the Condor and the Eagle 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 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 grandchildren of the Human Family, those of Abya Yala Cemananhuac, 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 of 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.

Tupac Enrique Acosta
www.tonatierra.org



Sunday, October 30, 2011

MEXICO: El japonés Saburo Sugiyama identifica patrón numérico en pirámides teotihuacanas
La probabilidad de que 83 centímetros haya sido la unidad de medida utilizada en la antigua arquitectura teotihuacana, particularmente para la construcción de las pirámides del Sol, de la Luna y de Quetzalcóatl, fue planteada por el arqueólogo japonés Saburo Sugiyama, en la 5ª Mesa Redonda de Teotihuacan.

El arqueólogo explicó, que a partir de cálculos basados en las medidas de estas construcciones se ha determinado la constante presencia de dicha unidad numérica.
En dicho encuentro, donde también participó el arqueólogo Eduardo Matos, con una ponencia sobre las semejanzas arquitectónicas y de cosmovisión de las culturas mexica y teotihuacana, el investigador de la Universidad Estatal de Aichi, Japón, precisó que la posible medida longitudinal utilizada por los antiguos arquitectos de la Ciudad de los Dioses, corresponde a “una base numérica compuesta por 83 centímetros, porque es la cantidad que, multiplicada por 4 o múltiplos de 4, se repite constantemente en las medidas de las edificaciones del sitio prehispánico”.
En el foro, organizado por el Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH-Conaculta) del 23 al 28 de octubre, Sugiyama, dio algunos ejemplos al respecto, como las medidas de la alfarda, escalera y distancia entre las esculturas de cabezas de serpiente de la Pirámide de Quetzalcóatl.
“La alfarda mide 1.66 metros de longitud lo que corresponde al doble de la unidad que sugiero; lo mismo pasa con la distancia entre las cabezas de serpiente que es cuatro veces la unidad (3.32 metros), o con el largo de la escalera que es de 13.2 metros, lo que equivale a 16 veces la unidad; y así sucesivamente se puede también observar este patrón numérico en las pirámides del Sol y de la Luna, así como en la Ciudadela, en las que 83 centímetros es la base numérica que se multiplica constantemente”, expuso.
Al dictar la conferencia Cosmograma y política plasmada en la planificación urbana de Teotihuacan, Saburo Sugiyama también habló sobre el simbolismo de la Pirámide de la Luna, planteado a partir de los avances de investigación de entierros humanos y ofrendas halladas durante el proyecto de excavación de 1998 a 2004, que fueron encabezadas por él.
En este sentido, comentó que dichos contextos funerarios son muestra de la importancia de la pirámide como templo sagrado, en el que se hicieron ceremonias vinculadas con los movimientos celestes, la dualidad fuego-agua y el renacimiento del día.
“Al hacer excavación en la Pirámide de la Luna, por medio de un túnel que hicimos hacia el interior, se halló evidencia de superestructuras y sistemas constructivos, de los cuales determinamos más tarde la existencia de siete niveles, cuya antigüedad va de 100 a 400 después de Cristo.”, explicó el arqueólogo al añadir que asociados a estos niveles constructivos se descubrieron algunos entierros, de los cuales describió dos, denominados  V y VI, que fueron los que presentaban mayor cantidad de elementos
El entierro V fue hallado entre los niveles constructivos cinco (300 d.C.) y seis (350 d.C.), por lo que expertos del INAH consideran que fue depositada en una ceremonia de terminación. “Se encontró un espacio abierto —sin mampostería ni construcción que sugiriera la evidencia de un templo— donde posiblemente se realizaron rituales, pues se descubrieron tres osamentas humanas en posición de flor de loto (común entre personas de linaje), cuyos individuos seguramente fueron ofrendados para llevar a cabo la ampliación constructiva de la Pirámide de la Luna.
“Dichos esqueletos —continúo Saburo Sugiyama— portaban collares y pendientes de piedra verde, con diseños de lo que parecerían cuerdas amarradas, que para la zona maya eran figuras ornamentales relacionadas con la élite o la autoridad, lo que nos sugiere algún tipo de relación entre mayas y teotihuacanos”.
El segundo entierro, el VI —encontrado en el nivel constructivo cuatro (200-250 d.C.) de la Pirámide de la Luna—, se integraba por varios elementos simbólicos, entre ellos restos óseos de más de 50 animales acomodados en el centro y esquinas de la ofrenda, de los cuales 18 correspondían a águilas, 13 a jaguares y pumas, 10 a lobos y el resto a serpientes de cascabel y conejos; fauna vinculada con la guerra y sacrificio, según las representaciones de murales de la Zona Arqueológica de Teotihuacan.
Tenochtitlan y Teotihuacan, afinidades y divergencias
Por su parte, el investigador emérito del INAH, Eduardo Matos, al hacer un análisis sobre las semejanzas y diferencias entre ambas urbes, señaló que si bien estuvieron alejadas en el tiempo, hubo algunos aspectos ideológicos y arquitectónicos que las unieron.
En su conferencia El centro del universo en Teotihuacan y Tenochtitlan: afinidades y divergencias, destacó el aspecto fundacional de estas dos civilizaciones, mediante la presencia de una montaña sagrada y principal, representada con la Pirámide del Sol y el Templo Mayor, ambas orientadas hacia el poniente, y asociadas simbólicamente con la dualidad vida-muerte. “Las dos estructuras están situadas hacia dónde cae el Sol para ‘entrar al inframundo’ y volver a nacer al día siguiente; además, están delimitadas por grandes plataformas circundantes que demarcaban el espacio de sacralidad”, señaló Eduardo Matos.
Matos concluyó que los actos rituales de ambas civilizaciones, que para el caso de Teotihuacan, si bien no existen testimonios escritos, sí se ha encontrado evidencia arqueológica que lo confirma, como entierros con esqueletos humanos con huellas de sacrificio, y ricas ofrendas.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

An Open Letter to ‘Occupy Wall Street’: A Lenape Perspective


12 October 2011

I begin by prayerfully remembering our free and independent ancestors, the Lenape and all the Original Nations and Peoples of this vast Turtle Island (Mother Earth), and of the entire Western Hemisphere from the Arctic Circle to Tierra del Fuego at the tip of South America. 
Turtle Island
As you ‘occupy Wall Street,’ I ask you to reflect: You are on the island upon which our Indigenous ancestors lived and thrived for thousands and thousands of years. Please take a moment to recognize that we, the Original Nations, still exist here on Turtle Island. We have the right to exist as free and distinct nations with full self-determination.

What is the true source of our many grievances? It is the mentality and behavior of greed. The word ‘America’ is the combination of two Latin words ame (a command form of ‘love!’) and rica (riches and wealth). The effects of an insatiable desire for and the pursuit of riches and wealth first afflicted our Indigenous nations and peoples, and now afflict all peoples. Clearly, we need to address and rectify the political economy of greed, and the destruction it has caused and continues to cause.
Language Families of Abya Yala North, Turtle Island


Too Pig to Fail
Greed is an unsustainable value, but it is also an illness that is rooted in addiction. It is maintained in keeping with the slogan, ‘The more you eat (consume), the more you want.’ The addict will stop at nothing to get a fix; he will sacrifice anyone and anything to feed his addiction. For this reason, an economy of greed has and will continue to sacrifice the health and well-being of women, children, men, and all living things on Mother Earth. As a great Anishinaabe leader has profoundly stated, “Their way of living is our way of dying.” It is rapidly becoming ‘the way of dying’ for everyone. 

Today, after centuries of invasion and predatory consumption (‘devouring’) of our traditional lands, territories, and resources on Turtle Island and elsewhere, the waters of the rivers and streams that were once pure enough for our ancestors to drink from are now filthy and poisoned. Water is Life. The chemical contamination of Water, and, therefore, of Life itself, is emblematic of a way of life predicated upon patterns of greed that are destined to collapse.

The suffering of human beings and the destructiveness to life on Mother Earth has been a direct consequence of colonization, domination, dehumanization, militarization and war. Unfortunately, these conceptions and behaviors have become the metaphorical bricks and mortar of the current unsustainable world order. They are expressed in a number of documents issued in the fifteenth century by the Holy See at Vatican Hill in Rome; these documents called for the domination of all non-Christian peoples throughout the world, and for the theft of all our lands and territories. To this day, the ideas found in those papal documents are woven into US Indian law and policy.
Those Church documents unleashed claims to a right of conquest and domination in the name of a “right of Christian discovery.” The monarchies of Christendom used those documents to claim the territories of our nations in the Western hemisphere, simply because our territories were not yet in the possession of any Christian prince or dominator (‘dominorum christianorum’). This paradigm of domination has been used to give governments and corporations virtually unlimited access to our traditional lands and territories. If approved, the Keystone XL pipeline will be but the latest example.

Despite the destructive effects of more than five centuries of subjugation, as the Originally Free Nations and Peoples of Turtle Island, we still remember what it is to be truly free as exemplified by our ancestors. Our ancestors evolved life-ways and values that challenged European feudalism, medievalism, and lordship. Today, forces seem to be working toward neo-feudalism and neo-medievalism, with a long range plan for irreversible global domination in the name of ‘national security,’ under the unblinking eye of the surveillance state.

We have entered the ‘Brave New World’ written about by a prescient mind a generation ago. Not only have we survived, but we now have the capability of expressing ourselves in the language of the Colonizers, and we are maintaining the message that our great leaders tried to convey to your ancestors: Stop the patterns of destruction and greed before it is too late. The Chernobyl-scale release of radiation at Fukushima, Japan is a clarion call.

We must invert the key symbol of domination. Once inverted, the patriarchal symbol of ‘the dome of domination’ becomes a bowl; when filled with water, the bowl is the symbol of the Sacred Feminine, as exemplified by the White Buffalo Calf Woman. She was the one who brought the Sacred Pipe to the Oglala Lakota Nation. 
World Water One
The Living Laws and Values of Turtle Island that the White Buffalo Calf Woman brought include: Honor and Respect; Compassion and Pity; Sharing and Caring (to carry the well-being of the People in one’s heart); Patience and Fortitude; Bravery and Courage; Humility; Seeking Wisdom and Seeking Understanding. In keeping with the White Buffalo Calf Woman’s teachings, Love and the Beautification of Life are healing values that need to replace the love of riches and wealth.

Next May, 2012, a year of great transformation, we will be in New York at the United Nations as part of our work toward decolonization at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. The theme of the Permanent Forum will be the destructive legacy and deadly impact of the Doctrines of Discovery and Domination on Indigenous Nations and Peoples and on Mother Earth. We ask for your support by renouncing the Doctrine of Christian Discovery.

Steven Newcomb, Shawnee/Lenape, is co-founder and co-director of the Indigenous Law Institute, author of Pagans in the Promised Land: Decoding the Doctrine of Christian Discovery, and a columnist for the Indian Country Today Media Network.

Star Man drops in for a moment's notice to bring the Designation of Reality to the Bull Smoke.



Kundur Anka Pachakutic





Thursday, October 6, 2011

Sacred Symmetry: Chicuei Ollin - Eight Movement

Chicuei Ollin

Eight Movement

Tonal Machiotl
On September 22 the first sunrise of Fall blessed us.  The equinoxes, Fall and Spring, divide the day roughly in half, a manifestation of the creative duality (Ometeotl).
Thirteen days after each equinox is another manifestation of this sacred symmetry.  At sunrise on Thurday October 6 Earth will be the same distance from the Sun as it is 13 days after the Spring equinox. 


This event, termed "equihelions" by maestro Arturo Meza, has been part of the natural calendars of this continent for thousands of years. Interestingly, currently not even NASA makes them part of their astronomy.
Xiuhuitzilin
 
They are important because there are 8 Earth orbital events that create conditions so that the creative forces of Sun, Moon, and Earth can form Life on this, on Mother Earth such as creating seasonal changes, weather, ground and sky flow of water, and decomposition becoming fertile material.  On the Aztec Calendar these 8 points are marked by the sets of arrows, four with curving ends and four with just pointers.

Equinoxes, solstices, equihelions, and the perihelion (when Earth is closer to the Sun) and aphelion (when Earth is farthest from the Sun) link the human gestation cycle (260+13=273) to the movement of Earth in relation to "her husband", the Sun, with grandmother Moon setting the cycles of life reproduction on Mother Earth.

Human creation in the womb is marked by 5 key events (nesting, heart creation, brain creation, entrance of the tonalli, and water breaking for birth) over a period that can be divided into nine stages of 273 days. The 5 is also correlated with the five fingers of our hand which allow us to be "little creators", the five crossings of Venus across the Sun (that always comes in pairs every 100 years or so), and the five patterns of Venus that repeat every eight years. 

The Aztec/Maya Calendar is synchronize around five main celestial phenomena: Earth, Moon, Sun, Venus, and the Pleiedes constellation.  Our Creation story is embedded the motion of 13 star groups (constellations) over a period of a year. Particularly interesting is that the Medicine (peyote) contains those patterns in her growth: 5, 8, the 13 ridges.

This knowledge, and more importantly, our application of it guides us to be more natural creatures, aware that we are subject to the same laws of Creation as other forms.  It is also an important to create a conscious that is scientific as much as it is spiritual.
Carlos Aceves, Yolohuitzcalotl 


Pachacutic Kundur Anka

Thursday, September 22, 2011

The Resonance of Equilibrium

Xinachmilpa





The Resonance of Equilibrium

HUITZILOPOCHTLI stands on the third, the highest level of the TEOCALLI (la piramide) and surveys the quadrant of the cosmos that is home to humanity.  Under his feet a mighty force that originates from a great fire within the heart of Tonantzin, anchors him, embraces him with a power that is beyond time.  It is what the religions of the world call love and the scientists call gravity.  From this foundation arises TEZCATLIPOCA, constructing himself in four aspects – the first level of the Teocalli.  Besides recalling the four previous suns or cultural epochs of the Nahuatl civilization, these four attributes reflect the facets of human perception in terms of the sum of relationships.  Arising from the awareness of our earthbound context, the human personality is molded as a result of the interaction of duality, and the tension between two absolutes. 

  • The duality is that of the self and others, the individual and human society, the feminine and masculine, the family and the generations – both past and future.

  • The first absolute that of the creation itself, the human being an integral participant and which although she remains a mystery, the universe is not a secret.

  • The other absolute is that of the unknown, all that lies beyond the realm of human perception or understanding.  It is a philosophical attitude that regards these relationships as complementary while appearing opposed.


QUETZALCOATL appears arriving from the East, the direction of light and life, radiant with the energy of creation.  Quetzalcoatl is charged with the task of ordering with the intelligence that is humankind’s exceptional characteristic the apparent chaos.  His instrument is the Wind with which he clears a path for the arrival of TLALOCTEKUTLI who brings the rain of time, activating the seed planted by Quetzalcoatl.  The seed is the principle of harmony, the resonance of equilibrium as the Way of Life that reverberates echoing the solar wind itself to create a reality allowing for the development of the full human potential.  The second level of the teocalli is constructed and the ceremony is born.

Huitzilopochtli looks to the West.  It is in that direction that he senses his spirit will depart from this world.  As he gazes towards the heavens, in spite of the powerful attraction of Tonantzin, a sense of nostalgia and profound longing spark him into his characteristic personality mode – action. The bow of Dream Memory is drawn, his thoughts as arrows he lets fly seeking the Quetzalmazatl: the hunt is for knowledge and wisdom.   He moves to the drum of a great heart beat, the Nahui Ollin. He sings, he dances, and then finally, he flies. 

© Tupac Enrique Acosta 2004





Mandato Nahuacalco: Resistance - Rebellion - Regeneration