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November
1, 2006
"Psychological Oppression and Terrorism"
Indigenous
Opposition to the Border Wall
By BRENDA NORRELL
Indigenous peoples at the Border Summit
of the Americas on Tohono O'odham tribal land opposed the construction
of a border wall, which will dissect indigenous communities on
ancestral lands split by the U.S.-Mexico border. They also issued
a strong statement against the ongoing militarization of their
homelands.
During the Border Summit, held
Sept. 29-Oct. 1, organized by Tohono O'odham Mike Flores and
facilitated by the International Indian Treaty Council and the
American Indian Movement, indigenous peoples unanimously opposed
the Secure Fence Act, passed by the Senate. The wall will divide
the ancestral lands of many Indian Nations, including the Kumeyaay
in California, Cocopah and Tohono O'odham in Arizona, and the
Kickapoo in Texas. The wall is expected to be completed by May
2008.
Describing it as "psychological
oppression and terrorism," the participants representing
many tribes from the United States and Mexico also called for
a halt to the militarization of their ancestral homelands and
sacred places along the border.
Tohono O'odham offered testimony
on how their human rights are violated by the Border Patrol,
immigration agents, and more recently the National Guard. The
Tohono O'odham's tribal land of 2.8 million acres is located
on the Arizona border and traditional lands span the border into
the northern Mexico state of Sonora.
Members of the Tohono O'odham
Nation said the proposed border wall would be a barrier to traditional
routes of passage for ceremonies and traditional practices. The
wall would interfere with O'odham ways for O'odham members living
on both sides of the border who cross routinely for ceremonial,
cultural, family, and health reasons. One Tohono O'odham father
said increased border security has already made it impossible
for his children to ride the bus to school because of harassment
by border agents.
Bill Means of the International
Indian Treaty Council noted that the U.S. government plans to
build the southern border wall in violation of the Native American
Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, environmental laws, and
other federal laws.
"This is a violation of
indigenous peoples' human rights and a violation of the Declaration
on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples now being considered by the
United Nations General Assembly," Means asserted, noting
that in 2005, Homeland Security waived all federal laws, including
environmental laws, to complete the border fence in Southern
California.
During the testimony, several
indigenous representatives said the militarization and occupation
of indigenous lands are in direct violation of indigenous peoples'
rights to economic, political, social, and cultural control of
their lands.
One participant, Tohono O'odham
Mike Wilson, also stated that his Nation has had no say in the
state and federal programs implemented on its lands. He said
he asked former Tohono O'odham Chairman Edward Manuel whether
the Tohono O'Odham Legislative Council was consulted before the
United States' Operation Gatekeeper or Operation Hold the Line
were launched. Those two operations funneled migrants onto tribal
land, where they often died in the desert.
According to Wilson, Chairman
Manuel confirmed that the Tohono O'odham were never consulted.
Cross-border
Indigenous Activism
Indian Nations are now uniting
to take action in defense of ancestral lands, burial sites, and
the environment. Earlier, the Kumeyaay opposed the border wall
and said it would allow the U.S. government to "plow through"
the burial places of their ancestors in Southern California.
Members of the Kumeyaay Nation supported the Tohono O'odham in
resisting the latest phase of wall-building.
Among those attending with
a new vision of indigenous border solidarity was Mark Maracle,
Mohawk, representing the Women Title Holders. Maracle presented
Flores with two flags of solidarity and spoke of the need for
unified action at the northern and southern borders.
He presented a statement of
the Women Title Holders that said that native people can freely
exercise their right to free transit at the northern border as
established under traditional and federal law by the Jay Treaty
at the northern border.
It states, " the Red Card
indicates that a person is a Haudenosaunee/Six Nations Iroquois
of Turtle Island. According to the Two Row Wampum Agreement,
at all times we are free to pass and repass by land or inland
navigation [or by air] onto our territories, that we are free
to carry on trade and commerce with each other, that we shall
not pay any duty or import whatever, that we are free to hunt
and fish anywhere on our vast territory, and that we shall have
free passage over all toll roads and bridges."
Wall Violates
Indigenous Rights
During the summit, Tohono O'odham
described how Border Patrol intrude into the homes of elderly
O'odham without permission, hold people at gunpoint and ask for
papers, and throw garbage in sacred sites on their patrols. Tohono
O'odham described harassment by Border Patrol, including being
tailgated in the vehicles, spotlighted in their homes, and held
at gunpoint while being asked for papers on tribal land.
"As far as I am concerned
the United States Border Patrol is an occupying army. If we were
truly a sovereign nation, we would not have an occupying army
on sovereign land," Wilson stated. He pointed out that the
Border Patrol's "occupying army" has a military camp
two miles north of the international border on Tohono O'odham
tribal land in Arizona.
Wilson said O'odham, too, are
migrants and most have moved about looking for work during their
lives. Many of those dying in the desert are indigenous peoples,
from Chiapas, Guatemala, Honduras, and other countries in Central
and South America. "Where is our moral outrage?" Wilson
asked the gathering. "We collectively in the social justice
community turn away and let our brothers and sisters die."
Summit participants pointed
out that the Tohono O'odham Nation law criminalizes transporting
migrants, including a fine for the first offense and jail time
for second offense. Means pointed out that in the event that
a migrant was dying in the desert, an O'odham on tribal land
would be charged with a crime for transporting the migrant to
a hospital.
During the Border Summit, Angelita
Ramon, Tohono O'odham, described how her son, 18-year-old Bennett
Patricio, Jr., was run over and killed by the Border Patrol on
April 9, 2001 in a deserted area of tribal land. Ramon, and Patricio's
stepfather Irvin Ramon, said they believe Patricio witnessed
a possibly illicit transfer of items by Border Patrol agents
and was intentionally run over. The family's case against the
Border Patrol is proceeding on federal appeal to the Ninth Circuit
Court of Appeals.
"I'm here to let everyone
know about the Border Patrol and how they killed my son,"
Angelita told the summit. She said the truth of what happened
that night has still not been revealed.
Jimbo Simmons, member of the
International Indian Treaty Council, said, "The Border Patrol
is a death squad. They are operating like they do in Central
and South America, because no one can hold them accountable."
Manny Pino of Acoma Pueblo
said indigenous people all along the border are affected by the
militarization. "As indigenous people, we didn't draw lines
on the land," Pino told the summit. "It was all our
Earth Mother."
Pino said the militarization
of the border and the manipulation of truth follows in the pattern
of the Indian Reorganization Act, which established systems of
government that were "shoved down the throats" of Indian
people in the United States in the 19th century.
Now, Pino said, the U.S. government
is telling the Tohono O'odham Nation that if the tribe does not
allow the military on their lands, their federal funding will
be cut off.
Pino added that nationwide,
some American Indian people are being caught up in attitudes
of racism toward migrants. This reflects a tactic that the U.S.
government has long used to divide the people, he noted, citing
the example of the so-called Navajo and Hopi land dispute.
He pointed out that it is important
for Indian people to recognize the real enemy. "It is George
Bush, Homeland Security, the Patriot Act, and the people who
want to tap our phone lines," Pino concluded.
Reflecting the comments of
many in the border area, Pino said a border wall would not stop
the people from coming across. "The 'Tortilla Curtain' will
be torn. The real challenge for indigenous peoples is to 'decolonize'
the mind."
One Man Makes a Difference
The Baboquivari District on
Tohono O'odham lands has one of the highest rates of migrant
deaths on the border. Mike Wilson, Tohono O'odham, has challenged
the Tohono O'odham Nation to become "morally responsible,"
and take actions to prevent deaths on tribal lands.
Wilson began to put out water
for migrants when they started to die in disproportionate numbers
in 2001. Since then, between 240 and 250 migrants have lost their
lives each year in the Sonoran Desert. Of those, 70 to 90 have
died on O'Odham lands. He states simply, "Let me be very,
very clear, hopefully, in what I'm trying to do. No one deserves
to die in the Arizona Sonora Desert for want of a cup of water."
Wilson does volunteer work
with Humane Borders away from tribal land, but his actions on
tribal land are as an individual. The Tohono O'odham tribal government
has halted humanitarian groups from coming onto tribal land to
render aid, he said. He urged that the tribal government be held
accountable for its callous inaction. "We who were once
oppressed, are ever increasingly becoming the oppressor."
The Tohono O'odham tribal Attorney
General's Office and Superintendent of Public Safety earlier
told Wilson to stop maintaining the water stations for migrants.
Both offices threatened him with banishment as a tribal member
and said, "Under penalty of banishment you must cease putting
out water." However, when asked about the banishment, Chairman
Manuel responded, "You are O'odham, no one can banish you."
Wilson appears in the film,
"Crossing Arizona," shown at the Border Summit, which
includes his efforts of putting out water in gallon jugs and
barrels, and testing for impurities, on a weekly basis at stations.
During the summit, he shared more of one migrant man's story
documented in the film. Wilson said he told the man in the desert
that if he goes north, he would be dead within a few hours. The
man said he would rather die in the desert than return to Mexico
and watch his wife, who needs surgery, and his children, starve
to death.
The reasons for Wilson's actions
go beyond altruism and touch on his fundamental beliefs and the
experiences that led him to his activism. Over the past five
years, he has witnessed migrants dying of thirst on tribal land,
including a seven-year-old girl with blood in her urine who barely
survived.
"All human life is sacred
When it comes to people dying in the desert, we are all equal."
When one undercover detective asked him whose authority he was
acting on, Wilson replied, "The man upstairs."
Threats
to a Traditional Way of Life
The impact of the border wall
and militarization on communities were not the only threats to
Native American way of life that were denounced at the Summit.
Pointing out that the fragile desert ecosystem and all of its
creatures will be affected, Maracle said, "The environmentalists
should be up in arms."
Representatives of the Tarahumara
in Northern Mexico also spoke out against the devastating effects
of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Urging a halt to
trade policies that are leading to unemployment in the Americas,
the summit called for nullification of the North American Free
Trade Agreement and other trade agreements.
Other indigenous peoples from
the Americas said that genetically modified seeds are destroying
the peoples' crops and their health. They also opposed corporate
profiteering by Halliburton's Kellogg, Brown, and Root. This
company, accused of profiting off corporate contracts in Iraq,
is now under contract to build migrant prisons.
The Border Summit also opposed
anti-Indian legislation in Arizona, including Proposition 103
English-only, Prop. 200 voter identification, and Prop. 300 proof
of citizenship for services.
Local, state, and federal governments
were told to recognize the international rights of indigenous
peoples as upheld by the United Nations, treaty rights, and the
sovereignty of American Indians. They were also mandated to obtain
prior permission before entering onto or engaging in construction
or development on indigenous lands.
During the Border Summit, indigenous
peoples called for removal of the existing Border Patrol detention
center for migrants on Tohono O'odham tribal land near San Miguel,
AZ.
Tohono O'odham described how
Border Patrol agents occupied sacred sites, including Baboquivari
Peaks, the sacred place of the Creator I'itoi. Dennis Manuel,
Tohono O'odham spiritual keeper of the traditions, said the Border
Patrol-now under Homeland Security-occupied the sacred area of
I'itoi and refused to leave the area. Manuel took his plea for
help to the United Nations. When the Border Patrol did later
leave, he said, they left their garbage strewn in the sacred
area.
On the third day of the summit,
the indigenous participants drafted a proclamation with recommendations
for direct action:
Proposals and Demands
* The United Nations is asked
to intervene and prevent the United States from violating federal
laws to build the border wall. These laws protect American Indian
burial sites and traditional routes of passage necessary for
ceremonies, which are vital for the continuance of traditional
lifeways.
* American Indian tribes are
urged to use federal laws, including the Native American Graves
Protection and Repatriation Act, and other laws protecting Indian
cultural and burial sites and environmental laws, to halt construction
of the border wall.
* The government of Mexico
is asked to demand an environmental impact statement by the United
States before construction of the border wall begins in the fragile
desert ecosystem.
* The Border Summit calls for
the nullification of the North American Free Trade Agreement,
and other trade agreements, which are resulting in widespread
hunger and desperation for indigenous peoples in the Americas.
* The Border Summit demands
a halt to the dissemination, export, and distribution of genetically
modified seeds, particularly corn and other grains.
* The summit calls for the
creation of a new human rights office in conjunction with the
Tohono O'odham Nation.
* The Bennett Patricio, Jr.,
Memorial Human Rights Fund was established to assist the families
of indigenous border victims, including attorneys and court costs.
* The Tohono O'odham Nation
is urged to establish water stations and develop the goal of
zero migrant deaths on tribal lands from dehydration and heat
exhaustion.
* Educational campaigns are
encouraged to inform migrants that Indian people in the United
States are not their enemy, and their lands and people should
be respected.
* Camera and camcorder patrols
are to be created, with Indian youths encouraged to carry cameras
and video cameras to document the treatment of people at the
border, carrying out regular patrols to the homes of elderly
and people with special needs.
* Stockholder direct action
campaigns will be organized, including a campaign to inform Boeing
stockholders of the sovereignty of Indian lands and federal laws
protecting burial places, traditional routes of passage, and
the fragile ecosystem of the desert.
* The Tohono O'odham Nation
is urged to set a date for the time when the Border Patrol will
leave sovereign tribal land. Tohono O'odham should be trained
to provide their own border security.
* Indigenous classes in language,
accurate history, and cultural continuity and the right of O'odham
children to school transportation are to be increased.
* Indigenous peoples are urged
to create their own newspapers and radio stations so their own
voices can be heard.
* The Border Summit encouraged
efforts to address racism and xenophobia within tribes and establish
protocol for conflict resolution within and between tribes to
achieve unity.
* Mexico is urged to establish
a living wage and take earnest steps to eradicate poverty.
* The Border Patrol is obliged
to observe mandatory speed laws and other tribal, state, and
federal laws.
* The United States is urged
to adopt the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
and abide by Article 35, which recognizes the rights of indigenous
peoples whose lands are separated by international borders and
their right to continue their spiritual and cultural practices.
* States within the United
States are advised that free, prior, and informed consent of
Indian people is required before states or corporations begin
any development on sovereign Indian lands.
Michelle Cook, Navajo law student,
noted that the protection of burial places is vital. "If
there are ancestral remains, they have to stop development. They
have to repatriate those remains. However, it is the native peoples'
responsibility to make them accountable. We have to go out there
and watch them to make the accountable."
During the Border Summit, American
Indian actor and activist Floyd Westerman Red Crow showed a work
in progress, the first in a series of films revealing the genocide
of American Indians. The first segment tells how Indian people
in California were targeted for systematic genocide by the delivery
of blankets infected with small pox. The state and federal government
also paid bounties for Indian heads and scalps as the gold rush
progressed.
Westerman performed in concert
with American Indian singer Keith Secola. Before the Border Summit
began, a traditional sweat was held for purification purposes
and tobacco offered in the traditional way.
At the conclusion of the Border
Summit, Jose Garcia, lieutenant governor of the O'odham in Mexico,
said the most important aspect of the summit was bringing O'odham
people together with other indigenous peoples to work to resolve
issues. "It brought us together in unity."
The testimony was aired live
on radio in the Tucson area and on the Internet, with listeners
responding around the world, including e-mails of appreciation
from listeners in Alaska, the Dominican Republic, and Europe.
The audio file archives will be available online at Earth Cycles
(see Resource List below).
Brenda Norrell has been a news reporter in Indian
country for 23 years, working as a staff reporter for Navajo
Times and Indian Country Today and as an AP correspondent during
the 18 years she lived on the Navajo Nation. She is currently
a freelance writer based in Tucson and a contributor to CounterPunch
and the IRC America's
Program.
International Indian Treaty
Council (San Francisco Office)
Tony Gonzales or Jimbo Simmons
2390 Mission St # 301
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 641-4482 http://www.treatycouncil.org
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