CALL TO RESPECT SACRED PLACES AND TO RESPECT TREATIES

This is a month old, but I just ran across it. Also see the Oread Daily article Defend Bear Butte at http://oreaddaily.blogspot.com/2006/07/defend-bear-butte.html

The following was taken from InterContinental Cry.

INDIGENOUS NATIONS OF MEXICO ASK THE US AND SOUTH DAKOTA TO RESPECT TREATIES AND SACRED PLACES

As the Summit of Indigenous Nations to protect Bear Butte, all sacred spaces and all indigenous land, opens in Mato Paha (Bear Butte, South Dakota), here is the declaration from the indigenous people of the Northwest and Central Pacific Regions of the National Indigenous Congress of Mexico. In it, representatives from the Yaqui, Mayo, Comca’ac, Triqui, ñu Saavi, Zapoteco, Wixáritari, Purhépecha, Nahua and Coca Nations address local and national concerns, promising Mexican society to “defend that which belongs to us by any means within our reach, as we have in the last five hundred years”. In addition, showing solidarity for their brothers and sisters of the North, these Nations include a request to the United States Government to respect the Treaties made with the indigenous Nations, and the State of South Dakota to respect Bear Butte.


SOOCAIX DECLARATION
9 of July of 2006

We, the representatives of the Yaqui, Mayo, Comca’ac, Triqui, ñu Saavi, Zapoteco, Wixáritari, Purhépecha, Nahua and Coca Nations have gathered in the indigenous Comca’ac (seri) community of Soocaix (Punta Chueca), Sonora, Mexico.

In this meeting of words between fraternal nations of North and South we drew attention to the fact that in spite of a history of over five hundred years of destruction, land theft and exploitation, our peoples are still alive, standing and resisting.

Neither the war of extermination unleashed by the yori (European invaders) against the tribes and nations of the North, nor the forced integration imposed by the liberal governments of the central region were able to kill our voice and our culture.

Today we realize that the extermination attempt by the powerful, against the Yoreme (indigenous) tribes and the Comca’ac (Seri) nation, has become a new war of neoliberal conquest and extermination against all the original peoples of Mexico that has as a goal stripping us from our territories in favor of the capitalist interests always supported by the Mexican government at all its levels.

In this meeting we agreed to join our resistance and efforts to defend ourselves against our common enemy to reach the integral liberation and reconstitution of our peoples.

In the same way, we make a pact to strengthen the National Indigenous Congress in the Northwest and in the whole country as the space of unity for the indigenous peoples of Mexico.

With all the programs, money and tricks that the government throws at our peoples to divide and weaken us, we reaffirm our will to continue our struggle and firmly reject the tourist “mega-project” called “Escalera Nautica” (Maritime Stairway) or “Mar de Cortes” (Sea of Cortes), the expropriation of Tiburon Island, heart of the Comca’ac Nation, the privatization of water and of indigenous territories, the construction of gas pipelines, the intensive contamination of Mother Earth with agro-chemicals, and the exploitation and disrespect for the Triqui, ñu Saavi, and Zapoteco agricultural workers living in the communities of Miguel Alemán y Pesqueira of the municipalities of Caborca and Hermosillo.

Supported by the historical right derived from our existence as original peoples of Sonora and other regions of this country, we demand all municipal, state and federal governments respect our territories, autonomy, culture, history, traditions, traditional governments, labor rights, human and social rights, making clear to the national society that we will defend that which belongs to us by any means within our reach, as we have in the last five hundred years.

In this way, we also ask the government of the United States of America to respect the Nation to Nation Treaties made with the Native peoples, the ceremonial places of the original peoples, and specifically we ask de government of South Dakota to respect Bear Butte, a sacred place for over thirty different indigenous Nations. The destruction of these sites for profit is a grievous offense to the spiritual life of the original peoples.

Lastly, we call on the indigenous peoples of the Mexican Northwest to be a part of this historical process of unification amongst fraternal nations.

SOOCAIX (PUNTA CHUECA), TERRITORY OF THE COMCA’AC NATION, SONORA, JULY 9TH, 2006

RESPECTFULLY


NEVER AGAIN A MEXICO WITHOUT US

FOR THE INTEGRAL RECONSTITUTION OF OUR PEOPLES, NATIONS, TRIBES, COMMUNITIES, AND INDIGENOUS ORGANIZATIONS OF THE NATIONAL INDIGENOUS CONGRESS OF THE NORTHWEST AND CENTRAL PACIFIC REGIONS