Reflections
from the Ahnishinahbæótjibway (We, the People)
|
Dear Javier Perez de
Cuillar,
There is unrest around the
world – South Africa, Central
America, the Middle East. Wherever
Europeans have gone, they have forced their laws, their economic
system, and
variations of European Apartheid on the Indigenous peoples who were one
with
the land that European colonists invaded.
Virtually all of the World’s present-day unrest stems directly
from the
Europeans’ invasions and colonization of Indigenous peoples’ lands, and
its consequences.
The United Nations was
supposed to be founded on
International Law. We see one of the
problems which makes the U.N. less effective than it should be, is that
the
“International Law” that it’s based on represents only the law,
world-view, and
religious perspectives of the Europeans and European colonies. The entire written history of Europe and
EurAsian “civilization” is filled with wars and exploitation. How can a body of law which is founded on
warlike hierarchical thinking lead to world peace?
We, the Anishinabe Ojbway
people, and our brothers the other
Indigenous peoples of these Continents and of the World, never had war
before
the European “explorers” blundered violently onto our land. The descendents of the Europeans have
written volumes and volumes of legislation which they call “Indian law”
although it’s written by Europeans, for Europeans, in European
languages. They have created libraries
full of
fantasies and lies about who and what kind of people were – it needs to
be
stressed that we are not warlike and never have been; we were initially
hospitable to these invaders because we were a peaceful people. If we had been warlike, our Indian
Continents would have already been plundered like Europe, and the
Europeans
would have turned their boats around and gone back.
There would have been nothing left to steal.
We have to debunk all of the pejorative
propaganda that Europeans have written about us.
The Anishinabe Ojibway and
almost all other Indigenous
peoples are non-hierarchical, egalitarian societies whose religion
stresses
generosity and harmony with each other and with the Earth.
The European language, culture, and religion
is totally the opposite: the emphasis even in the Bible is on
domination and
hierarchy. We are not contesting what
the Europeans to do themselves in Europe, that is their business. But we very strongly object to the continued
efforts of the Europeans to force their language, religion, culture,
warlike
laws, economic system, forms of government, etc., onto our Continents.
Hierarchical ways of
thinking have dishonesty built right
into them: they have to in order to justify one artificial “class” of
human
beings oppressing and stealing from another.
English and other European languages are crooked, they are
structurally
hierarchical – this includes the Russian language and the Communism
[which came
from Capitalist thinking] that it molded.
All of these languages have “inferiority and superiority” built
right
into them; when one analyzes the World thinking in these languages,
authoritarianism and militaristic thinking are almost impossible to
escape. Revolutions, civil wars, and
rebellions can happen until doomsday, and with a hierarchical language
it
always comes back to the same ugly thing that caused the revolution to
begin
with. If we are going to preserve this
planet, this kind of thinking has to change – nonviolently and with
ongoing
dialogue. We must work together, with
respect and harmony, to undo the horrendous and terrible damage that
has been
done to all people.
The laws which the
Europeans have written on our Continent
are crooked. They are designed for
stealing: to take from us and give to them.
“Democracy” has its roots in slave states, and the kinds of
representative
democracy that is being violently promoted by the United States and
their
allies is not at all egalitarian, and in fact enables the ruling
European and
Euro-colonial elite to continue stealing from Indigenous peoples. There is no other reason why the Europeans
would force their religion, their economic system, their laws, their
language,
and their forms of government on us – if they were honest we would be
accepted
as the sovereign and truly civilized owners of this land that we always
have
been. There is no honesty at all in the
structures created by European hierarchical thinking; the foundation is
oppression, exploitation, and lies about the nature of the world and
humanity.
We have been reading
“International Law” – the Nuremberg
Principles, the Rules of War, the International Convention for the
Prevention
and Punishment of Genocide. The
Indigenous peoples of the world have had no input into this body of
“International Law.” Indeed, there are
sneaky phrases like “internal affairs” carefully inserted in these laws
which
exclude us from protection by these laws.
These are not “International Law,” these are European laws based
on
European hierarchical thinking and extended by violence around the
world. This violence is evidently
justified by
“International Law,” this is clear from the ongoing treatment of all
Indigenous
peoples. Our language, our culture, our
resources, our land, our religion, right here and on all Indigenous
peoples’
land, are still under attack. If
International Law were written to apply to Indigenous peoples, what is
happening right now would be blatantly in violation of International
Law. We see what is happening to
Indigenous
peoples as ongoing war crimes, ongoing crimes against humanity, ongoing
genocide even though your laws are written to exclude us.
Dialogue between the
Indigenous peoples of the world and the
hierarchical peoples is nowhere mentioned in “International Law.” In our experience, the Europeans have
consistently avoided dialogue, preferring to use violent means which
further
entrench their hierarchical system and create more unrest.
A recent example of this use of violence is
the situation in Panama: a situation which was created and molded by
European
hierarchical thinking. Where was the
dialogue between the United States or General Noriega’s Government and
the Cuna
and other Indigenous people who own the land called “Panama.” There wasn’t any. There
must be dialogue, not only regarding Panama but including
all Indigenous peoples and our land.
One of the questions which
must be asked is “what are you
doing on our land?” The Europeans and
their heirs must come to terms with reality before they write any more
laws. When the Europeans came onto our
land, they had larceny in their hearts; they cannot “turn over a new
leaf” and
be honest without facing why and how they care here, and what they have
done. Until the Europeans are
completely honest about themselves, until they admit they are still
Europeans
and not “Americans” or “Australians” or “Afrikaners” or whatever, until
European languages and religions become honest, all of their laws will
remain
crooked and nothing will change.
Isolationism is another
part of the tactics of the Europeans,
another means of avoiding dialogue with and between Indigenous peoples. For many years, Indian and other Indigenous
peoples have asked the United Nations for representation as the
Sovereign
peoples that we are. For many years, we
have been refused; it seems to us as though the United Nations
represents a
club of European-schooled elites. We
Indigenous peoples have much to contribute to this world, but we have
been
silenced, held virtually incommunicado, by European economic systems,
European
political systems and “democratic” European-style governments forced on
our own
land, European apartheid and racist hierarchies, Indo-European
religion, and European
law. How can the United Nations claim
to be a “world body” when the original and still legitimate owners of
more than
two-thirds of the world’s land are not represented, still isolated and
not
heard from? The European strategy of
keeping Indigenous people isolated is no excuse – our Traditional trade
routes
have been blockaded, destroyed, and polluted.
If “money” is the problem, the United States dollar and most
other world
currencies are based on the blood, slave labor, and stolen land and
resources
of Indigenous peoples, including ourselves.
There have never been reparations paid to the descendents of the
Africans who were kidnapped and enslaved.
All of the European-controlled Nation-States who have ever
profited from
slavery should join in paying these people just compensation. We Indigenous people have been paying for
our own destruction, losing our land and resources to the crooked
European
schemes of “money” for nearly five hundred years, and this has to stop. It has come to the point where the Europeans
should realize that by destroying the land they are also destroying
themselves;
but the European people can’t see it or do anything to stop it because
of the
inferiority / superiority factor, the European hierarchical structure,
because
they have been programmed to mindlessly follow the European elite like
sheep. This kind of blind adherence to
a self-proclaimed elite is the way of thinking that allowed Hitler to
do what
he did – and until this rigid militaristic hierarchical thinking
changes,
regimes like Hitler’s will happen over and over again.
Although a dictator is unseated, his chair
remains.
It is obvious to us that
these hierarchically-thinking
European elites have no compassion.
Food is used a weapon; little children are kidnapped by
compulsory
education to be brainwashed into European ways of thinking. Much of the “environmental policy” which we
see seems to come directly from “scorched Earth” European military
thinking. Germ warfare has been used
against us since
the international smallpox epidemics (Europeans are much more resistant
to
smallpox than our people are) which were started with “smallpox
blankets,”
etc. Germ warfare is still blatantly
used in the Amazon, it is still used on all Indian peoples’ land, along
with
many other forms of oppression.
What is happening in the
Amazon basin is a good example of
Europeans forcing European-style governments onto Indigenous peoples. What right to Portuguese and other European
immigrants – and their descendants wherever they were born – have to
come onto
Indian peoples’ land and say, “we are the government, we have the right
to cut
down your forests and tear up your land for minerals, we have the right
to put
disease-carrying Europeans in close proximity to your people, to kidnap
your
children into ‘school’.” How can you
call yourselves the “United Nations,” protecting International Law,
when this
kind of thing is allowed to go on? By
adhering only to European and other hierarchical forms of “law,” you
are
protecting international banditry instead of promoting true justice and
peace.
We are enclosing
documentation of the initial formulation of
the genocide polices that the United States still uses against Indian
people. We are telling you, formally,
in our capacity as a Sovereign People, that the United States,
specifically the
Europeans who call themselves “Americans,” has and is still committing
genocide
against the American Indian people. We
are telling you formally that genocide is still going on against
Indigenous
peoples all over the world.
We are also telling you
that “democracies” forced on American
Indians or any other peoples are not
representative legitimate governments; that they only work for
people
who bring them in and continue to control them. We
do not need “democracy” from the European point of view – it
only serves the interests of the European elite. For
example, the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act (I.R.A.)
governments imposed on American Indian reservations are not legitimate
Indian
governments. Our Traditional
government, which still exists, is not recognized by the United States
Government or the United Nations. The
only reason that we were “recognized” was for the convenience of the
United
States Government in stealing or land and resources and destroying our
culture,
brainwashing our children.
Here and on nearly all
other Indian reservations, the people
who hold the power in the 1934 I.R.A. governments are not Indian people. Some of them are “meti,” “mesdizo,” or
“half-breeds” who have neither Indian values nor any Indian Clan; they
do not
recognize the Indian religion which is the foundation of our
government, our
Sovereignty, and our way of life. Some
of them are “Indians” with European values, and some of them are
Europeans who
fraudulently claim to be “Indian” although they have no Indian
ancestors and no
Indian values. The Europeans in the
U.S. Government are, under European-based U.S. law, the ones who
“appoint
Chiefs” and also who decide who is “Indian” and who is not, under the
United
States’ European definitions. We
Traditional Indian people are outnumbered by fake U.S.-appointed
“Indians” on
the United States Government’s “Indian” enrollment records, and thus on
the
voter registration lists used in electing the U.S.-created I.R.A.
“democracies.” We are outnumbered and
outvoted in our own
land. Democracy, whether “majority
rule” or “minority rule” (e.g., South Africa) is a European concept and
has no
place on our land. All over the world,
European governments use genetic, “Christian” and cultural engineering,
to
create classes of people without a place in the world who are used by
the
European invaders for their own crooked purposes. The
centralized structure, authoritarian chain-of-command from
the politically-appointed U.S. Cabinet and underlying premises of the
1934
I.R.A. governments are antagonistic to the egalitarian, respectful,
consensus-based structure of Traditional Indian government.
European historians claim
that the “sovereignty of the elite”
is accountable to “the lower classes” through the Magna Carta, etc. From Indigenous peoples’ perspectives, there
is no accountability. The World’s
(mostly European) artificially created elite operates in a state of
anarchy. We have seen no evidence of
any laws governing or constraining the elite; no accountability or
accepting of
responsibility by this elite (and their “corporations” which further
insulate
them) for the massive destruction and suffering created by their greed. We see no legitimacy for the “eminent
domain” over land, resources, human beings and other living beings
claimed by
this man-made European “sovereignty.”
In order to have a peaceful, harmonious and just world,
International
Law must include provisions both for dialogue, and to hold these
European
elites accountable – as individual human beings – to all who their
actions and
violence affect.
Under Traditional Indian
law, land cannot be sold. It is impossible
for any Traditional Indian
to sell land. There is absolutely no
way that Indian land can be sold. I any
land was “bought” by Europeans, it was either under false pretenses, or
from
somebody who did not own it. France
could not sell our Indian land; the Louisiana Purchase is invalid
because it
wasn’t France’s land to sell. Russia
cannot sell Indian land; the Alaska purchase is invalid because Russia
never
owned Alaska. Even Manhattan Island was
“sold” by people who did not own it (they were visiting), could not
sell land,
and did not understand what “selling land” meant. All
of the land and resources claimed by Europeans and
European-Americans on these two continents is stolen Indian property. The ruling European elite has no right to
claim it, nor does the U.S.A. nor does anyone else, except the
Traditional
Indian people who own it jointly (not “in common” as is sometimes
suggested). The 1934 I.R.A. “Tribal
Councils” have no right to sell or lease anything belonging to
Traditional
Indian people; neither does nay branch or agency of the U.S. Government. “Trusteeship,” European-style “land title,”
and “representative democracy” are fraudulent concepts under
Traditional Indian
law. The Traditional Indian people to
whom the land and resources belong, cannot sell them if they are
Indian, and if
they are not Indian they do not own them.
The land and resources belong to the Traditional Indian people
through
the Indian religion, and cannot be bought or sold.
These two Continents are all sacred Indian land – that’s why the
land was kept by Indian people the way the Europeans found it:
pristine,
abundant, cherished, and beautiful. How
can the Christians build a church in a stolen corner of our sacred
land, and
then preach “thou shalt not steal”?
This is one of the subjects that the Europeans avoid dialogue
about; we
have told them for hundreds of years that our land cannot be sold, so
they have
used violence, lies and deception to take it anyway.
The United Nations sits on
stolen Indian land, maybe this is
why Traditional Indigenous peoples are not recognized by the U.N. as
Sovereign
people. We are kept out of your
“International
Law”; because we are not hierarchically regimented Nation-States, we
are kept
vulnerable to aggression, oppression, and even genocide by the
Europeans and
their colonies.
There is no provision for
“declaring peace” in the rules of
war which were written by Europeans.
The time has come to declare peace.
We are asking you to live by the egalitarian rules of
Traditional Indian
civilization that come with the land that the United Nations building
sits
upon. We are also strongly recommending
that you open dialogue with the Traditional religious leaders of our
Continents; that you recognize our Sovereign Traditional people rather
than the
“leaders” appointed for us by the Europeans including the U.S.
Government. Indigenous Traditional
religious leaders are
entrusted by the Creator – along with all Traditional Indigenous people
– to
take care of the land, which cannot be sold.
We are further strongly
recommending that the United Nations
recognize all Indigenous peoples as Sovereign peoples on an equal basis
with
the Nation-States of the world. The
United Nations must include the Traditional religious leaders of each
Indigenous people from all over the world, as full members of the U.N.
Assembly. This includes ALL Indigenous
peoples who have survived the Europeans’ Holocausts: the Indigenous
Siberians,
the Laplanders, all of the Indian tribes of Brazil and the rest of
these two
Indian Continents, the Indigenous Tribal peoples of Asia, Australia,
and Africa
– all of us. We do not recognize
representation by the European colonies that have been established on
our
land. We do not believe the fiction
that “corporations” absolve individuals from responsibility for what is
done
under a corporate name. We do not
accept “lack of funding” as an excuse for delaying – the World’s
currencies are
based on the stolen resources of Indigenous peoples, and there urgently
needs
to be dialogue about unilaterally converting our resources into
European
currencies. We all live on this Earth
together, and time has run out. The
irresponsible abuse of this planet by the Europeans and their cohorts
has to
stop. There is an enormous pool of
talent among Indigenous people that humanity can no longer afford to
oppress
and to waste.
The Europeans have had
nearly five hundred years to show us
the benefits of their kind of “civilization.”
We have seen many peoples and other species slaughtered into
extinction;
we see ecological mayhem that threatens life itself on this planet; we
have
seen inconceivable violence and injustice perpetrated by Europeans and
Euro-colonials across the entire planet.
We see the bitter, brutal dead end that the European way of
thinking is
pushing us toward.
Right now is the only time
that remains. Violence only creates more
violence, and is
always a dead end; it always has been and always will be.
Egalitarian and open dialogue – between all
Peoples – is our only hope.
Sincerely,
Sho-ne-ah-wub
(Francis Blake, Jr.)
cc: World Court; Nelson
Mandela; Dr. Noam Chomsky, Peoples
Republic of China; Kurt Waldheim; Pravda; Dennis Banks; Native American
Rights
Foundation; Chief Louis Stevenson; Dr. Jean Houston; Ojibway News;
Associated
Press; Jesse Jackson; World Council of Churches; Pope John Paul
 |
 |
 |