NDÉ ISDZÁNÉ ŁANOHWILE’~~Lipan Apache Women Defense ~~El Calaboz Rancheria, Rio Grande/Rio Bravo: Nde' Delegation Participate in the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues-10

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Nde' Delegation Participate in the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues-10

Margo Tamez (Nde'-El Calaboz) shaking hand of future indigenous leader, in the circle of honor at Blue Lake Rancheria, March 20, 2011.

CHAIRMAN DANIEL CASTRO ROMERO, JR. & Nde' Community Member

DR. MARGO TAMEZ, Testimony at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights/Organization of American States.

April 16, 2011

After participating in the North American Indigenous Peoples' Caucus, March 18-20, at Blue Lake Rancheria, California, the Nde' representative from El Calaboz Rancheria, Margo Tamez, Lower Rio Grande Valley, Texas-Mexico, and Chairman Romero, representing the Nde' traditional territory, re-grouped to participate in the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, 10th Session, New York City, NY, May 16-27, 2011.

Dr. Margo Tamez (Nde', Co-Founder, Lipan Apache Women Defense) and Chairman Daniel Castro Romero, Jr. (Lipan Apache Band of Texas) accompanied an Apache delegation to present concept papers, research, and interventions related to the human rights violations in the matter of Lipan Apache peoples and Indigenous Proprietary Title ('Aboriginal Title'), land claims, the border wall, gender violence, and the situation of Indigenous women human rights defenders, among the many concerns raised by Nde' communities.

Margo Tamez stated, "We have a specific mandate from indigenous people, and it is up to us to ensure that indigenous peoples' voices and concerns are heard and understood by our peer Indigenous leaders and delegates at the UNPFII 10th Session, by U.N. officials, NGOs, and by States--particularly Spain, the Holy See, Mexico and the U.S.

"Indigenous peoples in South Texas, the LRGV and along the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo river are and have always been deeply related along cultural, social, political and economic perspectives and our histories of colonization. The Nde' delegation is actively engaging international arenas today more than ever. This is not accidental, nor a recent development, as Nde' (Lipan Apache peoples) have long been dynamic actors in international sovereign to sovereign and nation to nation relations--with the Holy See, Spain, Mexico and Texas--since the mid 16th century."

"Thus, this diligent work towards the reclamation of self-governance of Nde' traditional territory, is a crucial part of a broader movement of Indigenous peoples across the hemisphere. Nde' are finally reclaiming the rightful place in the international legal arena as a Nation--firmly embracing a self-determination process in which Nde Lipan Apaches are uniquely situated for, given our long international relations experiences with Spain, Mexico, Texas and the U.S."

Nde' Human Rights, Land, Territories, and Futures
The Nde' ('Lipan Apache') delegation formally requested a formal meeting with the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, James Anaya, (U.N. Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights). This formal request by the Nde' was granted by Special Rapporteur Anaya.

The issues of Nde' land claims, Nde' land grants, Nde' Crown title mechanisms, Indigenous Proprietary Title, redress, and revenue sharing of oil, uranium, copper, coal, and other mineral elements, including biodiversity, are at stake for indigenous self-determination and self-governance.

Implementing the UNDRIP along the Texas-Mexico border is complicated by the states' policies of militarization, criminalization of indigenous peoples, globalization, climate change, unresolved historical contexts of violent dispossession and supplantation of Indigenous governance systems, and the human rights of Indigenous women, children, families, and workers.

The Nde' delegation raised these and more for the formal review of the Special Rapporteur.

Specifically, in her face-to-face meeting with Anaya in New York City on May 18, Tamez articulated that the Nde' of El Calaboz formally request that the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples make an official visit to the Texas-Mexico Border along the trajectory of the border wall, and to observe, witness, and to document the rights violations against Indigenous families, communities, elders, women, children and workers who are the most severely impacted by the U.S. violation of international law. The office of the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples is organized within the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.

In fulfillment of his mandate, Special Rapporteur Anaya:
* Promotes good practices, including new laws, government programs, and constructive agreements between indigenous peoples and states, to implement international standards concerning the rights of indigenous peoples (See Promotion of good practices)
* Reports on the overall human rights situations of indigenous peoples in selected countries (see Country reports);
* Addresses specific cases of alleged violations of the rights of indigenous peoples through communications with Governments and others (see Communications);
* Conducts or contributes to thematic studies on topics of special importance regarding the promotion and protection of the rights of indigenous peoples (See Thematic studies).
James S. Anaya, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

No comments:

DECOLONIZATION & INDIGENEITY

LAW-Defense is re-structuring our web presence based upon on-going dialogues with Nde' peoples of Konitsaii Gokiyaa. Key Themes are:

Indigenous Peoples' Knowledge
Nde' world views
Indigenous human rights
Elders
Gender violence
Indigenous Women
Indigenous Youth
Indigenous Workers
History, historical correction and recovery Self-determination in social, economic, spiritual and political realms,
Decision-making on all matters related to Nde' peoples, Nde' governance, customary lands, and territories.

LAW Defense actively engages U.N. CERD, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Inter-American Commission/ OAS system, and the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous issues, among others.

Decolonization.

Indigeneity.

Indigenous Cultural, Social, Economic, and Political Decision-making.

Indigenous Empowerment.

Nde' Truth Commission on Genocidal Violence (new!).

Racism, Gender violence and Settler Colonialism.

The Doctrine of Discovery and Domination (new!)

Indigenous Oral and Written Narrative.

Indigenous Media and Documentation.

Self-Determination & Self-Governance.

Indigenous security, health, and equilibrium.

ABOUT US~~LIPAN APACHE WOMEN DEFENSE

Lipan Apache Women Defense (El Calaboz Rancheria) organized in the summer of 2007 to address centuries and recent decades of land-based struggles, recognition, territories, self-determination, and indigenous peoples' world views.

Lipan Apache Women Defense (LAW-Defense) is an Indigenous Peoples' Organization. It supports local capacity building, documentation, research, and investigations related to Indigenous peoples' rights affirmed in the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, ratified in 2007, and adopted by the United States on December 16, 2010.

LAW-Defense documents and advocates for the rights of the indigenous originarios, Nde', and Nakaiiye-Nde lineal clan members of Lipan Apache peoples who are the Real People: original rancheria communities along the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo.

Our projects embrace Indigenous Peoples' rights, as taught, transmitted, and upheld by the Elders and Knowledge Keepers.

Context:
Lipan Apache women of El Calaboz Rancheria took up the cultural, social, legal, political, and economic protection against armed and forced dispossession of Indigenous Peoples' lands by the U.S. D.H.S. et al.

We organized community support, empowerment and decision-making processes to protect integral and inherent Indigenous relationships to lands, sacred sites, burial grounds, and biodiversity in the face of a series of armed and forced takings of local peoples' lands, as a direct consequence of the implementation of the U.S. Secure Fence Act of 2006.

The Secure Fence Act of 2006, Sec. 102, provided the Secretary (Department of Homeland Security) the unilateral power to waive 36 Federal laws and this laid the pavement for destruction of languages, kin-ship practices, ceremonies, traditional medicinal knowledges, burial grounds, sacred sites, subsistence herding and farming, and cultural restoration projects already in implementation by local leaders. See, "Constitution Free Zone."

Indigenous peoples from the El Calaboz Rancheria lineal clans stood firm against the U.S. possession of traditional lands. Securing our lands, resources, livelihoods, ecologically-based economies, and way of life are at the heart of the matter for Indigenous Peoples of the Lower Rio Grande, who continue to struggle against settler and state violence stemming from colonization by Spaniards in the early 1520s, and subsequent waves of settlement, development, and privatization by Euro-American colonizers.

The United States and Nde' Customary Perspectives
In U.S. law, there are significant legal fictions which assume the religious and racial superiority of Euro-American settler juridical systems above those of indigenous peoples inherent and inalienable rights to self-governance, lands and territories. The following models entail excessive aggression and armed violence, which were used to dispossess lands illegally through force and coercion against Lower Rio Grande River communities:
1. Eminent Domain,
2. the Declaration of Taking, and
3. Condemnation Proceedings.

Impacted Nde' and Nnee Peoples of the Texas-Mexico Border--Beyond the Doctrine of Discovery
Specifically impacted Indigenous people, the Lipan Apache, Jumano-Apache, and Mexican-American land grant peoples whose ancestors' presence in the hemisphere pre-date European conquest.

The Lipan Apache Women Defense organized legal, social, cultural and political resistance to U.S. militarized violence, abuse of state power, and abuse of the Rule of Law

This work raises critical questions and organizes forums for serious debate, participation and collective decision-making about Indigenous inherent Aboriginal Title, and the State's sovereignty.

To date, the U.S. border wall project has been unsuccessful in El Calaboz Rancheria, Lower Rio Grande Valley, South Texas because it has not achieved its goal: genocide and erasure of Indigenous peoples, presence, history, creativity, and resilient spirit.

By foregrounding community organization, documentation, research and education the Lipan Apache Women Defense has strengthened the Indigenous People's resolve to persist in Indigenous, U.S. and International law systems to restore democratic principles and rule.

PLEASE SUPPORT OUR EFFORT to PROTECT INDIGENOUS LAND RIGHTS ALONG THE BORDER AND BORDER WALL.
(FEBRUARY 2012)