OCCUPIED ON THE TEXAS-MEXICO BORDER! DECOLONIZE WALL STREET!

THE REAL COST OF ANTI-NDE' BIAS AND PREJUDICE AGAINST NON-RECOGNIZED TRIBES

The All Segments Waiver, authored by former U.S. Homeland Security Director, Secretary Michael Chertoff, at http://www.dhs.gov/xnews/releases/pr_1207080713748.shtm.

Billing Code -4410-10
DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
Office of the Secretary
Determination Pursuant to Section 102 of the
Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996,
as Amended AGENCY: Office ofthe Secretary, Department of Homeland Security ACTION: Notice of determination.
SUMMARY: The Secretary of Homeland Security has determined, pursuant to law, that it is necessary to waive certain laws, regulations and other legal requirements in order to ensure the expeditious construction of barriers and roads in the vicinity of the
international land border of the United States.
DATES: This Notice is effective on [INSERT DATE OF PUBLICATION IN THE FEDERAL REGISTER]. DETERMINATION AND WAIVER: I have a mandate to achieve and maintain operational control of the borders of the United States. Public Law 109-367, § 2, 120 Stat. 2638, 8 U.S.C. § 1701 note. Congress has provided me with a number of authorities necessary to accomplish this mandate. One of these authorities is found at section 102(c) of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 ("IIRlRA"). Public Law 104-208, Div. C, 110 Stat.3009-546,3009-554(Sept.30, 1996)(8U.S.C 1103note),asamendedbythe REALIDActof2005, PublicLaw109-13,Div.B,119Stat.231,302,306(May11, 2005) (8 U.S.C. 1103 note), as amended by the Secure Fence Act of2006, Public Law
109-367, § 3, 120 Stat. 2638 (Oct. 26, 2006) (8 U.S.C. § 1103 note), as amended by the
Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2008, Public Law 110-161, Div. E, Title V, § 564, 121 Stat. 2090 (Dec. 26, 2007). In Section 102(a) ofIIRIRA, Congress provided that the Secretary of Homeland Security shall take such actions as may be necessary to install additional physical barriers and roads (including the removal of obstacles to detection of illegal entrants) in the vicinity of the United States border to deter illegal crossings in areas of high illegal entry into the United States. In Section
102(b) of IIRIRA, Congress has called for the installation of fencing, barriers, roads, lighting, cameras, and sensors on not less than 700 miles of the southwest border, including priority miles of fencing that must be completed by December 2008. Finally, in section 102(c) of the IIRIRA, Congress granted to me the authority to waive all legal requirements that I, in my sole discretion, determine necessary to ensure the expeditious
construction of barriers and roads authorized by section 102 of IIRIRA.
I determine that the areas in the vicinity of the United States border described on the attached document, which is incorporated and made a part hereof, are areas of high illegal entry (collectively "Project Areas"). These Project Areas are located in the States of California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. In order to deter illegal crossings in the
Project Areas, there is presently a need to construct fixed and mobile barriers (such as
fencing, vehicle barriers, towers, sensors, cameras, and other surveillance,
communication, and detection equipment) and roads in the vicinity of the border of the
United States. In order to ensure the expeditious construction of the barriers and roads
that Congress prescribed in the IIRIRA in the Project Areas, which are areas of high
illegal entry into the United States, I have determined that it is necessary that I exercise
the authority that is vested in me by section 102(c) of the IIRIRA as amended.
Accordingly, I hereby waive in their entirety, with respect to the construction of roads
and fixed and mobile barriers (including, but not limited to, accessing the project area, creating and using staging areas, the conduct of earthwork, excavation, fill, and site preparation, and installation and upkeep of fences, roads, supporting elements, drainage, erosion controls, safety features, surveillance, communication, and detection equipment of all types, radar and radio towers, and lighting) in the Project Areas, all federal, state, or other laws, regulations and legal requirements of, deriving from, or related to the subject of, the following laws, as amended: The National Environmental Policy Act (Pub. L. 91190,83
Stat. 852 (Jan. 1, 1970) (42 D.S.C. 4321 et seq.)), the Endangered Species Act
(Pub. L. 93-205, 87 Stat. 884 (Dec. 28,1973) (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.)), the Federal
Water Pollution Control Act (commonly referred to as the Clean Water Act) (33 D.S.C. 1251 et seq.)), the National Historic Preservation Act (Pub. L. 89-665, 80 Stat. 915 (Oct. 15, 1966) (16 D.S.C. 470 et seq.)), the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (16 D.S.C. 703 et seq.), the Clean Air Act (42 D.S.C. 7401 et seq.), the Archeological Resources Protection Act (Pub. L. 96-95, 16 D.S.C. 470aa et seq.), the Safe Drinking Water Act (42 D.S.C. 300f et seq.), the Noise Control Act (42 D.S.C. 4901 et seq.), the Solid Waste Disposal Act, as amended by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (42 D.S.C. 6901 et seq.), the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (42 D.S.C. 9601 et seq.), the Archaeological and Historic Preservation Act (Pub. L. 86-523, 16
D.S.C. 469 et seq.), the Antiquities Act (16 D.S.C. 431 et seq.), the Historic Sites, Buildings, and Antiquities Act (16 D.S.C. 461 et seq), the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act (Pub. L. 90-542, 16 D.S.C. 1281 et seq.), the Farmland Protection Policy Act (7 D.S.C. 4201etseq.),theCoastalZoneManagementAct(Pub.L.92-583, 16D.S.C. §1451et
seq.),theWildernessAct (Pub.L.88-577,16U.S.C. 1131etseq.),theFederalLand Policy and Management Act (Pub L. 94-579,43 D.S.C. 1701 et seq.), the National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act (Pub. L. 89-669, 16 D.S.C. 668dd-668ee), the Fish and Wildlife Act of 1956 (Pub. L. 84-1024, 16 U.S.C. 742a, et seq.), the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act (Pub. L. 73-121, 16D.S.C. 661 et seq.), the Administrative Procedure Act (5 D.S.C. 551 et seq.), the Otay Mountain Wilderness Act of 1999 (Pub. L.
106-145), Sections 102(29) and 103 of Title I of the California Desert Protection Act (Pub. L. 103-433),50 Stat. 1827, the National Park Service Organic Act (Pub. L. 64-235,
16 D.S.C. 1,2-4), the National Park Service General Authorities Act (Pub. L. 91-383, 16
D.S.C. la-l et seq.), Sections 401(7), 403, and 404 of the National Parks and Recreation Actof 1978(Pub.L.95-625),Sections301(a)-(f)oftheArizonaDesertWildernessAct (Pub. L. 101-628), the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899 (33 D.S.C. 403), the Eagle Protection Act (16 D.S.C. 668 et seq.), the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (25 D.S.C. 3001 et seq.), the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (42 D.S.C. 1996), the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (42 D.S.C. 2000bb), the National Forest Management Act of 1976 (16 D.S.C. 1600 et seq.), and the Multiple Dse and Sustained Yield Act of 1960 (16 D.S.C. 528-531).
This waiver does not supersede, supplement, or in any way modify the previous waivers published in the Federal Register on September 22,2005 (70 FR 55622), January 19,
2007 (72 FR 2535), and October 26, 2007 (72 FR 60870).
I reserve the authority to make further waivers from time to time as I may determine to be necessary to accomplish the provisions of section 102 of the IIRIRA, as amended.

Dated:
Michael Chertoff, Secretary
~,

The Hidalgo Fence Waiver, authored by former U.S. Homeland Security Director, Secretary Michael Cheroff, at http://www.dhs.gov/xnews/releases/pr_1207080713748.shtm.

Billing Code -4410-10
DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
Office of the Secretary
Determination Pursuant to Section 102 of the
Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996,
as Amended AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, Department of Homeland Security ACTION: Notice of determination.
SUMMARY: The Secretary of Homeland Security has determined, pursuant to law, that it is necessary to waive certain laws, regulations and other legal requirements in order to ensure the expeditious construction of barriers and roads in the vicinity of the
intemationalland border of the United States.
DATES: This Notice is effective on [INSERT DATE OF PUBLICATION IN THE FEDERAL REGISTER]. DETERMINATION AND WAIVER: The Department of Homeland Security has a mandate to achieve and maintain operational control of the borders of the United States. Public Law 109-367, § 2, 120 Stat. 2638,8 U.S.C. § 1701 note. Congress has provided the Secretary of Homeland Security with a number of authorities necessary to accomplish this mandate. One of these authorities is found at section 102(c) of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 ("IIRIRA"). Public Law 104-208, Div. C, 110 Stat.3009-546,3009-554(Sept.30, 1996)(8U.S.C 1103note),asamendedbythe REALIDActof2005, PublicLaw109-13,Div.B,119Stat.231,302,306(May11, 2005) (8 U.S.C. 1103 note), as amended by the Secure Fence Act of 2006, Public Law
-----_U-
U-n -n ---n -n------. -n-----un 109-
367, § 3, 120 Stat. 2638 (Oct. 26, 2006) (8 U.S.C. § 1103 note), as amended by the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2008, Public Law 110-161, Div. E, Title V, § 564, 121 Stat. 2090 (Dec. 26,2007). In Section 102(a) of the IIRIRA, Congress provided that the Secretary of Homeland Security shall take such actions as may be necessary to install additional physical barriers and roads (including the removal of obstacles to detection of illegal entrants) in the vicinity of the United States border to deter illegal crossings in areas of high illegal entry into the United States. In Section
102(b) of the IIRIRA, Congress has called for the installation of fencing, barriers, roads, lighting, cameras, and sensors on not less than 700 miles of the southwest border, including priority miles of fencing that must be completed by December of 2008. Finally, in section 102(c) of the IIRIRA, Congress granted to me the authority to waive all legal requirements that I, in my sole discretion, determine necessary to ensure the expeditious construction of barriers and roads authorized by section 102 of the IIRIRA.
I determine that the area in the vicinity ofthe United States border as described in the attached document, hereinafter the Project Area, which is incorporated and made a part hereof, is an area of high illegal entry. In order to deter illegal crossings in the Project Area, there is presently a need to construct fixed and mobile barriers and roads in conjunction with improvements to an existing levee system in the vicinity of the border of the United States as a joint effort with Hidalgo County, Texas. In order to ensure the expeditious construction of the barriers and roads that Congress prescribed in the IIRIRA in the Project Area, which is an area of high illegal entry into the United States, I have determined that it is necessary that I exercise the authority that is vested in me by section 102(c) of the IIRIRA as amended. Accordingly, I hereby waive in their entirety, with
-n---------------n
-_n__---~-m__respect
to the construction of roads and fixed and mobile barriers (including, but not limited to, accessing the project area, creating and using staging areas, the conduct of earthwork, excavation, fill, and site preparation, and installation and upkeep of fences, roads, supporting elements, drainage, erosion controls, safety features, surveillance, communication, and detection equipment of all types, radar and radio towers, and lighting) in the Project Area, all federal, state, or other laws, regulations and legal requirements of, deriving from, or related to the subject of, the following laws, as amended: The National Environmental Policy Act (Pub. L. 91-190, 83 Stat. 852 (Jan. 1,
1970) (42 V.S.C. 4321 et seq.)), the Endangered Species Act (Pub. L. 93-205, 87 Stat. 884) (Dec. 28, 1973) (16 V.S.C. 1531 et seq.)), the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly referred to as the Clean Water Act) (33 V.S.C. 1251 et seq.), the National Historic Preservation Act (Pub. L. 89-665, 80 Stat. 915 (Oct. 15, 1966) (16 V.S.C. 470 et seq.)), the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (16 V.S.C. 703 et seq.), the Clean Air Act (42
V.S.C.
7401 et seq.), the Archeological Resources Protection Act (Pub. L. 96-95, 16
V.S.C.
470aa et seq.), the Safe Drinking Water Act (42 V.S.C. 300f et seq.), the Noise Control Act (42 V.S.C. 4901 et seq.), the Solid Waste Disposal Act, as amended by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (42 V.S.C. 6901 et seq.), the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (42 V.S.C. 9601 et seq.), the Archaeological and Historic Preservation Act (Pub. L. 86-523, 16 V.S.C. 469 et seq.), the Antiquities Act (16 V.S.C. 431 et seq.), the Historic Sites, Buildings, and Antiquities Act (16 V.S.C. 461 et seq.), the Farmland Protection Policy Act (7 V.S.C. 4201 et seq.), the Coastal Zone Management Act (Pub. L. 92-583, 16V.S.C. § 1451 et seq.), the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (Pub L. 94-579,43 V.S.C. 1701 et seq.), the National
-~----n_u-
Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act (Pub. L. 89-669, 16 V.S.c. 668dd-668ee), the Fish and Wildlife Act of 1956 (Pub. L. 84-1024, 16 V.S.C. 742a, et seq.), the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act (Pub. L. 73-121, 16 V.S.C. 661 et seq.), the Administrative Procedure Act (5 V.S.C. 551 et seq.), the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899 (33 V.S.C. 403), the Eagle Protection Act (16 V.S.C. 668 et seq.), the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (25 V.S.C. 3001 et seq.), the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (42 V.S.C. 1996), the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (42 V.S.C. 2000bb), and the Federal Grant and Cooperative Agreement Act of 1977 (31 V.S.C. 6303-05).
I reserve the authority to make further waivers from time to time as I may determine to be necessary to accomplish the provisions of section 102 of the IIRIRA, as amended.
Dated:
Michael Chertoff, Secretary
\

"Why I Speak Out" Testimonies from Lipan Apache Elder, Eloisa Garcia Tamez

By Melissa del Bosque, "All Walled Up", Texas Observer, January 20, 2010, at http://www.texasobserver.org/cover-story/all-walled-up/.

NATIVE PEOPLES & ARIZONA SB1070

The American Indian Program at Cornell University presents a Roundtable Discussion on Arizona SB1070 and its impacts on Native Peoples.

Date: Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Place: Goldwin Smith Hall, Room 142
Time: 4:30-6:00 p.m.

Light Refreshments to follow.

Panelists:

Dr. Margo Tamez (Lipan Apache) – Assistant Professor and Faculty in Gender and Women’s Studies and Indigenous Studies, University of British Columbia, Department of Community, Culture & Global Studies. Her research areas include the Indigenous peoples and Indigenous women from the regions currently bifurcated by the U.S.-Mexico border, and decolonial Indigenous historical perspectives of Nde’ and Nnee’ (‘Apache’) peoples of the Texas-Mexico border region.

Michael Flores (Tohono O’odham from GuVo) – Community organizer in border communities in and near Arizona. He has served three terms on his Tribal Council, and as a Board Member of the International Indian Treaty Council.

Dr. Alan Eladio Gómez (Ph.D. University of Texas at Austin) - Historian and Assistant Professor in the School of Justice and Social Inquiry at Arizona State University. He writes about the history of social movements in Mexico, the U.S. and the U.S.-Mexico borderlands; and the political cultures of U.S./Third World Left radicalism.

Facilitator:
Dr. Verónica Martínez-Matsuda (PhD in Borderlands/U.S. History, University of Texas at Austin)– Visiting Professor in Cornell ILR. She has held fellowship positions at Bryn Mawr College, Rhodes College, and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History. Her current research examines the role of the Migratory Labor Camp Program, established and managed by the U.S. Government during the late 1930s and early 1940s, in the lives of migrant farm worker families.

Co-sponsors: ILR International and Comparative Labor Department; ILR Labor Relations, Law, and History Department; Latino Studies Program; Minority, Indigenous, and Third World Studies research group; and Wells College Women’s and Gender Studies Program.

Restoring Lipan Apache Women's Laws, Lands, and Strength in El Calaboz Rancheria at the Texas-Mexico Border

Published in Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2010, vol. 35, no. 3, The University of Chicago.
Comparative Perspectives Symposium: Indigenous Feminisms

Abstract: Ndé gową goshjaa (Lipan Apache families or clan relations) produce a significant portion of indigenous alliances and resistances to imperialism, colonization, industrialization, and militarization in the Lower Rio Grande Valley in south Texas. The visibility of Ndé isdzáné (Lipan Apache women) in the Lower Rio Grande Valley changed radically after the passage of the Secure Fence Act in 2006. In this essay, I speak from my position as one of the cofounders of the Lipan Apache Women Defense and as the third‐born daughter of vocal and consistent leaders of the reemergent Ndé isdzáné in the traditional territories of the Ndé. My analysis is not meant to substitute for the important analysis of local matrilineal leaders, nor is it meant to be static. Rather, as an Ndé isdzáné scholar, I must allow the space to make and to know the people, politics, histories, events, and meanings as they continue to unfold. I believe that Ndé isdzáné, as a basis for Ndé activism (which includes supportive brothers) and as a category of analysis, furthers the work of feminism in U.S., North American, indigenous, and global indigenous human rights defense work. Investigating the histories of our indigenous foremothers—respecting and acknowledging community‐based rights, wishes, and aspirations—challenges Ndé women and our allies to reflect on the rights work of contemporary indigenous women in militarized and state‐occupied policing zones and their roles and challenges as political actors in extreme struggles against economic enslavement, dispossession, land theft, vital resource deprivation, environmental destruction, detention, rape, racialized sexism, indentured servitude, and casta.

Indigenous Elders Singled Out for New Round of Federal Condemnations on Texas-Mexico Border

January 5, 2010





Contacts:
Eloisa García Támez: Eloisa.Tamez1@gmail.com
Margo Tamez, sumalhepa.nde.defense@gmail.com


For Immediate Release

Lipan Apaches, Támez-Benavidez Stronghold on Texas-Mexico Border
Singled Out for New Round of Federal Condemnations

Feds Want More Land to Put 'Holes' in Border Wall for Commercial Users:
Native American & Traditional Peoples' Lands Targeted for Surveys


Recently, a communication from a spokesperson from the Office of Congressional Affairs, Customs and Border Protection to the Office of Congressman Solomon P. Ortiz stated, "We have not yet made a decision on whether to take any of Dr. Tamez’s land. If there is another way to allow other landowners access, we will try to accomplish it in that way; however, we haven’t yet identified another way.”

Eloisa Támez and her elderly relative, (Sr. Benavidez), have an active lawsuit against the United States and the Texas-Mexico Border Wall, which, last April 2009, sealed off the Indigenous and Traditional Peoples of El Calaboz from their lands, culture, and livelihoods on the south side of the wall. Tamez and Benavidez, who challenged the U.S. in a class action law suit, are currently awaiting notification of the new date of their 'compensation' jury trial, which has been postponed more than three times.

The extensively documented case, Eloisa G. Tamez, et al. Civil Action No.: 1:08-CV-0004 (United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas (Brownsville Division), has opened up new conceptual grounds about the contemporary challenges of states’ rights and human rights, and where these intersect with Indigenous peoples' rights to culture, environments, livelihoods, traditional ways of life and Peoplehood.

The lands in contestation have been held in continuity by Indigenous peoples prior to the Spanish colonization of northeast Mexico and Texas, and in 1749 were granted to the ancestors of Tamez and Benavidez. European legal traditions of granting lands collectively and individually to Native Americans has origins in 1526, when Hernán Cortéz granted encomiendas and hidalgos to Nahua and Tlaxcalteca peoples.

The tradition of granting lands to Indigenous peoples throughout Mexico’s northern states and the U.S. Southwest is a complex and entangled legal history between Native Americans on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border and the States, and often involving heated contestation when Native American rights to exist and to practice their laws, religions, and traditional organization are denied and threatened by the State em>especially when mega-development is an issue. In a previously published article, the Lipan Apache Women Defense has demonstrated that militarization, militarism, border walls, security technology, war contractors and dispossessing Indigenous peoples is big development for U.S.-based contractors. See 'Resources', below.

In the recent notification by the U.S. to Támez, it appears the U.S. government is considering the possibility of condemning more of her lands if she does not provide them entry to conduct more surveys. According to Cylke, the U.S. is seeking entry to “cure access” for land owners requesting commercial access to the levee and their lands on the south of the wall. Tamez, however, challenges this logic. “While it is true that access to the south side of the wall is important for many landowners, it is not rational that the government needs to possess more land on the levee—or beneath it—in order to open a hole in the wall. All they have to do is remove portions of what they constructed, not condemn more land to do so. The government is not being transparent. Condemn more lands to open the wall? Something is not right. I am refusing to allow them entry to my property for the 12 months they requested. If they want to open the wall, they should do so; the people need access to the titled lands on the south of the levee for their subsistence and livelihoods. However, the government should not require dispossessing individuals any further for that access to occur. The government and the contractors are targeting the Indigenous elders who have been most vocal in the exposure of the corruption which is at the foundation of the wall's construction. They are targeting us as a specific group. The government recently dismantled a large section of the wall down the road from El Calaboz at a locally well-known agricultural business. We feel at this time, given the history of this case and the history of non-transparency in all matters regarding the border wall construction, that we must stand firm.”

According to Margo Tamez, a Lipan Apache scholar at Washington State University, the U.S. may not have the final say if the Indigenous peoples are successful in gaining the ear of the Inter-American Commission/Organization of American States.

In October 2008, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) of the Organization of the American States (OAS) held its 133rd regular period of sessions. In this period, the IACHR/OAS read briefs and listened to testimony of the University of Texas Law Working Group, comprised of faculty and law students of the University of Texas Law School, with Margo Tamez, an impacted community member. In their formal statement, the IACHR/OAS Jurists responded: "The Commission received troubling information about the impact that the construction of a wall in Texas, along the U.S.-Mexico border, has on the human rights of area residents, in particular its discriminatory effects. The information received indicates that its construction would disproportionally affect people who are poor, with a low level of education, and generally of Mexican descent, as well as indigenous communities on both sides of the border."
(Available at: http://www.utexas.edu/law/academics/centers/humanrights/borderwall/analysis/iac-Press-Release-re-Hearing.pdf).

Texas-Mexico IAS/OAS Testimony at: http://lipanapachecommunitydefense.blogspot.com/2008/10/texas-mexico-border-wall-hearing-at.html.

Indigenous peoples along the Texas-Mexico border—more than many other impacted groups—are burdened in multiple ways and disproportionately on all border wall construction projects because their communities have already been consistently targeted for State violence, militarization, repression and dispossession as a matter of the normative policies of the neo-liberal and settler State.

The ‘third world’ conditions of the Texas border communities are directly related to the structural violence which goes hand-in-hand with the the settler state and settler constitutionalism dominating the region’s violent race, gender, and class politics. The normalization of the Texas-Mexico border communities as 'sacrifice zones' is so deeply internalized within the consciousness of South Texas' white citizenry that the scale of the violence and injustice is invisible to them.

Many historians have anayzed Texas as a unique case in North American histories of genocide and ethnic cleansing, and the entrenched pockets of cultures of violence which sustain the creed of lawlessness. The idealogy of hatred which birthed the settler society and spawned South Texas' industrial corridors as the 'gateway' to Latin America is, as historian Gary Clayton Anderson stated, a culture where "Violence, especially against ethnic groups, had become economically institutionalized in Texas." In this cultural landscape, the promotion of lawlessness, turmoil, and opportunity collide, and 'South Texas', from Indigenous perspectives, was constructed as an excuse to develop, destroy and kill.

Tragically, today this consciousness has not evolved. Violence has become, as Anderson argues, "ingrained in Texas, especially in the southern counties." As in the past, today South Texas violence is laissez faire andfixed in an opportunistic manner--among governors, corporations, contractors, workers, congresspersons, commissioners, rangers, border patrols, and civil society.

Indigenous peoples along the Texas border were already under extreme deprivation before the border wall--at alarming scales and at comparitive levels with many Third World nations and militarized conflict zones around the world. Fernando Romero-Lar cross-analyzed this border with the world's top conflict zones: North Korea-South Korea; Israel and Palestine; Morocco and Spain; South Africa; and the Golden Triangle. Romero-Lar found that this border topped the list of all conflict-industrial global militarized borders to qualify as a 'hyper-border.' (See report: "Texas Borderlands: Frontier of the Future (2009)")

The fundamental rights of Indigenous peoples are distorted in the normative Texas Creation Myth which traditionally views Indigenous peoples as less than human, servants, laborers, and 'the multitudes of surplus workers.' This construction of Indigenous peoples as 'Other' is a popularized stereotype which contorts white heroic masculinity through rationalized acts of genocide, extermination and structural violence against South & West Texas' and northern Mexico's aboriginal inhabitants.

Indigenous peoples' precarious access to critical First Foods (necessary for the repair of their dietary health), safe and potable water, safe housing, healthcare, education, jobs, transportation, and an environment free of gender violence and militarization has been overshadowed by the general society's pre-occupation with 'security' thinly masking the development objectives of NAFTA, the Security and Prosperity Partnership, and ongoing projects of the lucrative corporate war occupation to militarize our environments. Indigenous elders, while they contend with degrading and destructive harrassment and surveillance upon them as they go about their personal lives, cannot help but speak out against the erosion of rule of law and human rights as a daily reality in South Texas.

The occupied aspects of their lives is anything but natural--militarized occupation in South Texas and northern Mexico, funded with U.S. tax dollars, Homeland Security, and the Department of Defense, is socially and physically constructed by a Euro-American settler society which emigrated to the Texas border in the mid 19th century. Massive waves of Euro-ethnic emigrants and Anglos from the U.S. south appropriated Texas constitutionalized slavery as a normalized economic system of an expansion-prone, modernizing society. At its essence and most fundamental level, Texas embodies the principles of Liberal democracy and settler constitutionalism--based on a stratified society where Indigenous peoples, such as Apaches, Tlaxcaltecas, Coahuiltecs, Tiguas, Kikapoos, and Comanches, are viewed as 'enemies,' and exploitable as human battery packs energizing the dreamscape of the middle-class consumer.

Along the U.S. side of the Texas-Mexico border, the flavor of white America is most palpable on a one-on-one and up-close basis, as the Indigenous peoples witness, report and document their most fundamental human rights being further eroded. When they are not being followed by gangs of CBP patrol cars, U.S. helicopters, and government functionaries trampling through their lands unannounced, they are confronted with the new migrant workers imported to the region to consume the manly job of building the border wall.



With the new waves of Angl-American emigrants from states such as Nebraska and those incomes going out of state to households in the Mid-West, it seems as though the border wall is truly an import-export job. When the border wall was being constructed in Cameron County, community members reported that the increase in large vehicle (i.e. trucks) traffic on Hwy 281/Military Highway bearing license plates with NEBRASKA engraved upon them was obvious and noticeable. Government contractors tend to be loyal to their home districts and states, and Euro-American migrant workers from Nebraska importing a conspicuously Mid-Western consciousness of 'Indians' and 'Mexicans, i.e. savages/illegals' could be felt in the road and table manners of the Nebraska migrant workers exercising both militaristic and tourist-like behaviors with local Indigenous women--both on roads and restaurants, according to local witnesses. It seemed as though the daily work to build the wall included a conscious opportunistic will to exercise old-fashioned American masculinity and sexism upon the Indigenous women labor force.



Local communities are exposed daily to these ruptures and multiple others in their daily lives, from the perniciously benign forces of white privilege and racism to the most obvious obstructions to human rights of the wall itself. They bear witness to the criminality, dangerous behaviors, greed and thievery of the mega-wealthy--which is ironic--considering that the U.S. citizenry just endured one of the most severe economic depressions in a century.

These fixtures of violence in the heart of darkness continues to define and to mark Texas as a pernicious state within an outlaw State; an identity with a propensity for achieving 'public goals' exercised 'democratically' through violence against Indigenous peoples. In the whitestream, this violence generally goes unaddressed by the state, federal governments and U.S. civil society (who'd rather stay 'safe' in the boundaries of debating the progressiveness of 'Avatar' rather than hone in on the current ethnocides in the U.S. 'Congo'--South Texas.

This violent and negligent will to empire, from the perspective of many Indigenous elders along the Texas-Mexico border, must then be taken up at different levels of legal oversite. They are resolved that they will not be intimidated by the violent propensities of the settler society for Indigenous land, water, minerals and bodies which are the markers of mega-projects.

Mega-projects--such as the border wall--impede the Indigenous elders from accessing their ancestral medicine plants, their biologically diverse properties titled to their ancestors through Crown land grants and treaties, and their sacred burial sites such as cemeteries which align both sides of the border wall. Indigenous peoples’ genealogical ties to historical places along the border wall construction, such as rancherias, communal meeting places, religious sites, missions, pueblos, presidios, wildlife areas, and traditional subsistence areas throughout the Texas-Mexico border region are eroding every day as a result of the lack of access to the lands on the south side of the wall which are owned by Indigenous peoples.

Eloisa Támez, a vocal opponent to the wall, seeks secure and unharmed access to her lands on the south side of the wall. Támez has documented numerous important species of flora and fauna on her lands necessary for continuity of culture, and she watches over the sites of habitation of her ancestors due to the destructive methods of government contractors who destroyed portions of her properties vegetation during the construction of the wall. The Lipan Apaches, like the Kickapoo, Tigua, and numerous tribes in Arizona, argue that the racist politics which are the foundation of the border wall must be calculated as “irreparable damage.” She does not believe that the government’s new request for “curing access” should entail dispossessing her elders and her community from Indigenous rights and the protection of their human rights. The federal lawsuit documented the ancestral, genealogical ties of Tamez and Benavidez, and an important South Texas Lipan Apache band in the region, which are signatories on key treaties, accords, hidalgos, merceds and land grants with Spain, Mexico, Texas and the United States.

Margo Tamez, a scholar at Washington State University, notes, “By refusing this community’s requests for secure access to their lands and cultural properties—which are necessary to sustain their traditional subsistence vis-à-vis agrarian, pastoral livelihoods, traditional gatherings and religious practices— the U.S. is failing to protect their human rights under International Law. Negative consequences may be associated with the failure to do so.”

Eloisa Tamez, a strong proponent of the health of poor and traditional peoples of her community, restates her firm resolve. “The health of our elders is severely threatened by this singling out of our small community—and our elders—in El Calaboz and the possibility of further dispossession.” Numerous experts debating and writing about this case agree that the border wall mega-project and continuous dispossessions against numerous traditional and poor communities disproportionately targets the most vulnerable. Texas’ border counties are the poorest in the nation. The wall currently stands on the #1 and #2 most impoverished counties in the entire U.S., according to the last five years census reports. Cameron, Hidalgo, Starr and Presidio counties are often analyzed and cross-compared to many developing nations--globally.

Margo Tamez, who is also the founder of an Indigenous Peoples Organization at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, concurs with the community members. “We feel that Indigenous peoples’ human rights are being violated—and this serious concern explicitly involves the United States and state government representatives along the entire U.S.-Mexico border—on both sides of the border. Lipan Apaches have demonstrated their serious grievances against the violation of their human rights along with other Apache nations (San Carlos Apache Tribe) at the United Nations in the past two years. The international law forums are increasingly critical sites for Indigenous peoples divided by this border to seek out alternative partners, allies, and legal avenues to pursue reparations and their human rights against States which are violators.”

At the local level, the singling out of Indigenous elders is causing further injury and irreparable harm against future existences of Lipan Apaches and Traditional Peoples in the El Calaboz Ranchería. Their lifeways are threatened, and thus, so are Lipan Apache grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Indigenous children’s rights are increasingly taking on important visibility at the United Nations, where the U.S. has been taken to task for numerous violations against Indigenous children who live and work within its political borders. Eloisa Támez, in her on-going challenge to dispossession, is taking a firm stand for the rights of Indigenous children. She states, “This is for the children—ours and everyone’s. The government is possibly seeking to take possessory rights to the Earth beneath the levee. My grandparents would not have allowed that, and they actively fought against this in their time. This is an on-going struggle for Indigenous peoples. Those land cannot be taken from the Indigenous peoples, according to traditional beliefs. The Earth is not for taking."


Resources:

Gary Clayton Anderson, The Conquest of Texas: Ethnic Cleansing in the Promised Land, 1820-1875, (Normal: University of Oklahoma Press, 2005).

The University of Texas at Austin, School of Law & The Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice, "The Texas-Mexico Border Wall," at http://www.utexas.edu/law/academics/centers/humanrights/borderwall/law/lawsuits-government.html.

Fernando Romero/Lar, Hyper-Border: The Contemporary U.S.-Mexico Border and Its Future, (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2008).

Margo Tamez, "The Texas-Mexico Border Wall Through the Eyes of Indigenous Communities in El Calaboz Rancheria," May 2008.
Excerpt:
The following is a list of corporate contractors involved in the building of the
Border wall in S. Texas.

Lockheed Martin
Texas Divisions of Raytheon (Network Centric Systems)
L-C Communications (Integrated Systems)
Northrup Grumman (Los Angeles, CA)
BAE Systems (Austin, TX)
SAIC of San Diego
Computer Sciences Corp of El Segundo, CA
America’s Border Security Group (Erriccson Inc, Plano, TX)
(NASDAQ: ERIKY)
Fluor Corporation (NYSEL:FLR)
SYColeman Corporation
MTC Technologies
CAMBER Corporation
AEP Networks, Inc.
Texas A & M University
University of Texas (Austin)
Boeing
Kellogg Brown & Root (Halliburton)
Secure Border Initiative Network
United Kingdom Home Office


Sources for the above:
PennWell. “Defense firms turn to border security.” Washington, 28, Dec. 2005.
“The government’s high-profile offensive to control the borders is spawning a growth market for the nations’s defense industry.” http://mae.pannet.com/Articles/Article_Display.cfm?ARTICLE_ID=244491&p=32 Accessed 11/20/07.

AEP Networks, America’s Border Security Group. “Ericcson’s AMerioca Border Security Group (ABSG) Offers Proven Effective Solution for U.S. Border Security.” http://www.aepnetworks.com/news/press_archive/release_06012006.htm
Accessed 11/20/07.

Richey, Joseph. “Fencingthe Border: Boeing’s High-Tech Plan Falters.” July 9, 2007http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14552. Accessed 11/20/07.;

“Software Glitches Delay Virtual Border Fence.” Newsmax.com. Tuesday, Ocotober 30, 2007. http://www.newsmax.com/us/virtual_border_fence/2007/10/30/45069.html Accessed 11/20/07.;

Riley, Michael. “Fortress America--Building a Border: Part 2.” Denver Post. 03/06/07http://www.denverpost.com/fortressamerica/ci_5356695. Accessed 11/20/07.;

McLemore, David. “Border Residents fuming over fence plans.” June 26, 2007. http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/062707dntex...Accessed 11/20/07;

Downing, Margaret. “Killing Fences: Totally Misconstrued.” Houston Press, May 31 2007. http://www.houstonpress.com/2007-05-31/news/killing-fences-totally-misconstrued/ Accessed 11/20/07;

Richey, Joseph. “Border for Sale: Privitizing Immigration Control. July 5, 2006. http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=13845&printsafe=1 Accessed 11/20/07;

PRNewswire. Garland, TX. “Raytheon Awarded Contract with U.K. Home Office for e-Borders Project.” November 14, 2007,http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/prnewswire/NEW03314112007-1.htm Accessed 11/20/07.

"IN DEMOCRACY'S SHADOW: FENCES, RAIDS, AND THE PRODUCTION OF MIGRANT ILLEGALITY" by Daniel Ibsen Morales

Dr. Eloisa Garcia Tamez separated from ancestral lands by the mega-project border wall constructed by the United States against the firm protests of the Nde' of El Calaboz Rancheria and from related Nde' across the United States.



University of Wisconsin Law School, Legal Studies Research Paper Series, Paper No. 1068, January 2009, Daniel Ibsen Morales

Excerpt (pp 103-104):
"the government knows that the fence is ill-conceived. State-authored reports show, and experts agree, that the project is a classic white elephant; it is expensive, breachable, and its most dramatic effect is to shift migration pathways to dangerous areas where migrants are more likely to die en route to the United States."

Excerpt (p 129):
"The congruence, though, between Tamez‘s case in domestic court and in the international arena is not accidental; the origins of the international human rights regime are distinctly American.119 And, as in the domestic sphere, this story might be different if the Group was not conceding, as it must, the basic point that the right to property it asserts is very limited because ―the U.S. government has the right to subordinate the use of private property for reasons of public utility and social interest.‖120 As it stands, however, this international briefing (as well as the briefings in Tamez) attack and subjugate the administrative while reinscribing the primacy and unimpeachability of democratic authority, and leave out as uncognizable the deeper rights she has to the land (due to her Amerindian and Spanish heritage). Put plainly, the structure of the suits only reinforces the existing power relationships that lead to Tamez‘s problem in the first instance."

INTERVENTION DOCUMENTS (ENGLISH)--GLOBAL INDIGENOUS WOMEN'S CAUCUS--8TH SESSION--UNPFII

These documents (INTERVENTIONS) of the Global Indigenous Women's Caucus (GIWC) are provided here to support the future work of Indigenous Women, Apache women, Apachean Peoples and Communities, Indigenous Peoples, and transborder-transnational communication and support work. LAW-DEFENSE hopes that these can support the important work of Indigenous Peoples in the on-going efforts to protect cultures, environments, livelihoods, and ways of life.

Spanish versions of all final documents will be loaded as they are available.

GIWC AGENDA 3a
GIWC AGENDA 3b
GIWC AGENDA 3c
GIWC AGENDA 4 a & b
GIWC AGENDA 7


SYLVIA ESCARCEGA READING 'FUTURE WORK OF THE PERMANENT FORUM', AGENDA ITEM 7



GLOBAL INDIGENOUS WOMEN CAUCUS MEETING, NYC, MAY 15-17, 2009



GLOBAL INDIGENOUS WOMEN CAUCUS MEETING, NYC, MAY 15-17, 2009



GLOBAL INDIGENOUS WOMEN CAUCUS MEETING, NYC, MAY 15-17, 2009

"THE UNITED STATES TAKES THE LAND, BUT THEY WILL NOT TAKE MY VOICE" --Eloisa Garcia Tamez

US seizes Tamez/Lipan Apache lands on the Texas-Mexico border for border wall
By Brenda NorrellEL CALABOZ, Texas --


With the hope of change evaporating during the Obama Administration, a federal judge ruled that Homeland Security can seize the Tamez family land. After a court battle, with an alert to the international community, the Tamez family said a federal judge condemned the Lipan Apache family land for the US/Mexico border wall.

"A federal judge in Brownsville, Texas issued an order today granting the federal government's request to condemn the ancestral land of the Tamez Family, who are Lipan Apaches," the Tamez family said April 16. "Although this land has been in the Tamez family prior to the Spanish colonization, and also designated to them through Spanish Crown law (1767, as of today, it is in the possession of the United States Department of Homeland Security.""The landowner, Eloisa Tamez, heard about Judge Hanen's order while participating in the Western Social Sciences Association Conference in Albuquerque, where she was participating in a Three part panel: 'Indigenous People's and the U.S.-Mexico Border: Militarization, Resistance, and Rights.' She is with a group of colleagues from several bi-national Indigenous Border communities and experts on militarization and the impact of the border wall," the Tamez family said in a statement.

The seizure of the Tamez family land raises new questions about the actual intent of the US government as it acquires private property from California to Texas for the border wall. The US covert scheme to acquire borderlands includes seizing private land and seizing the use of American Indian lands, such as Tohono O'odham land in Arizona, for the border wall corridor.
The land seizures were facilitated by the fear created by 9/11, then fueled by immigrant racism and xenophobia on television news and finally accelerated by the so-called drug war in northern Mexico. However, more questions are now being raised regarding the covert US government's role in the drug and weapons trafficking in the borderzone. The Zetas, the most notorious murderers, were trained as US Special Forces, while the US appetite for drugs provides the demand. The weapons also come from the US.

Meanwhile, in Texas, the Tamez family reports that this is an urgent situation which needs international attention and wide press coverage.

An interview with Eloisa Tamez, by Ansel Herz, is here.


Excerpt: "Mediahacker: I know that you met Barack Obama while he was campaigning. Have you seen any changes in terms of DHS policy since his taking office and do you hold out any hope that him and the new Homeland Security Secretary will change plans at all?
Tamez: I see no change. I’ve seen no comment on it. I don’t know what the plans are, because, well, they haven’t said much. So I’m still wondering what we’re going to see. And I still remember that he voted for the wall when he was a Senator. He voted for it ..."

All We Need ... A Few Sparks...

Texas landowners win small victory on border fence
By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN Associated Press Writer © 2008 The Associated Press
Dec. 18, 2008, 6:24PM

McALLEN, Texas — Dozens of South Texas landowners whose land is being condemned for the border fence scored a victory when a federal judge ordered that juries will decide the value of their property rather than an appointed land commission as the government had requested.
U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen set the stage for a series of trials to begin in March with his order signed Wednesday. While the trials will be restricted to determining how much the government pays landowners for the property, it gives Texas landowners their first opportunity to take an issue related to the border fence before a jury.
"I'm proud of him, he's doing his job," Eloisa Tamez, a landowner facing condemnation near Brownsville, said Thursday. "To have this kind of news before the holidays is like a Christmas gift for me."
The federal government has filed more than 300 condemnation lawsuits against South Texas landowners to make way for portions of the 670 miles of fencing it is building along the U.S.-Mexico border. So far about 500 miles is up, but it has been slow going in the Rio Grande Valley, where opposition is widespread.
Federal prosecutors had argued that the number of jury trials would swamp the courts, result in uneven payments and be extremely complex. A panel of land experts appointed by the court would be a more efficient option and more fair since it would be difficult to find enough unbiased jurors in an area where the fence has been a hot-button issue for months, the government said.
But Hanen, based in Brownsville, sided with landowners, 28 of whom are set for trial next year and all requested juries. The U.S. Attorney's Office did not immediately return a call for comment.
"This court is a firm believer in the jury system and the ability of everyday citizens to set aside their personal beliefs, biases and prejudcies to decide cases solely on the evidence presented within the context of a court's instructions," Hanen wrote in his order.
Hanen also cast doubt on the government's claim that about 80 cases will eventually need juries to determine land values. He suggested that even among the 28 cases scheduled for trial so far, similar parcels could be clustered in groups of three to be heard by the same jury. Most property owners settled with the government out of court.
The condemnations range from a quarter acre to more than 12 acres, but in many cases those are just slivers taken from tracts covering hundreds of acres north of the Rio Grande. Land commissions are generally believed to award lower compensation than juries, eminent domain attorneys say.
Each case will offer its own complexities, from calculating the impact on hunting leases to the value of the land left in the no-man's land between the fence and the river.
Kimberli Loessin, an attorney representing some of the landowners, wrote in an e-mail, "Landowners are pleased and believe that Judge Hanen did the right thing."

Get Ready, Get Set... Nde' Cultural Survival in the Lower Rio Grande

El Calaboz, Lower Rio Grande Valley, TX
December 18, 2009A year ago… the hostile enforcement policies of the US DHS/Secure Border Initiative against ancient border communities came to the foreground in landmark struggles on the Texas-Mexico border. The construction of the border wall through the middle of ancient, Rio Grande communities, forced Eloisa Garcia Tamez, (Lipan Apache), and community elders of El Calaboz Rancheria, as well as numerous poor Native land owners along the Rio Grande to stop the U.S. DHS from taking the community’s lands, ancient burials, archaeological resources, botanical and medicinal riparian zones, and their pastoral ways of life dependent upon cattle, grazing rights, water rights and Indigenous Peoples’ communal lifeways. The conflict raised constitutional, civil, and human rights in the face of intensified government force to pressure the community in numeros ways to surrender their lands.

Along the way… a robust independent media, and grass-roots network exposed deep corruption among local elites, scandal, and repressive government regimes managing the dispossession of the region’s poor Indigenous Peoples and persons along the Rio Grande's banks.

One year later…approximately eighty landowners continue to litigate their ancestral and communal land claims along the Texas-Mexico border. Success is measured in Chertoff's failures to wall in the resisting communities. Their firm resistances--based in living their daily lives and developing new strategies borrowed from older generations, from coalitions with like-minded grass roots Indigneous persons and groups; and working with allied media, law, grassroots, NGO's, nonprofits, faith-based communities, immigrant rights communities has enlarged the capacity of the prayer. Resistance and ceremony take on new meanings as the struggle continues.

Faith v. Greed...The new layer of corruption, beyond 'holes in the wall', is 'rigged jury system' and 'corrupt appraiser racket', whereby the U.S. and local industry leaders have attempted to shut out any possibility of a fair jury trial for litigants. 'Not on my shift', is fundamentally the message issued from Judge Hanen, in a ruling yesterday. Empaneled jurors will prevail, at least, as long as the resistance to oppressive government and industries continues.

Some of the land claims, such as Eloisa Garcia Tamez’, pre-date the United States as a sovereign nation, and are directly connected to Lipan Apache (Nde') peoples' struggles against forced colonization and dispossession by Spain, Texas, Mexico and the U.S. The Indigenous Peoples rights to exist as self-determining communities is gaining traction, in a region with a history of slavery, Jim Crow, hacendado culture, and harsh repression. In the face of increasing public criticism of the border wall, and claims of human rights violations before the Inter-American Commission/OAS, Indigenous Peoples are reframing and redefining the border wall conflict. We are organizing our networks around a framework of ‘Indigenous Peoples & Principles.’
(Part I)
Stay tuned...

Today, December 12, 2008 Is Our One Year Anniversary

On December 11, 2007, my mother Eloisa Garcia Tamez, called me to tell me that she had received a vision, an answer to her prayers for help from the Holy Mother to stop the construction of the border wall and the United States use of colonial instruments to steal Indigenous lands and to quash Indigenous resistance: Eminent Domain, Condemnation Proceedings, Declaration of Taking and Just War... She received instructions to go to the people, be unafraid, tell the truth, defend the people, and have faith. My mother followed the instructions...

[photo: Arnoldo Garcia]

Traditionally, the women of our culture pray to the Holy Mother. The Spanish Catholics converted the Apache of the Lower Rio Grande in the colonization process, and the Holy Mother of All Nde' (Apache People) who is Naiiess Isdzanaklesh, eventually became collapsed into the Guadalupe, the Virgin who gave birth to the Child of Water--Monster Slayer, or in the Catholic tradition, 'Jesus.'

In the U.S.-Mexico border region, Indigenous elders, grandmothers, mothers, daughters, and the men who support them, continue to live out the ancient rituals and Nde' beliefs 'under-the-cover' of state-approved religions. In the Lower Rio Grande, the religious practice of Catholicism is Indigenized.

A year ago, my mother called me to joyously announce that the Holy Mother came to her and told her that my mother must go to the local parish priest on December 12, at San Ignatius church, in the sister Rancheria of El Ranchito, down the road. The Holy Mother told my mother that she must pray, be strong, and that she must tell the people that they must unite and join in the fight against the injustice of the border wall. She commanded my mother to tell the parish elders and community that they must all join and go to the march in Brownsville, and to take the message of the people to the government, who were staging deception in corporate-contracted and controlled 'meetings.'

This all came to pass, and is documented now throughout our communities, and the internet, how an elder woman from El Calaboz confronted the U.S. DHS at the "community meeting", and exposed the scandalous corruption of the U.S., and its 'Chiefs'--war contractors.

In the process, an Indigenous restoration movement gained strength in our communities. For decades, Nde' in the Lower Rio Grande struggled for rights to our culture and way of life. This year, we witnessed the miracle of our ancient traditions emerge from the shadows and under-cover, to the open light. The Holy Woman/Mother Naiiees Isdzanaklesh (White Painted Woman) ceremony returned to our people in the open, and the ancient and the current converged in our resistance movement.

Please join us in taking a moment today to pause, reflect and to pray for the elders who are going to churches, sweat lodges, teepees, and to earth and water today, throughout the Americas. We stand firm on the rights of our Indigenous people to send the prayers and thoughts of peace and justice on the wings of Eagles, up to the Creator.

Join us in our celebration of a strong year helping in the efforts of many who are uniting our Indigneous people communities throughout the border, December 12, 2008, and celebrate the ongoing resistance and disruption of the Texas-Mexico border wall, from El Calaboz Rancheria!

Join and support Indigenous Women's Tribal Law, Lands and Life. We need all of your support.

PLEASE MAKE a financial contribution to the LIPAN APACHE WOMEN DEFENSE FOR 2009! USE THE PAY-PAL BUTTON. AHE'YE'E'
--Margo Tamez

THE BORDER WALL, A film by Wayne Ewing Premiering in Brownsville, Texas

Border Fence Documentary to be Shown This Week At Two Locations in the Lower Rio Grande Valley

Details

Date?: Thursday 12/4/8
Where?: Galleria 409 ( 409 E. 13th St. ) in Brownsville
Time?: 6 pm

Date?:Friday 12/5/8
Where?: South Texas College mid- Valley campus in Weslaco, (Auditorium, Bldg G190)
Tiime?: 6pm

Nde' Mothers' Voices Against the Wall ~~ A Prayer

(These photos are from the Naiiees Ceremony. Tamez Family and Nde' Photos and are Not for Distribution Without Express Consent from the Family Members, Thank you!).


Dear Friends;
I send you all a prayer and a wish for your unending grace, growth, empowerment, loving paths, kindnesses, and safety today. I suddenly felt a huge wave of inspiration, which I think came from seeing the immense power of the will of human beings coming together to dismantle the wall in Berlin. Suddenly, quite fast, this feeling rose to the top of me, literally from my toes to the top of my head! And, then, this poured out of me. I hope this will explain a little of how I feel about the wall, and why I work everyday, in some way, to stop the wall's construction in our lands, the Nde' people aboriginal to the Lower Rio Grande. Thank you for letting me share with you. Be blessed today in all you do.



Nde' Mothers Voices Against the Wall

Ussn, Bringer of Life, I thank you,
Creator, please hear the prayers of our mothers and grandmothers,
our fathers and grandfathers,
our children and grandchildren at this time...

Ussn, please hear the voices of the ancestors ...
whose footprints, handprints, prayers, struggles and love
spread across the lands like morning mist


I ask you Ussn, for your help,
in a serious way, I ask for your help

The mothers tell us in their words, worries, and sadness
We must destroy this wall of death

Ussn, I believe the voices and the wisdom of the mothers
for their severe worries show me that the taproot of this wall
brings to pass upon our people immeasurable destruction

and that this wall of steel and cement
is against the very core of the teachings
of my ancestors of
the Garcia, Cavazos, Esparza, Montalvo, Galvan, Rodriguez, Tamez... clans
who taught us that we are here for the community, not self, and
we are to simply honor all forms of Life, provided to us as a sacred gift.

Ussn, Bringer of Life,
Hear my prayer...
the wall encroaches upon my soul and displaces light
leaving only shadow and misery inside my heart,
and this is the illness of the wall...
spreading bad thoughts, bad words, bad actions, fear, distrust, anger
like projectiles of destruction deployed upon our people's minds, bodies and spirits

I see everyday the shadow and misery of this wall
already pressing down, like a soldier's boot, upon the necks of our children
extinguishing the children's breaths, extinguishing any possible future
as free, and indigenous and humans
what we call Nde' ~ the Real People.

This is the wall,
and here is what the elders say
came before the wall.

Hear the voice of resistance
bitter wails of ancestors engulfing my lungs
their impatient howls bursting out my throat
rattling the chains of trauma & memory and the old ones say
"Enough!!", their cries
blasting through the numbness
like tiny shrapnels of lightning
the ancestors come out like that---hard, real, no more time for waiting.

The wall's path
follows other paths of hate upon our ancestors...
whose mangled and mutilated bodies
lay un recognized and un eulogized and under grounded
in Starr county, Hidalgo conty, Cameron county...

We remember, we remember
We are the daughters who our mothers
nursed and teethed on the daily rations
of witnessing our elders as survivors of war in our own lands

The elders of these lands say...
in the Lower Rio Grande,
the wall is being built

upon

the indigenous children of the 19th century
hunted down by soldiers and militias
the small children and women
who could not escape the blunt end of the rifle
cracking their skulls
and the ones who got away
their minds incised with the terror of those screams

the indigenous mothers in 1910-1916
forcibly removed from their huts, gardens and medicines
who begged for mercy from the settlers before they starved
in a land abundant with wildlife, mesquite, mescal---they were starved
their gasping voices laid over by farmlands, cotton, cement ...
the newer forms of slavery

the indigenous grandmothers of 1935
who fought the soldiers against the construction of the levee
on the day my mother was born
and who screamed to the soldiers
to stop the impending deaths of their sisters and children
who would be flooded out on the other side
the destruciton of women's collective corn fields
the destruction of fertile topsoils tended carefully over generations

the indigenous youth and adults in 1937-1965 sent off to wars, and to labor camps
in the fields of the new lords
to blend and to bend among the multitudes of imported 'laborers'
under the guns and barbwire open-air fortress of South Texas
'the machine'
human bodies reduced to mere 'energy'
as if calculating batteries

the indigenous grandparents from these lands
enduring and enduring
from 1752-2008
toiling like mere 'units' not 'People' or 'Humans'
in their own lands
for food, for shelter, for wages...

the indigenous of the Lower Rio Grande in 2008
our memories, histories, languages, experiences---resilience!
refusing to be buried and the evidence of the violence
once again hidden beneath a wall of death

Hear me! Ussn! Hear me! An Nde' Woman,
Let this voice be heard for the People!

I won't surrender our history
I won't surrender our ancestors
I won't surrender our language
I won't surrender our territories
I won't surrender the medicine
I won't surrender the children
I won't surrender the parents
I won't surrender the elders
I won't surrender the memories
I won't give up the traditions
I won't give up the songs
I won't give up the future

Because I am the daughter of Life
Because I am the daughter of Naiiees Isdzaneklesh
Because I am the daughter of the Lightning People
Because I am the daughter of the Nde'

I am a daughter of the resurging Nde' Nation
My roots are in El Calaboz Rancheria
the place of my mother's birth
Where the elders gave her lightning ceremony
Where she went into the world to Slay the Monsters
With the Elders Smiling Behind Her
With the Elders Smiling Behind Her

Where the Wall of Death
Stopped in the Path
of the Bringer of Life
El Calaboz!
The place where the People Fight for Life from the Belly of Mother
From small holes in the ground
the indigenous fight the monsters
From small holes in the ground
the indigenous cannot be seen, and yet can see and feel
the rumblings of the enemies from far away...

Ahe'he'e Ussn --thank you Bringer of Life
Ahe'he'e Diyin --thank you Holy People
Ahe'he'e Shimaa Lepaiie --thank you mother clan
Ahe'he'e Shitaa Lepaiie --thank you father clan

Margo Tamez
November 7, 2008

Notes on Border Walls and Cultural Exchange: From conversations with Wendy Kenin - by Clare Kinberg, Editor, Bridges Journal, A Jewish Feminist Journal

Attached article:

 

Interesting perspective on the inter-cultural between Jewish and Native American, via borders, walls, militarism, forced removals, genocide. 

Also interesting comparative analysis of 'historical trauma', 'historical memory' and Michael Chertoff, Peter Schey, and indigenous women of the Mexico-U.S. border... 

Note:  error!  There are two federally recognized tribes in Texas.  The Kickapoo and Tiguas are recognized.  Texas, in a blanket policy, does not officially recognize the Aboriginal and First Peoples of Texas, which includes several Apache groups, who have specific historical, ancient presence in Texas and other Mexico-U.S.border states.  (There are 10 border states).

 

--Margo Tamez

TEXAS-MEXICO BORDER WALL HEARING: INTER-AMERICAN COMMISSION--ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES

TEXAS-MEXICO BORDER WALL HEARING AT THE INTER-AMERICAN COMMISSION--ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES. UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS WORKING GROUP AND RAPOPORT CENTER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AND JUSTICE (SEE BRIEFING PAPERS).

Lipan Apache Restore Na'ii'ees Isdzanlashe in 2008

SLIDESHOW

Join Apache Activists in Berkeley, California! August 28, 2008, 3 p.m.

Berkeley NO WALL! Reception for Apache Activists Fighting U.S. DHS in the MX-US Border Wall Conflict.

Click on image (left) to enlarge and get the details of the event.