NDÉ ISDZÁNÉ ŁANOHWILE’~~Lipan Apache Women Defense ~~El Calaboz Rancheria, Rio Grande/Rio Bravo: YES, YOU CAN JOIN EFFORTS TO PRIORITIZE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES & PRINCIPLES! SIGN-ON OUR LETTER TO PRES.-ELECT OBAMA

Monday, December 22, 2008

YES, YOU CAN JOIN EFFORTS TO PRIORITIZE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES & PRINCIPLES! SIGN-ON OUR LETTER TO PRES.-ELECT OBAMA

EMAIL MARGO TAMEZ AT sumalhepa.nde.defense@gmail.com to join!

SIGNATORIES on LETTER TO PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA
INTERIOR DEPARTMENT TRANSITION TEAM
ROBERT ANDERSON--CO-CHAIR

Dr. Eloisa García Támez, Lipan Apache, Associate Professor, Department of Nursing, University of Texas Brownsville and Texas Southmost College; Co-Founder Lipan Apache Women Defense, El Calaboz Ranchería, TX
Margo Tamez, Lipan Apache, Jumano-Apache, Co-Founder Lipan Apache Women Defense, WA; PhD Candidate, American Studies, Washington State University, Pullman, WA
Carmelita (Tamez) Lamb and Family, Lipan Apache, Jumano-Apache, Bottineau, North Dakota
M. ReBeca (Tamez) Drury and Family, Lipan Apache, Jumano-Apache, San Antonio, TX
Daniel Castro Romero, Jr., Lipan Apache, Chairman, Lipan Apache Band of Texas, Inc., TX. Official Representative of 745 Members
Michael Paul Hill, Nnee’ (Chiricahua Apache), San Carlos Apache Tribe, Staff, Lipan Apache Women Defense, AZ
Enrique Madrid, Jumano-Apache, Council Member, Jumano-
Apache Tribe of Texas, ( El Polvo) Redford, TX
Adelina Carrasco Whitecrow, Jumano-Apache, Community Leader & Elder, (El Polvo) Redford, TX
Roberto Lujan, Jumano-Apache, Council Member, Jumano-Apache Tribe of Texas, Presidio-Redford, TX
John Wood, Cameron County Commission, Commissioner—Precinct 2, Brownsville, TX
Andrea Carmen, Yaqui, Executive Director, International Indian Treaty Council, AK
Tia Oros, Zuni, Executive Director, Seventh Generation Fund, Arcata, CA
Petuuche Gilbert, Indigenous World Association, United Nations NGO
Teresa Leal, Ópata-Mayo, Proyecto Comadres Ambos Nogales, Sonora, Mexico
Peter Schey, Founder and Director, Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, Los Angeles,CA
Jose Matus, Yaqui, Director, Alianza Indigena Sin Fronteras/Indigenous Alliance Without Borders, AZ
Lori Riddle, Akimel O’odham, Co-Founder, Gila River Alliance for a Clean Environment, Bapchule, Gila River Indian Community, AZ
E. Elizabeth Garcia, Director, Coalition of Amigos in Solidarity & Action (CASA), TX
Reverend Michael Seifert, Proyecto Digna, Inc., Brownsville, TX
Juanita Valdez-Cox, Executive Director, La Union del Pueblo Entero (LUPE), TX
Graciela Sanchez, Director, Esperanza Peace and Justice Center, San Antonio, TX
Gloria A. Ramirez, Editor, La Voz de Esperanza, San Antonio, TX
Bill Guerra Addington, Sierra Blanca Legal Defense, Sierra Blanca, TX
James C. Harrington, Director, Texas Civil Rights Project, TX
Ann W. Cass, Executive Director, Proyecto Azteca, San Juan, TX
Benigno Pena, South Texas Immigration Council Inc., Brownsville, Texas
Alejandro Siller-González, MACC, San Juan Diego Project, Immigrants and Migrant Farmworkers /Inmigrantes y Campesinos Migrantes, San Antonio, TX
Kriss Worthington,Council Member, Berkeley City Council, Berkeley, CA
Arnoldo Garcia, National Network for Immigrant & Refugee Rights, CA
Pedro Rios, Director – US/Mexico Border Program, American Friends Service Committee, San Diego CA
Bradley Angel, Co-Founder and Executive Director Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice, San Francisco, CA
Mark Sanchez, President, San Francisco Board of Education, San Francisco, CA
April Cotte, Co-Founder, El Polvo Women’s Network, Redford, TX
Kamala Platt, The Meadowlark Center, KS
Noemi Lujan Perez, Raramuri, Chief Information Architect, Desert Runner, LLC, Washington, D.C.
Kirk L. Smith, MD, PhD, Frontera de Salud, Galveston, TX
Bill Chandler, MIRA! Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance
Paul "Pablo" A. Martinez, Apache, NM State Director, New Mexico LULAC Organization, Las Cruces, NM
Fabiola Torralba, Buena Gente y Nepantlera, Espereranza Peace and Justice Center, San Antonio, TX
Lupita De La Paz, El Comité Cultural Del Pueblo,Inc. Del Rio, Texas
Morning Star Gali, Citizen of the Pit River Nation, Community Liaison Coordinator, International Indian Treaty Council
TONATIERRA, Phoenix, AZ
Mary Ann Tenuto Sanchez, Chiapas Support Committee
United Native Americans, Inc., Turtle Island
Adrienne Evans, Co-Founder, No Wall - Big Bend Coalition

Angelique Eagle Woman (Wambdi A. WasteWin), Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota Oyate, James E. Rogers Fellow in American Indian Law, Associate Professor, University of Idaho College of Law, ID
Pablo Padilla Jr., Zuni, Attorney, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Jeff Wilson, Assistant Professor, Environmental Science, University of Texas-Brownsville, University of Texas Law Working Group (Texas-Mexico Border Wall), Brownsville, TX
Aurora Vasquez, Senior Attorney, Advancement Project, Washington, D.C.
Tom I. Romero, II J.D., Ph.D. Associate Professor, Hamline University School of Law
Diana Webster, Minnesota Ojibwe White Earth, Attorney at Law, Redondo Beach, CA
Monica Schurtman, Associate Professor and Clinic Supervisor, University of Idaho College of Law, Idaho
Jeffrey P. Shepherd, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of History, University of Texas at El Paso, TX
Cynthia L. Bejarano, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Criminal Justice, New Mexico State University, NM
Amy Kastely, Board Member, Esperanza Peace and Justice Center and Law Professor, St. Mary's University, San Antonio, TX
J. Kehaulani Kauanui, Kanaka Maoli/Native Hawaiian, Associate Professor American Studies and Anthropology, Wesleyan University, CT
Victoria Bomberry, Muscogee Nation, Assistant Professor, Department of Ethnic Studies, University of California, Riverside, CA
Dr. Gail Perez, Ethnic Studies, Professor University of San Diego, San Diego, CA
Emmy Perez, Assistant Professor, Department of English, University of Texas-Pan American, TX
Linda Zuniga-Heidenreich, Chair and Associate Professor, Women’s Studies Department, Washington State University, Pullman, WA
Martha Bárcenas, Pitzer College (Professor/Language and Culture Lab Director), Claremont, CA
Madeline Newman Rios, Ríos Translations, Claremont CA
Dorinda Moreno, Fuerza Mundial/Elders of 4 Colors 4 Directions, Santa Maria, CA
Jeanne Chadwick, Cherokee, Publisher/Editor My Two Beads Worth~Indigenous News
Ken Koym, Indigenous R & D Institute & A Maya Artifacts Museum Exchange Program, Austin, TX
Enrique Morones, Border Angels, San Diego CA
T.V. Reed, Buchanan Distinguished Professor American Studies and English, Washington State University, Pullman, WA
Joni Adamson, Associate Professor, Environmental Humanities, Arizona State University,Mesa, AZ
Vicente M. Diaz, Associate Professor and Director, Asian/Pacific Islander American Studies, Program in American Culture, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Erik Tamez-Hrabovsky & Children: Hawk Mendoza (14), Milpa de Otoño Mendoza (13), Maura Sun Tamez (9), Aria Mikassandra Reina Mundo Yellow-Basket-Weaver Tamez-Hrabovsky (5), Lipan Apache, Jumano-Apache ,Pullman, WA
Rosie Molano Blount, Chiricahua Apache, Del Rio, Texas and Pecos, Texas
Lucille Contreras and Children, Beto Chacon, JoseKuautli Contreras Maestas, LuzTlanezi Contreras Maestas, Jesus Tekuani Contreras Maestas, Lipan Apache Band of Texas—Azteca, Flatonia, TX
Emil LaRocque, Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, Tribal Scholarship Director, Turtle Mountain Community College/Chippewa Rancher, North Dakota
Yvonne 'Little Fawn' Oakes, Mohawk Nation
Richard Oakes Jr., Mohawk Nation
Leonard Oakes, Mohawk Nation Akwasasne, St. Regis, Canada
Pura Fe Crescioni, Tuscarora Nation of North Carolina
Looking Back Woman, Suzanne Dupree, Minneconjou Lakota, Cheyenne River Agency, Eagle Butte, SD
Bettina Escauriza, Oakland, CA
Abner Burnett, Attorney (Civil Rights), Rio Grande Valley, TX
Isabel Sanchez, San Antonio, TX
Lupita Santana, Pharr, TX
Phillip H. Duran, New Mexico
Jacqueline White, RN, PhD, Tucson, AZ
Erika Gisela Abad, Chicago, Illinois
Ryan Tauber, Educator, Brownsville Independent School District, and Member of Coalition of Amigos in Solidarity & Action (CASA), Brownsville, TX
Yajaira Fuentes-Tauber, Brownsville Independent School District, and Member of Coalition of Amigos in Solidarity & Action (CASA), Brownsville, TX
Judy Meuth, Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Women's Studies, Washington State University, Pullman, WA
Cesar Alejandro (Filmmaker), President, Alexandria Films, El Paso, TX
Iram and Molly Verduzco, Austin, TX
Joe and Jane Krause, Pax Christi, Brownsville, TX
Sandra Cisneros, Author, San Antonio, TX
Yolanda Moreno, A Resource In Serving Equality (ARISE), Rio Grande Valley, TX
Sanjuanita Martinez, Rio Grande Valley, TX
Esperanza Berrones, Pharr, TX
Maria Esparza, Rio Grande Valley, TX
Hortencia Medina, Rio Grande Valley, TX
Gary James, Ontario, Canada
Teresa Kurtzhall, Elk, Washington State
Braulio Carvajal Veloz, Esperanza Peace & Justice Center, San Antonio, TX
Lila Maes, The Marigold Project, San Francisco, CA
Juan N. Reza, California
Xoxi Nayapiltzin, Yolihua, Alpine, Tx
Francisco Solis Garcia, Jr., Lower Rio Grande Valley, TX

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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)