(Photo Jay Johnson-Castro) A delegation from the Indigenous Peoples' Border Summit of the Americas called for an end to the Apartheid Wall being built on Tohono O'odham land. The contractor Boeing has already dug up O'odham ancestors. The wall will be a barrier on the O'odham traditional ceremonial route.Friday, November 16, 2007
Apartheid Wall on Tohono O'odham Nation land
(Photo Jay Johnson-Castro) A delegation from the Indigenous Peoples' Border Summit of the Americas called for an end to the Apartheid Wall being built on Tohono O'odham land. The contractor Boeing has already dug up O'odham ancestors. The wall will be a barrier on the O'odham traditional ceremonial route.
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Mohawks and Border Delegation inflamed over arrests of Indigenous Peoples
By Brenda Norrell
THE GATE, TOHONO O'ODHAM Nation (Arizona) --Indigenous delegates to the border on Tohono O'odham Nation land were outraged by the federal agents, hovering customs helicopter, profiteering contractors, federal spy tower, federal "cage" detention center and watching the arrest of a group of Indigenous Peoples, mostly women and children, by the US Border Patrol on an Indian Nation.
"We saw it all firsthand in America," said Bill Means, cofounder of the International Indian Treaty Council on Nov. 8, in an Indigenous delegation to the border here, south of Sells, to document the human rights abuses for a report to the United Nations.
"Now we are going to take this wall down," Means said, after viewing the construction of a border vehicle barrier by contractors and National Guard on Tohono O'odham land.
Speaking a few hours later to the Indigenous Peoples Border Summit of the Americas II in San Xavier, Means called for solidarity of Indigenous Peoples throughout the world to halt the arrests of Indigenous Peoples who are walking north in search of a better life, and to bring down the US/Mexico border wall.
"One inch of intrusion into our land is not acceptable," Mohawk Mark Maracle told the Border Summit. "I became very angry when I saw those guys rounding up the people.
"It is a violation of our Great Law to witness what we did today and do nothing about it."
The delegation included Mohawks, Oneida, Navajo, Acoma Pueblo, Hopi and O'odham.
At the scene of the arrests of a group of Indigenous Peoples, Mohawks stood before US Border Patrol agents and held their fists in solidarity, as the Border Patrol packed nearly a dozen Indigenous Peoples into one vehicle.
The delegation also viewed the federal spy tower next to the detention center known as "the cage" on the Tohono O'odham Nation. The first stop, however, was the abomination of the new vehicle barrier wall being constructed on O'odham land.
Kahentinetha Horn of the Mohawk Women Title Holders said she saw the callousness of the Tohono O'odham district official standing before them and speaking in favor of the border barrier.
"This is completely illegal," Kahentinetha said, adding that it violates human rights legislation. She was outraged at the arrests of the group, who appeared to be Mayans from Oaxaca, Chiapas or Guatemala.
"We stood in front of the Border Patrol, we started yelling at them," she said. She described how the Mohawks stood with fists held high in solidarity with the Indigenous Peoples being arrested.
"We were passing some of our strength on to them to fight."
The delegation planned to intervene in the arrests, but the Border Patrol crowded the group into a vehicle and left quickly.
"I came away feeling very frustrated and very discouraged," Kahentinetha said.
Mohawk Warrior Rarahkwisere, among those heartbroken to witness the arrest of Indigenous brothers and sisters, said these Indigenous Peoples arrested were not drug runners or criminals, these were women and children walking in search of a better life.
Jay Johnson Castro of Del Rio Texas, leading protests against the imprisonment of migrant children at Hutto prison in Texas and the border wall in Texas, was in the delegation.
"I hear 'sovereign nation,' but I didn't see a sovereign nation."
Castro said the buildings near the border on the Tohono O'odham Nation are labeled with signs, "Homeland Security and Tohono O'odham Nation, like they are in partnership."
Maracle said the same things that the US government is now accusing migrants of doing, is what the invaders did when they arrived on Turtle Island: rape, robbery and murder.
"If you don't stop and grab a hold of your destiny, there is not going to be one for your children."
Maracle said all the nations need to come together and stop what is happening here. "I know from past experience with the Mohawk Warrior Society where our power lies, it is with the people. The power is in the people, don't ever forget that."
Chris George, Oneida from Canada, said, "When the Border Patrol came up, they thought we were the enemy," when they asked who authorized this summit delegation to be at the border.
"No one authorizes us to do anything. It was the Creator who took us there.
"They were packing, we were packing, too, with a good mind and a good heart."
"All of the Indigenous Peoples need to come together. Don't let the United States government tell you who you are. We know who we are. We are Haudenosaunee, People of the Longhouse."
Lenny Foster, Dine' (Navajo) and advocate for Native ceremonial rights for prison inmates, said what he witnessed at the border was "brutal, vicious and evil."
Foster said Dine' know that human beings all have five fingers, but what he witnessed in the district official and agents was no internal knowledge of this.
"They were robots."
Referring to the Tohono O'odham district official who led the tour, Foster said she was defending the policies of genocide.
Foster asked who is setting these policies in the United States. "Who is running the government? It is the white man, it surely isn't the people of color."
Describing how the Indigenous Peoples were arrested and rushed into a small vehicle, Foster said, "It reminded me of Gallup, N.M., how they round up our people and stack them up like stacks of wood."
Foster was at this same place, a dirt road stretch leading to Mexico, years ago when the American Indian Movement protested the violation of human rights here. Foster pointed out that during the day, he viewed police from the BIA, Tohono O'odham Nation, along with US Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs agents. The National Guard were also there, working with the contractor constructing the vehicle barrier, as white customs' helicopter hovered overhead.
At the same time, on the Mexico side, two men sat under a tree.
An attorney for the O'odham in Mexico was prevented from crossing into the United States on Tohono O'odham land by the US Border Patrol, even though he held a letter from Tohono O'odham Nation Chairman Ned Norris asking him to meet with him today. In the letter, Chairman Norris stated that the attorney could enter the Nation for the meeting by way of The Gate here.
However, the Border Patrol at the scene refused to allow the attorney to enter, even with a letter from the chairman. Over-ruling Chairman Norris on O'odham land, the US Border Patrol agent said the attorney must have a US visa to enter, and not just a letter from Chairman Norris. The attorney waited there, with a Tarahumara accompanying him, who held a US visa.
Foster pointed out that the Mexican federales or police, who arrived on the other side, could do anything with the two people left there. "They could even be torturing them now."
At the border wall construction, Bill Means said one of the workers told them, "The Israelis are helping us put up the fence." He was referring to the fact that the contractor Boeing, hired the Israeli defense contractor Elbit Systems, who participated in the construction of the Apartheid Wall in Palestine.
Describing what is happening in the United States, Means said the "gated communities" of the have now expanded into a "gated country." It is a country where the government welcomes the rich.
The Indigenous summit delegation witnessed first hand how Indigenous Peoples are treated.
Means quoted Black Hawk of the Sac and Fox Nation: "Why is it you Americans always take with a gun what you could have with love.
"We experienced America today."
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Blackfire to perform at Border Summit Saturday night!
Blackfire will perform at the Indigenous Peoples' Border Summit of the Americas II, Saturday night, November 10, 2007. The Border Summit will be held Nov. 7 - 10, 2007, at San Xavier District of the Tohono O'odham Nation (near the Tucson International Airport.) The Border Summit welcomes the Navajo family band whose voices have proclaimed Indigenous Peoples' rights around the world.Gertie and the TO Boys kicks off the concert Saturday night at 6 pm!
Indigenous Border Summit welcomes extraordinary speakers
The Indigenous Peoples' Border Summit of the Americas II welcomes extraordinary speakers from the Americas, including Bill Means, Lakota, and board members of the International Indian Treaty Council. Delegations of Mohawks include the Mohawk Women Title Holders from Quebec and Ron Lameman from Six Nations. Indigenous border rights of mobility, human rights and the United Nations are among the topics at the summit, Nov. 7 - 10, 2007 at San Xavier District on the Tohono O'odham Nation (near the Tucson International Airport and South Tucson.) Mike Wilson, Tohono O'odham who puts out water for migrants, will speak on humanitarian aid. Lenny Foster, Navajo, will speak on Native prisoners' rights and focus on Leonard Peltier. Speakers include Karen Howe, Tohono O'odham Nation ecologist, speaking on the border and the environment; Margo Tamez speaks on women and children at the border; Jay Johnson Castro on the imprisonment of migrant children in Texas and protests of the border wall in Texas. Yaqui from Sonora, Mexico, and Arizona, will present crucial issues on border passage and deaths from banned pesticides.
Other speakers' presentations will focus on militarization of the border, human rights abuses and new border policies. The United Nations requested that the border summit be held for a second year, following the successful summit in 2006. Time is reserved each day for testimony from Indigenous Peoples living in border regions. The Indigenous Border Summit will be webcast, Nov. 7 - 10, at http://www.earthcycles.net/
Indigenous Peoples Border Summit of the Americas II
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 7th
6 am – Sunrise Ceremony
7 am – Breakfast
9 am – Introductions, Human rights, Indigenous Peoples and impacts current Border policies
12 pm – Lunch
1 pm – Humanitarian Aid and saving lives along the Border
3:30 pm – Break
4 – 5 pm – Indigenous Peoples’ Rights and the Border: Human Rights, Treaty Rights and Rights to Traditional Lands and Territories
6 pm -- Dinner
7 pm -- Oral Testimony
THURSDAY NOVEMBER 8th
6 am – Sunrise Ceremony
7 am – Breakfast
9 am – Immigration/Indigenous Traditional Mobility
12 pm – Lunch
1 pm - HUMAN RIGHTS TRAINING:
The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: a new international framework for upholding our human rights Current Review of the US by the UNCERD: “Using the UN to hold the US Accountable for Racism towards Indigenous Peoples”Other international developments to defend the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples Questions and Discussion6 pm – Dinner- on your own7 pm - Oral Testimony
FRIDAY NOVEMBER 9th
6 am – Sunrise Ceremony
7 am – Breakfast
9 am – Implications on Lands, territories, and national resources & environment: Karen Howe, Tohono O'odham Nation ecologist
12 pm – Lunch
1 pm – Religious/Cultural/Spiritual Rights, traditional mobility, ceremonial practices and sacred sites: Delegations of Mohawks, including Kahentinetha and Katenies of the Mohawk Women Title Holders from Quebec
Ron Lameman from Six Nations
3:30 pm – Break
4 pm – Women/Children and the Borders: Margo Tamez
6 pm – Dinner – on your own
7 pm Oral Testimony
SATURDAY NOVEMBER 10th
6 am - Sunrise Ceremony
7 am – Breakfast
9 am – Humanitarian Aid: Tohono O'odham Mike Wilson
10 am - Detentions and prisons: Lenny Foster, Navajo, Native inmates rights, including ceremonial rights, focus on Leonard Peltier
Texas: Imprisoning migrant children and border wall protest: Jay Johnson Castro from the Texas border
11 am – Oral Testimony
12 pm - Lunch
1 pm – Conclusions, Summaries, Recommendations & Resolutions
2 pm – Break, dinner on your own
6 pm--Gertie and the TO Boys
7 pm – Concert: BLACKFIRE
Please check back as more speakers and performers are now being confirmed ...
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Indigenous Border Summit responds to human rights crisis
Indigenous Peoples' Border Summit of the Americas II, Nov. 7 -- 10, focuses on human rights and right of mobility
SAN XAVIER, TOHONO O'ODHAM NATION -- A human rights crisis for Indigenous Peoples living along borders in the Americas threatens their survival, with rapidly expanding militarization and new laws which limit their mobility in their ancestral territories.
Responding to this crisis, the San Xavier District of the Tohono O'odham Nation will host the Indigenous Peoples Border Summit of the Americas II, Nov. 7- 10, with support from the International Indian Treaty Council.
Mike Flores, Tohono O'odham summit organizer, said, "It is necessary for Tohono O'odham and other Indigenous Peoples of the border regions to collectively address the adverse impacts that are increasingly occurring on tribal lands. The Border Summit of the Americas II will provide us the opportunity to do just that."
San Xavier District Chairman Austin Nunez joins Flores in welcoming Indigenous Peoples to the Border Summit on Tohono O'odham land, located near South Tucson.
"Welcome," Nunez said, "Our community is pleased to be hosting this year's conference."
The Border Summit will host a human rights workshop by the International Indian Treaty Council. The summit will be broadcast live on the Internet at http://www.earthcycles.net/ as was done in 2006.
From the southern Andes to the northern Arctic, corporations intent on seizing natural resources have increased the oppression and displacement of Indigenous Peoples, resulting in their forced mobility across national borders.
Further, free trade agreements, mining and exploitative development have forced Indigenous Peoples into exile in the Americas, displaced from their lands where they farmed, hunted or fished for survival.
In the United States, corporate profiteering for private migrant prisons, experimental spy technology, poorly trained border agents, privatized security and new laws for immigration threaten the right of mobility in ancestral territories.
The human rights crisis at the southern border of the United States and Mexico has resulted in over 4,000 migrant deaths in recent years, including deaths of women from Guatemala on Tohono O'odham tribal land in Arizona who died walking with their children in 2007.
Migrants, including Indigenous Peoples from Mexico and Central America, die of dehydration and severe temperatures while walking in search of a better life. The Border Summit speakers will include Tohono O’odham Mike Wilson, who puts out water for migrants on tribal land.
“No one should die for want of a drink of water,” Wilson said.
The privatization of prisons, including the T. Don Hutto Residential Center and Raymondville migrant tent encampment, both near Austin, Texas, reveals the sinister motivation of profiteering from the plight of migrants. Hutto imprisons migrant and refugee infants and children.
Speakers will include Jay Johnson-Castro, Sr., of Texas, among those organizing protests against the prisons and border wall.
In May, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for migrants, Jorge Bustamante, was denied entrance into Hutto, and Johnson-Castro helped organize the human rights protests that followed.
The border wall and border vehicle barriers along the southern border have resulted in the removal of ancestors’ remains of the Tohono O'odham and Kumeyaay from their final resting places. Further, the barrier wall on Tohono O'odham land is a barrier interfering with an ancient annual ceremony.
Since ceremonial leaders from Mexico often lead ceremonies in the United States, new immigration laws threaten the survival of ceremonies, culture and languages. Because many Indian people are born at home, or lack funds for visas and passports, crossing the border has become a harsh ordeal.Further, at both the northern and the southern borders of Canada and Mexico, federal border agents ransack and violate ceremonial items.
Speakers on the right of mobility at the northern border include a delegation of Mohawks from Turtle Island.
With the increased militarization and surveillance at the borders, the dangers from speeding border agents, aerial vehicle crashes and abuse and harassment by border agents increase.
Women, children and elderly along the border are most often the victims of oppression and suffer most often from the lack of food, safe drinking water and medicines.With the militarization and oppression increasing for Indigenous Peoples around the world, the Border Summit of the Americas invites Indian people to offer their testimony while receiving information and training on human rights.
The International Indian Treaty Council will present a human rights training, following the United Nations adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The US will be examined by the UN Committee for Racial Discrimination (CERD) Committee in March of 2008, in Geneva, Switzerland.
“This workshop will provide information as to how Indigenous Nations, tribes and organizations can use this historic opportunity to inform the CERD Committee on the true state of racial discrimination in this country and how it affects Indian Nations, Peoples and communities. This information will be very important to help the UN CERD experts get a more accurate picture of racial discrimination in the US and hold the US accountable to their obligations under international human rights law,” IITC said.
“An additional focus will be on strategies to defend our human rights, border rights, and protecting our sacred sites and traditional land rights using the newly-adopted UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples from the local to the international levels.”
The human rights workshop presenters will be Bill Means, Lakota cofounder of the Treaty Council; Andrea Carmen, Yaqui and Treaty Council executive director; Ron Lameman, Confederacy of Treaty 6 First Nations, and Francisco Cali, CERD Member and Treaty Council board president.
SAN XAVIER, TOHONO O'ODHAM NATION -- A human rights crisis for Indigenous Peoples living along borders in the Americas threatens their survival, with rapidly expanding militarization and new laws which limit their mobility in their ancestral territories.
Responding to this crisis, the San Xavier District of the Tohono O'odham Nation will host the Indigenous Peoples Border Summit of the Americas II, Nov. 7- 10, with support from the International Indian Treaty Council.
Mike Flores, Tohono O'odham summit organizer, said, "It is necessary for Tohono O'odham and other Indigenous Peoples of the border regions to collectively address the adverse impacts that are increasingly occurring on tribal lands. The Border Summit of the Americas II will provide us the opportunity to do just that."
San Xavier District Chairman Austin Nunez joins Flores in welcoming Indigenous Peoples to the Border Summit on Tohono O'odham land, located near South Tucson.
"Welcome," Nunez said, "Our community is pleased to be hosting this year's conference."
The Border Summit will host a human rights workshop by the International Indian Treaty Council. The summit will be broadcast live on the Internet at http://www.earthcycles.net/ as was done in 2006.
From the southern Andes to the northern Arctic, corporations intent on seizing natural resources have increased the oppression and displacement of Indigenous Peoples, resulting in their forced mobility across national borders.
Further, free trade agreements, mining and exploitative development have forced Indigenous Peoples into exile in the Americas, displaced from their lands where they farmed, hunted or fished for survival.
In the United States, corporate profiteering for private migrant prisons, experimental spy technology, poorly trained border agents, privatized security and new laws for immigration threaten the right of mobility in ancestral territories.
The human rights crisis at the southern border of the United States and Mexico has resulted in over 4,000 migrant deaths in recent years, including deaths of women from Guatemala on Tohono O'odham tribal land in Arizona who died walking with their children in 2007.
Migrants, including Indigenous Peoples from Mexico and Central America, die of dehydration and severe temperatures while walking in search of a better life. The Border Summit speakers will include Tohono O’odham Mike Wilson, who puts out water for migrants on tribal land.
“No one should die for want of a drink of water,” Wilson said.
The privatization of prisons, including the T. Don Hutto Residential Center and Raymondville migrant tent encampment, both near Austin, Texas, reveals the sinister motivation of profiteering from the plight of migrants. Hutto imprisons migrant and refugee infants and children.
Speakers will include Jay Johnson-Castro, Sr., of Texas, among those organizing protests against the prisons and border wall.
In May, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for migrants, Jorge Bustamante, was denied entrance into Hutto, and Johnson-Castro helped organize the human rights protests that followed.
The border wall and border vehicle barriers along the southern border have resulted in the removal of ancestors’ remains of the Tohono O'odham and Kumeyaay from their final resting places. Further, the barrier wall on Tohono O'odham land is a barrier interfering with an ancient annual ceremony.
Since ceremonial leaders from Mexico often lead ceremonies in the United States, new immigration laws threaten the survival of ceremonies, culture and languages. Because many Indian people are born at home, or lack funds for visas and passports, crossing the border has become a harsh ordeal.Further, at both the northern and the southern borders of Canada and Mexico, federal border agents ransack and violate ceremonial items.
Speakers on the right of mobility at the northern border include a delegation of Mohawks from Turtle Island.
With the increased militarization and surveillance at the borders, the dangers from speeding border agents, aerial vehicle crashes and abuse and harassment by border agents increase.
Women, children and elderly along the border are most often the victims of oppression and suffer most often from the lack of food, safe drinking water and medicines.With the militarization and oppression increasing for Indigenous Peoples around the world, the Border Summit of the Americas invites Indian people to offer their testimony while receiving information and training on human rights.
The International Indian Treaty Council will present a human rights training, following the United Nations adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The US will be examined by the UN Committee for Racial Discrimination (CERD) Committee in March of 2008, in Geneva, Switzerland.
“This workshop will provide information as to how Indigenous Nations, tribes and organizations can use this historic opportunity to inform the CERD Committee on the true state of racial discrimination in this country and how it affects Indian Nations, Peoples and communities. This information will be very important to help the UN CERD experts get a more accurate picture of racial discrimination in the US and hold the US accountable to their obligations under international human rights law,” IITC said.
“An additional focus will be on strategies to defend our human rights, border rights, and protecting our sacred sites and traditional land rights using the newly-adopted UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples from the local to the international levels.”
The human rights workshop presenters will be Bill Means, Lakota cofounder of the Treaty Council; Andrea Carmen, Yaqui and Treaty Council executive director; Ron Lameman, Confederacy of Treaty 6 First Nations, and Francisco Cali, CERD Member and Treaty Council board president.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Treaty Council presents human rights training during Border Summit
Human Rights Training
Using the United Nations to hold the US accountable for Racism towards Indigenous Peoples & Strategies for Implementing the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
You are invited!
The International Indian Treaty Council (IITC) will conduct a workshop focusing on holding the United States' accountable to its legally binding obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD).
The US will be examined by the CERD Committee in March of 2008, in Geneva, Switzerland. This workshop will provide information as to how Indigenous Nations, tribes and organizations can use this historic opportunity to inform the CERD Committee on the true state of racial discrimination in this county and how it affects Indian Nations, Peoples and communities. This information will be very important to help the UN CERD experts get a more accurate picture of racial discrimination in the US and hold the US accountable to their obligations under international human rights law.
An additional focus will be on strategies to defend our human rights, border rights, and protecting our sacred sites and traditional land rights using the newly-adopted UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples from the local to the international levels.
PRESENTERS: Bill Means (Introduction & MC); Andrea Carmen (IITC Executive Director); Ron Lameman (Confederacy of Treaty 6 First Nations), Francisco Cali (CERD Member, IITC Board President)
This workshop is being held in conjunction with the Indigenous Peoples’ Border Summit of the Americas II” from November 7-10, 2007 which will be held at the San Xavier Community Center, 2018 W. San Xavier Rd, Tohono O’odham Nation. For more information on the Indigenous Peoples’ Border Summit.
Contact Kim Garcia at (520) 573-4000 or by e-mail at kgarcia@waknet.org or Mike Flores, (520) 235-2406, email: Michaelflores_@hotmail.com or bordersummit2007@yahoo.com
http://www.treatycouncil.org/
Working for the Rights and Recognition of Indigenous Peoples
Updated agenda and speakers
http://indigenousbordersummitamericas2007.blogspot.com/2007/11/blackfire-to-perform-at-border-summit.html
Using the United Nations to hold the US accountable for Racism towards Indigenous Peoples & Strategies for Implementing the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
You are invited!
The International Indian Treaty Council (IITC) will conduct a workshop focusing on holding the United States' accountable to its legally binding obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD).
The US will be examined by the CERD Committee in March of 2008, in Geneva, Switzerland. This workshop will provide information as to how Indigenous Nations, tribes and organizations can use this historic opportunity to inform the CERD Committee on the true state of racial discrimination in this county and how it affects Indian Nations, Peoples and communities. This information will be very important to help the UN CERD experts get a more accurate picture of racial discrimination in the US and hold the US accountable to their obligations under international human rights law.
An additional focus will be on strategies to defend our human rights, border rights, and protecting our sacred sites and traditional land rights using the newly-adopted UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples from the local to the international levels.
PRESENTERS: Bill Means (Introduction & MC); Andrea Carmen (IITC Executive Director); Ron Lameman (Confederacy of Treaty 6 First Nations), Francisco Cali (CERD Member, IITC Board President)
This workshop is being held in conjunction with the Indigenous Peoples’ Border Summit of the Americas II” from November 7-10, 2007 which will be held at the San Xavier Community Center, 2018 W. San Xavier Rd, Tohono O’odham Nation. For more information on the Indigenous Peoples’ Border Summit.
Contact Kim Garcia at (520) 573-4000 or by e-mail at kgarcia@waknet.org or Mike Flores, (520) 235-2406, email: Michaelflores_@hotmail.com or bordersummit2007@yahoo.com
http://www.treatycouncil.org/
Working for the Rights and Recognition of Indigenous Peoples
Updated agenda and speakers
http://indigenousbordersummitamericas2007.blogspot.com/2007/11/blackfire-to-perform-at-border-summit.html
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
River Park Inn rooms reserved for Border Summit 2007
Room reservations for Border Summit
The Indigenous Peoples' Border Summit of the Americas II, Nov. 7 -10, 2007, has reserved a block of rooms at the River Park Inn for $69 plus tax, per night for rooms with two queen beds. It is located off I-10 near downtown.
River Park Inn
Main: 520.239.2300
Toll Free: 800.551.1466
Fax: 520.622.8143
Free full breakfast; high speed Internet access; heated pool & jacuzzi; microwave; free parking; pet friendly; refrigerator; room service available from Bennigan's on site.
http://www.theriverparkinn.com/
Camping available at San Xavier, on site at the Border Summit
Campground includes sweatlodge and showers, please bring tents and sleeping bags
The Indigenous Peoples' Border Summit of the Americas II, Nov. 7 -10, 2007, has reserved a block of rooms at the River Park Inn for $69 plus tax, per night for rooms with two queen beds. It is located off I-10 near downtown.
River Park Inn
Main: 520.239.2300
Toll Free: 800.551.1466
Fax: 520.622.8143
Free full breakfast; high speed Internet access; heated pool & jacuzzi; microwave; free parking; pet friendly; refrigerator; room service available from Bennigan's on site.
http://www.theriverparkinn.com/
Camping available at San Xavier, on site at the Border Summit
Campground includes sweatlodge and showers, please bring tents and sleeping bags
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Indigenous Peoples Border Summit of the Americas II
Indigenous Peoples’ Border Summit of the Americas II
INVITATION AND ANNOUNCEMENT
We are honored and pleased to invite you to the Indigenous Peoples’ Border Summit of the Americas II from November 7-10, 2007 at the San Xavier Community Center, 2018 W. San Xavier Rd, Tohono O’odham Nation.
It is hosted and coordinated by the San Xavier Tohono O’odham District Community.The Indigenous Peoples’ Border Summit of the Americas II will provide the opportunity for Indigenous peoples of the border regions to exchange experiences and information about how the international borders impact their respective communities.
It will also create a way to unite Indigenous Peoples to address and resolve issues of mutual concern affecting our traditional homelands, cultural and ceremonial practices, sacred sites, treaty rights, health and way of life.
The San Xavier Community/District previously hosted border summits in 1989 and 2006, recognizing the critical issues facing the Tohono O’odham and other indigenous nations divided by international borders (US/Mexico/Canada). By again hosting an Indigenous Peoples’ Border Summit of the Americas, San Xavier Community wants to promote the human rights of indigenous peoples and support each other in our common struggles.
The International Indian Treaty Council (IITC) is co-sponsoring the Summit, and will be the fiscal sponsor. The IITC is an organization of Indigenous Peoples from North, Central, South America and the Pacific, working for the sovereignty and self-determination of Indigenous Peoples and the recognition and protection of Indigenous rights, Treaties, traditional cultures and sacred lands.
IITC representatives will provide training and updates on new developments at the United Nations during the Summit, including the recent adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and how we can use the UN to hold countries, including the US, accountable for human rights violations.
The Indigenous Peoples’ Border Summit of the Americas II, will build awareness and educate all peoples about the impacts of polices and practices being carried out along the borders. We hope that you, your Nations and your organizations can participate and we look forward to seeing you in the San Xavier Community in November, 2007.
Updated agenda and speakers:
http://indigenousbordersummitamericas2007.blogspot.com/2007/11/blackfire-to-perform-at-border-summit.html
Contact: bordersummit2007@yahoo.com
INVITATION AND ANNOUNCEMENT
We are honored and pleased to invite you to the Indigenous Peoples’ Border Summit of the Americas II from November 7-10, 2007 at the San Xavier Community Center, 2018 W. San Xavier Rd, Tohono O’odham Nation.
It is hosted and coordinated by the San Xavier Tohono O’odham District Community.The Indigenous Peoples’ Border Summit of the Americas II will provide the opportunity for Indigenous peoples of the border regions to exchange experiences and information about how the international borders impact their respective communities.
It will also create a way to unite Indigenous Peoples to address and resolve issues of mutual concern affecting our traditional homelands, cultural and ceremonial practices, sacred sites, treaty rights, health and way of life.
The San Xavier Community/District previously hosted border summits in 1989 and 2006, recognizing the critical issues facing the Tohono O’odham and other indigenous nations divided by international borders (US/Mexico/Canada). By again hosting an Indigenous Peoples’ Border Summit of the Americas, San Xavier Community wants to promote the human rights of indigenous peoples and support each other in our common struggles.
The International Indian Treaty Council (IITC) is co-sponsoring the Summit, and will be the fiscal sponsor. The IITC is an organization of Indigenous Peoples from North, Central, South America and the Pacific, working for the sovereignty and self-determination of Indigenous Peoples and the recognition and protection of Indigenous rights, Treaties, traditional cultures and sacred lands.
IITC representatives will provide training and updates on new developments at the United Nations during the Summit, including the recent adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and how we can use the UN to hold countries, including the US, accountable for human rights violations.
The Indigenous Peoples’ Border Summit of the Americas II, will build awareness and educate all peoples about the impacts of polices and practices being carried out along the borders. We hope that you, your Nations and your organizations can participate and we look forward to seeing you in the San Xavier Community in November, 2007.
Updated agenda and speakers:
http://indigenousbordersummitamericas2007.blogspot.com/2007/11/blackfire-to-perform-at-border-summit.html
Contact: bordersummit2007@yahoo.com
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
The Border and Indigenous Peoples
By Michelle Cook
Since time immemorial Indigenous peoples have lived and thrived in the lands now referred to as the United States border. Indigenous peoples throughout these regions maintain their rich cultures, languages, and customs. However these strong cultures and peoples are facing a great challenge, they are facing the border.
These lands have now become a war zone and a place that harbors injustice, racism, and darkness. These lands and the communities bear witness to the construction of walls of borders that divide tribal nations, communities, and families. These lands and peoples now bear witness to the preventable and needless deaths of immigrants. Many of whom are Indigenous Peoples themselves searching for a better and more secure life.
This border creates hardship for Indigenous peoples who are unable to cross the border for ceremonial purposes. These ceremonies are integral to their sacred religion, cultural survival, and dignity. The bodies of indigenous peoples and immigrants testify to the need for urgent and immediate action to stop the violence and bring peace to the people most impacted by the border. The Border Summit of the Americas hears the call and is responding to this need.
The Indigenous Border Summit of the Americas emerges from the urgent need to educate and advocate for the human rights of indigenous peoples living on the border. This summit seeks to raise awareness on local, state, national and international arenas about the realities of living on both sides of the U.S Mexico border.
This summit aims to empower and create solidarity with border communities, to hear their testimonies and stories, and most importantly to create solutions that will address and remedy the human rights violations they collectively experience.
The Border Summit of the Americas aims to create peace and harmony, to shed light on the realities of living on the border, and work towards a future that will include needs and voices of the original peoples, the indigenous peoples.
"This land was Mexican once, was Indian always and is. And will be again"
Gloria Anzaldua
Since time immemorial Indigenous peoples have lived and thrived in the lands now referred to as the United States border. Indigenous peoples throughout these regions maintain their rich cultures, languages, and customs. However these strong cultures and peoples are facing a great challenge, they are facing the border.
These lands have now become a war zone and a place that harbors injustice, racism, and darkness. These lands and the communities bear witness to the construction of walls of borders that divide tribal nations, communities, and families. These lands and peoples now bear witness to the preventable and needless deaths of immigrants. Many of whom are Indigenous Peoples themselves searching for a better and more secure life.
This border creates hardship for Indigenous peoples who are unable to cross the border for ceremonial purposes. These ceremonies are integral to their sacred religion, cultural survival, and dignity. The bodies of indigenous peoples and immigrants testify to the need for urgent and immediate action to stop the violence and bring peace to the people most impacted by the border. The Border Summit of the Americas hears the call and is responding to this need.
The Indigenous Border Summit of the Americas emerges from the urgent need to educate and advocate for the human rights of indigenous peoples living on the border. This summit seeks to raise awareness on local, state, national and international arenas about the realities of living on both sides of the U.S Mexico border.
This summit aims to empower and create solidarity with border communities, to hear their testimonies and stories, and most importantly to create solutions that will address and remedy the human rights violations they collectively experience.
The Border Summit of the Americas aims to create peace and harmony, to shed light on the realities of living on the border, and work towards a future that will include needs and voices of the original peoples, the indigenous peoples.
"This land was Mexican once, was Indian always and is. And will be again"
Gloria Anzaldua
Friday, August 31, 2007
News coverage of Border Summit in 2006
News coverage from the 2006 summit:
Indigenous Border Summit Opposes Border Wall and Militarization
Americas Program, International Relations Center (IRC) 2006
http://www.americaspolicy.org/
By Brenda Norrell
Indigenous peoples at the Border Summit of the Americas on Tohono O'odham tribal land opposed the construction of a border wall, which will dissect indigenous communities on ancestral lands split by the U.S.-Mexico border. They also issued a strong statement against the ongoing militarization of their homelands.
During the Border Summit, held Sept. 29-Oct. 1, 2006, organized by Tohono O'odham Mike Flores and facilitated by the International Indian Treaty Council and the American Indian Movement, indigenous peoples unanimously opposed the Secure Fence Act, passed by the Senate. The wall will divide the ancestral lands of many Indian Nations, including the Kumeyaay in California, Cocopah and Tohono O'odham in Arizona, and the Kickapoo in Texas. The wall is expected to be completed by May 2008.
Describing it as “psychological oppression and terrorism,” the participants representing many tribes from the United States and Mexico also called for a halt to the militarization of their ancestral homelands and sacred places along the border.
Read article:
http://americas.irc-online.org/amcit/3648
Indigenous Border Summit Opposes Border Wall and Militarization
Americas Program, International Relations Center (IRC) 2006
http://www.americaspolicy.org/
By Brenda Norrell
Indigenous peoples at the Border Summit of the Americas on Tohono O'odham tribal land opposed the construction of a border wall, which will dissect indigenous communities on ancestral lands split by the U.S.-Mexico border. They also issued a strong statement against the ongoing militarization of their homelands.
During the Border Summit, held Sept. 29-Oct. 1, 2006, organized by Tohono O'odham Mike Flores and facilitated by the International Indian Treaty Council and the American Indian Movement, indigenous peoples unanimously opposed the Secure Fence Act, passed by the Senate. The wall will divide the ancestral lands of many Indian Nations, including the Kumeyaay in California, Cocopah and Tohono O'odham in Arizona, and the Kickapoo in Texas. The wall is expected to be completed by May 2008.
Describing it as “psychological oppression and terrorism,” the participants representing many tribes from the United States and Mexico also called for a halt to the militarization of their ancestral homelands and sacred places along the border.
Read article:
http://americas.irc-online.org/amcit/3648
Directions from airport
Directions from San Xavier from Airport
1. Start going toward the AIRPORT EXIT on S TUCSON BLVD - go 1.0 mi 2. Turn LEFT on E VALENCIA RD - go 4.8 mi 3. Turn LEFT on S MISSION RD - go 12.4 mi 4. Arrive at the center of SAN XAVIER, AZ5. Xan Xavier District Center is before the church
Map http://maps.yahoo.com/dd_result.php?q1=Tucson+International+Airport&q2=San+Xavier%2C+Arizona&q3=&q4=&q5=
1. Start going toward the AIRPORT EXIT on S TUCSON BLVD - go 1.0 mi 2. Turn LEFT on E VALENCIA RD - go 4.8 mi 3. Turn LEFT on S MISSION RD - go 12.4 mi 4. Arrive at the center of SAN XAVIER, AZ5. Xan Xavier District Center is before the church
Map http://maps.yahoo.com/dd_result.php?q1=Tucson+International+Airport&q2=San+Xavier%2C+Arizona&q3=&q4=&q5=
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