Encuentro de Pueblos Indígenas deAbya Yala

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Indigenous Resistance Day

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES DEMAND THE END OF TITLE 42 AND VIOLENCE AT THE SOUTHERN BORDERJUSTICE FOR THE HAITIAN AND INDIGENOUS COMMUNITY

ABYA YALA, September 23, 2021 - Many anti-immigrant policies adopted during the Trump era caused human rights violations against our indigenous brothers and sisters fleeing our ancestral territories due to conditions caused by neoliberal capitalism and free trade agreements. During the Zero Tolerance period, 3,914 families were separated from their children at the border and only 2,031 had been reunited by August 1, 2021. Of these, more than a third are from indigenous families. Additionally, thousands of indigenous women were abused when they arrived at the border and were denied the right to due process of law to present their cases in court.

Despite President Biden’s promises to the contrary, the reality is that the Biden/Harris administration continues the same racist and anti-migrant policies. Title 42, a policy implemented by Trump in March 2020, which blocks many migrants from entering the country under the pretext of preventing the spread of COVID-19, allowed for the quick expulsion of migrants without giving them the opportunity to apply for asylum. The Biden/Harris administration continues to exercise this policy, violating the asylum seekers’ human rights. Since its first implementation, more than 940,000 migrants have been swiftly removed. But more than 690,000 of these removals have occurred since Biden took office in January. This is a truly alarming situation since the majority of those expelled are indigenous to our ancestral territories.

Recently revealed images show the US Border Patrol herding Haitian refugees with horses and whipping them with their reins, a truly disturbing display of state violence. Our brothers in Haiti have been seeking refuge from the same devastating effects caused by neoliberalism, free trade agreements, centuries of colonialism which shows to us that the doctrine of discovery is still in force in the hemisphere.

These inhumane acts must no longer occur. As the Social Support Commission of CONPID, we denounce these acts of violence permitted by the Biden/Harris administration and the anti-immigration policy still in effect . We demand the immediate end of the Title 42 policy, and that those guilty of these serious acts of violence face justice.

Social Support Commission, CONPID

CONPID AUTHORITIES

The National Council of Indigenous Peoples is an ancestral entity of indigenous nations and peoples made up of Governments of Indigenous Peoples and Nations, communities, organizations, associations and Indigenous individuals committed to struggle against the conquest and for decolonization and dismantling of The Doctrine of Discovery which  was the legal framework for the eurocentric invasion, colonization, plunder and imposition in Abiayala.

International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples

The National Council of Indigenous Peoples in the Diaspora (CONPID) on this day of commemoration of the recognition and struggles of indigenous peoples expresses:

A fraternal greeting to each one of our Indigenous relatives residing in their original territories in the continent of ABYA YALA. Our solidarity specially with our Indigenous relatives displaced on Turtle Island, and in any other place where they find themselves displaced.

We as indigenous peoples living in the diaspora, claim this day not only as a date to commemorate indigenous peoples, but also as a day to recognize our ancestral wisdom and the importance that this has in our daily lives.

We lament that colonization has transformed our ancestral thoughts and teachings since the invasion of our territories - this being a form of oppression that leads to the devaluation of our identity and further divides us. This change has forced us to be dependent on a colonial Eurocentric culture that continues to influence our Indigenous values ​​which are rooted in ancestral knowledge and practices. 

Therefore, on this day, WE REMEMBER THAT:

·       We are living, resilient, resistant peoples who exist, and who continue to fight for the recognition of our rights and for having a visible space.

·       On this day of commemoration, indigenous peoples must be recognized for the contribution they add in their respective territories, including contributions to social and economic development.

·       As Indigenous peoples, we contribute to the protection of our mother earth of which we are guardians, caretakers, and protectors. We sustain these responsibilities in the face of man's constant unconsciousness to obtain a capitalist neoliberal development of our ancestral territories, which is ending our existence and our natural resources. We speak out today and make a call to others to stand in solidarity with our struggle and our survival.

·       We continue to see the lack of commitment from states and governments to international conventions and agreements in favor of human rights and the rights of Indigenous peoples.

·       We continue to demand respect for our ancestral organizational, spiritual entities as well as our ancestral values. These must be inalienable and perpetuated since they were taken away since the invasion of our homelands.

Finally, we thank our elders – our grandfathers and grandmothers – for their teachings. We will continue to advance with strength and attitude until we transfer our knowledge to the next generations.

To all of you: we invite you to share with our Indigenous communities and to know the spiritual life and wisdom of our brothers and sisters, our grandparents and grandmothers. They will open their arms and hearts to you and will receive you with humility and solidarity, but above all, with relevance and identity.

CONPID Authorities, 

CONPID Demands Proper Respect for the Thousands of Unmarked Graves of Children at IndianResidential Schools in Canada

The National Council of Indigenous Peoples in the Diaspora (CONPID) denounces the Canadian government and all associated guilty parties for the thousands of deaths of First Nation children at Indian Residential Schools. These were boarding schools that were part of the Canadian government’s efforts to forcibly assimilate native children into settler colonial society. Since May, more than 1,308 suspected graves were uncovered near the sites of former Indian Residential Schools: 215 in Kamloops, British Columbia; 182 in Cranbrook, British Columbia; 751 in Marieval, Saskatchewan; and more than 160 found on Penelakut Island, British Columbia. These numbers make these graves seem like the type of mass graves commonly found at sites where genocide took place.

According to NPR, Chief Jason Louie of the Lower Kootenay Band called these horrible discoveries "deeply personal" since he had relatives attend the school in Penelakut where many unmarked graves were discovered.

"Let's call this for what it is," Chief Louie told CBC radio in an interview. "It's a mass murder of Indigenous people. The Nazis were held accountable for their war crimes. I see no difference in locating the priests and nuns and the brothers who are responsible for this mass murder to be held accountable for their part in this attempt of genocide of an Indigenous people."

CONPID joins native leaders such as Chief Louie and many others in demanding that the Canadian government as well as the Christian institutions that ran these schools immediately begin the process of reparation. From the nineteenth century until the 1970s, Canada implemented laws that forced 150,000 Indigenous children to attend state-funded Christian boarding schools in an effort to assimilate them into Canadian society. Thousands of children died at these schools of disease and other causes. Most were never returned to their families as the Indian Residential Schools had a policy of not returning bodies to the family as it was deemed too costly. Nearly three-quarters of the 130 residential schools were run by Roman Catholic missionary congregations, with others operated by Presbyterian, Anglican, and the United Church of Canada. During times with particularly high death rates, children were known to be buried in improvised, informal graves without proper markers or burial records. In other cases, children may have been buried in marked residential school cemeteries but years of neglect following the schools’ closures have left the sites overgrown and “forgotten.” In the worst cases there has been development built over the sites of these burials, such as in Brandon, Manitoba, where there is a large civic park built on top of children’s graves from the former Brandon Industrial School. 

As indigenous peoples we know that these graves were most likely intentionally neglected and “forgotten” to erase the crimes committed by the Canadian government and the associated churches that ran the Indian Residential Schools in Canada. We are outraged that these schools proved so deadly for our children for this reveals that health conditions must have been substandard and unacceptable. We demand an independent investigation to shed light as to why these graves were allowed to go unnoticed and “forgotten” for so long and proper reparations be made to surviving relatives of the victims.

We denounce that the Canadian government, together with the Catholic and Christian churches, have committed crimes against humanity and the actors must be investigated and punished so that these events are not repeated again. We demand an explanation and reparation of damages for the families of these missing children.

EXPRESSION OF SUPPORT AND SOLIDARITY

We hereby convey our support and solidarity to our brother Arnulfo Gómez Oxláj, who for speaking out about his experience and denouncing the vile and cowardly act committed by the state of Guatemala during the time of the internal armed conflict against him and other Guatemalan brothers and sisters, has been persecuted, imprisoned, and threatened with death.  At this very moment he states THAT HIS LIFE IS IN DANGER, since he is currently in his native country, where he traveled at the beginning of May 2021 to demand justice regarding the events of the massacre that occurred on Saturday, May 21, 1988, in the Chiul village of the municipality of Cunén, department of Quiché - Guatemala. CA.  In this event the army kidnapped several boys and girls, women and ajqijab * (traditional day counters), who were then taken to the Cunén military base, to be tortured for several days and later killed at the hands of the army and the Christian Government of Guatemala.

Arnulfo Gómez Oxláj was the only surviving child among 116 minors who were tortured and later thrown into a well filled with water and soldiers' feces, in which they drowned and suffocated.

This year, 2021, marks 33 years since the massacre – which is not recognized by the state of Guatemala. Arnulfo traveled to honor those who died in this massacre and continue to demand justice. For this, he was unjustly imprisoned, and accused of a crime that he did not commit; circumstance which highlights the arrogance and lack of justice on the part of the Guatemalan state, an action that today puts his life at risk.

We ask the international Human Rights organizations (HR) to take action on the matter, in order to protect Arnulfo's life. Also, to demonstrate solidarity in the efforts to clarify said massacre and demand justice, recognition, reparation of damages and non-repetition of said acts.

We firmly believe that these events that occurred and that were perpetrated by the state of Guatemala should be disclosed and condemned so as not to repeat the same stories against other indigenous peoples of Abya Yala.

For this reason, we extend this open letter of Solidarity so that Arnulfo’s case is resolved fairly and that the corresponding authorities carry out their actions based on the investigation of the truth. We also demand that the perpetrators of this reprehensible act be punished.

Sincerely,

The Authorities of the Council of Indigenous Peoples in the Diaspora.

 CONPID