owe aku: challenging the doctrine of discovery

8/7/2019 Owe Aku: Challenging the Doctrine of Discovery

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Report on the Tlahtokan Abya Yala

(Gatheirng of Indigenous Nations and Pueblos) at

Nahuacalli

(Embassy of Indigenous Peoples)

on the Territory of the Oodham Nation (Phoenix, Arizona)

March 13-14, 2011

The Doctrine of Discoveryand the

Wakeup Call from the Nightmare of Manifest Destiny that is Arizona

OWE AKU INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE PROJECT


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Owe Aku International Justice Project was invited to participate in a regional hearing onthe Doctrine of Discovery sponsored by Tonatierra on the traditional territories of theOodham people in what is now Phoenix, Arizona. Kent Lebsock, Owe AkusCoordinator, and Medora Woods, an elder on our Advisory Board, participated in thetwo day event. The Hearing took place just before the Treaty Meeting and North

American Indigneous Peoples Caucus in Blue Lake, California on March 18, 19 and 20,2011. It was hosed by Tonatierra at Nahuacalli or the Embassy of Indigenous Peoplesas well as at Pueblo Grande, an archaeological site of the ancestors of the O odhamnation, both in Phoenix, Arizona.

Arizona is now the epicenter of the most recent wave of American imperialism andcontinued myopia in the war against Indigenous peoples that has not diminished ordefused for over 500 years now.

Arizona is a test, a front line on the assault on Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples of color. The border here has been condensed into

this narrow area by building the walls because the climate her eis right forthe hatred necessary to continue the war on Indigenous peoples. (TupacEnrique, Tonatierra)

Tonatierra called this Hearing in order to bring our peoples together to educate andfocus on this particular crisis:

We here on the ground, know we are at the pivot point of not just thehistory for Arizona but the future of our relationship as families of thechildren of Abya Yala and Mother Earth. The first wave of impact of theimpending climate chaos on the horizon of the global economy, which is

projected to produce 50,000,000 climate refugees globally due to climatechange exacerbated by global warming, has already broken upon theborders of Arizona. The climate of fear, ignorance, and insecurity which isdriving the viscous attack against the migratory workers of Arizona andtheir families is signal that the climate of social relationships which shouldbe based on our shared human values and supported by public policies isdangerously misguided. We are being assaulted on a daily basis by thedying gasp of the pathology of white privilege as determinant of the legal,political, and cultural identity of US citizenship and nationality. (See http://www.nahuacalli.org/Pohualtlahtoyan.html, March 16, 2011.)

A Two Front Strategy: Corrective Rights and A New Paradigm

Owe Aku International Justice Project was struck by the emergence of a two-frontstrategy that was revealed during the interaction with brothers and sisters from AbyaYala (continent of life in the Kuna language). Both fronts are especially relevant aswe usher in a new age of human rights, based on the wisdom of Mother Earth and thememories of Indigenous peoples.

720 West 173rd Street, #59, New York City 10032, [email protected], 646-233-4406Written March 16, 2011 - Page 2
http://www.nahuacalli.org/Pohualtlahtoyan.htmlmailto:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.nahuacalli.org/Pohualtlahtoyan.htmlhttp://www.nahuacalli.org/Pohualtlahtoyan.htmlhttp://www.nahuacalli.org/Pohualtlahtoyan.htmlhttp://www.nahuacalli.org/Pohualtlahtoyan.html


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The first is to eradicate the historical inequities that have violated the rights ofIndigenous peoples to have stewardship of our lands, territories, waters and resources.In international parlance these tools of historical inequity would include, mostparticularly, the Papal Bulls of the Roman Catholic Church that created the legal

justifications for genocide, domination and colonization by giving Christian nations amythical mandate to kill, capture, enslave and steal anything they wanted from non-Christians. In the United States of America the words of the Roman Church have beencontinually used, up until today, in order to warrant other fictions like dependentdomestic nations, trust lands, and the ultimate tool of American genocide and christiandomination, manifest destiny.

These have created enough verbal poison to fill ten worlds (ShannonRivers of the Gila River Community, Oodham Nation).

How else could a made-up country of immigrants (as Alex White Plume defines the

United States) find a means in the 21st

century to encode such irrational, racist,discriminatory and illusionary laws regarding immigration such as those that exist in thehuman rights crisis that is the non-Indigenous mind of Euro-American Arizona?

This question was addressed by Medora Woods, a long time ally and friend ofIndigenous peoples, who has also been trained in Jungian analysis and American legal

jurisprudence. She began her remarks by stating that:

While I have been here, not only have I been listening to the stories ofyou and your people, I am listening to the stories of Mother Earth.

In essence, she concludes that the western mind, displaced and uprooted by its ownvolition from its own heritage and connection with the Mother, so necessary to humanwell-being, especially applicable to Euro-American colonizers, has suffered a kind oftrauma. Defining this as displacement panic, she stated that there can be no recoverywithout an honest examination and acknowledgment of that trauma. As Indigenouspeoples affected by the same kind of trauma, we are well-aware of the ongoing, inter-generational affects that a loss of connection to our territory, ceremony and ancestrycan have. The difference is we are finding ways to recover that connection andrevitalize these critical connections.

We are awake, we are standing in defiance. (Woman of the

Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador film presenation)

Euro-Americans have no recourse for recovery, being on foreign lands, and withouthonest examination, there is little hope for healthy reintegration. The atrocities theyperpetuate will continue without that examination to the detriment of all humanity. Alsosignificant is that she traces this disassociation from an Indigenous heritage on the partof the western mind as far back as three to four thousand years ago. In an ancient

mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


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text, found in what is today Mosel, Iraq, a story tells of the violent destruction of theMother by the patriarchy. The symbolic nature of the story is apparent. For a video ofher address to the representatives of Indigenous peoples, communities and nationsgathered at Pueblo Grande on March 14, 2001, please follow these YouTube links:

Medora Woods Video Part I:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6RY_yprmaQ

Medora Woods Video Part II:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oigyBfW-ldo

Steve Newcomb who reported on the history and implications of the Doctrine, coined aphrase for the struggle to abrogate it: corrective rights. Deconstructing the Papal Bullsand their bastard children, terra nullus, the doctrine of discovery, the law of nations,manifest destiny, and nation-building, along with the devastating results of genocide,terracide, ethnicide, and environmental destruction, is an essential aspect of ushering in

a new era.

A movement without memory makes no history. (Man of theConfederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador film presentation)

The second front being defined in part by the work of Owe Aku International JusticeProject is that Indigenous peoples and our nations and communities are building newlaws and standards based on principles received from our ancient memories andpassed down through the generations by our ancestors. These are memories forgottenby the dominant culture. The result of this loss of integrated memory is that these areno longer issues that pertain only to the preservation of Indigneous cultures and

territories; they are issues threatening the existence of the human race and thepreservation of any relationship that remains with Mother Earth. To move into aconsciousness of preservation, away from one of destructive consumption, the onlyviable solution being presented is to follow the ancient lifeways of Indigenous peopleswhich are based upon the sacred inter-connection, not domination, of all our relations;land, water, air, plants, trees, animals, birds, rocks, minerals, all things animate andinanimate.

You never change things by fighting the existing reality: To changesomething, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.Buckminister Fuller

Indigenous peoples are building a new paradigm based upon our wisdom andknowledge. The existing reality must be torn down and new standards put in place.

We must go home and do something different. We must ask, what arewe doing to help the people? (Mona Polacca, Hopi/Havasupai/Tewa)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oigyBfW-ldohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6RY_yprmaQmailto:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oigyBfW-ldohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oigyBfW-ldohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6RY_yprmaQhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6RY_yprmaQ


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An example from the recent history of Indigenous peoples demonstrates how we aremaking changes and defining different realities for the world to follow. Though it maynot be a perfect document, the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous peoplesnonetheless enshrines many of the principles that Indigneous peoples use to preserveand protect our interconnection and the relationships that bind us to our communities

and territories. In terms of the existing obsolete model it is nothing more than astandard, an aspirational document for member nations of the United Nations.However, it contains the building blocks for a new paradigm. Mostly unenforceable ordisrespected by many member nations of the U.N., it nonetheless moves us into aposition to fight the existing reality.

The fact that the document was drafted with direct input from the Indigenous nationsand communities that carry within our cultures all that is necessary to create a newreality is itself a significant step forward. Indigenous peoples are also influencing thisparadigm shift within the Organization of American States through an InterAmericanDeclaration on Indigenous Rights. Other examples include the Study on Treaties,

Agreements and Other Constructive Arrangements which definitively places originaltitle in the hands of Indigneous nations and provides a framework for creating a newmodel that rejects the illegal occupation and degradation of our lands and resources.The studies on cultural heritage, the relationship between Indigenous peoples and theland, as well as an important study on our rights to our intellectual property, all definenew parameters of rights based on Indigenous cosmology. They openly dismiss thedomination perpetuated by the Western mind and its reflection in the Doctrine ofDiscovery and all that flows from it. At Owe Aku, our challenge to the world and to theUnited States, to honor our treaties, and our surety that we will again be in a position toprotect our land and peoples, is one part of the effort to create a new paradigm, a newreality.

Certainly there are obstacles, but when have we, as Indigneous peoples, failed to stepup to change the existing obsolete model? Neither we will not fail to meet thischallenge. At this critical stage in the evolution of the relationship between humanityand all our relatives of the Earth, it seems essential that we all identify the role we are toplay, as given to us in ceremony and by our communities, and step up to meet thechallenge. This was an essential component of what came out of the reunion ofIndigenous peoples of Abya Yala in Phoenix on March 13 and 14, 2011. Owe AkuInternational Justice Project is proud to have been a part o that process.



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I dont want to make recommendations, I want to make movements.

(Shannon Rivers of the Gila River Community, Oodham Nation)

Shannon Rivers words suggest that we take our recommendations, a necessary part ofthe process for collective societies, and ensure they become movements. Althoughrecommendations are words they can lead to actions and our actions are the essenceof our movements. Shannon Rivers words remind us that this is work requires constantvigilance and self-examination and discipline to ensure we move forward.

Recommendations that we have pulled from the discussions that took place in Phoenixare presented here. All of these are action items will be submitted to the NorthAmerican Indigneous Peoples Caucus Meeting held on March 18, 19, and 20, 2011 atBlue Lake, California.

1. It has been requested that an amicus brief be submitted in Tonatierras lawsuit onimmigration in U.S. District Court in Phoenix. International human rights and Indigenousrights perspectives should be utilized addressing the issues raised during thisconference, including the abrogation of the Doctrine of Discovery and the creation of anew paradigm based on Indigneous laws encapsulated in some United Nationsdocuments, studies and standards.

2. That we pursue steps through necessary Indigenous protocols, including treaties, theexchange of ideas and wisdom, and trade, to strengthen the ties along the entire lengthof our Indigenous hemisphere. This will include the need to improve communicationsthrough the imperfect process bilingual exchanges in Spanish and English.

3. The creation of thematic units (areas of interest and focus) that can be presented toyoung people in order to continue the work and recommendations that we are making.

4. Challenge the Doctrine of Discovery through the use of United States foundationaldocuments including articles 3 of the Northwest Ordinance and the Louisiana Purchaseas well as the Dakota Territorial Act (this is specifically directed at the work of Owe AkuInternational Justice Project in its efforts to create a new paradigm surroundingIndigneous treaties, i.e., enforcement and respect). (Steve Newcomb)

5. Challenge the dominant culture by posing the question, what are your originalinstructions about your existence here on Turtle Island? What is your culture of origin

and how is it respectfully expressed here on Turtle Island? (Mona Polacca, Hopi/Havasupai/Tewa)

Hecetu

Respectfully submitted,

Owe Aku International Justice Project


owe aku: challenging the doctrine of discovery

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