Purpose: Goals and Objectives

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Huehuecoyotl
Amixpantzinco, Amixtlamatque

Tupac Enrique Acosta, Huehuecoyotl

Yaotachcauh Tlahtokan Nahuacalli

Izkaloteka

March 23, 2012

 Cualli Tlanezi!

Good morning and good greetings to all.

This morning I have been asked to share a brief message regarding the purpose and objectives of this Indigenous Peoples Forum on the Impact of the Doctrine of Discovery.

First of all may I express my own personal gratitude to each of you for being present here today, and at the same time and with the same breath may I also express my thankfulness and give honor to the spirit of our ancestors and relatives who battled centuries of genocide and oppression in order to give us this opportunity today. 

Purpose

Today we stand as Nations and Pueblos of Indigenous Peoples in regeneration of the role and responsibility that we share with all living beings to protect the sacredness of the Natural World and the spirit of life itself.  Today we stand in the face of challenges that extend from our own families and local community on to the regional territory, from continental scale to global magnitude: We face now challenges that are unparalleled in all of human history.  We face the tipping point of global climate chaos.  And in this "we" there is no "they".

Until the adoption on September 13, 2007 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples - the Indigenous Peoples of Mother Earth were treated as road kill on the highway of human civilization.  Our nations, our territories, our flesh and blood, our labor and our natural resources were treated as raw material to be expropriated and exploited without any just consideration for our Human Rights, or the Rights of Mother Earth.

Within the international law of the government states of the world order known as the UN system, our collective legal personality and cultural identity, with corresponding inherent Human Rights and Territorial Rights as Nations of Indigenous Peoples were not acknowledged, nor respected.  Within the UN system we only existed as populations and not peoples, minority groups and not nations.  We were regarded as cultural relics.  Denial, discrimination, and invisibility were the coins of the realm that were tossed our way in spite of the fact that we continue to be the most ancient of human societies: we are the roots of humanity itself at the planetary level.  Even our treaties with the governments states, which provide unequivocal evidence and testimony to our nationhood and rights of sovereignty have been subverted and domesticated like cognitive chattel under the justifications of the Marshall Trilogy, there to rot and decay into the oblivion of human conscience that is the Doctrine of Discovery.

On September 13, 2007 this reality crumbled, and a new yet ancient truth came once again to light.  We as Indigenous Peoples are equal to all other Peoples.  As such we freely determine our own future, and in exercising the Right of Self Determination as Peoples of the world, equal to all other peoples, we also possess the right to our memory, to our past: to our history.

What does this new context for the UN system mean in terms of the Doctrine of Discovery? What does it mean in terms of the continental systems of jurisprudence that derive from the Doctrine of Discovery? What does is mean in terms of policy and legislation for the United States, as a member of the world community? What does it mean for Arizona?  What impact will this forum have on the discussion to be had at the 11^th Session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in May of this year when the Impact of the Doctrine of Discovery is to be an agenda item for discussion?

Goal 

Whatever the answers to these questions that may come forward as of today, in response to the presentations to be given here at the Indigenous Peoples Forum on the Doctrine of Discovery hosted by the Native American Caucus of the Arizona State legislature and presided by the O’Otham Hemuchkam of the Ves O’otham Ha Jeved, may we suggest that what we have before us is not simply a set of questions, but the actualization of a new systemic standard to address these issues in terms of a context and process that is an initiative of We, the Indigenous Peoples: Tehan Titlacah.

Today is a day of emergence.  Today we intend to break out of the constraints not only of the Doctrine of Discovery, but of doctrine itself with the call to courage to all humanity.

We call for the courage that is necessary in order to vision a New Horizon for Mother Earth as she is reborn from the Seas of Emergence.  The millennial journey of the Nations and Pueblos of Indigenous Peoples, guardians of Mother Earth begins once again here today, guided in our quest by the spirit of Self Determination and Community Sustainability.

We look back now across the generation of our ancestors, and we look forward to the path of the future generations and Here-Now (Nican Tlacah) set our sights.  We direct our leadership to engage with All of our Relations of this Sacred Mother Earth to let our path of Self Determination to be known.  Let it be told, let it be respected and and let it be protected.  It is not about what we want, it is what we WILL.

As Indigenous Peoples we are Peoples, equal to all other peoples, and our histories are equally part of the weave of Human Memory globally, and as such must be taken into account on an equal basis to provide the necessary foundation for public policies of fairness and justice, in education and the delivery of services of public health and public safety by the states.

We call for this process to continue and prevail in the Spirit of Truth over the distortions of doctrine, not for merely for the purpose of redress of past violations but to actually engage in collective corrective action in order to move forward with Self Determination towards our common destiny as Humanity and in maturity as Children of the Nations and Pueblos of Mother Earth.

Objective

Therefore, we direct that the record of this Indigenous Peoples Forum on the Doctrine of Discovery be presented to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues for consideration in their discussion on this theme at the 11^th Session in UN Headquarters in New York in May of 2012 and to the entire conscience of the world.

May we begin.

Ayoh.

In Imiuh Tenamaxtle:

Communiqué to Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction J. Huppenthal

Nahuacalli Educators Alliance 
In Imiuh Tenamaxtle

Therefore, we as Nican Tlacah, Indigenous Peoples of Anahuac who reside in the territories of the O’otham Nations also known as the State of Arizona now present the following demands and recommendations in pursuit of realizing the intent of this letter:

In light of the fact that there is absolutely NO REFERENCE in the current Arizona State Curriculum Standards for a track of study on the relevance of the Doctrine of Discovery in terms of Social Studies, History or Public Policy:

We demand that the Preliminary Study on the Doctrine of Discovery, submitted to the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues be integrated into the Social Studies Curriculum standards immediately for implementation across the spectrum of services delivered by the Arizona Department of Education at all levels across the state with no exceptions.

We recommend that the State of Arizona:

•  Promote and advocate for the continued development of appreciation, knowledge and understanding of the Cultural Diversity of all Arizona residents by supporting educational programs that contribute to this goal;

• Reinforce programs of Cultural Competency to meet this goal, as a legal obligation binding the State of Arizona in terms of Civil Rights, Human Rights, and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; 

• Promote and advocate for the implementation of a state wide Indigenous Peoples Studies curriculum, that addresses the ignorance and lack of historical perspective in the general public related to outdated public policies that are grounded in the concepts of racial profiling and illegal preferences to constituencies of European-American “white persons” such as “Manifest Destiny”;

 

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