Decolonization: Chief Seathl's Letter, Dum Diversas, UNDRIP and DRME

There is the storyteller and poet form of "call and response". This is such a post, a collaboration of two people, one living in Lebanon, and the other Turtle Island. These are not just "stories", these posts contain educational reading FACTS, of human his-her-story, and the  results those facts have on the environment, our lifestyles, beliefs, and our relationships.

Nada Amine Awar

Environmental degradation began long time ago. It was the scientific fact that global environmentalists tried to face with no success. The environmental awareness famous slogan was and still is “think globally and act locally”.
Politicians, money tycoons and decision makers were never motivated by continuous environmental losses. They actually thought locally and even individually to act globally and make more money. Their industry polluted the soil, the water resources, the rain, the oceans, and the air. Step by step their products and supplies caused the contemporary global warming threat.

Pope Nicholas V issued the Dum Diversas papal decree on 18 June 1452 to bless colonization and slavery stating the following:
"We grant you [Kings of Spain and Portugal] by these present documents, with our Apostolic Authority, full and free permission to invade, search out, capture, and subjugate the Saracens and pagans and any other unbelievers and enemies of Christ wherever they may be, as well as their kingdoms, duchies, counties, principalities, and other property [...] and to reduce their persons into perpetual slavery.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dum_Diversas)

Religious and sectarian hierarchies who were always urging believers to wait for a savior that is sure to appear never took any environmental friendly stands. Religious feasts are becoming mere occasions to widen the markets one year after the other. Consumption of unneeded extra food, drinks, clothes, fireworks, toys, decoration items, gadgets, greeting items, Christmas trees, shoes, bags, etc…. leaves piles of garbage to be stuffed in plastic bags….

In 1855 President Franklin of what we call today The United States of America made a “request” to Chief Seathl of the Suwamish tribe of Indians to “sell” his land to the government. In reply Chief Seathl declared the wisest environmental friendly manifesto titled “Message to the modern world” which was sent to the president. Chief Seathl peacefully tried to raise the environmental awareness of “civilized” aggressive preachers, colonizers, decision makers, money seekers, and their followers with no success.

“You may think that you own God as you wish to own our land” the wise chief stated and clarified that earth can be neither owned nor traded in order for life to flourish and sustain. Extinction of species, deforestation, noise pollution, sight pollution, self harassment, greed, etc… was mentioned to declare the beginning of a new era: the beginning of survival. “Continue to contaminate your bed and you will one night suffocate in your own waste” the message clarified.
Sea level is now rising one moment after the other. This is a global fact. Is it the start of a serious flood that will lead us to reach extinction of the human race? Time is definitely going to tell.

~ Nada Amine Awar

Read Chief Seathl's letter: http://www.csun.edu/~vcpsy00h/seattle.htm

Alis~Itlatol

The Decolonize movement is in part about education. The current form of the "Colonial Construct" we are living today was born from Papal Bulls. The Colonial Construct reaches into our lives, beyond politics, broken Treaties and "business".  It was intended from it's inception, to enslave, indoctrinate and domesticate People's minds and hearts. The language was used to create belief systems built on driving a wedge between dualities, and split the inner and interconnection between mind and heart, masculine and feminine, dark and light, us and them...and on it goes in the his-her-story of willingly adopting or un-willingly imposed notions of what is "good or bad". One that has been most detrimental, is the notion that a person needs someone between themselves and the Source of All Life for them to have a relationship with this Great Mystery, which every People around the world has a name for: Massau, Gitchi Manitou, Wakan Tanka, Allah, Buddha, God...  and results in a very schizophrenic culture that can be manipulated to the extremes and for the continuation of genocide and terra-cide. Wars can be fought over Religion, yet Peace is always realized in a Spiritual Life, for there is only one language of the Source of All Life, and everyone can speak it, this language is the Beauty from the Heart.

Another example of the Colonial Construct is the demonizing or making less than, everything feminine. The demonization of the feminine includes our Mother Earth, as she was reduced to a "thing, a resource" to exploit for the Colonial Patriarchal Construct's ideas of what "civilization" is, in being made in "His image". She is in fact a Living Being. Today we are enslaved to the lifestyles, governments, ways of doing business which are threatening our ability to live as a species, and without a healthy relationship with our Mother Earth, and the Elements of Creation: Water, Earth, Air, and Fire, we will perish. We need to no longer acquiesce our cultural-spiritual sovereignty in thinking that something or someone else is going to save us or change the culture of the Colonial Construct. To continue lifestyles that are suicidal to our own lives and All Life, can only mean that the world of the Colonial Construct at it's core foundation, is not-truth. We as a species need to re-learn harmonious relations, for every "dis-ease" is a result of our relationship with Mother Earth, the feminine, and Her marriage with our Father Sun. 

The Colonial Ivory Tower of Education in the "Colonial western industrialized" world, has intensionally omitted the wisdom, knowledge, and voice of who they label as "Indigenous, First People's, Aboriginal". All People's, Red, Black, Yellow, White are "indigenous", and have roots in Universal Natural Laws. It is unfortunate that most "white" people in the United States and Canada, do not know their own colonial history well enough, to know that the Colonial Construct indoctrinated them first, and thus we have a population who forgot an original instruction which is to caregive right relationship with the Element of Fire and Father Sun and thus, exploited the Fire of the Heart of Mother Earth. However our Elders after generations of oppression and genocide, have written Declarations to speak to the Colonial Construct and re-educate our Peoples. Our Elders ask that every man, woman and child learn both UNDRIP:

United Nations Declaration of Indigenous Peoples:  http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/DRIPS_en.pdf

and the

Declaration of Rights for Mother Earth  

http://therightsofnature.org/tag/universal-declaration-for-rights-of-mother-earth/.

The voting record for countries who recognize UNDRIP can be found here. Yet remember recognition does not necessarily mean that the government-corporations are upholding and operating by UNDRIP. As you will see, the US and Canada, have voted No.  http://unbisnet.un.org:8080/ipac20/ipac.jsp?

Chief Seathl's Letter, the Dum Diversas and these Declarations are only a small portion of the not-truths, Wisdom and knowledge that is needed to be learned and understood personally and collectively. Please share and talk with your children, your family and friends...about the Colonial Construct and the Wisdom and knowledge that will help us heal. There may be times that in piercing the "veils of illusions", learning to live and integrate this wisdom/knowledge within our lives that anger, fear, and pain will surface. This is to be expected, have courage and do not turn away because Repressing = Depression.  Rather choose to recognize these emotions as opportunities to nurture and energize the compassion, love and forgiveness necessary to heal. If we do not have the truth and wisdom, we will continue to proliferate the Colonial Construct, or may repeat it again. So it is time to listen to the voices, that have gone unheard for far too long, which includes Mother Earth's and the feminine. ~ Decolonize !

With gratitude for listening,

Alis-Itlatol

America's Secret

Relatives, 

If you are from New Mexico, the "Land of Enchantment, Home of the Atomic Bomb" or anywhere from Wyoming to Arizona, the death and dying from the Nuclear-Military-Industrial-Complex is no "big secret". However what has kept it out of mainstream education, media, or public sight, is the same Colonial-corporatocracies, that have for generations dictated, indoctrinated and domesticated the American people with acts of genocide and terracide, calling it the "American Dream". 

I have a dream that one day the One Great Peace will return. Mother Earth will be given a rest and she may heal, her skin will move and transform, and even birth a New World.. and the Two-leggeds will heal from the Colonial matrix of not-truth illusions, imprinted within their hearts and minds, and become free once again. I dream of a great Ceremony of Life all over the Earth. I even dream the Two-leggeds uniting in their respective regions and rehabilitating with the eco-systems of Life in a good Way. Meanwhile back in the Now ----

Earthworks reports :"According to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, there are currently 26 proposals to start, expand or restart in situ projects in the states regulated by the commission (Wyoming, Nebraska, South Dakota, New Mexico). Of these, nine will be new operations." 

Read it here:

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/16752-americas-secret-fukushima-poisoning-the-bread-basket-of-the-world

From a Bear's perspective the Colonial corporatocracy wants ALL of Turtle Island. If they poison all the Waters of Life, there will be nothing left here for us to be able to live our Life Ways. It has never been only about the OIL Boyz….it has been about weapons of mass destruction made in the form of bombs, and nuclear energy, and now Oil's progeny named - KXL and Tarsands to be exact.  The progeny of the Colonial Construct is threatening every form of Life, including the harmonious Elements relationship with Creation: Water, Air, Earth and Fire.  If they take Turtle Island, they could then go from continent to continent as they have been, to take all that is left OR there will be a mighty storm born of Mother Earth's pain. But who are "they"…the Colonial corporatocracy would not be here without our participation, willingly or unwillingly.

I heard a man say that the Womynkind are so powerful at this time, that if she gets upset, she can cause a storm upon Mother Earth because she is made like her and her heart is inner and inter-connected to Mother Earth's Heart. What has been done to Mother Earth has also been done to Womynkind. And Mankind is so powerful that when his heart is broken because he can no longer take care, provide and protect the Womynkind without subjugation to the Colonial Construct…his mind and heart has to split apart, so he too learns and imposes domination and control. This however, is such a simplification of the Colonial Construct of reality and it's many tendrils of not-truths. I have more questions than I do answers. What are the possibilities? 

So, what would happen if Mankind and Womynkind, healed Together. I think that some of our relatives who are Winc'te may have some answers for us. I notice there are far more Womyn that are actively on websites - talking, learning, healing, taking actions, ….is it that the Mankind are out protecting Mother Earth? Are they on the front lines? Are they going out of their way to help a Womyn rise to her calling? Are Mankinds returning from war and going home to the Womynkinds and protecting Mother Earth?

SO….with

- the power of our unified 

- prayer, love, ceremony, healing and actions

- our generosity to help one another decolonize, re-learn and live 

   harmonious  Life Ways

- our courage to become self-determining and responsible

Will we feed everyone where we locally live?

I know I can not this without you.

~ BearSense

Mother Earth's Children: Splitting the Sky, Walking Strong

Mother Earth's Children: Splitting the Sky, Walking Strong

This morning I found myself during morning prayers, standing once again in the stillness between the seen and unseen, the shadow and the balance of the dark and light of the Cosmos…a tapestry laid before me of all that Is vibrantly alive. At this time of year the Ceremonies of our respective Life Ways begin, once again to bring everyone together. I remembered my brother telling me that when the Prayer is strong, the Ancestors and Helpers gather all around,…yet just beyond a juxtaposing of life force exists and will try to test one's devotion, mind-heart, faith, commitment, to realize the Prayer into reality. 

In 2012, I blogged about Obama's criminal order of insanity, and asked that other well connected journalists bring the "executive order" to the attention of our Elders, our best Indian Lawyers, to our best Environmental Organizations, and to our Medicine Societies.  Why? Because it is the blueprint that is being acted upon by the Mordor's Beast: Corporatocracy of Insanity. 

I now ask you again to read it: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/03/16/executive-order-national-defense-resources-preparedness

I ask you to listen to Democracy Now March 17th 2013, where the Military declared war on everyone and everything the Beast decides are "terrorists". http://youtu.be/pCZV3Dy43tU

Who's sons and daughters will they use as fodder for their wars, and at what price to their mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual bodies?

And who are these terrorists? If you read the Executive order, it goes as far to define a terrorist as someone who has more that 7 days of food in their home. I have been gathering, growing and preserving food my whole life.

It says that the Military can take anything, water, food, shelter, land, anything, to serve it's purposes to maintain "homeland security". 

The military can take over any and all contracts for what it needs to run it's operations: oil, uranium, WATER…anything. We see the same being implemented in Canada.

Meanwhile in the Land of Enchantment, Home of the Atomic Bomb, which has our own flavor of schizophrenia or is it Stockholm Syndrome: Pueblos make $ deals with the Beast that is poisoning all of us for miles around http://youtu.be/AyYNEbjs47c   and military tactical training goes on in our skies. To name a few goings on here,  to the east, Mora Country is preparing for legal battle with the fracking oil boyz, to the south Cannon Airforce base is being stocked with drones that are already being unleashed in Arizona, to the west Rio Tinto and the Bureau of Interior is making way to open yet another uranium mine, and the Little Colorado is to be siphoned off for the likes of Las Vegas's bright city lights, and to the north along the Colorado and NM boarder the BLM is making negotiations, and environmental studies to drill oil in the watershed because they have "ownership?" All this is going on around what has been designated as a "world heritage site and water preservation area"…..I think about the Revolt of Po'Pay.

Now I was taught in school that I was "crazy", because I was taught to love Mother Earth, that I am a daughter of the land, that we as human's are to live simple lives and not to take more than you need, nor without offering. I am ok with the label of crazy, because I know, those that label me are pathologically criminally insane predators. They know no healthy boundaries, respect no one.  

Yet we have good works, Idle No More, Owe Aku - Moccasins on the Ground, Tarsands Blocade ….we are gathering as Nations to Dismantle the lies of the Doctrine of Discovery, Manifest Destiny, and the Papal Bulls, we are making Earth Sanctuaries…we are gathering as families, Clans, Bands and Nations, around the world and so much more.  Here we are still planting the Three Sisters, and living the Prophecies for the One Great Peace as best we know how each day.

It is time now to call upon our deepest strength of love for one another. To make friends and relatives wherever we go and in whatever we do. To nourish clear minds and pure hearts. Follow where Spirit guides us to do good works. Practice generosity, for where you hoard, withhold your love, tools, funds, voice, actions, will only support the suffering. It is only in our unity, that we will make things better for our children and the future generations to come. 

I think Ceremonies are going to be really strong this year.

Other links: 

http://www.alamosanews.com/v2_news_articles.php?heading=0&page=72&story_id=29739

Pueblo revolt: Po'Pay

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pueblo_Revolt

A Good Day to Be Alive

Your truth stirs mine. 

Between meetings this week 

with the women and sisters 

in my community, 

I found my self once again 

Stalking Truth 

through the archives 

of colonial obfuscated text 

written by patriarchal men 

I in search for lingering traces 

of my matrilineal relations, 

bought and sold into slavery and servitude, 

attempting to heal and reveal 

the blood stained memories 

of who and when the She's 

who are directly related to me 

were murdered without reason...

huddled trying to hide in the tall toolies, 

or in our homes...

this is the war within, 

I ask to come to an end. 

Do not pity, romanticize or forget me. 

For I will cry 

the sweet rivers 

and salty oceans 

into existence again, 

for I am made of the Alchemy of Creation. 

In the warp and weave 

in the seen and unseen

all my relations in timeless union 

with the Dance that sets me free

to midwife prayers for Beauty Way 

and future generations

I know our Mother Earth will birth again 

for I am winyan. 

Today is a good day to be alive.

Muse's About the Colonial Construct

Yes I acknowledge my anger, the violations and grief I feel, some of it is genetic memory, this life's memory, and memory is not my now, and some of it is now. I remember an older woman who yelled at a young woman "If you do not know what to do, SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP!, LISTEN AND WATCH!" The woman who was being yelled at had not been raised traditional, and the force of the anger did make the her sit and listen. For many years I saw her do that and because she was not thrown out, she learned. But there is more to the story. The bully pulpit went to far and the young woman who was learning was followed by older woman into the kitchen where younger woman was learning how to feed the People. The older woman began to yell at the young woman in the kitchen. The caregiver of the kitchen, stopped the older woman, and explained that only prayer, song and good feelings were to be around the foods being prepared, otherwise, the People will become sick. The young woman, found love and peace in the kitchen, while she listened and learned. This example is in part what we are saying about the destruction to our Mother Earth - she provides and gives Life. Most people do not know how to live in Mother Earth's "kitchen".  I also think this is why our actions through Dance, Song and Prayer even during our resistance are so important. Understanding how to use the Obsidian Blade of Truth, and then heal and learn in a safe environment is beneficial so as not to cause more generational trauma.

I also remember a time, when a man who was not raised on the rez returned. He was in his 50's and his clan was preparing to give him Rites of Passage into manhood. A young woman went to uncle and said "Uncle he is old, I thought the Rites are for when he is younger". Uncle told her, "We always keep the door open. We do not judge what is in spirit's time. We are happy when our relatives come home, and it is our responsibility to do these things whenever that time is."  I think today that it is time for the keepers of the old patriarchal colonial paradigm to move over, sit down and shut up. And I think that for this to happen, I must stalk first what is in me to recognize the colonial construct and it's imprint upon my own mind, feelings, and ways of being. The insidiousness of the construct comes through willingly adopted (generationally internalized and taught through family) and unwillingly imposed (because of violence) imprints. It also continues through the slavery model of money. The natural instinct to survive and the colonial imprint is genderless and is seen in both males and females, and therefore there is competition.

If I do not decolonize the colonial construct internally, then I can not recognize the difference between what is happening to be merely a regime change, or something that will really lead humanity to Peace and living in balance and harmony with our Mother Earth again. So what really pisses me off right now? When ppl take anyone's words, and intellectual property for reasons of personal gain and prestige because it is done without even the minimum of acknowledgement from whence it came. So while I hear people espouse that the US constitution came from the Great Law of the Haudenosaunee, the reality of US colonialism is so far from that reality...and I have only been blessed to hear 20 minutes of their Great Law of Peace, which I was told actually takes 8 DAYS to hear it All. I know that if this were to be shared along with the totality of the Great Law's Life Ways...it would take the rest of my life and then some just to begin the journey.

Last year a Yarrabah Elder Bob, said that he believes that there are those that are willing to listen and learn today. So the question for me is with 350M ppl in the US alone: Is it better to educate and make allies, or risk http://www.democracynow.org/2013/2/5/kill_list_exposed_leaked_obama_memo....because we already know both the fast and slow genocidal actions of the Colonial world, past and current. So I think that it will take great knowing of one's self to be able to know how to teach and lead others without being corrupted in the process.

Life Ways that protect Food Sovereignty is a Birth Right.

When I talk of food sovereignty...and the rights of Mother Earth, all Peoples, and All Life...I always mention being in Guatemala in 1969 and what the resistance looked like then...it was understood by both the People and the Governor and Government of Guatemala City that there was in fact a "war" going on between those who were Indigenous to the land and the Colonized mind of progress and consumption that was and still is, ravaging the Life Ways of the People across the planet. My friends and I were asked to give a lift to some friends that needed to return to the city. We traveled unpaved mountain roads for many miles, until a few people came into our headlights. All bounded into our vehicle happily - guns and all. Me...? well there was not anything I could do except, accept that this was reality, and life and death became the sweet inhale and exhale of every breath. Later in the week, our friends invited us to go with them to the Governors Mansion Ball. 

I asked why they were going to the Ball. They explained that everyone knew who everyone was, and if the Governor was going to serve up a fiesta on the backs of the People, at the expense of the Mother and her People's Life Ways and "resources"...they were going, and they were going to sing, dance, pray and enjoy themselves. After all, if they are going to put on a big fiesta, while many People go hungry because they were removed from their homelands, it was their Right to be there. I said "well in the USA we are not allowed to go, we have to be invited and pay a lot of money to get to go, and if we do go we risk getting arrested." But they already knew that, and I knew why they were fighting as they did...because they felt alone, no one hearing them, if they were at their last stand, they would die for the Mother...and so they tried to fight might with might. Even at my virgin age, I knew the oppressive nature of the US and Corporate worldview, that had imprisoned my father for his refusal to be complicit in the government-corporate genocidal wars. My Guatemalan friends smiled, and told me that the Governments and Corporations do not own anything, they do not own Mother Earth, no matter how many contracts they sign without the People's consent, and they most certainly do not own the People.

I understood then what I understand now, one day the awakening will come to the colonized world, that we can not live without harmonious relation with our Mother Earth and each other. In the fall of 2011 a military copter hovered over the field of corn I was planting in the beautiful foothills of Northern New Mexico. I looked up into the cockpit of the copter as it's blade-wind blew all around me, at the two soldiers looking back at me, and then turned again to my planting. I knew that the awakening was no longer a vision somewhere distant upon the horizon....

There was a time growing up that the food that was collectively planted and wild-crafted in our village, or by collective families, was enough to sustain us from one harvest until the next harvest. It was understood what our collective gifts from the Mother were: water, field crops, mountain wild foods, wild game, and preservation practices...and these were all shared equally amongst us. All this, is still active knowledge in our community...yet, there are more mouths than what we currently produce agriculturally...in other words there are fewer people actively producing and gathering foods, than the number of mouths to feed.

So what happens when the con-ag truck does not come? We have a choice today in how we will choose to collaborate with each other. Life Ways that protect Food Sovereignty is a Birth Right. Idle No More!

Secretary Salazar visits Taos: Rio Grande del Norte Proposal to Become a Historical Preservation Site

I look out upon the fresh new snow, grateful for what moisture in any form tungashila blesses us with. I am contemplating what I heard or read about today. A morning prayer ceremony for our youth who are troubled and/or have taken their lives at the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge... and then the Sec. of Interior Ken Salazar, Congressman Ben Lujan, et. all presentation, which included hearing from Taos Pueblo Governor Laureano Romero and Lt. Governor Gilbert Suazo Sr. and all our villages about the proposal to make the Rio Grande del Norte a historical preservation site....Secretary Salazar began the presentation with a comment about how proud he is about gas and oil development in New Mexico. He ended the presentation with a statement "Let me make this understood, this designation will in no way infringe upon or take away grazing rights, right to fire wood, plants or fish and game. It will not take away your right to live as you have been." Hmmm, I should be happy right? I should put my skepticism away right? Was everyone in favor of the designation? Yes. Have I read the designation? No. Do I trust Roberta Salazar of Rivers and Birds when she says this is a good thing? Yes.
Yet I still muse....

I asked Ben Ray Lujan how this would help protect our Rights, when Harper is in the process of breaking Indigenous Treaty Rights, and the US Government has no better record...he said he did not know what was happening in Canada, but would certainly look into it, and was in support of Indigenous Rights.

The questions that went un-answered that many of us had:

"Will this designation help us heal our youth, preserve our language, Life Ways, and Cultures...our Right to Live with our Mother as we have for thousands of years? Our Right to clean Water, Earth and Air?...Our Right to have the heavy metal contaminated Red River (that flows into the Rio Grande) super fund site in Questa cleaned up? Our Right NOT to have our skies taken over by the military for tactical war training & re-fueling by air contamination? Our Right to have the nuclear waste at area G at LANL cleaned up, that for decades has been contaminating the Rio Grande and the Pueblo waters south of us? Our Right to have all Uranium mines closed? Will it protect us from the Oil boys fracking on the other side of the mountain, or stop the XL-Pipeline crossing the Oglala aquifer which are waters of life that interconnect the Comanche, Cheyenne, Lakota, Indio-Hispanic and all Peoples of this region?....Will this designation insure that the Cycle of Water is protected in the way it feeds our aquifers, and springs?" 

No, this is just a proposed "designation"...it is, and will continue to be, UP TO US, to protect our Waters of Life. Regardless if we get the designation of the Rio Grande del Norte as a historical preservation site...we la gente, have been and will continue to protect her. History and current events tell us, that despite treaties, "designations", laws, etc...our politicians have NOT protected our Life Ways, our Earth, Water and Air...and in fact abused the element of Fire.

So, I am thinking about the call to the One Humanity that has agreed to this 2012 galactic party, even though my Elders told me 15-18 years ago that the date was irrelevant..."you are aware and conscious or you are not"...

So if you have agreed to show up for this global-galactic prayer...remember there are many that have been doing their best each day to maintain their Life Ways, the Ceremonies and Prayers for generations...and that we will retreat no more...the Prayer IS IN MOTION....we are Idle No More.....and it will take all of us, everyday, in whatever Ways we are called,  to do something for the greater good of All Life, for the generations to come.

I think that the most concerning thing I see is that our People's are not able to produce enough food, gather enough herbs, berries and nuts, ask for fish, deer, or elk, to sustain all the people who now live here locally. This is a fact, not fiction. Ultimately this 2012 "shift" is not only about "Being Love and Living Love and Light" it is about lifestyle changes. Food, Way of Life (language and culture) and mental health are also at the foundation of a healthy culture... Is it time for you to become dedicated to learning how to live with Mother Earth and Father Sky? Grandmother is building a Seed-Sanctuary for the preservation of our seed, organizations are implementing urban gardens, a local school built a green house, local and regional Curanderas are teaching as many as possible about good diet and healing herbs....yet there is much, much, more to be done. Please do not ever leave the preservation of the Water of Life to politics. And, if we do get this designation, let us use it to strengthen and unify about the aforementioned concerns in our region. ~ April Mondragon