Owe Aku work at the International Level:

-United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues 2005

-the Chiapas Media Project 2005

-Tribal Leaders Meet with President Evo Morales 2006

-"Live Up to Your Obligations" Letter to President Bush from Oglala Sioux Tribal President Alex White Plume 2006

Seventh Generation Fund, American Indian Law Alliance, Owe Aku at the U.N. NYC (May 2005) PFII

United Nations

Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues

Fourth Session:  May 19, 2005

Statement by Alex White Plume, Owe Aku, Bring Back the Way,

Oglala Band of the Lakota Nation,

Seven Council Fires (Great Sioux Nation)

Agenda Item #2, Millennium Development Goals, Education

            Thank you, Madame Chairperson, for giving me the floor.  I am here representing the Owe Aku Tiospaye of the Oglala Lakota Oyate and my name is Alex White Plume.  This is the first time I have ever taken the floor at the United Nations so it is good to be here with so many allies and brothers and sisters supporting my words.

            For many years I have known of our nation’s work at the United Nations and I honor those who have been here before me: Milo Yellow Hair, Joe American Horse, Mel Lone Hill, Garfield Grass Rope, and of course, Tony Black Feather.  Our elders sent us to the United Nations because we honor the values set forth in the Charter and the Universal Declaration on Human Rights.  We believe that a time is coming when the ways of Indigenous peoples and the principles we stand for, that are consistent with the values of the United Nations, will be able to show the world in a better way.  It is a way in which the values of education and the elimination of poverty are not solely measured in material wealth but in the value of cultural, ecological and human diversity.

            Teaching our non-Indigenous brothers and sisters in the United Nations about this way is also part of our responsibility and our contribution to this process.  For this reason, when we speak at the United Nations, it is important to say a little about who we are and not simply provide a list of recommendations.

            In talking about Indigenous peoples, you must understand by now that land and the environment are indivisible from our way of life.  Education and the elimination of poverty cannot happen without the land and resources of which we are a part.  In trying to constantly take these things away from us, we are poor because they have made us poor.  We are therefore suspicious when outsiders talk about development and eradicating poverty.

            Our sovereignty over our territory, which is about being a part of the entire fabric of the land, is the key to the elimination of poverty and the reestablishment of an educational way that preserves a good mind and a good spirit for everything.

            In providing our peoples with education, we are also given a double edged sword. Education, in the way of the colonizer, has meant disruption and dislocation of our families.  We are taught ways that are foreign to our spirit and that do not recognize our relationship with all things.

            Regaining our pure spirit must include a process of decolonization of our minds to heal the historical grief and trauma that we have lived with for generations.  In many of our communities it is this trauma that has hindered us more than poverty or any lack of education.

            Therefore an attitude adjustment is also needed with the UN agencies and bodies in order to understand that the Indigenous concept of poverty and education may be different from that of the Western world.  Poverty is not merely the absence of money.  We all need to be mindful of an Indigenous standard that sees poverty as the absence of culture, language, and the right to care for our land and environment in a respectful way, according to our original instructions.

            On our own land, on the Western plains of North America, we have put together a means to support our community by growing industrial hemp.  Industrial hemp is not a drug.  It is an efficient and environmentally sound way of ending the alarming destruction of the world’s forests for many different uses.  Yet, on my own land, my family faces the arbitrary and illegal destruction of our crop by the Drug Enforcement Administration of the United States.  My younger brother and I are facing two life sentences for our attempts to provide an alternative to the destruction of the forests and give our community a means to support itself.

            Without our cultures, and especially our languages, then we are truly poor.  Responses to  poverty and educational programs that are shaped without acknowledging the critical importance of land are of little use to us.  But, with our land and resources intact, our language flourishing, and our ceremonies taking place, in our view, we are wealthy.

            The Owe Aku Tiospaye has had experience with all these issues and we have developed a response within our own extended family.  From this experience, we humbly make the following recommendations to the Permanent Forum:

1.      It has been said innumerable times.  However, adopting the Declaration on the Rights of the World’s Indigenous Peoples with respect for our sovereignty over lands and resources, as well as our cultures, is perhaps the single more critical step of our generation in preserving and enhancing the life ways of Indigenous peoples.  This Forum, UN agencies, the individual members and all of us here, must do everything in our power to have the original intent and spirit of that document enshrined as a Declaration of the United Nations.  In the upcoming process at the working Group, recently approved by the Commission, we think it would be helpful if an Indigenous person were selected to co-chair the meeting in order to continue the progress that is being made.  This Forum could make that recommendation through ECOSOC.

2.      Along with Passage of the Declaration is the equally important revocation of the 15^th Century Papal Bulls.  These ancient documents which gave rise to the Law of Nations continue to oppress our peoples worldwide and permit the continuance of a prejudicial and unequal application of international law.  We held a panel this week on this issue and are submitting, along with this intervention, a paper by our brother Steve Newcomb,.  We would urge the Forum to take steps to begin a process of revocation directly through the Vatican.

3.      The discriminatory and prejudicial divisions between North and South with respect to Indigenous peoples must be ended.  Divide and conquer is an old way and it is time to put a stop to it.  Currently, because we are colonized by a wealthy country instead of by a “developing” nation, we do not have access to technical assistance and/or support from UN agencies.  This unfair division does not consider the facts that Indigenous peoples all over the world, no matter where are territories are located, are faced with the same devastating statistics on health, education, hunger, etc., etc.  The Forum should make the eradication of this type of discrimination its goals.  Its mandate is to work with the UN agencies and changing this policy could be a lasting legacy of the current Forum members.

4.      Through UNDP, UNEP and UNICEF, as well as other relevant agencies, priority should be given to funding programs by and for Indigenous peoples that deal with the effects of genocide and historical grief and trauma.  Programs and processes that address culturally sensitive education and the eradication of poverty will be unsuccessful until the ravages of genocide and colonization are addressed.  Our own people have learned effective ways of dealing with this issue in our communities and these programs should be supported by the United Nations as a part of the overall healing sought in the Millennium Goals.

            Distinguished members of the Forum, representatives of nation states and NGO’s, brothers and sisters: Thank you for listening to me.  Pila miya yelo.  Hecetuyelo.

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United Nations

Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues

Fourth Session:  May 17, 2005

Agenda Item #1: Millennium Development Goal #1

Eradication of Extreme Poverty and Hunger

Protection of Water

            Thank you Madam Chair, for the opportunity of addressing the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.  I am Tia Oros Peters from the Seventh Generation Fund, which is an Indigenous people’s organization working directly with grassroots Native communities designing and implementing strategies for sovereignty, human rights, environmental justice, cultural revitalization, and sacred sites protection for Indigenous Nations, submits this Intervention with the Zuni-Pueblo Tribal Council, American Indian Law Alliance, Tonatierra, Maya Vision, Owe Aku, Centre for Organisation Research and Education, South Asia solidarity for Rivers and Peoples, and Indigenous Network on Economics and Trade.

            We are here today because the water wars have begun on Indigenous territories.  The onslaught of governmental and commercial exploitation and commodification of water, which is the sacred essence of all life, has direct and tremendously destructive impacts on Indigenous peoples and further impoverishes our already vulnerable, besieged communities.  Precious watersheds that give birth to our lakes and springs and enable life in our communities are under attack by extractive industries, among others.  Privatization of water and other resources places them in the control of multi-national corporations, short-sighted governmental development policies, the unrelenting encroachment by non-Indigenous settlements, and other assaults on our communities, forcing us into poverty and pushing us further to the edge of existence.  Polluted by toxins, dammed and diverted, the vital rivers and streams which nurture us and have assured our survival since the beginning of time are being killed by insatiable greed.

            Indigenous peoples have never considered water as a commodity, but as a sacred source of life.  Commodification of water obstructs critically needed access to our water and threatens the survival of our peoples and continuity of our distinct cultures.  Madame Chair, as Indigenous peoples continue fighting in this battlefield for our rights to water, we are in fact, dying of thirst, for healthy, accessible water.  Although North America is widely assumed to be a region of universal affluence, there are countless underlying pockets of extreme poverty and hunger among thousands of Indigenous peoples who have no meaningful system of protection against the exploitation of our resources.

            Tens of thousands of Indigenous Peoples in North America suffer extreme poverty and hunger. And millions more in the far reaches of the Indigenous world, including the critical situation for the roughly 30 million Indigenous peoples of 250 different tribal communities of the Prahmaputra Barak Valleys of the North East region of India.

Recommendations:

1. Our first, urgent recommendation to the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues is to request the immediate appointment of a United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Protection of Water to gather testimony directly from Indigenous communities of the world impacted by or targeted for the water privatization, diversion, toxic contamination, pollution, commodification and other environmental injustices that damage natural and potable water supplies on which Indigenous peoples rely for spiritual and nutritional sustenance.  The Rapporteur should critically review and assess water allocation and access policies and regulations that affect the rights of Indigenous communities, the health of our peoples and future generations.  Such testimony can inform the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in developing its recommendations to ECOSOC (Economic and Social Council of the UN).  This should be done with a view to identifying protective and preventive mechanisms to restore our waters as well as repair our diverse ecosystems that rely on the health of natural water flows.
2. We call upon the Permanent Forum to advocate for full access in order to actively engage with the upcoming World Water Forum in Mexico City in 2006, to assure the full participation of Indigenous peoples, the inclusion of our rights to and perspectives on water in that conference.
3. Finally, Madame Chair, we further recommend that the Permanent Forum take immediate steps in the Commission on Sustainable Development to protect water from privatization, and from bi-lateral and multi-lateral governmental agreements and other incursions that affect the integrity of our waters, in the impoverishment of our communities, and impose additional hardships on our peoples, particularly on Indigenous women.

      In closing, we are thirsty and now we drink water laced with polychlorinated biphenyls (pcb’s) and cyanide not out of choice, but because we are thirsty and a polluted stream is our only source of water. We no longer plant our gardens, not because we are lazy or have forgotten how to nourish life from a seed, but because without access to water, our crops will not flourish, and we cannot thrive without them.  Children eat fish contaminated with mercury poisoning not because we want to harm their health, but because they are hungry and fish is a staple food for many of our communities.  And some of us have no fish at all.

      Water is not merely a need for us.  It is a right.  Governments, corporations, missionaries, and other invaders on our lands have declared a water war against us.  Our children, those generations yet to be born, and all of our relations, are the ultimate casualties of this conflict.

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October 6, 2005

Indigenous Peoples Struggle: Chiapas Media Project Comes to Indian Country

Manderson, SD:  The Chiapas Media Project provides video equipment, computers and training to Indigenous and campesino communities in southern Mexico.  The resulting videos offer a unique, firsthand perspective on the lives and struggles of these communities in Chiapas and Guerro, Mexico.

Owe Aku, Bring Back the Way, a grassroots Lakota organization on the Pine Ridge Reservation in southwestern South Dakota is hosting the Chiapas Media Project during their tour in Indian Country October 8 through the 15, 2005.

“It is important for Indigenous Peoples to work together, to establish and maintain a collaborative relationship because we share the same living conditions in the Western Hemisphere: extreme poverty, poor health, control by outside regulations/laws, short life-spans, high infant mortality rates, disastrously high suicide rates, homicide rates, and cultural deprivation through the desecration of our Sacred Sites and Treaty Rights, and the many other social problems associated with living in an oppressed society,” says Debra White Plume, Director of Owe Aku.  “Perhaps we can learn from each other how to not only survive these conditions, but somehow to overcome the enormous struggle to protect what is left of our future.  As Indigenous peoples, we are all connected to the Earth, which is being destroyed at a frighteningly rapid rate.  We need Mother Earth and our Sacred Sites to be Lakota People.  We struggle to preserve and revitalize our way of life, this necessarily includes the environment and natural ecosystems.  In the sacred Black Hills, destruction unfolds daily.  This hurts us as a people and a Nation, and we need to work to stop this destruction.  It is a hard battle because our people are not rich people.  This is why we need to create allies all across the Earth to help us in our process of protecting our future.  We can learn from the Chiapas Media Project how they are working to survive as Indigenous Peoples.  They can learn from us how we work to keep intact a distinct identity as a sovereign people inside the boundaries of America.  We are all working to protect the Human Rights of our peoples.  Working together can strengthen our efforts. Anyone interested in social justice could come to these presentations to learn more about it, make new friends and allies, and engage in a dialogue that may be life-changing, this is not limited to Indigenous Peoples.  It is for everyone who cares about human life, peace, and working collectively to create social change.”

The Chiapas Media Project will provide a presentation at the Rapid City Public Library in the Hoyt Room from 3 to 5 pm on October 10, 2005; and during a live radio program on KILI Radio on October 11 from 9 to 10 am on the Bring Back the Way Hour.  There will be a presentation at Piya Wiconi, Oglala Lakota College from 1 to 3 pm.  All people are welcome to attend free of charge and to hear first hand how international law such as the North American Free Trade Agreement has impacted these small farming villages in Mexico: economically, socially, and culturally.  Other topics will be discussed, and be question/answer dialogue.   

The Chiapas Media Project will have videos available for purchase at these presentations. For more information call Debra White Plume at 605-455-2155 or Vic Camp at 605-455-1122. 

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more information please contact:
Kent Lebsock

Bolivian Indigenous President to Meet with North American Native American Leaders

The President of Bolivia, an Aymara Indian elected to his country’s highest office in December 2005, will meet with American Indian Leaders on Monday, September 28, 2006. The President, along with his country’s Foreign Minister, David Choquehuanca, (also Aymara), is in New York City for the opening of this year’s General Assembly at the United Nations.

The meeting is being hosted by the Secretariat of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues of the United Nations and the American Indian Law Alliance, an Indigenous peoples’ non-governmental organization working with offices in New York City. Alex Contreras, President Morales Press Secretary, stated that “the meeting was set up at the request of Mr. Morales and seeks to initiate a substantive exchange between Indigenous leaders from the North and the South to discuss the issues shared by Native peoples of the Western Hemisphere.” Kent Lebsock, the Executive Director of the American Indian Law Alliance, added “the election of President Morales is an historic event for all Indian peoples. For him to honor us by meeting with our traditional Native American leaders is another step in the undeniable presence of Indigenous peoples in international advocacy, especially human rights.”

President Morales’ office had specifically requested a small meeting in order to ensure that substantive, frank discussions could occur. Participants look forward to this being the first of more meetings designed to improve the dialogue between the Bolivian government and American Indian nations and First Nations of Canada. Issues to be discussed include lands, resources and the revitalization of traditional Indigenous processes in government, conservation and environmental management.

The meeting comes at the beginning of the General Assembly session. It is expected that the United Nations will take up the issue of the Declaration on the Rights of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. For over 20 years, Indigenous peoples from around the world have worked with human rights experts to develop this international human rights instrument. Finally, having made it’s way to the General Assembly, it is being supported by many United Nations’ member states and Indigenous nations, organizations and communities around the world. However, it is also facing strong opposition from the United States, Canada, and Australia. The meeting between Morales and North American Indian leaders will also focus on ensuring the passage of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Haudenosaunee, Lakota and Cree nations will participate along with urban Native Americans from New York City. The opening ceremony will be by Sid Hill, Tadodaho of the Haudenosaunee (Six Nations, Iroquois Confederacy) from Onondaga in upstate New York. Oren Lyons, also from Onondaga; Alex White Plume, tribal chairman and a traditional leader of the Oglala Sioux Nation; along with Willie Littlechild and Rick Lightning (Ermineskin Cree Nation), John Bull (Louis Bull Cree Nation), and Raymond Cutknife (Samson Cree Nation), will also participate. Local leadership includes Tonya Gonnella Frichner a citizen of the Onondaga Nation and the meeting’s moderator, Roberto Borrero, Taino, and Esmeralda Brown, a long time United Nations advocate for Indigenous rights.

Letter from Alex White Plume, President of Oglala Sioux Tribe to George W. Bush.

Live up to your obligations

Posted: August 31, 2006
by: Alex White Plume / Guest Columnist
http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096413572