To the Secretariat of the Continental Indigenous Summit

Mar de Plata, Argentina  November 2, 2005

The Legend of Truth and the Doctrines of Power

 

MAY IT BE KNOWN:

 

Amixpanzinco, Amixtlamatqueh,

 

Good greetings.  We take this opportunity to deliver the attached documentation regarding the agenda of responsibilities which are of priority to the Indigenous Nation Pueblos gathered in Summit in Mar de Plata, Argentina November 1-4, 2005.

 

We stood by the Sacred Fire in Quito, Ecuador in 1990 at the First Continental Encounter of Indigenous Pueblos and Nations and recall the mutual commitments made under the principles embodied under our ancient ethics of International Indigenous Law. These are the traditional systems of jurisprudence, of tradition and liberation, which emerge from the essential fundamentals of the sacred inter-relationship of all life, and the obligations of we who are the earth children of the Continental Confederation of the Eagle and the Condor.

 

We were at the Second Continental Encounter of Indigenous Nations and Pueblos in 1993 in Temoaya, Mexico and returned to Teotihuacan, Mexico in the year 2000 for the First Continental Summit of Indigenous Nations, Pueblos and Organizations convened by the Continental Council of Indigenous Nations and Organizations - CONIC. From July 21-25, 2004 we attended the II Continental Summit Abya Yala in Quito, Ecuador where the accords of the previous First Continental Summit of Teotihuacan 2000 were once again validated and reasserted before the Sacred Fire of the altar of the Continent. These mutual commitments are given expression by the Treaty of Teotihuacan, a mutual commitment at the continental level among the Indigenous Nation Pueblos with four aspects:

 

Spiritual Alliance

Political Solidarity

Cultural Understanding

Commercial and Economic Agreements of Exchange and Development - Pochtecayotl

 

And so we stand today once again among our relatives of the great and humble family of Indigenous Nation Pueblos of our mother continent Abya Yala in summit at Mar de Plata.  May the Creator continue to guide our footsteps, as we leave a trail for the future generations.

 

The previous assertion of the sequence of continental gatherings from Quito 1990, Temoaya 1993, Teotihuacan 2000, back to Quito in 2004 and now Mar de Plata is not meant to be controversial: it is history. It is our history, related not from within the manipulative context of the government states or the "compra-cumbres" crowd: it is our story, the legend of a continent emerging from centuries of genocide and colonization.

 

In fulfillment of these sacred obligations and the mutual commitments made under the Treaty of Teotihuacan at the First Continental Indigenous Summit of Indigenous Nations and Pueblos, we now submit the following for discussion and action before the Continental Indigenous Summit Mar de Plata, Argentina.

 

 

Issue: Self Determination and Decolonization

 

A basic issue for the Indigenous Nation Pueblos of the continent Abya Yala (the Americas) continues to be the discrepancy of the eventual outcome of self determination for the Indigenous Peoples as viewed from the perspective of the interests of the government states and from within the cultural based cosmovision of the Nican Tlacah, the Indigenous Peoples themselves.

 

The elemental issues derive from utterly divergent presentations of the relationship of human society to territory, individually and collectively, as either government states or the reality of the Nican Tlacah Indigenous Peoples and Nations. The jurisdiction of the states is one of dominion and colonization, that of the Nican Tlacah is one of inter-relationship and reciprocity. As evidenced by the Global Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA), recently commissioned and completed by the United Nations, the reality of the Indigenous Peoples relationship of territoriality is increasingly recognized scientifically at a global level as being the best hope for humanity to achieve homeostasis within the environment of the world’s ecosystems.

 

Any political position on self determination, whether by the government states or the Nican Tlacah will inevitably be determined within the context of the sum of global ecological systems as sets of parameters, including humanity itself as a subsystem among all these relationships.

 

In terms of the continent Abya Yala, (the Americas) a centuries old Doctrine of Denial takes its place among a regime of genocidal policies that is centuries in the making and continues till today. Beginning with the Papal Bull Inter Cetera of 1493, continuing with the present militarily enforced Monroe Doctrine and now projected under the Free Trade Area of the Americas, the Doctrine of Denial is insidious for presenting to the world’s Peoples a denial of the very processes of history in terms of recognition and self determination for the Indigenous Nation Pueblos of our continent.

 

In view of the above, we now propose that:

 

A special session of the Decolonization Committee of the United Nations under section 73(e) of the United Nations Charter must be held in order to evaluate the above mentioned Doctrines of Power in light of the Spirit of Truth, and under the criteria of evaluation established by United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1514 "Right of Self Determination" and GA 1541 which outlines the processes and criteria for identifying and rectifying the crime of colonization under the norms of international law of the member states of the United Nations system.

 

An finally, we propose that in the process of undertaking such an initiative, namely the implementation of the processes of DECOLONIZATION for the Indigenous Nation Pueblos and territories of our continent Abya Yala, without which any declaration of self determination would be of only limited rhetorical value in the practical sense of International Law, special attention be given to the establishment by the United Nations of the regional organization of the Organization of American States OAS itself, as yet another example of the usurpation and violation of the Right of Self Determination in our hemisphere by establishing yet another regime of political representation on our territories in our continent without our participation or consent and in violation of GA 1514, as evidenced under GA 1541.

 

 

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Tlahtokan Nahuacalli

Izkalotlan, Aztlan

 

 

NAHUACALLI
Embassy of the Indigenous Peoples
c/o TONATIERRA
Tel: (602) 254-5230 

P.O. Box 24009     Phoenix, AZ  85074
Email: chantlaca@aol.com
www.tonatierra.org