Kantipur Report, KATHMANDU, Aug 10 - While World Indigenous Day was being marked around the globe Wednesday, the indigenous people of Nepal have agreed on a democratic republic for bringing about reform in the country.
Thousands of indigenous people from around the country gathered in Kathmandu, took out a cultural possession along city thoroughfares and chanted the slogan “Democratic Republic, Election for Constituent Assembly and State Reforms, the desire of indigenous people.”
Reading out the 24-point Kathmandu Declaration 2006 issued by a meeting of the indigenous people, Dr. Om Gurung, general secretary of Nepal Federation of Indigenous Peoples (NEFIN), said the constituent assembly (CA) should decide the issue of whether or not to maintain a king. “CA should ensure sovereignty, freedom and the republican nature of the state,” Gurung said.
The declaration has demanded a proportional electoral system for the CA. It says that the eligible age for voting should be 16 years, …
MNN. August 7, 2006. Milton Born with a Tooth showed up at my house at 9:00 pm. last Friday. He had a very important colonial tale to tell. Milton Born With a Tooth is a Blackfoot Indigenous man from Piegan in Alberta. He went to jail for four and a half years for trying to divert the Old Man River back to its natural course in 1990. As a “Lone Fighter” he was charged with assault with a deadly weapon. The weapon was a bulldozer. In 1921 the river had been diverted to an irrigation canal for the benefit of non-native farmers in southern Alberta. The Blackfoot of Piegan did not give their consent for this diversion and had always protested it.
From August 3rd to September 7th 1990 Milton worked. He took a bulldozer and alone started to dig a ditch so that the river would return to its natural …
By Paul Choi. The Hamilton Spectator. NIAGARA FALLS (Jul 17, 2006)
More than 150 natives from across North America paraded through the Canada-U.S. border in Niagara Falls Saturday to commemorate a centuries-old treaty that enables them to freely enter either country.
But for some participants of the noon-hour parade, the event also served as a reminder of the land claim stalemate at Douglas Creek Estates in Caledonia — a 40-hectare subdivision Six Nations natives claim is theirs under treaty.
To these participants, the parade was symbolic of the struggle all natives undergo to ensure age-old treaties aren’t forgotten or superceded by modern law.
“In Caledonia, they’re reclaiming their territorial lands. Here we’re restoring our border crossing rights, so they are similar,” said Ralph Summers, a member of the Indian Defense League of America — which organized the 79th annual border crossing at the Rainbow Bridge.
“The rights we have crossing this border are the same …
The Indian Council of South America to the new UN Human Rights Council hopes that the change serves to better defend those rights as well as social and historic justice for all peoples.
That is what CISA hopes, because attempts are being made to invalidate the process launched by the representatives of the invaded peoples of the Americas and Oceania who did not benefit from the decolonisation that took place on other continents. In 1977, those representatives sought to have the United Nations recognize them as peoples and original nations with a right to self-determination, to land, territory, natural resources and to a future that includes their collective systems.
These rights were enshrined by the “Working group on indigenous peoples” in their Draft Declaration which is under attack from groups of States. One group proposes the adoption of the Text submitted by Mr. Chavez, the Chair/Rapporteur, which selects only those points he …
Mass show of support by Ontario chiefs
Cathie Coward, the Hamilton Spectator
Native protesters in Caledonia got some help yesterday, when 100 chiefs from across the province marched in support of their land claim standoff — on the 99th day of the First Nations protest.
The Hamilton Spectator CALEDONIA (Jun 8, 2006)
First Nations chiefs from across Ontario pledged their support to Caledonia protesters yesterday, and warned governments to expect more occupations if native land claims aren’t settled.
The 100 chiefs arrived at Douglas Creek Estates on the eve of today’s 100th day of the occupation.
They were bused in to provide moral support to protesters and to urge the federal and provincial governments to exercise caution.
“We are all one nation across this country,” said Grand Council Chief John Beaucage, who represents 43 First Nations across the province.
“We will show support for each other and will come to each other’s aid,” he told reporters at …
The Mdewakanton Sioux Tribe has suggested that the National Congress of American Indians should establish a headquarters in Washington DC and they have suggested an available modern building on the street where international embassies are located. An “Embassy of Tribal Nations” here might improve the national government’s recognition of tribal sovereignty; it could also provide a center for tribal leaders who come to Washington for negotiations. This idea has been floating around for thirty years, but now money seems to be available.
http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?feature=yes&id=1096412863
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - A Minnesota group is reviving the idea of having an American Indian embassy in Washington, D.C.
The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, which owns the Mystic Lake Casino, has put up $1 million in challenge grant to buy a building on Massachusetts Avenue, which is known as ”Embassy Row.” The goal is to raise $12 million to buy the building to house the National …
The following is an excerpt of the text “Warrior Societies in Contemporary Indigenous Communities” by Taiaiake Alfred, Ph.D. and Lana Lowe, M.A., written May 2005 (link to full text is below)
B. THE WARRIOR IN HISTORIC AND CONTEMPORARY CONTEXTS
Contrary to the militaristic and soldierly associations of the term in European languages – and in common usage – the words translated from indigenous languages as “warrior” generally have deep and spiritual meaning. This deeper sense is exemplified, to use one example, in the English-Kanienkeha translation, rotiskenhrakete, which literally means, “carrying the burden of peace.”
The construction of the word is an indicator of the philosophical framework for understanding the role of the warrior within traditional indigenous cultures. The word is made up of roti, connoting “he”; sken in relation to skennen, or “peace”; and hrakete, which is a suffix that combines the connotations of a burden and carrying. Many people familiar with the …
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