Urgent: Homeland Security preparing to seize Apache lands

March 2. 2008: Please note, there have been several updates posted in the comments since this article was initially posted. See the bottom of this post for an overview (includes petitions, media, and contact info)

Margo Tamez recently sent out the following urgent call for support, explaining that since July, her Mother and Elders of el Calaboz, Texas, have been the targets of numerous threats and harassments by the Border Patrol, Army Corps of Engineers, NSA, and the U.S. related to the proposed building of a fence on their levee.

The NSA, for one, has been specifically demanding that Elders give up their lands for the levee--telling them that they will have to travel a distance of 3 miles to go through checkpoints, to walk, recreate, and to farm and herd goats and cattle ON THEIR OWN LANDS.

Margo's mother just informed her that since last Monday the Army Corps of Engineers, Border Patrol and National Security Agency teams have been tracking down and enclosing upon the people; telling them that they have no choice: "the wall is going on these lands whether you like it or not, and you have to sell your land to the U.S."

Margo asks that you Please help the elders and indigenous women land title holders resist forced occupation in their own lands! As a start, you can do so by sharing this information to your friends and networks. (more to follow.)

If you would like to contact Margo for more information, you can email her at mtamez@wsu.edu

URGENT! From: Margo Tamez
Subject: URGENT! el Calaboz, Lipan Apache Land Title Holders Threatened by National Guard and Border Patrol in last 72 Hours

Hello friends,
I am informing you of recent events in my maternal community of el Calaboz, Texas, a binational land grant indigenous rancheria of Lipan Apache, Chiricahua and Basque descent.

I am foregrounding this because I have been asked to submit documentation through the NGO, the International Indigenous Treaty Council, for the CERD investigation of human rights and indigenous rights abuses by the U.S. government against my mother community.

The Committee on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) report to be directed toward the United Nation in March 2008, which will for the first time in over a decade focus on abuses by the United States to oppressed groups.
This year, as a result of the recently approved UN Declaration of Indigenous Peoples rights, indigenous people have a specific opportunity to submit documents on behalf of their communities.

I'll be working hard the next week to complete a draft document, with evidentiary materials, for review by an international human rights and indigenous rights attorney who recently accompanied me on an investigatory field trip to my paternal community, Redford, TX, of the Jumano Apache.

I wanted to keep you informed of this progress, and through this following letter, establish a way to communicate what I'm doing and how it impacts all my work. See the earlier letter below.

Ahi'i'e
Margo Tamez

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Subject: Emergency in el Calaboz, Lipan Apache & Basque-Indigena North American Land Title Holders!!!

Dear relatives,
I wish I was writing under better circumstances, but I must be fast and direct.

My mother and elders of El Calaboz, since July have been the targets of numerous threats and harassments by the Border Patrol, Army Corps of Engineers, NSA, and the U.S. related to the proposed building of a fence on their levee.

Since July, they have been the targets of numerous telephone calls, unexpected and uninvited visits on their lands, informing them that they will have to relinquish parts of their land grant holdings to the border fence buildup. The NSA demands that elders give up their lands to build the levee, and further, that they travel a distance of 3 miles, to go through checkpoints, to walk, recreate, and to farm and herd goats and cattle, ON THEIR OWN LANDS.

This threat against indigenous people, life ways and lands has been very very serious and stress inducing to local leaders, such as Dr. Eloisa Garcia Tamez, who has been in isolation from the larger indigenous rights community due to the invisibility of indigenous people of South Texas and Northern Tamaulipas to the larger social justice conversation regarding the border issues.
However recent events, of the last 5 days cause us to feel that we are in urgent need of immediate human rights observers in the area, deployed by all who can help as soon as possible--immediate relief.

My mother informed me, as I got back into cell range out of Redford, TX, on Monday, November 13, that Army Corps of Engineers, Border Patrol and National Security Agency teams have been going house to house, and calling on her personal office phone, her cell phone and in other venues, tracking down and enclosing upon the people and telling them that they have no other choice in this matter. They are telling elders and other vulnerable people that "the wall is going on these lands whether you like it or not, and you have to sell your land to the U.S."

My mother, Eloisa Garcia Tamez, Lipan Apache (descendant of Mexican Chiricahua descent elder, Aniceto Garcia, who gave her traditional indigenous birth welcoming ceremony and lightning ceremony), is resisting the forced occupation with firm resistance. She has already had two major confrontations with NSA since July--one in her office at the University of Texas at Brownsville, where she is the Director of a Nursing Program and where she conducts research on diabetes among indigenous people of the MX-US binational region of South Texas and Tamaulipas.

She reports that some land owners in the rancheria area of El Calaboz, La Paloma and El Ranchito, under pressure to sell to the U.S. without prior and informed consent, have already signed over their lands, due to their ongoing state of impoverishment and exploitation in the area under colonization, corporatism, NAFTA and militarization.

This is an outrage, but more, this is a significant violation of United Nations Declaration on Rights of Indigenous People, recently ratified and accepted by all UN nations, except the U.S., Canada, and Australia. Furthermore, it is a violation of the United Nations CERD, Committee on Elimination of Racism and Racial Discrimination.

My mother is under great stress and crisis, unknowing if the Army soldiers and the NSA agents will be forcibly demanding that she sign documents. She reports that they are calling her at all hours, seven days a week. She has firmly told them not to call her anymore, nor to call her at all hours of the night and day, nor to call on the weekends any further.She asked them to meet with her in a public space and to tell their supervisors to come.They refuse to do so. Instead, they continue to harass and intimidate.

At this time, due to the great stress the elders are currently under, communicated to me, because they are being demanded under covert tactics, to relinquish indigenous lands, I feel that I MUST call upon my relatives, friends, colleagues, especially associates in Texas within driving distance to the Rio Grande valley region, and involved in indigenous rights issues, to come forth and aid us.

Please! Please help indigenous women land title holders resisting forced occupation in their own lands! Please do not hesitate to forward this to people in your own networks in media, journalism, social and environmental justice, human rights, indigenous rights advocacy and public health watch groups!

Margo Tamez mtamez@wsu.edu

Jumano Apache West Texas-Chihuahua Lipan Apache South Texas-Tamaulipas, Apacheria Nuevo Santander Land Grant--Basque Colony)

Thanks to Brenda Norrell for posting Margo's letter on her blog.

Petitions

1. Lipan Apache (El Calaboz) Resolution Condemning Border Wall
2. Apache Nation Border Petition to President
3. Native American and Federal lands should not be sold by force or used by the Government

Contact Information

Peter Schey, (323) 251-3223, Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, scheypeter@aol.com , pschey@centerforhumanrights.org

Margo Tamez, (509) 595-4445, Hleh Pai Dne (Lipan Apache) and Jumano Apache, hleh.pai.nde.defense@gmail.com

Arnoldo García (510) 928-0685; National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR); agarcia@nnirr.org

Updates

February 20th - Chertoff being sued at Texas border (Filings for case listed here)

February 22nd - A revealing article was written by Melissa del Bosque, titled Holes in the Wall. It would seem that, while Eloisa Tamez' land remains targeted, the wall seems to magically skip a nearby golf course and resort. There are videos and an overview of the wall available here..

February 23 - Anti-fence conference building unity among groups across U.S

February 27 - Another Great article on the Border wall. Also Democracy Now interviewed Melissa del Bosque and Margo Tamez. Download