Native Americans meet
1989Linda Thompson 1989-07Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 20 →
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SOCIALIST ACTION JULY 1989 21 BALTIMORE-Close to 300 Native American people from North, Central, and South America met in Southern Maryland over the Memorial Day weekend. The conference was sponsored by the Eastern Region of the American Indian Movement (AIM).
The theme of the conference was "building a vision for the 21st century for native people in the Western Hemisphere." This reflects the fact that indigenous people are developing a new international consciousness and a desire to collaborate organizationally across national boundaries.
Margarito Crespin Esquina brought greetings from the indigenous people of El Salvador. He pointed out that over 50 percent of the population of his country is made up of indigenous people.
Kuiz, one of the last Aztec priests of Mexico, said that there is a new unity among Indians in Mexico. He reported on a spiritual conference at the ancient pyramid at Chichen Itza that was attended by over 60,000 indigenous people.
Anita Marlow, a lawyer and writer, spoke on the land grab of Indian resources by multinational corporations. She described how the U.S. government and the corporations had conspired to rob the Hopi and Navaho nations of their coal, oil, and uranium.
Jim Robideau represented the International Office of the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee. Leonard Peltier is the Lake Anishnabe leader of AIM who was framed by the U.S. government for the deaths of two FBI agents at the Pine Ridge reservation in 1975. He is serving two life terms at the Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary.
The U.S.government and the FBI falsified, fabricated, and suppressed evidence in order to ensure his conviction. Canadian authorities aided the frameup when they refused his plea for political asylum. After 13 years of imprisonment, Peltier is standing up well and would like to hear from his supporters, Robideau said.
Vernon Bellecourt, another AIM leader, pointed out that greater unity and communication between native peoples was in the tradition of Tecumseh, a great Shawnee martyr, who had appealed for the Indian nations to unite years ago.
Bellecourt reported on the conference of indigenous people from the Americas that took place in Libya in 1988. At another conference, held in Panama this spring, a Central American coordinating body was established.
Conferences like the Memorial Day gathering are planned for five other regions of the United States. A goal is to prepare counteractions to the 500-year anniversary celebration of the "discovery" of America by Columbus, planned for 1992. For more information, write the Eastern Regional Office of AIM, P.O. Box 131, Acokeek, MD 20607.