Since
its inception the institute
has examined the despair faced by native Americans. One such study
began in the 1960s involving the Karankawa Tribe which roamed the
prairies off the Gulf of Mexico near Palacios, Texas. Historical
accounts reveal pirates and
settlers
fiercely pursued members of the tribe on the grounds their alleged
cannibalism was a threat to European settlers finding
their ways to new homes. Due to the heavy traffic across this
frontier most burial grounds and habitats
were
destroyed. Similar stories reveal the horror faced throughout the USA
and Taiwan where Hans settlers from mainland China and Japan wiped out
Aborigines. Worldwide this has left few means to trace their history or
contributions,
which remains a core thrust of this Institute. So let's consider the:
- High-level exploitation of
American Tribes in the Third Millennium,
which led to
- Criminal interference with Tribal practices and income sources, i.e., Lobbyist Jack Abramoff and maverick instigators of ill will;
- Clandestine placement of foreign indigenous artifacts in US Museums, Libraries & other holding centers;
- Flip flops in Tribal College funding - An Examination of Reversals in Executive Orders;
- A trail of PAC funds gets into the politicians arena, not resulting in practical solutions to felt needs;
- Failure to grow entrepreneurs, create jobs or let the free enterprise system evolve.
- Acknowledgment of a long history of official depredations and ill-conceived policies by the United States Government regarding Indian tribes and an apology offered to all Native Peoples. Introduced in House 1/4/05 as House Joint Resolution 3.IH and Introduced in Senate on 4/19/05 as Senate Joint Resolution 15.IS.
- Attend the Indigenous
People Border Summit held November 6-10, 2007 under the auspices of the
Americas II San Xavier, Tohono O’odham
Nation - at the San Xavier Community Center, 2018 W. San Xavier
Rd, Tohono O’odham Nation, State of Arizona. Or,
you may view the summit broadcast by clicking here
broadcast live or copy and
paste http://www.earthcycles.net in your URL. The Indigenous
Peoples’ Border Summit of the Americas II will provide
the opportunity for Indigenous peoples of the border regions to
exchange experiences and information about how the international
borders impact their respective communities. It will also create
a way to unite Indigenous Peoples to address and resolve issues of
mutual concern affecting our traditional homelands, cultural and
ceremonial practices, sacred sites, treaty rights, health and way of
life. For more information, contact Kim Garcia at 520.573.4000 or
email at kgarcia@wakenet.org or Mike Flores 520.235.2406, email
MichaelFlores_hotmail.com.
Mike Flores,
Tohono O'odham summit organizer, receives a flag from Mohawk Mark
Maracle, representing the Mohawk Women Title Holders at the summit in
2006/Photo Brenda Norrell
- AMIU human rights advocates
seek anecdotal accounts, survivors
testimony and incidentals confirming members of the Cree Nation and
other Tribes were interned under Franklin D Roosevelt's Executive Order
9066 during World
War II. Survivors were told this was done to prevent one or more Indian
Nations from signing an accord
with Japan.
- According to survivors both children and adults possessing Indian blood were imprisoned from 1942-1947 in a prison then situated in Blythe, California, much like 120,000 US born Japanese were kept. But was it necessary to intern American Indians of the Cree Nation "to prevent alleged espionage and sabotage in an area threatened by Japanese attack in 1942"? Under similar circumstances during the intrusive US led War against Iraq, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor held in the 2004 Hamdi case: "A state of war is not a blank check for the President when it comes to the rights of the nation's citizens." Regardless, If you know a Native American who was interned as a child or adult during the second World War, let us Institute confirm their stories by contacting AMIU investigators.
- No Native
People held from 1942 to 1947 were among those
receiving apologies from President William Clinton October 1, 1993
(when US born Japanese received apologies). According to a
ranking US
Department of Treasury executive acting on direct knowledge gained from
native People held in one of the ten World War II US
prisons, no archives confirmed the live testimony from Indians children
or adults held, though official Freedom of Information Act requests
were made.
- Neither
testimony we've received nor public records reveal that titles to
properties owned by above mentioned survivors were returned to them.
This follows a precedence set down by Supreme Court Justice John
Marshall in Johnson v. M'Intosh, 21
U.S. (8 Wheat.) 543, 573 (1823). [We
contrast the US Hate Crimes Act of 2007, which declares racism is
criminal, with Lumbee Law Professor Robert Williams Jr.'s quote saying Johnson "has to be considered one
of the most thoroughly racist ... decisions ever issued by the Supreme
Court,,, [as Johnson's] " ... legalized
presumption of Indian racial inferiority, [or] its incorporation into
U.S. law [the] legal doctrine of conquest and colonization."]
Moreover, it's fairly certain the Blythe internment camp was not part
of the Tule or Manzanar prisons where Japanese were imprisoned in
California
from 1942 to 1947. In 2005, a
"Chowchilla Unit for women in the Chuckawala State Prison" was being
operated a short ways outside Blythe.
- Comments
are solicited as we believe
the 1823 Supreme Court opinion led
President Andrew Jackson's thinking. As President Jackson led the
ugliest of turmoil faced by the
indigenous in those ugly days. Today the Border Wall is an extension of
the brutality faced then and now.
- But the Hate Crimes Act is a powerful tool that could be used effectively to curb the angers being pushed on the indigenous by the Minutemen and similar hate groups who profess superiority over others.
- A 35-year occupation of Alcatraz Island by Indians of all Tribes changed the course of U.S. and American Indian history. Today an award winning video/exhibit, "We Hold the Rock," produced and cited here by courtesy of the National Park Service and the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. It shows daily on Alcatraz Island. The following links take one to additional sites related to Alcatraz and its 1969 occupation by Indians of All Tribes.
- Special credits go to Professor Troy Johnson renown for displaying work at American Indian studies, including an extensive collection of photographs by Ilka Harman taken during the 19-month occupation of Alcatraz Island. Dr. Johnson has written extensively on the Occupation of Alcatraz Island. The complete text of "The Alcatraz Proclamation to the Great White Father and his People" by Indians of All Tribes is on line as part of the Fourth World Documentation Project.
- Other credits are extended to Hopi Tribe Cultural Preservation Office which reports, in 1895 nineteen Hopi were incarcerated on Alcatraz Island by the US Army for their resistance to government policies designed to destroy their religion and language. The National Park Service - Alcatraz Island, co-hosts a website with the Hopi Tribe Cultural Preservation Office with several articles and photographs of this event in Hopi and Alcatraz history. Their email address is goga_alcatraz@nps.gov.
- Take time to review our
work found at A
Maya Artifacts
Museum Exchange Program and Documentary. A limited display is
given, but do not miss Nobel Prize Winner Rigoberta Menchu Tum's call
for language classes
in one of 23 Maya dialects. Separately, forthcoming forensic research
results discuss
traumas and torture survived by five million tribal people who live in
Guatemala.
There nearly 180,000 indigenous were killed or disappeared
during the 36-year US instigated Civil War. The United Nations
negotiated a Peace Accord signed in 1996. But immense forensic
investigations are needed to determine the depth of the grave harm
forced
upon the survivors so they may be reported. Research for a book titled:
Surviving
Trauma in Guatemala: Peace Accords Challenges
&
Entrepreneurial Promises
delves into ugly outcome that repugnant Cristo Fascist US foreign
policies brought into existence. President William Clinton's apology
was a first step in forgiveness but the harm inflicted continues.
- An eyewitness audio of Mayan torture in Guatemala and supportive research in Spanish and English.
- Insights from African-based tribes, which reveal knowledge
reaching to the earliest history of humankind.
- Research on East Asian
aborigines as found on the ROC Taiwan
reveals interest in historical incites about the Pre-1600 islanders.
That
work is reported in an about to be released book entitled: Taiwan: Growing
Entrepreneurs,
Trade & Tourism.
Forensic investigations show major
cleavages exist within Taiwan because the 21 aborigine tribes were
overrun by Dutch, Portuguese, British, mainland Hans settlers and a
stronghold of Japanese colonizers who controlled the Island from
1895 to 1948. Deep level resentments, toward the Japanese and mainland
Chinese communists, exists among the Taiwanese. Our
research suggests resolution of these conflicts could help
these East Asian populations coexist. Moreover the failure of the
United States to support a democratic free Taiwan is a notable
failure of the US government in this millennium.
- Rich insights with regard to interactions Brazilian Indians had with US Peace Corps Volunteers from the 1960s to the present await being pulled from the dust; given funds the insights could be reported.
- Certainly
we acknowledge the National Museum of the American Indian holdings
found in Maryland, New York and Washington DC, the latter which opened
in 2004. See http://www.nmai.si.edu.