Page 4 RAIN July 1978 Last September a powerful and revealing confrontation took place between the consciousness of our Western Civilization and that of the Native civilization that preceded and may yet outlast it. The event was a United Nations conference on "Discrimination Against the Indigenous Populations of the Americas" in Geneva. It was attended by 125 Native delegations from more than 30 countries who took our human rights violations before the world, and was covered by every major press service in the world. Y 071 probably didn't bear about it in the Arrierican media-the story was not one we would like to bear. The more significant revelations came in the style of the COrJference and its participants and in the sense ofstrength, rightness and solidarity the delegates found among themselves. The deep-centered sr:nse of the world and ofright action from which the delegates worked stood in stark contrast to the legalistic, ma17ipulative and alienated actions of the conference officials. No question as to which I would trust my life. The December 1977 Akwesasne Notes gave full coverage to the meeting and is filled with the powerful exchanges that occurred. (50<1 from Akwesasne Notes1 Mohawk N~tion, via Rooseveltown, NY 13683.) An excerpt follows, dealing with the basic issue of control over.land. -TB from Akwesasne Notes FOR CENTURIES WE HAVE KNOWN THAT EACH INDIVIDUAL'S ACTION CREATES CONDITIONS AND SITUATIONS THAT AFFECT THE WORLD. FOR CENTURIES WE HAVE BEEN CAREFUL TO AVOID ANY ACTION UNLESS IT CARRIED A LONG-RANGE PROSPECT OF PROMOTING HARMONY AND PEACE IN THE WORLD. IN THAT CONTEXT, WITH OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS OF THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE WE HAVE JOURNEYED HERE TO DISCUSS THESE IMPORTANT MATTERS WITH THE OTHER MEMBERS OF THE FAMILY OF MAN. ' RIGHT vs. MIGHT EXCHANGES FROM THE LEGAL COMMISSION While all three of the special commissions occasioned mucli insightful testimony and telling exchanges, it was in the legal commission where the most basic contradiction between the Native world view and Western Civilization became evident. The Native world view is circular, self-contained. It is not based on the expansionist, linear concept of society and history which is the underlying assumption of Western Civilization. The Mother Earth, the Pacha Mama, the territory within which we live is sacred, and must be protected at all costnot out of some Utopian, or intellectual, or pseudo-spiritual notion-but, simply, because it is where the people live. They have lived on it for hundreds ofgenerations. For Native Peoples the land on which they live is truly "home"-and you don't destroy your home. The sacred knowledge is simply that what you don't destroy, you learn to appreciate. Ifyou stay in one place and don't destroy it-you come to know it. And the Creation, the Great Mystery, the Life Force--tbe People come to understand, is manifested in everything around us. The whole process of Western Civilization has been one of displacement. Imperialism~ colonialism, the justification of racism-they are all historical processes which flow out of that basic inability to make peace·with your surroundingswith the Natural World. There is,no contradiction more basic. They are opposing forces, constantly in struggle. The job of chairing testimony about the very corf!plex network of legal issues involved in the protection of Indian lands and sovereignty could not have been easy. There were many different nations represented, much ground to cover and, worst ofall, a very restrictive time schedule. Moreover, we were to work toward a resolution which would encompass a consensus ofall the testimony and which could then be presented to a plenary of all the delegates. .
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTc4NTAz