Sign the Lipan Apache Petition to Stop Construction of the Border Wall

Sign the Lipan Apache Petition to Stop Construction of the Border Wall
Saturday, 09 February 2008

Please go online to sign the following petition in support of the
Lipan Apaches' efforts to stop the building of the border wall (and
further millitarization of their territories) on their land.

http://www.petitiononline.com/dawnnlp1

http://www.larazaunida.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=808&It


RESOLUTION

LIPAN APACHE COMMUNITIES OF THE LOWER RIO GRANDE

INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES OF THE LOWER RIO GRANDE


RESOLUTION CONDEMNING THE CONSTRUCTION OF A BORDER WALL

ALONG THE INTERNATIONAL BOUNDARY ZONE CONNECTING THE UNITED STATES OF
MÉXICO AND THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA


WHEREAS, the Charter of the United Nations, the International Covenant
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights, as well as the Vienna Declaration and
Programme of Action, affirm the fundamental importance of the right to
self-determination of all peoples through which they freely determine
their political status and freely pursue their economic, social, and
cultural development1, and

WHEREAS, Indigenous peoples are equal to all other peoples, including
all peoples residing in the United States of America, while
recognizing the right of all peoples to be different, to consider
themselves different, and to be respected as such, and

WHEREAS, there is an urgent need to respect and promote the rights of
indigenous peoples which derive from their political, economic and
social structures as well as from their cultures, spiritual
traditions, histories and philosophies, especially their rights to
their lands, territories, and resources, and

WHEREAS, there is also an urgent need to respect and promote the
rights of indigenous peoples affirmed in treaties, agreements and
other constructive arrangements with States,[1] including the Treaty
of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, and

WHEREAS, there is an urgent need to respect and promote the rights of
the Lipan Apache people, specifically the rights of Dr. Eloisa Garcia
Tamez a Lipan Apache woman and defender of her elders, and the
cultural, economic, social, and political rights of her children,
grandchildren, and future generations as the aboriginal peoples of El
Calaboz, in the San Pedro de Carricitos Land Grant, and

WHEREAS, the indigenous Lipan Apache people of the San Pedro de
Carricitos Land Grant were recognized as indigenous first peoples of
their territories by the Spanish and Texas empresarios in the area
designated "Apacheria", and

WHEREAS, the Lipan Apache people of the San Pedro de Carricitos
porciones (customary indigenous lands) described in this manner in the
Texas Land Office, a legal entity recognized by the State of Texas as
a legitimate archive of Texas land records: "San Pedro de Carricitos
land grant consisted of 12,730.59 acres in Cameron County. It was
granted by Mexico, October 30, 1833. Pedro Bouchard applies for
himself and Ramon Garcia for the heirs of Matias Garcia and the heirs
of Jose Maria Villarreal and the heirs of Miguel Cabazos for three
leagues originally granted to Pedro Villarreal in 1784. Witnesses
prove occupation, cultivation and pasturage of said tract for many
years prior to March 2, 1836, and never heard of any adverse
claimants. All the papers and other documents formerly presented to
the Board were lost by shipwreck. Recommended. Confirmed by the
Legislature, Act of February 10, 1852. Decree of District Court of
Cameron County, January 24, 1872," and

WHEREAS, the Lipan Apache people of South Texas have a long history of
genocide and oppression imposed upon them by settler societies and
have been forced to the peripheries of said society, as a marginalized
ethnic group in their own territories, and

WHEREAS, Dr. Eloisa Garcia Tamez and her daughter, Margo Tamez, refuse
to be further harassed, intimidated, and oppressed by the settler
society's insistence on the increased militarization of their
traditional and aboriginal lands which has had negative and persistent
lethal impacts on Apache lifeways, ecologies, agricultural ways,
religious practices, and their future generations' possibility to
practice their Native American culture, and to be the stewards of the
ancient plant medicines, and their sacred sites and burial grounds,
and

WHEREAS, Dr. Eloisa Garcia Tamez and her daughter, Margo Tamez,
recognize the threat of increased injuries and deaths in their lands
as experienced on the border by Jumano Apache families of Redford,
Texas and T'ohono O'odham families in Arizona who lost loved ones to
U.S. Marines and U.S. Border Patrol armed personnel, and


WHEREAS, there is a favorable impact of demilitarizing the lands and
territories of indigenous peoples, upon peace, economic and social
progress, development, understanding, and friendly relations among
nations and peoples of the world, and

WHEREAS, last year the United States Congress appropriated 1.2 billion
dollars for the construction of a wall along the United States
(US)-Mexico border to help eliminate migration and drug trafficking;

WHEREAS, the United States Department of Homeland Security
(Department) has recently proceeded with the plan to construct a
border wall by giving property owners along the US-Mexico border a 30
day notice asking owners to sign waivers allowing access to Department
personnel or else the federal government will file a law suit so that
federal employees can have unimpeded access to private land; and,

WHEREAS, Article 13 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of
Human Rights that states "Everyone has the right to freedom of
movement and residence within the borders of each state," and
"Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his (or her)
own, and to return to his (or her) country," and

WHEREAS, the border wall represents a human rights crisis for
indigenous and other peoples living along the international boundary
zone between the United States of México and America and this human
rights crisis has resulted in over 4,000 migrant deaths in recent
years;[2] and


WHEREAS, the border wall will have devastating consequences on local
economies, the environment, and human rights, and will result in
landowners and farmers losing land and critical access to river water
irrigation and will adversely affect the relationship between the
United States of México and America and indigenous nations; and

WHEREAS, military policies, immigration policies, and United States
foreign policy, including economic policies outlined in treaties,
agreements and other constructive agreements like the North American
Free Trade Agreement, directly impact state and local government
policies, including but not limited to, the provision of services to
address the migration of individuals into the United States local
economies; and


WHEREAS, billions of federal dollars intended for the border wall
should be invested in health care, housing, education, job training,
and infrastructure that will provide a visible and tangible return to
the country, such as increasing opportunities, reducing poverty,
diabetes, childhood obesity, and other preventable maladies;[3] and

WHEREAS, the federal government has reserved for itself "the authority
to waive all legal requirements" which, in the sole discretion of the
Secretary of Homeland Security, have been deemed "necessary to ensure
expeditious construction" of the border wall[4] and it is prepared to
use its powers of eminent domain to supersede the property rights of
indigenous peoples and other landowners along the international
boundary zone; and



WHEREAS, the federal government, through its power to waive in their
entirety the Endangered Species Act, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act,
the National Environmental Policy Act, the Coastal Zone Management
Act, the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the National Historic
Preservation Act, the Archeological Resources Protection Act, the Safe
Drinking Water Act, the Noise Control Act, the Solid Waste Disposal
Act, the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, the Farmland Protection Policy
Act, the Administrative Procedures Act, the Fish and Wildlife
Coordination Act, and countless other democratically established laws,
ordinances, statutes, and judicial decisions, would construct a border
wall that would slice through the heart of numerous wildlife refuges,
parks, sanctuaries and other similar tracts established to protect
wildlife in their respective natural environments and other historical
sites along the international boundary zone; and



WHEREAS, no region of the United States of America has a greater
interest in border security than the communities along the
international boundary zone between the United States of México and
America.



NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Indigenous People and their
allies who hereby express their opposition to the United States of
America Federal Government funding and construction of the border
wall, which would be imposed upon the international boundary zone
connecting the United States of México and the United States of
America, directly impacting indigenous peoples, an infrastructure
project that would not coincide with a humane strategy for
comprehensive immigration reform and increased security for the United
States but would instead cause untold death and damage of historic
proportions to indigenous cultures inherent to sustainable futures,
human life, wildlife, water rights, ecosystems, endangered species
sacred to indigenous people of the region, local and state economies,
private properties, land grant entitlements of indigenous people,
sacred indigenous burial and ceremonial sites, historical properties
and sites, farmland, and international relations between the United
States of Mexico, the United States of America, and indigenous nations
and communities.