An Indigenous Platform Proposal for “Occupy Wall Street”

This is a proposal for presentation to the New York City "Occupy Wall Street" General Assembly regarding endorsement of Indigneous rights and a set of principles guiding their interaction with Indigenous peoples, communities and nations. As you may already know, by consensus Occupy Denver endorsed the initiative by the American Indian Movement of Colorado on the rights of indigenous peoples. http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2011/10/occupy_denver_american_indian_movement.php Owe Aku International Justice Project, in making this presentation, has borrowed liberally from the AIM Colorado proposal. Over the past week we have had important discussions on the language and, after review, this seems to be the most consensual document to date. It also covers nearly all the suggestions we have been collecting for inclusion in our presentation. We will do our best to make a concise, honorable and respectful presentation this evening at the "occupy wall street" event and hope that their General Assembly, too, will accept the proposal by consensus.

"Now we put our minds together to see what kind of world we can create for

the seventh generation yet to come." John Mohawk (1944-2006), Seneca Nation

Since Europeans first came to the shores of our continent, Indigenous peoples have been forced to deal with the economic realities of cultures and economies with the stated purpose of increasing wealth, no matter the cost to other peoples or the environment. In Manhattan itself, fraud was used to steal this island from it’s Indigneous inhabitants who had no concept of ownership or commodification of the natural world. The land, the air, the water, are all simply that of which we are a part of and how we survive.

The story of Manhattan Island would be repeated thousands of times across the continent, with far more violence, the murder of millions and the destruction of countless cultures. It is the American Genocide. From the first day of our encounter with Europeans it was their economies and religion, intentionally designed to occupy our land and, if unwilling to capitulate to their greed, kill our people. This is the law of the Doctrine of Discovery.

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES ARE NOT STRANGERS TO THE DEVASTATION OF CORPORATE GREED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - IT WAS THE CAUSE OF THE AMERICAN GENOCIDE -

AND STILL IS

519 years later, we join with the Wall Street Protest in an alliance to send out a simple message: American capitalism does not work for the environment or for the people. The time has come for radical change in the form of resistance; resistance to a EuroAmerican economy based on a hierarchy of greed that by definition must consume more and more and more resources; resources which we, the Indigneous peoples of this land, are responsible for under our laws and original instructions. Without addressing justice for indigenous peoples, there can never be a genuine movement for justice and equality in the United States.

Toward that end, we make these proposals to Occupy Wall Street to integrate into its philosophy, a set of values that respects the rights of indigenous peoples, and that recognizes the importance of employing indigenous visions and models in restoring environmental, social, cultural, economic and political health to our homeland.

1. To repudiate the Doctrine of Christian Discovery, to endorse the repeal of the papal bull Inter Caetera (1493) to work for the reversal of the U.S. Supreme Court case of Johnson v. M’Intosh 1823), and call for a repeal of the Columbus Day holiday.

2. To endorse the right of all indigenous peoples to the international right of self-determination, by virtue of which they freely determine their political status, and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural futures.

3. To demand the recognition, observance and enforcement of all treaties and agreements freely entered into `between indigenous nations and the United States. Treaties should be recognized as binding international instruments. Disputes should be recognized as a proper concern of international law, and should be arbitrated by impartial international bodies.

4. To insist that Indigenous people shall never be forcibly relocated from their lands or territories.

5. To acknowledge that Indigenous peoples have the right to practice and teach their spiritual and religious traditions customs and ceremonies, including in institutions of the State, e.g. prisons, jails and hospitals,, and to have access in privacy to their religious and cultural sites, and the right to the repatriation of their human remains and funeral objects.

6. To recognize that Indigenous peoples and nations are entitled to the permanent control and enjoyment of their aboriginal-ancestral territories. This includes surface and subsurface rights, inland and coastal waters, renewable and non-renewable resources, and the economies based on these resources. In advancement of this position, to stand in solidarity with the Cree nations, whose territories are located in occupied northern Alberta, Canada, in their opposition to the Tar Sands development, the largest industrial project on earth. Further, to demand that President Barack Obama deny the permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline, proposed to run from the tar sands in Canada into the United States, and that the United States prohibit the use or transportation of Tar Sands oil in the United States.

7. To assert that Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions. They have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their intellectual property over such cultural heritage, traditional knowledge, and traditional cultural expressions. Further, indigenous peoples have the right to the ownership and protection of their human biological and genetic materials, samples, and stewardship of non-human biological and genetic materials found in indigenous territories.

8. To recognize that the settler state boundaries in the Americas are colonial fabrications that should not limit or restrict the ability of indigenous peoples to travel freely, without inhibition or restriction, throughout the Americas. This is especially true for indigenous nations whose people and territories have been separated by the acts of settler states that established international borders without the free, prior and informed consent of the indigenous peoples affected.

9. To demand that the United States shall take no adverse action regarding the territories, lands, resources or people of indigenous nations without the free, prior and informed consent of the indigenous peoples affected.

10. To demand the immediate release of American Indian political prisoner, Leonard Peltier, U.S. Prisoner #89637-132, from U.S. federal custody.

Finally, we also remind all peoples, everywhere, that indigenous histories, political, cultural, environmental, medical, spiritual and economic traditions provide rich examples for frameworks that can offer concrete models of alternatives to the current crises facing the United States. We request that Occupy Wall Street actively utilize and integrate indigenous perspectives, teachers, and voices in its deliberations and decision-making processes.