The Voice of the Taino People Online

Taino Leader to Speak at Florida University

2009-10-27T13:52:00.004-04:00

Miami, Florida (UCTP Taino News) - The President and Chairman of the United Confederation of Taino People’ Office of International Relations and Regional Coordination, Roberto Borrero is scheduled to give the opening address at Florida Atlantic University’s Native American Indian Heritage Celebration. Borrero’s special address will be presented on Wednesday, Nov. 4 at 11:30am at the University’s campus, Traditions Plaza Breezeway, in Boca Raton, Florida. This special event is sponsored by the Division of Student Affairs and the Office of Multi-Cultural Affairs and launches a series of activities focusing on Indigenous Peoples in the United States.

The Native American Indian Heritage month celebrations at FAU are free and open to students, faculty, and the general public. The celebration activities were coordinated in consultation with Dr. Enid Conley, FAU Alumna; the South Florida Story-telling Project; and Student Government BSUMP.

“This is such an honor for our local Taino community” stated Mildred Karaira Gandia, one of the Confederation’s two Liaison Officers in Florida. “This is an historic opportunity for the general public to understand that South Florida was and remains a part of the traditional Taino homelands.”

Karaira will host a welcome reception for Borrero in Miami that will be open to local Taino community members as well as representatives from other local Tribes and allies on Tuesday evening, Nov. 3. Community members that would like to attend or have more information about the reception should contact Karaira at Karaira@uctp.org as RSVPs are required.

In 1990 President George H. W. Bush approved a joint resolution designating November 1990 "National American Indian Heritage Month." Similar proclamations have been issued each year since 1994.

UCTPTN 10.26.2009

Venezuela Grants Land to Indigenous Communities On Indigenous Resistance Day

2009-10-15T10:36:00.006-04:00

Caracas, Venezuela - Celebrating 517 years of indigenous resistance to invasion and colonisation Venezuela marked Indigenous Resistance Day on Monday with a street march through the capital, Caracas, the granting of title deeds to indigenous communities, and a special session of the National Assembly.

Across the Americas October 12 is widely celebrated as Columbus Day, the day in 1492 when Christopher Columbus, representing the Spanish Crown, first arrived in the Americas. In 2004 the Venezuelan government officially changed the name to Indigenous Resistance Day.

In Caracas, thousands of members of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), together with members of Venezuela's 44 indigenous groups, marched to the National Pantheon, in order to celebrate achievements for indigenous peoples under the Chavez government and claim their rights as the original inhabitants of the country.

A special session of the National Assembly then took place in the Pantheon, where the remains of 16^th Century Indigenous Cacique (Chief) Guaicaipuro lie as well as those of Venezuelan independence leader Simon Bolivar, who fought against Spanish colonialism.

Also during a special ceremony in Zulia state, Venezuelan Interior Relations and Justice Minister, Tarek el Aissami, handed over title deeds covering some 41,630 hectares of land to three Yukpa indigenous communities in the Sierra de Perija National Park.

"Today we join in this celebration of Indigenous Resistance Day, the day of the dignity of the indigenous peoples of Latin America and particularly of the Bolivarian and Revolutionary Venezuela," stressed the minister.

Yupka community spokesperson Efrain Romero said, "It's historic to receive title to the lands we inhabit," and added, "We reaffirm our fight for this revolution to continue advancing (...) we reaffirm our support for President Hugo Chávez."

In recent years the Sierra de Perija region has been the scenario of a fierce conflict between large "landowners" and the indigenous communities who were forcibly driven off their lands during the Perez Jimenez dictatorship in the 1940s.

The situation came to a head in July 2008 when Yukpa indigenous communities occupied 14 large estates to demand legal title to their ancestral lands. Estate owner Alejandro Vargas and four others, armed with guns and machetes, responded by attempting to assassinate the Yukpa cacique (chief) Sabino Romero, who was leading the occupations, and beat and killed Romero's elderly 109-year-old father Jose Manuel Romero.

Then on August 6 hundreds of armed mercenaries, hired by large landowners, attacked the indigenous communities.

At the time Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez slammed what he described as the "ambiguous attitudes" of some government functionaries in dealing with the land demarcation process and ordered an investigation into the violent attacks.

"There should be no doubt: Between the large estate owners and the Indians, this government is with the Indians" Chavez said.

During his speech today El Aissami emphasised that the delivery of title deeds of land to indigenous peoples is one of the policies promoted by the National Executive to ensure comprehensive recognition of the ancestral territorial rights of indigenous peoples.

Sergio Rodríguez, a spokesperson for the Environment Ministry clarified that other areas belonging to Yukpa communities are yet to be demarcated but said the ministry, together with the indigenous communities and other agencies that comprise the National Demarcation Commission, "will continue to work to resolve the situation. Our goal is to provide land titles to those Yukpa sectors that lack them by the end of the year."

However, another dispute in the Sierra de Perija region between the Barí, Yukpa, and Wayúu indigenous peoples resisting coal mining on their lands on the one hand and the state-owned Corpozulia, still has not been fully resolved.

The government is also expected to hand over title deeds covering 5,310 hectares to the 366 strong Palital community, belonging to the Kari'ña ethnicity in the state of Anzoategui.

Speaking at the closing ceremony of the III Congress of the Great Abya Yala [the Americas] Nation of Anti-Imperialist Indigenous Peoples from the South in the remote Amazonas state, Minister for the President's Office, Luis Reyes Reyes, also granted credits to representatives of indigenous communities to assist in agricultural production.

Despite many unresolved issues, indigenous peoples have made significant advances in Venezuela over the last 10 years. The Bolivarian Constitution adopted in 1999, through Art. 8 specifically emphasises recognition and respect for indigenous land rights, culture, language, and customs. According to the constitution, the role of the Venezuelan state is to participate with indigenous people in the demarcation of traditional land, guaranteeing the right to collective ownership. The state is also expected to promote the cultural values of indigenous people.

Article 120 of the Constitution also states that exploitation of any natural resource is "subject to prior information and consultation with the native communities concerned."

In 2003 the government also initiated the Guaicaipuro Mission, a social program aimed at the promotion and realization of indigenous rights as recognised in the constitution.

Venezuela's indigenous people, who comprise approximately 1.6% of the population, also have three indigenous representatives in the National Assembly.

Author: Kiraz Janicke
Source: Venezuelanalysis.com

Economic Crises in Boriken (Puerto Rico)

2009-10-14T16:34:00.004-04:00

Boriken/Puerto Rico (UCTP Taino News) - Puerto Rican Governor Luis Fortuño has implemented widespread job cuts affecting all sectors of the island's population. In the midst of Puerto Rico's worsening economic crises, Fortuño plans promote the privatization of basic infrastructural services such as electricity, water, and the education system.

Reports estimate that nearly 20,000 civil servants already have or will lose their jobs. Analysts note that the loss of jobs in the government sector will affect similar losses in the private sector.

The island's cultural patrimony is one area that will be particularly impacted by job losses. Reports indicate that museums and national parks under the control of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture (ICP) such as the Caguana Indigenous Ceremonial Center will now be forced to close. These institutions will not only lose staff for daily operations but collections and archives are now potentially at risk without proper supervision and controls.

In the form of several recent amendment proposals to controversial "Law 7", ICP President Marisol Rodriguez supported Governor Fortuño's plan to do away with the protective functions of the Institute's mandate. The result of these proposals would facilitate development projects that are expected to have an adverse affect on the island's national patrimony. Opponents state that these amendments are in clear violation of a 60 year law that created the ICP protections in the first place.

The Consejo General de Tainos Borincanos, a local Taino organization has proposed a volunteer initiative to the Institute to keep Caguana open.

In response to the current economic crises and the administration's privatization policies, diverse workers unions as well as community and student organizations plan to unite in a mass National General Strike throughout the Puerto Rico on the 15th of October.

UCTPTN 10.14.2009

The Myth of "America"

2009-10-13T12:06:00.003-04:00

Happy Columbus Day

Columbus sailed the ocean blue in Fourteen Hundred and Ninety Two ...

May the spirit of adventure and discovery always be with you.

Wishing you a great Columbus Day

- Columbus Day greeting card

To mark Columbus Day In 2004, the Medieval and Renaissance Center in UCLA published the final volume of a compendium of Columbus-era documents. Its general editor, Geoffrey Symcox, leaves little room for ambivalence when he says, "This is not your grandfather's Columbus.... While giving the brilliant mariner his due, the collection portrays Columbus as an unrelenting social climber and self-promoter who stopped at nothing - not even exploitation, slavery, or twisting biblical scripture - to advance his ambitions.... Many of the unflattering documents have been known for the last century or more, but nobody paid much attention to them until recently. The fact that Columbus brought slavery, enormous exploitation or devastating diseases to the Americas used to be seen as a minor detail - if it was recognized at all - in light of his role as the great bringer of white man's civilization to the benighted idolatrous American continent. But to historians today this information is very important. It changes our whole view of the enterprise."

But does it?

***

"They ... brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks' bells," Christopher Columbus wrote in his logbook in 1495. "They willingly traded everything they owned.... They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features.... They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane.... They would make fine servants.... With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want. Let us in the name of the Holy Trinity go on sending all the slaves that can be sold."

Catholic priest Bartolome de las Casas, in the multi-volume "History of the Indies" published in 1875, wrote, "... Slaves were the primary source of income for the Admiral (Columbus) with that income he intended to repay the money the Kings were spending in support of Spaniards on the Island. They provide profit and income to the Kings. (The Spaniards were driven by) insatiable greed ... killing, terrorizing, afflicting, and torturing the native peoples ... with the strangest and most varied new methods of cruelty."

This systematic violence was aimed at preventing "Indians from daring to think of themselves as human beings. (The Spaniards) thought nothing of knifing Indians by tens and twenties and of cutting slices off them to test the sharpness of their blades.... My eyes have seen these acts so foreign to human nature, and now I tremble as I write."

Father Fray Antonio de Montesino, a Dominican preacher, in December 1511 said this in a sermon that implicated Christopher Columbus and the colonists in the genocide of the native peoples:

"Tell me by what right of justice do you hold these Indians in such a cruel and horrible servitude? On what authority have you waged such detestable wars against these people who dealt quietly and peacefully on their own lands? Wars in which you have destroyed such an infinite number of them by homicides and slaughters never heard of before ..."

In 1892, the National Council of Churches, the largest ecumenical body in the United States, is known to have exhorted Christians to refrain from celebrating the Columbus quincentennial, saying, "What represented newness of freedom, hope, and opportunity for some was the occasion for oppression, degradation and genocide for others."

Yet America continues to celebrate "Columbus Day."

That Americans do so in the face of all evidence that there is little in the Columbian legacy that merits applause makes it easier for them to avoid taking responsibility for their own actions, or the actions of their government. Perhaps there is good reason.

***

In "Columbus Day: A Clash of Myth and History," journalist and media critic Norman Solomon discusses how historians who deal with recorded evidence are frequently depicted as "politically correct" revisionists while the general populace is manipulated into holding onto myths that brazenly applaud inconceivable acts of violence of men against fellow humans.

For those of us who are willing to ask how it becomes possible to manipulate the population of a country into accepting atrocity, the answer is not hard to find. It requires normalizing the inconceivable and drumming it in via the socio-cultural environment until it is internalized and embedded in the individual and collective consciousness. The combined or singular deployment of the media, the entertainment industry, mainstream education or any other agency, can achieve the desired result of convincing people that wars can be just, and strikes can be surgical, as long as it is the US that is doing it.

Never has this process been as blatant and overt as in recent years when the time has come for America to legitimize the idea of global domination. A Department of Defense report titled Joint Vision 2020 calls for the US military to be capable of "full spectrum dominance" of the entire planet. That means total domination and control of all land, sea, air, space and information.

That's a lot of control.

How might this become accepted as "Policy" and remain unquestioned by almost an entire population?

The one word key to that is: Myths. The explanation is that the myths the United States is built upon have paved the way for the perpetuation of all manner of violations.

Among the first of these is that of Christopher Columbus. In school we were taught of his bravery, courage and perseverance. In a speech in 1989, George H.W. Bush proclaimed: "Christopher Columbus not only opened the door to a New World, but also set an example for us all by showing what monumental feats can be accomplished through perseverance and faith."

Never mind that the monumental feats mainly comprised part butchery, part exploitation and the largest part betrayal of host populations of the "New World."

***

On their second arrival in Hispaniola, Haiti, Columbus's crew took captive roughly two thousand local villagers who had arrived to greet them. Miguel Cuneo, a literate crew member, wrote, "When our caravels ... were to leave for Spain, we gathered ... one thousand six hundred male and female persons of those Indians, and these we embarked in our caravels on February 17, 1495.... For those who remained, we let it be known (to the Spaniards who manned the island's fort) in the vicinity that anyone who wanted to take some of them could do so, to the amount desired, which was done."

In 1500, Columbus wrote to a friend, "A hundred castellanoes (a Spanish coin) are as easily obtained for a woman as for a farm, and it is very general and there are plenty of dealers who go about looking for girls; those from nine to ten (years old) are now in demand."

Such original "monumental feats" as were accomplished by our nation's heroes and role models were somewhat primitive. Local inhabitants who resisted Columbus and his crew had their ears or nose cut off, were attacked by dogs, skewered with pikes and shot. Reprisals were so severe that many of the natives committed mass suicide and women began practicing abortions in order not to leave children enslaved. The population of Haiti at the time of Columbus's arrival was between 1.5 million and 3 million. Sixty years later, every single native had been murdered.

Today, "perseverance and faith" allow us to accomplish much more and with far greater impunity. The US continues to liberate Iraq and Afghanistan with 2,000-pound bombs in civilian areas and purge Pakistan via drone attacks on weddings.

Neither case is of isolated whimsy. It was and remains policy.

In "A People's History of the United States," celebrated historian Howard Zinn describes how Arawak men and women emerged from their villages to greet their guests with food, water and gifts when Columbus landed at the Bahamas. But Columbus wanted something else. "Gold is most excellent; gold constitutes treasure; and he who has it does all he wants in the world, and can even lift souls up to Paradise," he wrote to the king and queen of Spain in 1503.

Rather than gold, however, Columbus only found slaves when he arrived on his second visit with seventeen ships and over 1,200 men. Ravaging various Caribbean islands, Columbus took natives as captives as he sailed. Of these he picked 500 of the best specimens and shipped them back to Spain. Two hundred of these died en route, while the survivors were put up for sale by the archdeacon of the town where they landed.

Columbus needed more than mere slaves to sell, and Zinn's account informs us, "... desperate to pay back dividends to those who had invested, (he) had to make good his promise to fill the ships with gold. In the province of Cicao on Haiti, where he and his men imagined huge gold fields to exist, they ordered all persons fourteen years or older to collect a certain quantity of gold every three months. When they brought it, they were given copper tokens to hang around their necks. Indians found without a copper token had their hands cut off and bled to death.

"The Indians had been given an impossible task. The only gold around was bits of dust garnered from the streams. So they fled, were hunted down with dogs, and were killed."

As a younger priest, the aforementioned De las Casas had participated in the conquest of Cuba and owned a plantation where natives worked as slaves before he found his conscience and gave it up. His first-person accounts reveal that the Spaniards "thought nothing of knifing Indians by tens and twenties and of cutting slices off them to test the sharpness of their blades. They forced their way into native settlements, slaughtering everyone they found there, including small children, old men, pregnant women, and even women who had just given birth. They hacked them to pieces, slicing open their bellies with their swords as though they were sheep herded into a pen. They even laid wagers on whether they could manage to slice a man in two at a stroke, or cut an individual's head from his body, or disembowel him with a single blow of their axes. They grabbed suckling infants by the feet and, ripping them from their mothers' breasts, dashed them headlong against the rocks. Others, laughing and joking all the while, threw them over their shoulders into a river, shouting: 'Wriggle, you litle perisher.' They slaughtered anyone on their path ..."

***

Full Spectrum Dominance

In a letter to the Spanish court dated February 15, 1492, Columbus presented his version of full spectrum dominance: "to conquer the world, spread the Christian faith and regain the Holy Land and the Temple Mount."

With this radical ideology, Las Casas records, "They spared no one, erecting especially wide gibbets on which they could string their victims up with their feet just off the ground and then burned them alive thirteen at a time, in honour of our Saviour and the twelve Apostles."

About incorporating these accounts in his book, Zinn explained to Truthout, "My point is not to grieve for the victims and denounce the executioners. Those tears, that anger, cast into the past, deplete our moral energy for the present ... but I do remember a statement I once read: The cry of the poor is not always just, but if you don't listen to it, you will never know what justice is."

****

Author journalist Chris Hedges believes that glorification of (the atrocities of) Columbus is one of several myths that sustain the illusions that justify the imperial visions of the United States.

In conversation with Truthout, he said, "It's really easy to build a holocaust museum that condemns Germans. It's another issue to build a museum that confronts our own genocide, the genocide that was perpetrated by our own ancestors towards Native Americans or towards African-Americans. I am all for documenting and remembering the [World War II] Holocaust, but the disparity between the reality of the [World War II] Holocaust or the reality of the genocide as illustrated in the [World War II] Holocaust museum and the utter historical amnesia in the Native American museum in Washington is really frightening and shows a complete inability in a public arena for us to examine who we are and what we've done."

Noam Chomsky holds a similar view. "We have [World War II] Holocaust museums all over the place about what the Germans did," Chomsky told Truthout. "Do we have one about what we did? I mean about slavery, about the Native American population? It's not that the people involved didn't know about it. John Quincy Adams, a great grand strategist, who had a major role in these atrocities, in his later years when he reflected on them, referred to that hapless race of North Americans, which we are exterminating with such insidious cruelty. They knew exactly what they were doing. But it doesn't matter. It's us."

Explaining how the mythology of a country becomes its historic reality, Chomsky stated, "If you are well-educated, you can internalize that and it. That's part of what a good education is about, enabling people to live with those contradictions. And you see it very consistently. In the case of, say, the Iraq war, try to find somebody who had a principled objection. Actually you can, occasionally, but it's suppressed."

Historical revisionism and amnesia are critical for nation-building, opines Paul Woodward, the writer and author of the blog "War In Context". He elaborates, "Every nation is subject to its own particular form of historical amnesia. Likewise, imperial powers have their own grandiose revisionist tendencies. Yet there is another form of historical denial particular to recently invented nations whose myth-making efforts are inextricably bound together with the process of the nation's birth ...

"Whereas older nations are by and large populated by people whose ancestral roots penetrated that land well before it took on the clear definition of a nation state, the majority of the people in an invented nation - such as the United States or Israel - have ancestry that inevitably leads elsewhere. This exposes the ephemeral link between the peoples' history and the nation's history. Add to that the fact that such nations came into being through grotesque acts of dispossession and it is clear that a psychological drive to hold aloft an atemporal exceptionalism becomes an existential necessity. National security requires that the past be erased."

Robert Jensen is an author and teaches media law, ethics and politics at the University of Texas. In an essay where he justifies his decision to not celebrate Thanksgiving as a holiday, he says, "Imagine that Germany won World War II and that a Nazi regime endured for some decades, eventually giving way to a more liberal state with a softer version of German-supremacist ideology. Imagine that a century later Germans celebrated a holiday offering a whitewashed version of German/Jewish history that ignored that holocaust and the deep anti-Semitism of the culture. Imagine that the holiday provided a welcomed time for families and friends to gather and enjoy food and conversation. Imagine that businesses, schools and government offices closed on this day. What would we say about such a holiday? Would we not question the distortions woven into such a celebration? Would we not demand a more accurate historical account? Would we not, in fact, denounce such a holiday as grotesque?"

Of course we would.

But our story is different, and once again this year, on October 12, we will once again "Hail Columbus."

---------

Authors: Dahr Jamail and Jason Coppola

Article Source: truthout http://www.truthout.org/1012091

Bhaswati Sengupta contributed to this report.

Dahr Jamail, an independent journalist, is the author of "The Will to Resist: Soldiers Who Refuse to Fight in Iraq and Afghanistan," (Haymarket Books, 2009), and "Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches From an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq," (Haymarket Books, 2007). Jamail reported from occupied Iraq for nine months as well as from Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Turkey over the last five years.

Jason Coppola is the director and producer of the documentary film "Justify My War," which explores the rationalization of war in American culture, comparing the siege of Fallujah with the massacre at Wounded Knee. Coppola has worked in Iraq as well as on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

Kids Study the Dark Side of Columbus

2009-10-12T01:19:00.001-04:00

By CHRISTINE ARMARIO, AP

TAMPA, Fla. (Oct. 11) — Jeffrey Kolowith's kindergarten students read a poem about Christopher Columbus, take a journey to the New World on three paper ships and place the explorer's picture on a timeline through history.

Kolowith's students learn about the explorer's significance — though they also come away with a more nuanced picture of Columbus than the noble discoverer often portrayed in pop culture and legend.

"I talk about the situation where he didn't even realize where he was," Kolowith said. "And we talked about how he was very, very mean, very bossy."

Columbus' stature in U.S. classrooms has declined somewhat through the years, and many districts will not observe his namesake holiday on Monday. Although lessons vary, many teachers are trying to present a more balanced perspective of what happened after Columbus reached the Caribbean and the suffering of indigenous populations.

"The whole terminology has changed," said James Kracht, executive associate dean for academic affairs in the Texas A&M College of Education and Human Development. "You don't hear people using the world 'discovery' anymore like they used to. 'Columbus discovers America.' Because how could he discover America if there were already people living here?"

In Texas, students start learning in the fifth grade about the "Columbian Exchange" — which consisted not only of gold, crops and goods shipped back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean, but diseases carried by settlers that decimated native populations.

In McDonald, Pa., 30 miles southwest of Pittsburgh, fourth-grade students at Fort Cherry Elementary put Columbus on trial this year — charging him with misrepresenting the Spanish crown and thievery. They found him guilty and sentenced him to life in prison.

"In their own verbiage, he was a bad guy," teacher Laurie Crawford said.

Of course, the perspective given varies across classrooms and grades. Donna Sabis-Burns, a team leader with the U.S. Department of Education's School Support and Technology Program, surveyed teachers nationwide about the Columbus reading materials they used in class for her University of Florida dissertation. She examined 62 picture books, and found the majority were outdated and contained inaccurate — and sometimes outright demeaning — depictions of the native Taino population.

The federal holiday itself also is not universally recognized. Schools in Miami, Dallas, Los Angeles and Seattle will be open; New York City, Washington and Chicago schools will be closed.

The day is an especially sensitive issue in places with larger native American populations.

"We have a very large Alaska native population, so just the whole Columbus being the founder of the United States, doesn't sit well with a lot of people, myself included," said Paul Prussing, deputy director of Alaska's Division of Teaching and Learning Support.

Many recall decades ago when there was scant mention of indigenous groups in discussions about Columbus. Kracht remembers a picture in one of his fifth-grade textbooks that showed Columbus wading to shore with a huge flag and cross.

"The indigenous population was kind of waiting expectantly, almost with smiles on their faces," Kracht said. "'I wonder what this guy is bringing us?' Well, he's bringing us smallpox, for one thing, and none of us are going to live very long."

Kracht said an emerging multiculturalism led more people to investigate the cruelties suffered by the Taino population in the 1960s and '70s, along with the 500th anniversary in 1992.

However, there are people who believe the discussion has shifted too far. Patrick Korten, vice president of communications for the Catholic fraternal service organization the Knights of Columbus, recalled a note from a member who saw a lesson at a New Jersey school.

The students were forced to stand in a cafeteria and not allowed to eat while other students teased and intimidated them — apparently so they could better understand the suffering indigenous populations endured because of Columbus, Korten said.

"My impression is that in some classrooms, it's anything but a balanced presentation," Korten, said. "That it's deliberately very negative, which is a matter of great concern because that is not accurate."

Korten said he doesn't believe such activities are widespread — though the lessons will certainly vary.

In Kolowith's Tampa class, students gathered around a white carpet, where they examined a pile of bright plastic fruits and vegetables, baby dolls, construction paper and other items as they decided what would be best for their voyage.

"Do you think it would be good to take babies on a long and dangerous boat ride?" he asked the class. "No!" they replied.

Fifteen miles away, in Seffner, Fla., Colson Elementary assistant principal Jack Keller visited students in a colonial outfit and gray wig, pretending to be Columbus and discussing his voyages. The suffering of natives was not mentioned.

"Our thing was to show exploration," he said.

Meanwhile, Crawford's Pennsylvania class dressed up as characters from the era, assigned roles for a mock trial and put Columbus on the stand. Out of a jury of 12 students, nine found him guilty of the charges.

"Every hero is somebody else's villain," said Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, a scholar and author of several books related to Columbus, including "1492: The Year the World Began."

"Heroism and villainy are just two sides of the same coin."

Associated Press writer Dorie Turner in Atlanta contributed to this report.

Filmmakers Reconsider Columbus

2009-10-09T01:32:00.005-04:00

New York, NY (UCTP Taino News) - Filmmakers Carlos Germosen and Crystal Whelan of Nu Heightz Cinema have produced a new Public Service Announcement (PSA) urging the American Public to "Reconsider Columbus Day".The 60 second spot features a compelling message which they hope will "encourage people to learn the other side to the story of Columbus".

"We want to help shed light on the truth by using mass media" stated Whelan. She continued stating "We hope people will petition for a nationally recognized indigenous holiday to honor the people who were here first."

The producers reached out to local community activists and indigenous organizations like the United Confederation of Taino People to help develop the script.

"We were honored to be asked to collaborate on this project as our ancestors in particular were the first to be negatively impacted by Columbus" stated Roberto Borrero, a representative of the Confederation.

"The issue goes beyond Caribbean Indigenous Peoples however, it is really about society being complacent with symbols of genocide." said Borrero.

The Reconsider Columbus Day PSA is currently being featured on You Tube and the producers are working to broadcast it on local television networks. Nu Heights Cinema has also set up a Reconsider Columbus Day website at www.reconsidercolumbusday.org to help bring more attention to the issue.

10.08.2009

Treaty Council Expands Board of Directors

2009-09-29T23:54:00.006-04:00

Panama (UCTP Taino News) - At its recent meeting held in Panama, the International Indian Treaty Council (IITC) voted in representatives from Mexico and the Caribbean to its Board of Directors. Founded in 1974, the IITC is an organization of Indigenous Peoples from North, Central, and South America, the Pacific, and most recently from the Caribbean, working together for the sovereignty and self-determination of Indigenous Peoples as well as the recognition and protection of Indigenous Rights, treaties, traditional cultures and sacred lands.

The nominations of Saul Vicente Vasquez (Zapoteca) of Oaxaca, Mexico and Naniki Reyes Ocasio (Taino) of Boriken (Puerto Rico) were unanimously accepted by all standing board members. Roberto Borrero (Taino) was also nominated for and accepted as an alternate Board member. Both Reyes Ocasio and Borrero are representatives of the United Confederation of Taino People.

The IITC Board meeting followed a special Human Rights Workshop and the annual International Treaty Council Conference with indigenous representatives arriving in Kuna Nation territory from throughout the Americas.

UCTPTN 09.29.2009

No cocktail for Columbus at Cuba landing monument

2009-09-15T15:22:00.005-04:00

CAYO BARIAY, Cuba (Reuters) -- "A Columbus cocktail?" asked the bartender with a quizzical look.

A visitor had asked whether the bar at windy Bariay Bay, the first place in Cuba where Christopher Columbus set foot on his 1492 voyage, had concocted a special drink in honor of the world-famous navigator and explorer.

But like much else in communist-led Cuba, history gets a different twist at the Bar Corocote, part of an oddball monument to Columbus at the site.

"We do have the Corocote (cocktail)," says bartender Alexandr Gomez Gonzalez, pushing back the cocked hat he wears as part of his Christopher Columbus costume.

Made from honey, coconut juice and rum, the Corocote is named after the god of virility worshiped by the indigenous Taino people who lived here when Columbus made landfall on October 28, 1492.

The drink is said to boost a man's virility, Gomez said, slyly glancing toward a stone likeness of Corocote perched by the front door.

The crouching little figure, with the barest hint of a smile and a significant male appendage, looked like he had drunk several of his namesake cocktails.

Located on Cuba's northeastern coast, in Holguin province about 500 miles east of Havana, Bariay National Monument Park is far enough off the beaten path so that, especially in Cuba's summer low season, days can go by without visitors.

Park employees pass the time watching DVDs of Miami television programs while they wait for tourists.

When visitors pull up, the employees greet them with a full-costume re-enactment of Columbus' arrival.

His landing is commemorated by a lone plaque, almost lost amid sculptures of Taino gods, a replica of a Taino village -- which includes the bar -- and the ruins of a marker, toppled last year by Hurricane Ike, for a small Taino archeological site.

The shore, now a badly eroded beach, where Columbus and his crew landed their boat is unmarked and obscured by vegetation.

A few minutes drive from the landing site, the Cuban government has constructed a monument in which Spanish-style columns are arrayed in the shape of an arrow. The arrow's tip plunges into the heart of a formation of Taino gods.

Columbus might be surprised by the apparently sinister message projected by this monument, at least as it applies to his Bariay stop, because he landed there hoping to make contact with natives but saw none.

The Italian-born explorer, sailing under the Spanish crown and in search of a sea route to India, had first encountered the New World two weeks before in the Bahamas, where the islanders told him of a great landmass to the southwest.

He mistakenly thought it must be the Asian continent and set sail in that direction.

His small fleet - the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria -- entered what is now Cuba's Bariay Bay because its wide mouth offered safe passage. Then the explorers went ashore at a small village where they assumed they would find inhabitants.

But by the time they landed, the frightened Taino villagers had run away into the surrounding wilderness.

After a quick look inside the natives' conical, wood-and- palm-frond structures, the explorers returned to their ship and sailed away the next day, landing again a few miles west at what is now Gibara.

There, he had better luck meeting natives, stayed a few days, and for many years it was thought that Gibara was where he first touched Cuban soil.

Although his visit to Bariay was brief, its lush flora and fauna and nearby mountains so impressed him that he wrote in his log it was "the most beautiful place human eyes have seen."

He gave enough of a description, including of a distinctive mosque-shaped mountain, that nearly five centuries later, historians decided Bariay, not Gibara, was the place he wrote about.

Cuba's ambivalent monument to Columbus reflects the long debate about whether his epic voyage of discovery was good or bad for the New World.

But its importance is not in question, said historian Keith Pickering, who runs www.columbusnavigation.com, a website for Columbus buffs.

"This is perhaps the most significant event in human history. It is almost as though everything from the previous five centuries leads up to it, and everything in the following five centuries flows from it," he said.

The opinion from Bar Corocote is less admiring for Columbus.

Sitting under its palm roof, taking refuge from the tropical sun while waiting for tourists, park guide Misleidis Mendez Marrero says Columbus was a historical catastrophe for Cuba's original inhabitants.

"It depends on your point of view, but I feel like it wasn't good because the natives here were practically the kings, the owners of this place -- and with the arrival of Columbus, their lives began to totally change," she said.

Author: Jeff Franks
Source: Caribbean Net News

Taíno Celebrate Diversity in the Bronx

2009-09-11T15:09:00.003-04:00

Members of the Cacibahagua Taino Cultural Society share Taino culture in the Bronx, NY (Photo: Pedro Navarro)

Bronx, NY (UCTP Taíno News) – Members of the Taíno community participated in the first annual Cultural Diversity Festival held in Kingsbridge Heights, Bronx, NY on Sept. 6, 2009. The festival was organized by the Kingsbridge Heights Neighborhood Improvement Association. Cultural presentations included programs by members of the Cacibajagua Taíno Cultural Society, Afro Boricua, “La Bruja” Caridad de La Luz, and Cetiliztli Nauhcampa Quetzalcoatl in Ixachitlan, an indigenous Mexica community group and others. The event also featured vendors, games for children, information tables, and a “Little Miss Kingsbridge” pageant.

UCTPTN 09.11.2009

Taino Honor the Moon in Ohio

2009-09-08T12:28:00.002-04:00

Leni MaisGuariche Sague and Dr. Rose Xochitl Anao Quiñones
honor the full moon and Taino culture in Ohio.
(Photo courtesy of M. Sague)

Youngstown, Ohio (UCTP Taino News) - On Saturday September 5, members of the Caney Indigenous Spiritual Circle joined representatives of the United Confederation of Taino People (UCTP) in the city of Youngstown, Ohio to honor the full moon with ceremony and educational events.

The special gathering was held at Boardman Park and officially hosted by the Ohio Liaison Office of the UCTP, and its representative Dr. Rose Xochitl Anao Quiñones. The ceremony was facilitated by Miguel Sobaoko Koromo Sague. Both the Confederation and the Caney Spiritual Circle maintained information tables at the event allowing participants an opportunity to learn more about ancient and contemporary Taino culture.

During the ceremonial portion of the gathering, Dr. Quiñones and Leni MaisGuariche Sague highlighted the importance of the 28 day moon cycle in Taino culture. Other Taino community members who traveled from New York and Philadelphia also shared teachings and participated throughout the day. Those gathered were greeted by the full moon and a perfectly clear sky as the ceremony concluded.

UCTPTN 09.08.2009

Taino Documentary Turns Lens to Boriken

2009-09-05T19:38:00.008-04:00

UCTP Liaison Officer Roger Guayakan Hernandez,
Naniki Reyes Ocasio of the Caney Quinto Mundo,
and videographer Ray Ibsen meet in Orocovis, Boriken.
(Photo: A. Zacarias)

Boriken/Puerto Rico (UCTP Taino News) - Emmy Award winning team Alex Zacarias (Producer/Director) and videographer Ray Ibsen traveled to Boriken (Puerto Rico) in August to continue work on their Taino documentary production.

The filmmakers interviewed various members of the island's local Taino community including representatives of the Consejo General de Taino Borincanos, the Caney Quinto Mundo, the United Confederation of Taino People and others. The team also interviewed the Hon.Victor L. Vassallo Anadón of Puerto Rico’s House of Representatives and Dr. Juan Martinez Cruzado, a Geneticist at the University of Puerto Rico.

Zacarias noted that the recent trip to Boriken resulted in the gathering of enough film footage and information to pursue the funding needed to continue production.

UCTPTN 09.05.2009

UN Observes International Indigenous Peoples Day

2009-08-11T17:21:00.005-04:00

Program Master of Ceremonies Roberto Borrero (Taino) and UN Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro at the 2009 Observance of the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples. (UN Photo)

United Nations (UCTP Taíno News) – An official observance commemorating the United Nations International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples was held at UN headquarters in New York on Monday. The program was organized by the Secretariat of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, in cooperation with the NGO Committee on the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples and the New York Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The theme of the observance at UN Headquarters was "Indigenous Peoples and HIV/AIDS".

The event included messages from the United Nations Secretary-General, the President of the UN General Assembly, the Under-Secretary General for Economic and Social Affairs, and the Chairperson of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. There were also performances by indigenous artists, and a panel discussion on "Indigenous Peoples and HIV/AIDS".

In his message to mark the day, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon emphasized the vulnerability of indigenous peoples to HIV/ AIDS. “It is essential that indigenous peoples have access to the information and infrastructure necessary for detection, treatment and protection,” he noted.

Other observances for the UN Indigenous Day were held around the world with events celebrated in Suriname, Brazil, Northeast India, Nepal, and Geneva among others.

UCTPTN 08.11.2009

Kalinago Carib Elect New Chief in Dominica

2009-08-07T17:01:00.000-04:00

Waitukubuli/Dominica (UCTP Taino News) - Elections were held in July in the Carib territory of Dominica, West Indies to choose a Chief for a new 5-year term of office. Former Chief Garnet Joseph won the election over incumbent Charles Williams.

Joseph said his work focus will include health, education and respect for council members in the Territory. The new chief has also pledged to bring more development to the 3,800-acre (1,538-hectare) territory, where Caribs live in greater poverty than the rest of the country. Dominica is home to about 3,000 Caribs, or ethnic Kalinagos.

UCTPTN 08.07.2009

Boricua Legislative Pioneer Olga Méndez Dies at 84

2009-08-04T18:52:00.006-04:00

El Barrio, New York (UCTP Taino News) - Olga A. Méndez, the first Boricua woman elected to a state legislature in the continental United States, died last Wednesday at her East Harlem home. Méndez (84) represented "El Barrio" (East Harlem) and parts of the Bronx in the New York State Senate for 26 years.

Responding to the news from Boriken (Puerto Rico), Roger Guayacan Hernandez stated that Méndez “was well-respected both in New York and Boriken for being a true pioneer for women's issues and family rights."

Hernandez, a Liaison for the United Confederation of Taino People also noted that the former Senator “was well-versed in local history and she supported the efforts of the UCTP”.

Born in Mayagüez, Boriken on Feb. 5, 1925, Mendez moved to New York City in the 1950s. She was proud of her heritage and insisted on being known as Puerto Rican and rejected the terms Hispanic and Latino.

UCTPTN 08.04.2009

Memo to the Media: Puerto Rican Is Not a Race

2009-07-16T10:25:00.005-04:00

Time magazine said it. So did CNN. The New York Times said it, too.

In fact, without exception, every major United States media outlet has, in one way or another, reported on Republican (and other) fears of Supreme Court justice nominee Sonia Sotomayor's potential for "racial bias," given her Puerto Rican ethnicity and her now infamous comments about a "wise Latina" making better choices than a "white man."

I've watched it all as I watch so much of what passes for journalism in my beloved, forgetful country - which is to say with a mixture of concern, annoyance, and indigestion.

Astoundingly, not one media outlet has bothered to report what, to me, is a glaringly obvious omission in the discussion about Sotomayor and race: Puerto Ricans, like all other Hispanics/Latinos, can be of any race, and are. Latinos/Hispanics are not a racial group, according to our own Census Bureau, which, incidentally, created the amorphous (and many might argue, false)category in the 1970s.

The term Hispanic can be applied to anyone with any ancestry of any "race" in any place in the world where people either once spoke Spanish (like the state of Colorado) or currently speak Spanish. Latino encompasses all of that, and also adds to the mix anyone else in Latin America, where there are nations that speak Portuguese, Dutch, English, French and dozens of Native American tongues.

In Sotomayor's case, this unfounded fear of reverse racism is patently absurd when one considers the history of Puerto Rico, the land of her ancestry. Cheek swabs from the local population reflect what history illustrates, which is that Puerto Rico is one of the most racially diverse places on earth. Just as there is no single Hispanic/Latino race, there is no Puerto Rican race, either; there are many.

When Cristobal Colon (Christopher Columbus to some of us) landed on the island that is now known as Puerto Rico in 1492, he "discovered" at least 60,000 Arawak or Taino Indians already living there. According to Columbus's own diaries, he and his European cohorts were mortified by the nakedness of the Indians, and by their generosity and unwillingness to understand the concept of, you know, owning stuff. Their lack of Catholicism proved problematic, too. In short order, nearly all of the Indians in Puerto Rico were enslaved and slaughtered in thename of Jesus; most died.

The European settlers (aka white men) then imported slaves to the island from West Africa, though to a lesser extent than in Haiti and Jamaica, where as much as 90 percent of the population by the 19th century were of African descent. The census in Puerto Rico in 1834 showed that 11% of the population were African or Indian slaves, 35% were colored freemen and 54% were white.

The subsequent history of Puerto Rico was, therefore, not all that different from the history of, say, Louisiana, or Alabama, except that the genocide and slave-owning happened in the European language of Spanish rather than the European language of English or French. Spanish, contrary to the pontificating of Lou Dobbs and Michael Savage, is not native to Latin America.

But somehow, in the magical world of American identity politics, all of this history is conveniently forgotten - or worse, never learned - in the discussion of Puerto Rico, Sotomayor, and race. Suddenly, in the scary America inhabited by most Republicans and worried white men, we have a Latino/Hispanic "race" that, in addition to being hot, spicy and, oh, I don't know, passionate and volatile (keywords often employed by the media in discussing us), is magically removed from the white, black and Indian races that make up the history of all of the Americas. Suddenly, white male Republican types fear that a Puerto Rican woman is going to be racist against white men, even though white men were the very people who colonized Puerto Rico, and even though it would be difficult to find a racially whiter man than, say, Ricky Martin, and even though Puerto Rico is full of white men, and black men, and brown men, etc.

Sotomayor's own ignorant comments - and I am pleased to see she recanted this week for the idiot statement about "a wise Latina" - seem to have been steeped in the myth of a single Latino/Hispanic race or, for that matter, ethnicity. I can only assume that one as educated and wise as Sotomayor makes such remarks to appease ignorant masses of Americans, Latino and otherwise, who simply don't know better and wouldn't understand it if you explained it all to them. For every American who is terrified by the mythological notion of a Latino/Hispanic race, there is another American who is proud of it. In America, as elsewhere, erroneous perceptions, repeated enough times, can unfortunately become the dominant understanding of a misunderstood reality, in spite of history and all the ghosts who wish to tell us their stories.

Puerto Rico, like the rest of the Americas, is a complex, multiracial, multicultural place. The people there have a complex and fascinating history, including a difficult relationship with the United States that, if anything, should be the one issue giving any Republican true pause.

That Sotomayor might harbor some bias based upon her Puerto Rican-ness is not an unreasonable thought; we all harbor some biases based upon our backgrounds - it is just that certain people's biases get to be called "truth" while others' getto be called "militancy". But a Puerto Rican bias would not necessarily be a racial one. Colonial? Perhaps. Economic? Maybe. Nationalistic? Perchance. But not racial.

There is no more a Puerto Rican race than there is an American one.

Author: Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez
Source: http://www.alternet.org/

Elder Artist honored in Jayuya

2009-07-15T17:57:00.003-04:00

Jayuya, Boriken (UCTP Taino News) – On the occasion of his 50th Anniversary in the arts, Miguel Ángel Guzmán was honored by family, friends, artists, and supporters in a reception held at Galeria Maboiti in Jayuya. The July 2nd event featured selected art-works from Guzman and artist Olga Reyes.

Among the attendees were the honorable Mayor of Jayuya Georgie Gonzalez, representatives of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, CATTA-COOP, and the Boriken Liaison Office of the United Confederation of Taino People.

In honor of the special occasion, the UCTP Liaison Office presented Guzman with a specially designed Taino “cinturon” commemorative sculpture and a donation to support the arts education workshop he developed with Reyes at their Galeria Saguay in Paso Palmas, Utuado.

On behalf of the UCTP Liaison Office, Eva Tona Lazu expressed her appreciation of Guzman and Reyes' dedication and she looked forward to their continued success.

The special exhibition and reception was hosted by the Office of Mayor Gonzalez who declared Miguel Angel Guzman "an honorary son of Jayuya."

Photo: Miguel Guzman and Eva Tona Lazu in Utuado

UCTPTN 07.15.2009

Indigenous Peoples call for President’s return

2009-07-13T17:48:00.001-04:00

Honduras (UCTP Taino News) - While world watches events unfold around the recent political coup d'etat in Honduras, Indigenous Peoples of the country are calling for the return of deposed President Manuel Zelaya. National indigenous organizations such as the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), the Indigenous Coordinating Body of Mesoamerica and the Caribbean (CIMCA), and MASTA or Moskitia United, have all issued press releases concerning their opposition to Zelaya's forced removal from power.

Honduras is home to the Lenca, Miskitu, Tawahka, Pech, Maya-Chorti, Tolupan, Garifuna, Creole, Nahoa, and Chorotega peoples. Reports from local indigenous leaders assert that they are being prevented from protesting and being targeted for persecution by the coup leadership. Zelaya's indigenous supporters also contend that real motive behind the coup was that the opposition feared plans for a new constitution that could provide more rights and protections to Indigenous Peoples and other Hondurans.

UCTPTN 07.13.2009

Guzmán Celebrating 50 Years in the Arts

2009-06-29T13:02:00.005-04:00

Utuado, Borikén (UCTP Taíno News) – Celebrated artist and elder community member, Miguel Angel Guzmán will be featured in a special exhibition honoring his 50 years in the Arts. The exhibition will be held at Galeria Maboití, Museo del Cemi in Cedetra, Jayuya. The exhibit will open on July 2 at 6pm with a musical presentation by Guzmán and a reception. The honorable Georgie Gonzalez, the Mayor of Jayuya will host the event.

Born in Barrio Caníaco in Utuado in 1939, Guzmán recently celebrated his 70 birthday in Utuado at a special gathering attended by local artists, friends, and supporters including representatives of the Consejo General de Tainos Borincanos and the UCTP Borikén Liaison Office.

Among his many distinctions, Guzman is credited with founding Taller Herencia Indigena, the Taino arts workshop operating near the Caguana Ceremonial Center in Utuado. The Taller Herencia Indigena celebrates Borikén’s (Puerto Rico) indigenous legacy through the arts.

UCTPTN 06.29.2009

Bermuda’s 400th anniversary celebration to honor Native Peoples

2009-06-17T13:37:00.003-04:00

UCTP Taino News – As part of the island of Bermuda’s 400th anniversary celebrations, the St. David’s Island Community will host its fifth Native American Festival on Saturday June 20th and Sunday June 21st, 2009. Previous festivals were hailed as over-whelming successes locally and internationally. The special event is held on the St David’s County Cricket Field and it continues to grow with about 2000 local people attending.

The festival began as a project to reconnect St. David’s Native American descendants with their contemporaries from East coast areas of the United States. The historical record reveals that Indigenous Peoples were taken from the United States as well as from around the Caribbean region to Bermuda as part of the slave trade in the 1700s.

About 80 American Indian representatives have been invited to attend and participate in the cultural festival, which will highlight American Indian song, dance, story telling and craft making as well as local artisans.

Among the invited delegates, Mildred Karaira Gandia (Boriken Taino) will represent the United Confederation of Taino People at this historic anniversary event. Gandia will present an official statement to the gathering which is expected to include Bermuda’s Governor, his Excellently Sir Richard Gozney among other Bermudan government officials and dignitaries.

North of the Bahamas in the mid-Atlantic, Bermuda's settlement began in 1609. Contrary to popular belief Bermuda is not one island – but a string of islands now linked by causeways and bridges.

UCTPTN 06.17.2009

PR Representative Vassallo urges respect for Taino

2009-06-16T17:43:00.006-04:00

Ponce, Boriken (UCTP Taino News) – Representing District 25, Ponce – Jayuya, the Hon. Victor L. Vassallo Anadón this week urged the citizens and government of Puerto Rico and federal agencies to respect the island’s “sacred national patrimony” and the rights of the Taino People. The official statement was presented to the Boriken Liaison Office of the United Confederation of Taino People in the form of a proclamation displaying the seal of the Puerto Rican House of Representatives. The proclamation issued by Vassallo recognizes Taino People as pre-Columbian inhabitants of Puerto Rico whose descendants remain on the island today.

Photo: In Ponce, UCTP Boriken Liaison Roger Guayakan Hernandez looks on as the Hon. Victor L. Vassallo Anadón signs the official proclamation urging respect for Taino People in Puerto Rico.

UCTPTN 06.16.2008

Free Screening of Quest of the Carib Canoe in LA

2009-06-10T12:00:00.003-04:00

Los Angeles, California (UCTP Taino News) – As part of the “Bringing the Circle Together” Native American Film Series, the film “Quest of the Carib Canoe” will be featured at 7pm on Thursday, June 18, 2009 at the National Center for Preservation of Democracy (NCPD) in Los Angeles, California.

Directed by renowed filmmaker Eugene Jarecki, the film highlights the voyage of a group Kalinago Carib community members and supporters as they sail nearly 1000 miles in a traditionally made canoe from their home on the island of Dominica in the British West Indies to South America to rediscover their ancestral heritage.

Special guests for the evening include poet Kantuta and Cheryl Noralez of the Cheryl Noralez, a Caribbean Indigenous organization in LA that focuses on the preservation of Carib and African roots.

The free screening of ‘Quest of the Carib Canoe” will take place at the NCPD located at 111 North Central Avenue, between 1st Street and Central Avenue, in downtown Los Angeles. The NCPD can be reached via train, bus, or parking in the area. Films will begin at 7pm, and it is advisable to arrive at least 15-20 minutes prior for seating.

The “Bringing the Circle Together: A Native American Film Series” is a free monthly series established to present quality documentaries by and about Indigenous cultures of the Americas.

The film series is hosted by Lorin Morgan-Richards and is sponsored by Garifuna Heritage Foundation, The Japanese American National Museum; Hecho de Mano; Nahui Ohlin; and SCIC-InterTribal Entertainment. For additional information see http://www.myspace.com/nafilmseries.

UCTPTN 06.10.2009

Massacre in the Peruvian Amazon

2009-06-09T23:27:00.005-04:00

The Peruvian military attacked unarmed Indigenous protesters in Bagua Chica, in the northern Amazon region. The attack which included snipers and helicopters started early last Friday until late Saturday. (Photo: © Enlace Nacional & Catapa)

Peru (UCTP Taino News) - Effectively shutting down parts of the Amazon and the Andes for over 50 days, local Peruvian communities have been engaging in massive strikes organized to protest government proposed development in the region. On Friday, June 5 the peaceful protests were met with a violent military response by the Peruvian government leaving civilians and police dead with hundreds more injured.

As a result of an almost total media blackout, unconfirmed casualty reports from the area have ranged from 38 civilians and 10 police to 100 civilians and 22 police dead.

On April 9, an "indefinite strike" began throughout the Amazon region to protest the Peruvian Congress' failure to review six government decrees that are identified by local leaders as endangering the rights of Indigenous Peoples. These decrees were issued by Peruvian President Alan García Pérez and relate to the implementation of Free Trade Agreements signed with the United States and Canada. Opposed by Indigenous Peoples, the legislation paves the way for oil, mineral, and agricultural exploitation in the ecologically sensitive region.

Following an international Indigenous Peoples summit held in Puno, Peru last week, the Coordinating Body of Andean Indigenous Organizations (CAOI) issued a call for an “international denunciation” of President García Pérez and his administration for the “bloody repression of Indigenous Peoples in the Peruvian Amazon”. The CAOI has called upon indigenous organizations, social movements and human rights organizations around the world to take concrete action by sending letters to the Peruvian government, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Indigenous Peoples and other relevant parties to demand an end to the violence and respect for indigenous rights.

A coalition of indigenous, human rights and environmental organizations are urging the Garcia Government to step down and cease violent confrontations by the military.

AIDESEP, the national indigenous organization of Peru has called for a nationwide general strike starting June 11th. Emergency solidarity demonstrations are being scheduled at Peruvian Embassies around the world to coincide with the national actions. For additional information visit the Amazon Watch and AIDESEP websites.

UCTPTN 06.09.2009

New law Threatens Ancient Indigenous Patrimony in Puerto Rico

2009-06-04T20:24:00.005-04:00

San Juan, Boriken (UCTP Taino News) - The Puerto Rican Senate and House of Representatives are deliberating on the approval of revised Permit Law Projects that opponents state would endanger the Caribbean island’s environmental and archeological patrimony. Local archeologists, environmentalists, and indigenous Taino groups are calling on the government to abandon this process involving Permit Law Projects No. 880 in the Senate and No. 1649 in the House of Representatives.

The Permit Law Projects are being touted as much needed initiatives that would to re-structure and expedite construction permits on the island. As noted by several public statements made by those opposed to the projects, the proposed legislation would nullify current legal protections for environmental and archaeological resources while favoring development with little oversight.

“This proposed policy would also regulate ‘public’ participation in these processes to an informal position” stated Naniki Reyes Ocasio, a local Taino community leader.

Reyes Ocasio continued stating “This permit law proposal is a violation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, an international human rights law standard that calls for prior and informed consent.”

A demonstration calling on the government to abandon the current Permit Law Projects will be held tomorrow, Friday June 5 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The event will begin at 11am at “Puente Dos Hermanos” in the Condado area where Ashford Avenue ends and leads into Old San Juan. For more information on the demonstration contact “Coalición Todo Puerto Rico Por Puerto Rico” at 787-274-8087, 787-502-0194 or bsantiago@alianzaseiu.org.

UCTPTN 06.04.2009

Pakuri Arawak Community Elects New Chief

2009-06-04T15:23:00.006-04:00

Pakuri Lokono Territory, Guyana (UCTP Taino News) - On Saturday May 30th 2009 democratic elections were held on the 2,000 person 240 sq. mile Pakuri Lokono Arawak Territory in Guyana, South America.

At Pakuri, 25% of the population is of voting age (18 years+), with 75% of the population of Pakuri being of 17 years or younger. The population of Pakuri has doubled in the last 16 years - up from a 1992 estimate of 1,000 persons; making it one of the fastest growing indigenous communities in Guyana.

Campaigning for the post of Chief were 3 Lokono-Arawak men - Telford Taylor, Mark Bernard, and Ernest Dundas.

Chief Dundas won with roughly 60% of the vote, Mr. Bernard came second with approximately 30%; and Mr. Taylor third with about 10% of the vote.

The community also democratically elected all 8 members appointed by Chief Dundas to form his Village Council - which is the Tribal Government of Pakuri Arawak Territory. The new council includes former Chief Pierre Andrews - who recently represented Pakuri at the 3rd Indigenous Leaders Summit of the Americas held in Panama, Central America.

The next elections at Pakuri are due to be held again in May 2012.

Photo: Pierre Andrews and Ernest Dunda in Pakuri Lokono Arawak Territory, Guyana

Reporter: Damon Corrie
UCTPTN 06.04.2006

Author Dr. Ivan Van Sertima passes at 74

2009-06-02T17:14:00.001-04:00

UCTP Taino News - Guyanese-British historian, linguist, journalist, and anthropologist Ivan Van Sertima passed away on 25 May, 2009 at 74. Van Sertima was noted for his ‘Afrocentric’ theory of pre-Columbian contact between Africa and the Americas. One of his best known publications is titled “They Came Before Columbus”. This work was criticized by academic specialists who accused Van Sertima's cultural outlook of being disparaging to Native American achievements among other issues. Van Sertima also appeared before a United States Congressional committee in 1987 to challenge giving credit for the discovery of America to Christopher Columbus.

UCTPTN 06.02.0229