Alaska Inter-Tribal Council : Advocating for Alaska Tribal Governments

CAMAII!

From September 13 through 24, 2004, and again on November 29 through December 3, 2004, the United Nations is conducting two negotiating sessions for the United Nations Working Group on a Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (WGDD). This U.N. Draft Declaration has been under consideration by the U.N. member governments since 1994. The draft contains 45 Articles which states, very clearly, the various Rights that Indigenous Peoples can have and practice that other peoples enjoy freely throughout the world.

After years of effort from Indigenous Peoples, Tribes and Nations the United Nations General Assembly finally passed Resolution 48/163 on December 21, 1993 which led to the U.N. Proclamation of the International Decade of the World’s Indigenous Peoples to run 10 December 1994 to December 2004. During this period the U.N. High Commissioner appointed as the Coordinator of the International Decade, reported information on and analyses of the activities with meetings with the Indigenous Peoples, Tribes and Nations, the United Nations system, States (National Governments in Europe and others within that Continent and foreign Colonial Governments within all of the “Americas” and other places like Australia), non-governmental organizations and others. The end result of these activities produced the above draft Declaration.

Although Foreign and Colonial Governments, like the United States of America, which operates totally within the Boundaries and Jurisdictions of the Indigenous Peoples Lands, did not openly welcome these International Proclamations nor the above draft Declaration the United Nations and the rest of the International community moved to go forward with the above activities and set dates and agendas to discuss the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
For the first time in the history of the United Nations General Assembly Meetings the Indigenous Peoples who have been involved with the writing of the draft Declaration will be present and allowed to participate in the negotiations. Other Indigenous Peoples, Tribes and Nations who are able to travel to Geneva, Switzerland will also be allowed to participate along with their fellow Peoples.

For most peoples, even some Indigenous Peoples, the above meetings might not be important to them but for those who have diligently worked on the protection, preservation and perpetuation of all the Indigenous Peoples Rights and the Foreign and Colonial Governments this meeting is very important. The following is a brief explanation of why there is great concern by both sides.

For the Foreign and Colonial Governments and their peoples this Declaration is important to them because they would have to recognize all the Indigenous Peoples in ways that they have purposely and blatantly refused to do so. It has the potential for upsetting all they have done to take lands and resources away from the Indigenous Peoples without their consent and to create inferior Indigenous rights and legal standings within these lands.
For example, many Indigenous Peoples and other peoples throughout the world do not know how Foreign and Colonial Governments and some of their peoples really view the Indigenous Peoples. One documented and recorded view, which is written in the Ecclesiastic (Religious) Decrees, are the 1452 Romanus Pontifex by Pope Nicolas VI and the 1493 Enter Cetera by Pope Alexander VIII, both clearly state that all the Indigenous Peoples are pagans and less than Real Human Beings, therefore, eligible for subjugation, domination and perpetual slavery to the Christian Empire and the Kingdoms and governments of the Christian peoples. Those who refused to accept the Christian faith were ordered to be immediately killed.

The Doctrine of Discovery and the Manifest Destiny were both created using the Christian edicts derived from the Romanus Pontifex and Enter Cetera. The Doctrine of Discovery uses the justification that since the Christian peoples and their governments are more civilized, organized and superior than the pagans and aborigines that they had the right to “discover” and claim those lands for their own which all non-Christians live on and occupy. This is a self-recognition and self-justification by the Foreign and Colonial Governments for their legitimacy of their existence and their taking of Indigenous Lands.
The Manifest Destiny is a simple declaration of superior military might and power over those Peoples who do not have such instruments. They use this to commit blatant violations of fundamental, inalienable Human Rights and Acts of Genocide with exemptions from punishment from International Covenants on Human Rights and Anti-Genocide Acts. There are implications of divine blessings and direction in both of the documents.

In the United States of America it is with the above perceptions that they have defined their superiority, power and might over Indians (Indigenous Peoples who have lived on and owned these lands for thousands of years) with the United States Code Indians 25 without the consultation, participation and consent of Said Indians. They first reclassified the distinct Inherent Traditional Indigenous Allodial (Absolute) Titled Lands and Resources to aboriginal titles, then to tribal lands, recreated the distinct Inherent Traditional Indigenous Governments into U.S. inferior tribal governments, reclassified Indigenous Peoples to Aborigines, Indians, Eskimos, Natives and then to U.S. Citizens, again, without their consultation, participation and consent. This was specifically done to take away all the Inherent Traditional Indigenous Allodial Tiltled Lands and Resources for their own use and profit.

For many Indigenous Peoples the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples shall recognize, as a minimal standard, that we are all Real Human Beings and deserve the guarantee and protection the Rights accorded to all other Real Human Beings throughout the world. The first five Articles are examples of what is in the Declaration. They are written as follows:

Article 1 Indigenous peoples have the right to the full and effective enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms recognized in the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international human rights law.

Article 2 Indigenous individuals and peoples are free and equal to all other individuals and peoples and dignity and rights, and have the right to be free from any kind of adverse discriminations, in particular that based on their indigenous origin or identity.

Article 3 Indigenous peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.

Article 4 Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain and strengthen their distinct political, economical, social and cultural characteristics, as well as their legal systems, while retaining their rights to participate fully, if they chose, in the political, economical, social and cultural life of the State.

Article 5 Every indigenous individual has the right to a nationality.

So what does the five Articles mean to Indigenous Peoples? I can only explain the Articles using what I am most familiar and intimate with, and that is our fundamental, inalienable Inherent Traditional Iupiak Peoples Human Rights.

Article 1 guarantees that all the Iupik Peoples shall have the right to enjoy all their human rights and fundamental freedoms equally and to their full meaning and use as all the other Peoples throughout the world who use the Charter of the United Nations, the Declaration of Human Rights and all the other International Human Rights Laws to enjoy and use theirs.

Article 2 guarantees that all the Iupik Peoples shall have the right to be recognized as they see and declares themselves to be, not as other sees, classifies or defines them. This Article further guarantees that when they define themselves as to who they are no one can discriminate against them based on their declaration.

Article 3 guarantees that Iupik Peoples have the right to determine for themselves what kind of a government they want for themselves, not one that is forced upon them with or without their knowledge, consent or dictated to them. If the Iupik Peoples decide to use the type of government that their Ancestors used before them and not the new foreign IRA’s and “U.S. traditional governments” they have the right to. With this right they have the right to determine whether they want the totally Sovereign Nutmlak Iupiak Governments or use an inferior U.S. tribal government. They have the right to use all of their Nutmlak Iupiak Allodial Titled Lands and Resources for their economic development. They have the right to pursue a better standard of living for themselves. They have the right to make sure that they never lose their language, songs, dances and every thing else that have made all our Ancestors and our Peoples spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically strong for thousands of years.

Article 4 guarantees that the Iupik Peoples have the right to protect, preserve and perpetuate their Nutmlak Iupiak Governments for themselves and the future Iupik Generations. They have the right to seek a world-wide recognition of their Nutmlak Iupiak Nation, Governments and their Nutmlak Allodial Titled Lands and Resource so that they can be on equal footing economically as other governments and peoples throughout the world (like Japan).They have the right to continue to live off their lands and resources as well as develop their resources so that they will be able to freely participate in the world economics (like Japan). They have the right to free and no longer be dependent on others to take care of them. They have the right to determine how they are going to live amongst themselves and practice what they want to practice. They have the right to have their own Nutmlak Iupiak Judicial Systems, Courts, Judges and Law Enforcement using their own Iupik Laws. They also have the right to decide, fully informed of all the pros and cons, knowingly and freely doing what they are doing, to participate in the political, economical, social and cultural life of the United States of America and the State of Alaska.

Article 5 guarantees that the Iupik Peoples have the right to declare that they have and belong to the Nutmlak Iupiak Nation, with distinct Iupik Tribes, like Caninrmiut, Akolmiut, Kaluyarmiut, etc., as their Ancestors have and as the other Indigenous Nations around them have recognized them. This distinction should not be confused with the terms other foreign peoples have familiarized themselves with and use like the following:

Aborigines: people who wander around following the game they eat, with no organized government, distinct and defined lands and an education system. This doesn’t apply to the Iupik Peoples because they always had and still do have Nutmlak Iupiak Governments, always had and still do have distinct Nutmlak Iupiak Allodial Titled Lands Boundaries and Jurisdiction and always had and still do have a comprehensive education system called Iugtun Iuyarak (The Way To Live As A Real Human Being).

Eskimos: a name used by the Algonquin Indigenous Peoples to call the Indigenous Inuit Peoples which means “Eaters of Raw Meat”. The Iupik Peoples like to kasak (eat raw meat and fish) but it is not the primary way the Iupik Peoples traditionally eat their foods, even in treeless areas along the coast. They do not even have a word like that in our language. We call our selves by our Iupik Tribal names or by our nationality IUPIK.

Native: a generic term meaning someone from an area, but when many foreigners used it on Indigenous Peoples it usually is a way of looking down on them as described and defined in the Romanus Pontifex and the Enter Cetera.

Yup’ik: in one of the Kasgit Council of Elders General Assembly meetings one of the Elders pointed out that the spelling of the Russian Orthodox Church was wrong because since they did not know or spoke our language so they could not hear the specific sounds that we make when we say “Eupik”. He said that since we use the letter “I” to represent the “e” sound at the beginning of our words the proper spelling is I-U-P-I-K.

The other 40 Articles are just as import as the first five.

Due to the limited time and space more comprehensive is not provided here. In future publications more in-depth, detailed information and analyses will be provided. For those individuals who have access to the internet they can look up and read all of the above documents in their entirety.
The only caution provided here is that the modern versions of the Papal Bull Decrees mentioned above are not reflective of the original context of the actual Decrees. They have softened or excluded the explicit directions of how to deal with those who reject the conversion to Christian faith. The Ecclesiastic Decrees direct and authorize Christian peoples and government’s Acts of Genocide without having to worry about their God’s wrath and/or their government’s justice.

The following are few of the facts that support the position of the Kasgit Council of Elders and their Members, a Nutmlak Iupiak National Government and the Nutmlak Iupiak Provincial Governments regarding their fundamental, inalienable Nutmlak Iupiak Human Rights, their Nutmlak Iupiak Allodial Titled Lands and Resources and their Nutmlak Iupiak Land Boundaries and Jurisdiction, are as follows:

The United States of America quietly described, justified and adopted their U.S. Allodial Title claims in the United States and their territories during the U.S. Supreme Court Case Johnson vs. McIntosh. This landmark case is where a Presbyterian Minister McIntosh sued Johnson over the land Johnson bought from an Indian. The land in dispute was in a new area the United States acquired from France through the Louisiana Purchase. McIntosh’s belief was that since Johnson bought that land from an Indian, and since the Indians were not legitimate landowners, that Johnson did not own that land. So therefore McIntosh had the right to claim that land for his church. In order to make a decision on the disputed property the Judges first had to prove and establish Jurisdiction over the land. The Judges concluded several key Findings:

1)That the United States has “Allodial Title” over the lands they took from England during the American Revolution War because the King of England already had the “Allodial Title” on those lands.

2)That the United States has “Allodial Title” over the lands they bought from France because France had “Allodial Title” over their lands.

3)Since France had determined that the sale of the land that the Indian sold to Johnson was legitimate because the Indians had Allodial Titles so therefore United States now also had legitimate “Allodial Title” to that land.

On 1820 and 1821 when Russia declared that the other foreign ships could not travel within the waters of Alaska then U.S. President James Monroe wrote the Czar of Russia that Russia did not have titles to the lands and resources, that ONLY the original inhabitants (Alaska Indigenous Peoples) do.

When the United States of America wanted a legal clarification of what they actually bought with the 1867 Treaty of Cessions the Russia’s Lawyer, Kost1ivtsov wrote the 1867 Memorandum, which further affirmed and validated the above facts when he wrote “the Imperial Government, never had any influence upon the mode of division of lands, between said natives, who to the present time, use such lands in perfect freedom, without any foreign interference or restrictions.” The only legal Russian possessions identified were those owned by the Russian American Trading Company which they sold to the United States of America.

On September 1, 2004 the U.S. Department of State conducted an informal meeting with the U.S. Inter-Agency Delegation to the United Nations Working Group on a Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples on new text proposed by the U.S. on the “self-determination” and “lands and territories”. They wanted a consensus with tribal leaders with the U.S. positions. Those of us who attended and represented our Indigenous Peoples and Nations did not consent to the proposed U.S. text because they would give all the rights and powers exclusively to the Foreign and Colonial States to decide on the Inherent Traditional Indigenous Peoples Lands and Resource claims.

Due to the limited time and space more comprehensive findings, documents and comments are not provided here. In future publications more in-depth, detailed information and analyses will be provided. For those individuals who have access to the internet they can look up and read all of the above documents and other pertinent documents, such as the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, Resolution 1803 Permanent Sovereignty over Natural Resources and A Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, in their entirety. They can be found @ www.un.org. The draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples can be found @ http://www.umhchr.ch/huridoca.nsf/(Symbol)E.CN.4.SUB.2.RES.1994.45.En?OpenDocument

As our Ancestors and Elders would say Toingunritok! And may you all have a BEAUTIFUL DAY. Apanguluk Kairaiuak.