INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AND THE FREE TRADE AREA OF THE AMERICAS: AN ALTERNATIVE SUMMIT, CALL FOR PAPERS, PANELS AND INVOLVEMENT
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INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AND THE FREE TRADE AREA OF THE AMERICAS: AN
ALTERNATIVE SUMMIT, CALL FOR PAPERS, PANELS AND INVOLVEMENT
SALLE KONDIARIONK, HURON RESERVE, QUEBEC CITY, April 19-21
The proposal to create the FTAA extends a process of imperial
globalization that began in 1492 and continues yet. Once again the
geopolitical map of the Americas is about to be redrawn in ways that
violate the titles, treaties and basic human rights of the hemisphere's
First Nations. The FTAA continues the genocidal tradition which began
with the founding of New Spain, New England, New France, New Netherlands
etc as jurisdictions based on the absorption of Indian lands, usually
without Indian consent.
Again and again the map of America has been redrawn in Europe on the
assumption that the hemisphere's Indigenous peoples are inferior and
subordinate and have no fundamental right to a say in deciding what
happens on First Nations lands and territories. This process began when
the Pope apportioned the Americas for Spain and Portugal. It continued
with the founding of the USA as an engine of genocidal western
expansion. The Treaty of Paris which granted the USA its original land
base in 1783, the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the absorption of the
northern part of Mexico into the USA in 1848, the USA's purchase of
Alaska in 1867, the transfer of the land titles of the Hudson's Bay
Company to the Dominion of Canada in 1869, and the creation of the Noth
America Free Trade Area in 1993, all were negotiated as if the
hemisphere's Indigenous peoples didn't exist. Now the ministerial
gathering in Quebec City points to the prospect of yet another redrawing
of the map of the hemisphere with the creation of what is being called
the Free Trade Area of the Americas. Such an illegal imposition on all
the hemisphere's citizens projects into new jurisdictional frontiers the
Columbian Conquests which began in 1492.
The USA's notorious violations of its 400 or so treaties with Indigenous
peoples shows that the world's only remaining Superpower has no respect
for the sanctity of treaties and for the requirements of living within
the framework of international law. The USA added to its notorious
reputation in 1871, when the American Congress passed a law excluding
the American government from the international juridical principles as
they then existed. From that time forward the USA has been an outlaw
state in terms of its failure to respect even the limited requirements
of international law mandating the purchase through treaty of Aboriginal
title before non-Aboriginal settlement can proceed.
The events leading up to the Trail of Tears as well as the country's
horrific genocides make the USA one of the world's most grievous
perpetrators of that genre of international crime which has recently
been labelled "ethnic cleansing." The founding of the state of
California as the result of a particularly violent gold rush make that
jurisdiction the site of especially horrific crimes against humanity.
The tradition of the Indian wars continued into recent times with
particular severity in the US backed reign of terror directed against
Mayan peoples in Guatemala. As Nobel Peace Prize Rigobertu Menchu has
clarified, this ruthless genocide against her own peoples was aimed at
destroying the Indian way of life. Until those violations are addressed
in appropriate venues for the arbitration of international crimes
against humanity, there is no reason for Indigenous peoples, or, for
that matter, any other people throughout the Americas to have trust in a
new treaty creating a FTAA. Such a treaty would violate hundreds of
earlier treaties made with First Nations peoples throughout the
Americas. Such a treaty which would formalize the USA's hegemonic
dominance in a hemisphere bathed with Indian blood in the ongoing
Columbian Conquests.
From April 19-21, the Huron Reserve in Quebec City, the current capital
of Wendake, will be the site of an alternative summit to highlight the
many issues in and around the relationships of Indigenous peoples
throughout the Americas to the proposed FTAA. The meetings will take
place at Salle Kondiaronk on the Huron reserve at Loretteville. This
community is situated about eight miles from downtown Quebec City. This
announcement includes a request for proposals for presentations,
presenters and panel discussions of relevance to the idea of the FTAA as
a violation of the basic human rights of all the hemisphere's citizens,
but most especially of the First Nations. This alternative summit can be
the site of a wide array of discussions, including those pertaining to
environmental, labour and women's issues. The gathering will be in the
tradition of the freedom fighters in the Zapatista movement in Mexico.
In 1994 the Zapatistas announced their resistance to the North American
Free Trade Agreement by asserting Indian jurisdiction over parts of
Chiapas. Basta!
Contact:
Tony Hall,
Department of Native American Studies,
University of Lethbridge, Alberta Canada
[email protected]
Linda Sioui,
Wendake Nation,
Village des Hurons, Quebec City
[email protected]
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