Friday, December 21, 2007

Towards the Unconditional Return of All Tribal Lands

After over 500 years of European rule in the Americas and about 100 years after the last of the "wild" Indians were massacred at Wounded Knee, 150 in all including women and children, the tide may finally be turning for the Indigenous people of these lands.

Evo Morales, an Aymara Indian, was recently elected to the presidency of Bolivia and has proposed a new constitution which would recognize the rights of the country's indigenous population to their tribal lands including natural resources (this is what really frightens the avaricious oligarchs in the wealthier provinces of the country -- not the lifting of term limits so often publicized by the U.S. news media which is actually not uncommon in many of Europe's democracies).

At the same time, further north, representatives of the Lakota Sioux Indians (including three veteran A.I.M. activists who were at Wounded Knee during the 1973 takeover) have declared independence from the U.S. citing years of treaty violations and other grievances. The delegation has already met with representatives of the Bolivian government which has expressed interest in the Lakota Sioux cause.

Hopefully this is just the beginning.

1 comment:

جبهة التهييس الشعبية said...

i m very happy for this news
i think natives have to work harder to gain full citizenship