Sunday, June 28, 2015

THE MYSTIC LAKE DECLARATION


From the Native Peoples Native Homelands Climate Change Workshop II:
Indigenous Perspectives and Solutions
At Mystic Lake on the Homelands of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community
Prior Lake, Minnesota

November 21, 2009

As community members, youth and elders, spiritual and traditional leaders, Native organizations and supporters of our Indigenous Nations, we have gathered on November 18-21, 2009 at Mystic Lake in the traditional homelands of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Dakota Oyate.  This Second Native Peoples Native Homelands Climate Workshop builds upon the Albuquerque Declaration and work done at the 1998 Native Peoples Native Homelands Climate Change Workshop held in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  We choose to work together to fulfill our sacred duties, listening to the teachings of our elders and the voices of our youth, to act wisely to carry out our responsibilities to enhance the health and respect the sacredness of Mother Earth, and to demand Climate Justice now.

We acknowledge that to deal effectively with global climate change and global warming issues all sovereigns must work together to adapt and take action on real solutions that will ensure our collective existence.  We hereby declare, affirm, and assert our inalienable rights as well as responsibilities as members of sovereign Native Nations. In doing so, we expect to be active participants with full representation in United States and international legally binding treaty agreements regarding climate, energy, biodiversity, food sovereignty, water and sustainable development policies affecting our peoples and our respective Homelands on Turtle Island (North America) and Pacific Islands.

We are of the Earth. The Earth is the source of life to be protected, not merely a resource to be exploited. Our ancestors’ remains lie within her.  Water is her lifeblood.   We are dependent upon her for our shelter and our sustenance.  Our lifeways are the original “green economies.”  We have our place and our responsibilities within Creation’s sacred order.   We feel the sustaining joy as things occur in harmony.  We feel the pain of disharmony when we witness the dishonor of the natural order of Creation and the degradation of Mother Earth and her companion Moon.

We need to stop the disturbance of the sacred sites on Mother Earth so that she may heal and restore the balance in Creation.  We ask the world community to join with the Indigenous Peoples to pray on summer solstice for the healing of all the sacred sites on Mother Earth.

The well-being of the natural environment predicts the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual longevity of our Peoples and the Circle of Life. Mother Earth’s health and that of our Indigenous Peoples are intrinsically intertwined.  Unless our homelands are in a state of good health our Peoples will not be truly healthy.  This inseparable relationship must be respected for the sake of our future generations.  In this Declaration, we invite humanity to join with us to improve our collective human behavior so that we may develop a more sustainable world – a world where the inextricable relationship of biological, and environmental diversity, and cultural diversity is affirmed and protected.

We have the power and responsibility to change.  We can preserve, protect, and fulfill our sacred duties to live with respect in this wonderful Creation.  However, we can also forget our responsibilities, disrespect Creation, cause disharmony and imperil our future and the future of others.

At Mystic Lake, we reviewed the reports of indigenous science, traditional knowledge and cultural scholarship in cooperation with non-native scientists and scholars.  We shared our fears, concerns and insights.  If current trends continue, native trees will no longer find habitable locations in our forests, fish will no longer find their streams livable, and humanity will find their homelands flooded or drought-stricken due to the changing weather.   Our Native Nations have already disproportionately suffered the negative compounding effects of global warming and a changing climate.

The United States and other industrialized countries have an addiction to the high consumption of energy. Mother Earth and her natural resources cannot sustain the consumption and production needs of this modern industrialized society and its dominant economic paradigm, which places value on the rapid economic growth, the quest for corporate and individual accumulation of wealth, and a race to exploit natural resources.  The non-regenerative production system creates too much waste and toxic pollutions. We recognize the need for the United States and other industrialized countries to focus on new economies, governed by the absolute limits and boundaries of ecological sustainability, the carrying capacities of the Mother Earth, a more equitable sharing of global and local resources, encouragement and support of self sustaining communities, and respect and support for the rights of Mother Earth and her companion Moon.

In recognizing the root causes of climate change, participants call upon the industrialized countries and the world to work towards decreasing dependency on fossil fuels. We call for a moratorium on all new exploration for oil, gas, coal and uranium as a first step towards the full phase-out of fossil fuels, without nuclear power, with a just transition to sustainable jobs, energy and environment. We take this position and make this recommendation based on our concern over the disproportionate social, cultural, spiritual, environmental and climate impacts on Indigenous Peoples, who are the first and the worst affected by the disruption of intact habitats, and the least responsible for such impacts.

Indigenous peoples must call for the most stringent and binding emission reduction targets. Carbon emissions for developed countries must be reduced by no less than 40%, preferably 49% below 1990 levels by 2020 and 95% by 2050. We call for national and global actions to stabilize CO2 concentrations below 350 parts per million (ppm) and limiting temperature increases to below 1.5ºc.

We challenge climate mitigation solutions to abandon false solutions to climate change that negatively impact Indigenous Peoples’ rights, lands, air, oceans, forests, territories and waters.  These include nuclear energy, large-scale dams, geo-engineering techniques, clean coal technologies, carbon capture and sequestration, bio-fuels, tree plantations, and international market-based mechanisms such as carbon trading and offsets, the Clean Development Mechanisms and Flexible Mechanisms under the Kyoto Protocol and forest offsets.  The only real offsets are those renewable energy developments that actually displace fossil fuel-generated energy.  We recommend the United States sign on to the Kyoto Protocol and to the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

We are concerned with how international carbon markets set up a framework for dealing with greenhouse gases that secure the property rights of heavy Northern fossil fuel users over the world’s carbon-absorbing capacity while creating new opportunities for corporate profit through trade. The system starts by translating existing pollution into a tradable commodity, the rights to which are allocated in accordance with a limit set by States or intergovernmental agencies. In establishing property rights over the world's carbon dump, the largest number of rights is granted (mostly for free) to those who have been most responsible for pollution in the first place. At UN COP15, the conservation of forests is being brought into a property right issue concerning trees and carbon. With some indigenous communities it is difficult and sometimes impossible to reconcile with traditional spiritual beliefs the participation in climate mitigation that commodifies the sacredness of air (carbon), trees and life. Climate change mitigation and sustainable forest management must be based on different mindsets with full respect for nature, and not solely on market-based mechanisms.

We recognize the link between climate change and food security that affects Indigenous traditional food systems.  We declare our Native Nations and our communities, waters, air, forests, oceans, sea ice, traditional lands and territories to be “Food Sovereignty Areas,” defined and directed by Indigenous Peoples according to our customary laws, free from extractive industries, unsustainable energy development, deforestation, and free from using food crops and agricultural lands for large scale bio-fuels.

We encourage our communities to exchange information related to the sustainable and regenerative use of land, water, sea ice, traditional agriculture, forest management, ancestral seeds, food plants, animals and medicines that are essential in developing climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies, and will restore our food sovereignty, food independence, and strengthen our Indigenous families and Native Nations.

We reject the assertion of intellectual property rights over the genetic resources and traditional knowledge of Indigenous peoples which results in the alienation and commodification of those things that are sacred and essential to our lives and cultures.  We reject industrial modes of food production that promote the use of chemical substances, genetically engineered seeds and organisms.  Therefore, we affirm our right to possess, control, protect and pass on the indigenous seeds, medicinal plants, traditional knowledge originating from our lands and territories for the benefit of our future generations.

We can make changes in our lives and actions as individuals and as Nations that will lessen our contribution to the problems.   In order for reality to shift, in order for solutions to major problems to be found and realized, we must transition away from the patterns of an industrialized mindset, thought and behavior that created those problems.  It is time to exercise desperately needed Indigenous ingenuity – Indigenuity – inspired by our ancient intergenerational knowledge and wisdom given to us by our natural relatives.

We recognize and support the position of the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change (IIPFCC), operating as the Indigenous Caucus within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), that is requesting language within the overarching principles of the outcomes of the Copenhagen UNFCCC 15th Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP15) and beyond Copenhagen, that would ensure respect for the knowledge and rights of indigenous peoples, including their rights to lands, territories, forests and resources to ensure their full and effective participation including free, prior and informed consent. It is crucial that the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) is entered into all appropriate negotiating texts for it is recognized as the minimum international standard for the protection of rights, survival, protection and well-being of Indigenous Peoples, particularly with regard to health, subsistence, sustainable housing and infrastructure, and clean energy development.

As Native Nations and Indigenous Peoples living within the occupied territories of the United States, we acknowledge with concern, the refusal of the United States to support negotiating text that would recognize applicable universal human rights instruments and agreements, including the UNDRIP, and further safeguard principles that would ensure their full and effective participation including free, prior and informed consent. We will do everything humanly possible by exercising our sovereign government-to-government relationship with the U.S. to seek justice on this issue.

Our Indian languages are encoded with accumulated ecological knowledge and wisdom that extends back through oral history to the beginning of time.  Our ancestors created land and water relationship systems premised upon the understanding that all life forms are relatives – not resources.  We understand that we as human beings have a sacred and ceremonial responsibility to care for and maintain, through our original instructions, the health and well-being of all life within our traditional territories and Native Homelands.

We will encourage our leadership and assume our role in supporting a just transition into a green economy, freeing ourselves from dependence on a carbon-based fossil fuel economy.  This transition will be based upon development of an indigenous agricultural economy comprised of traditional food systems, sustainable buildings and infrastructure, clean energy and energy efficiency, and natural resource management systems based upon indigenous science and traditional knowledge.  We are committed to development of economic systems that enable life-enhancement as a core component.  We thus dedicate ourselves to the restoration of true wealth for all Peoples.  In keeping with our traditional knowledge, this wealth is based not on monetary riches but rather on healthy relationships, relationships with each other, and relationships with all of the other natural elements and beings of creation.
 
In order to provide leadership in the development of green economies of life-enhancement, we must end the chronic underfunding of our Native educational institutions and ensure adequate funding sources are maintained.  We recognize the important role of our Native K-12 schools and tribal colleges and universities that serve as education and training centers that can influence and nurture a much needed Indigenuity towards understanding climate change, nurturing clean renewable energy technologies, seeking solutions and building sustainable communities.

The world needs to understand that the Earth is a living female organism – our Mother and our Grandmother.  We are kin.  As such, she needs to be loved and protected.  We need to give back what we take from her in respectful mutuality.  We need to walk gently.  These Original Instructions are the natural spiritual laws, which are supreme.  Science can urgently work with traditional knowledge keepers to restore the health and well-being of our Mother and Grandmother Earth.

As we conclude this meeting we, the participating spiritual and traditional leaders, members and supporters of our Indigenous Nations, declare our intention to continue to fulfill our sacred responsibilities, to redouble our efforts to enable sustainable life-enhancing economies, to walk gently on our Mother Earth, and to demand that we be a part of the decision-making and negotiations that impact our inherent and treaty-defined rights.  Achievement of this vision for the future, guided by our traditional knowledge and teachings, will benefit all Peoples on the Earth.

Approved by Acclamation and Individual Sign-ons.


Wednesday, June 24, 2015

DESMANTELAMIENTO DE LA DOCTRINA DEL DESCUBRIMENTO

PO Box 24009
Phoenix, AZ 85074
Comunicado de Prensa
21 de junio 2015
Contacto: Túpac Enrique Acosta (602) 466-8367
Correo electrónico: chantlaca@tonatierra.org 

DESMANTELAMIENTO DE LA DOCTRINA DEL DESCUBRIMENTO
Comisión Continental Abya Yala


O'otham Jeved - Territorios de las Naciones O'otham [Phoenix, Arizona] – Avanzando desde una ceremonia de rectificación y referencia cosmetrica conocida como Icuauhtonal Yei Acatl, que se realizó en el Nahuacalli, Embajada de los Pueblos Indígenas en el solsticio de verano del 21 de junio, una delegación de Izkaloteka han comenzado una campaña de 94 días, cuyo propósito es lograr el fin definitivo de la Doctrina del Descubrimiento de la Cristiandad 1492 como una construcción legítima de las sociedades democráticas en el continente de Abya Yala [Américas].

El cronometraje de la campaña coincidirá con el equinoccio de otoño del 23 de septiembre 2015, cuando las deliberaciones relevantes de una Legación Continental de la Naciones Originales de la Gran Isla Tortuga Abya Yala sobre la historia y la ilegalidad de la perpetuación de la Doctrina del Descubrimiento como elemento fundamental de la violación del Derecho de Libre Determinación de los Pueblos Originarios por la totalidad de los Estados Americanos se presentara en la en la ciudad de Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in adelantado de la llegada del Papa Francisco.  

A pesar de la llamada al rechazo de la Doctrina del Descubrimiento por un número cada vez mayor de los movimientos de derechos humanos, organizaciones, denominaciones religiosas e incluso las Naciones Unidas, no se ha realizado ninguna acción para avanzar hacia una aplicación plena y efectiva de los procedimientos pertinentes del Comité de Descolonización de las Naciones Unidas que son mandatos universales y apropiados para enfrentar la violación de los Derechos de Libre Determinación de las Naciones Originarias de la Gran Isla Tortuga Abya Yala [América].

En cambio, la Organización de los Estados Americanos ha diseñado un fiasco de una Declaración sobre los Derechos de los Pueblos Indígenas entre sí sin la participación plena, equitativa y efectiva de los Pueblos Indígenas. Este intento por parte de los miembros de la OAS a suscribir los derechos territoriales y Derechos Humanos de los Pueblos Indígenas bajo el marco constitucional interno de los Estados que son sucesores de los conceptos de dominio de la Doctrina del Descubrimiento resultó recientemente en una huelga por el Cónclave de los Pueblos Indígenas de las Américas en Washington, DC.  En denuncia de las políticas sistémicas y prácticas de discriminación contra las Naciones Originarias de los Pueblos Indígenas de todo el continente y a través de los siglos, el Cónclave Indígena rechazó el papel subordinado que el sistema de la OAS ha normalizado hacia las Naciones Originarias de Abya Yala.

En seguimiento a la presente campaña, la presentación de las conclusiones del Tribunal Internacional de Justicia Abya Yala sobre la Doctrina del Descubrimiento se llevara a los Territorios Lenape el 24 de septiembre 2015 y se presentara a la ciudad de Philadelphia anted de la llegada de Papa Francisco de la Santa Iglesia Católica Romana, estará presente. En representación del Estado del Vaticano, un Estado miembro dentro del sistema de las Naciones Unidas con el estatus de observador permanente, el Papa Francisco es también un sucesor de los principios básicos establecidos en el ámbito de un conjunto de bulas papales como el Inter Caetera 1493 que continúan justificando y santificando la Doctrina del Descubrimiento como norma de políticas públicas y las relaciones sociales en el hemisferio.

El 26 de septiembre 2015 es el primer aniversario de la desaparición forzada de los 43 estudiantes normalista de Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, México, cuyos padres y las familias siguen exigiendo justicia y la rendición de cuentas por parte del gobierno de México, un  narco-gobierno que hasta la fecha se niega a permitir que el Grupo Interdisciplinario de Expertos Internacionales de la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos inspeccione las instalaciones del Batallón 27 en Iguala, México, donde los estudiantes de Ayotzinapa fueron secuestrados por agentes de la policía del estado hace nueve meses. Una demanda central a través de los Pueblos Originarios de México hoy es la cuestión de las causas estructurales fundamentales de la impunidad sancionada por estado bajo la cual los Pueblos Indígenas de México han sufrido durante más de 500 años, ya que la Doctrina del Descubrimiento fue instituida como fundamental a las leyes de la República de México, poniendo las Naciones Originarias de Anáhuac en la posición de ser tratados como vasallos bajo una serie de gobiernos corruptos controlados por los élites latinos hispanos.

El término Ayotzinapa se deriva del Náhuatl, una de las principales lenguas indígenas de México y se refiere a "el valle de las pequeñas tortugas preciosas."

En la presentación de la convocatoria de la solidaridad y la alianza que la actual campaña está organizando activamente desde los niveles locales-regionales, continentales-globales de participación, organizador Tupak Huehuecoyotl del Nahuacalli, Embajada de los Pueblos Originarios declaró:

"La pregunta ya no es si la Doctrina del Descubrimiento tal como todavía se sigue perpetuado en la política y la práctica en todo el hemisferio es válida. Esa pregunta ha sido contestada, definitivamente y por último. No hay presentación moral, legal o cultural que puede legítimamente argumentar que la teoría del Derecho Divino de Reyes, que dio partir a la Doctrina del Descubrimiento por la Cristiandad, puede contener alguna validez en una sociedad democrática.  Lo que está en cuestión ahora es,  ¿De qué lado de la historia estaremos cada uno de nosotros como individuos, como familias, como comunidades, como naciones y como Seres Humanos?  ¿Vamos a ponernos de pie en un levantamiento cultural continental para DESMANTELAR LA DOCTRINA DEL DESCUBRIMENTO, o vamos a cumplir con los regímenes deshumanizadores sancionados estatalmente de genocidio y colonización que siguen apoyando las reliquias racistas y patógenos psicológicos del proyecto Europeo Americano de colonización conocido como América?"

Embassy of Indigenous Peoples
www.nahuacalli.org
###


V Cumbre Continental de los Pueblos Indígenas del Abya Yala

YouTube:
La Doctrina de Descubrmiento
ENDORSAMIENTO del Comunicado al Vatico emitido en la V Cumbre Continental de Abya Yala 2013 Maria Piendam
ó, Cauca [Colombia] en el Ecuentro Internacional de Pueblos y Nacionalidades Originarios de Abya Yala por la Libre Determinación Agosto 8-12, 2014 Ixim Uleu [Guatemala].

*******
RED

La tarea colectiva es en darle seguimiento a los procesos de clarificación y rectificación DESMANTELANDO la Doctrina de Descubrimiento del Cristianismo (Octubre 12, 1492) que sigue in efecto como justificación teológica y política por los sistemas de dominación de los Estados Americanos (todos) que siguen con sus proyectos nefastas de normalizar por 522 años la colonización y el genocidio de Nuestros Pueblos Originarios.
*******

Foro Permanente de Cuestiones Indigenas de las Naciones Unidas
 
Archivo Abya Yala

Monday, June 22, 2015

DISMANTLING THE DOCTRINE OF DISCOVERY


Press Release
June 21, 2015
Contact: Tupac Enrique Acosta (602) 466-8367
Email: chantlaca@tonatierra.org

DISMANTLING THE DOCTRINE OF DISCOVERY
Continental Commission Abya Yala

O'otham Jeved - O'otham Nations Territories [Phoenix, Arizona] - Moving forward from a ceremony of rectification and cosmetric reference known as the Icuauhtonal Yei Acatl which took place at the Nahuacalli, Embassy of Indigenous Peoples on the summer solstice of June 21, a delegation of Izkaloteka have begun a 94 day campaign whose purpose is to bring about the definitive end to the Doctrine of Discovery of Christendom 1492 as a legitimate construct for the democratic societies in the continent of Abya Yala [Americas]. 

The timing of the campaign will coincide with the fall equinox of September 23, 2015 when a Continental Legation of Original Nations of the Great Turtle Island Abya Yala which will convene in Philadelphia will bring forward to the conscience of the world their determinations on the dehumanizing and illegal perpetuation of the Doctrine of Discovery as fundamental to the violations of Territorial Rights, Human Rights and of the Right of Self Determination of Indigenous Peoples by the all of the American States.


In spite of the call for repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery by an ever growing number of human rights movements, organizations, religious denominations and even the United Nations, there has been no action to move towards a full and effective application of the relevant procedures of the UN Decolonization Committee which are mandated and appropriate to address the violation of the Right of Self Determination of the Original Nations of the Great Turtle Island Abya Yala [the Americas].


Instead the Organization of American States has engineered a fiasco of a Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples among themselves without the full, equal, and effective participation of the Indigenous Peoples.  This attempt by the OAS members to subscribe the territorial and Human Rights of the Indigenous Peoples under the domestic constitutional framework of the states that are successors to the dominion concepts of the Doctrine of Discovery recently resulted in a walkout by the Indigenous Peoples Caucus of the Americas in Washington, D.C.  In denunciation of the systemic policies and practices of discrimination against the Original Nations of Indigenous Peoples across the continent and over the centuries, the Indigenous Peoples Caucus rejected the subservient role of minions that the OAS system has scripted for the Original Nations of Abya Yala. 


POHUALLAHTOAYAN: Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery 

Acting in concert and confederation at the continental level of the Great Turtle Island Abya Yala [Americas] and with the purpose of actualizing the collective denunciation, repudiation, and dismantling of the Doctrine of Discovery as the root of impunity which violates the Territorial Rights of our Indigenous Nations since October 12, 1492, the Continental Legation of Original Nations shall assemble, deliberate, declare in the spirit of Self Determination as Original Nations of Indigenous Peoples of the continent, equal to all other peoples, in the Lenape Territories [Philadelphia, Pennsylvania] on September 22-24, 2015.

The determinations of the Continental Council of Original Nations of Indigenous Peoples will then be presented to the City of Philadelphia where Pope Francis of the Holy Roman Catholic Church, will arriving on the September 25th.  In representation of the Vatican State, a member state within the UN system with Permanent Observer status, Pope Francis is also a successor to the basic principles established under the purview of a set of Papal Bulls such as the Inter Caetera 1493 that continue to justify and sanctify the Doctrine of Discovery as a norm of public policy and social relations in the hemisphere.

September 26, 2015 is the one year anniversary of the forced disappearance of the 43 Normalista students of Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, Mexico whose parents and families have been demanding justice and accountability from the government of Mexico, a narco-government that has to date refused to allow the Interdisciplinary Group of International Experts of the Inter American Commission of Human Rights to inspect the facilities of the Battallion 27 in Iguala, Mexico where the Ayotzinapa students were abducted by police agents of the state nine months ago. A core demand across Mexico is the issue of the fundamental structural causes of the state sanctioned impunity under which the Indigenous Peoples of Mexico have suffered for over 500 years, since the Doctrine of Discovery was instituted under the laws of the Republic of Mexico, placing the Original Nations of Anahuac in the position of being treated as vassals under a series of corrupt governments controlled by Hispanic Latino elites. 

The term Ayotzinapa is derived from Nahuatl, one of the principle Indigenous languages of Mexico and refers to “the valley of the precious little turtles.” 


In presenting the call for solidarity and alliance that the present campaign is now actively organizing from local-regional, continental-global levels of engagement, Tupak Huehuecoyotl organizer of the Nahuacalli, Embassy of Indigenous Peoples stated:

"The question is no longer whether the Doctrine of Discovery as it is still being perpetuated in policy and practice across the hemisphere is valid. That question has been answered, definitively and finally.  There is no moral, legal, or cultural presentation that can legitimately argue that the theory of the Divine Right of Kings, which spawned the Doctrine of Discovery by Christendom, can hold any validity in a democratic society.  What is in question now, is on what side of history will each of us as individuals, as families, as communities, as nations and as Human Beings stand.  Will we stand up in continental uprising to DISMANTLE the DOCTRINE OF DISCOVERY, or will we comply with the dehumanizing regimes of state sanctioned genocide and colonization that continue to prop up the racist relics and psychological pathogens of the European American project of colonization known as America?"




Embassy of Indigenous Peoples
www.nahuacalli.org
###
Links:
November 15, 2013
Maria Piendamo, Cauca [Colombia] 
*******

Amah Mutsun Tribal Band: Open Letter to Pope Francis

******* 

Encyclical of the Indigenous Peoples

Architectures of the States and the Territorial Integrity of Mother Earth

 
Vimeo
DISMANTLING the DOCTRINE of DISCOVERY 
Tupak Huehuecoyotl







Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Sioux Nation Treaty Council demands apology from Mexico


The president of the National Electoral Institute (INE) of Mexico, Lorenzo Córdova Vianello was recently recorded in a telephone conversation speaking in mocking tones of insult and with expressions of blatant racism directed against Indigenous Peoples of Mexico that has brought about a firestorm of rebuke and calls for his resignation.

Indigenous leaders and organizations from all levels have directed the government of Mexico to remove Córdova Vianello from the office which he occupies as the top election official of a supposedly democratic country.
The incident has erupted into an international scandal for the administration of President Enrique Peña Nieto, who as head of the national government apparatus is guilty of collusion and impunity for the international human rights crime of Forced Disappearance perpetrated on September 25-26, 2014 in the state of Guerrero when 43 students were violently abducted by military and police agents of the state in criminal collusion with narco cartels.  The 43 students are still missing today after 8 months with the government of Peña Nieto refusing to allow the Interdiscipilnary Group of Independent Experts of the Inter American Human Rights Commission to investigate and question the personnel at the Batallion 27 compound located in Iguala, Guerrero where the incident occured. 

The subject of the case of Ayotzinapa came up in the now public telephone conversation when Córdova Vianello mentioned his having met with the families of the disappeared students in a dismissive tone and attitude.In an audio which was broadcast over YouTube, in translation the voice of Cordova is heard to say: 
"There was one of them, I am not kidding, I will not lie, I'll tell you how this bastard spoke," says Cordova, and then begins to mimic with a deep, mocking voice: "I head Great Chichimeca Nation, come Guanajuato. I say here for deputies, Us not allow your elections. "
Cordova then bursts out laughing.
"I do not know if it true that that bastard talks like that, but I am not kidding," insists Cordova in laughing fits as he continues in the mockery: "Or maybe he saw too much Lone Ranger with that bastard bull, no kidding.  'I great Chief Sitting Bull, leader Chichimeca great nation, no kidding, no kidding, it was too much."
Upon becoming aware of the mention of the Lakota Holy Man Sitting Bull by Córdova Vianello, Zumila Wobaga  (Charmaine White Face), Spokesperson of the Sioux Nation Treaty Council made this statement to the media:
"This disrespect by Lorenzo Córdova Vianello of one of our holy men, Sitting Bull, is not going to go unnoticed.  How would Mexico react if we were to be disrespectful to one of their saints?  We demand an apology from Mexico to the Great Sioux Nation for this disrespect shown by their National Election official."
The Sioux Nation Treaty Council was established in 1894 after the Wounded Knee Massacre in South Dakota, where the US 7th Cavalry massacred over 200 Lakota men, women, and children in 1890.  As spokesperson, Zumila Wobaga (Charmaine White Face) will be traveling to the next session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland this month of June 2015.