UNPFIP Network: 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?"