[IPSM] Urgent: Homeland Security preparing to seize Apache lands

[Ahni]

here you go...

*Urgent: Homeland Security preparing to seize Apache lands*

updates will be posted at
http://intercontinentalcry.org/urgent-homeland-security-preparing-to-seize-apache-lands/<http://intercontinentalcry.org/urgent-homeland-security-preparing-to-seize-apache-lands/%20>
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Margo Tamez recently sent out the following urgent call for support,
explaining that since July, her Mother and Elders of el Calaboz, Texas, have
been the targets of numerous threats and harassments by the Border Patrol,
Army Corps of Engineers, NSA, and the U.S. related to the proposed building
of a fence on their levee.

The NSA, for one, has been specifically demanding that Elders give up their
lands for the levee–telling them that they will have to travel a distance of
3 miles to go through checkpoints, to walk, recreate, and to farm and herd
goats and cattle ON THEIR OWN LANDS.

Margo's mother just informed her that since last Monday, the Army Corps of
Engineers, Border Patrol and National Security Agency teams have been
tracking down and enclosing upon the people; telling them that they have no
choice: "the wall is going on these lands whether you like it or not, and
you have to sell your land to the U.S."

Margo asks that you *Please* help the elders and indigenous women land title
holders resist forced occupation in their own lands! As a start, you can do
so by sharing this information to your friends and networks.

If you would like to contact Margo for more information, you can email her
at mtamez at wsu.edu

*URGENT! From: Margo Tamez*
*Subject: URGENT! el Calaboz, Lipan Apache Land Title Holders Threatened by
National Guard and Border Patrol in last 72 Hours*

Hello friends,
I am informing you of recent events in my maternal community of el Calaboz,
Texas, a binational land grant indigenous rancheria of Lipan Apache,
Chiricahua and Basque descent.

I am foregrounding this because I have been asked to submit documentation
through the NGO, the International Indigenous Treaty Council, for the CERD
investigation of human rights and indigenous rights abuses by the U.S.
government against my mother community.

The Committee on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination
(CERD) report to be directed toward the United Nation in March 2008, which
will for the first time in over a decade focus on abuses by the United
States to oppressed groups.
This year, as a result of the recently approved UN Declaration of Indigenous
Peoples rights, indigenous people have a specific opportunity to submit
documents on behalf of their communities.

I'll be working hard the next week to complete a draft document, with
evidentiary materials, for review by an international human rights and
indigenous rights attorney who recently accompanied me on an investigatory
field trip to my paternal community, Redford, TX, of the Jumano Apache.

I wanted to keep you informed of this progress, and through this following
letter, establish a way to communicate what I'm doing and how it impacts all
my work. See the earlier letter below.

Ahi'i'e
Margo Tamez

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*Subject: Emergency in el Calaboz, Lipan Apache & Basque-Indigena North
American Land Title Holders!!!*

Dear relatives,
I wish I was writing under better circumstances, but I must be fast and
direct.

My mother and elders of El Calaboz, since July have been the targets of
numerous threats and harassments by the Border Patrol, Army Corps of
Engineers, NSA, and the U.S. related to the proposed building of a fence on
their levee.

Since July, they have been the targets of numerous telephone calls,
unexpected and uninvited visits on their lands, informing them that they
will have to relinquish parts of their land grant holdings to the border
fence buildup. The NSA demands that elders give up their lands to build the
levee, and further, that they travel a distance of 3 miles, to go through
checkpoints, to walk, recreate, and to farm and herd goats and cattle, ON
THEIR OWN LANDS.

This threat against indigenous people, life ways and lands has been very
very serious and stress inducing to local leaders, such as Dr. Eloisa Garcia
Tamez, who has been in isolation from the larger indigenous rights community
due to the invisibility of indigenous people of South Texas and Northern
Tamaulipas to the larger social justice conversation regarding the border
issues.
However recent events, of the last 5 days cause us to feel that we are in
urgent need of immediate human rights observers in the area, deployed by all
who can help as soon as possible–immediate relief.

My mother informed me, as I got back into cell range out of Redford, TX, on
Monday, November 13, that Army Corps of Engineers, Border Patrol and
National Security Agency teams have been going house to house, and calling
on her personal office phone, her cell phone and in other venues, tracking
down and enclosing upon the people and telling them that they have no other
choice in this matter. They are telling elders and other vulnerable people
that "the wall is going on these lands whether you like it or not, and you
have to sell your land to the U.S."

My mother, Eloisa Garcia Tamez, Lipan Apache (descendant of Mexican
Chiricahua descent elder, Aniceto Garcia, who gave her traditional
indigenous birth welcoming ceremony and lightning ceremony), is resisting
the forced occupation with firm resistance. She has already had two major
confrontations with NSA since July–one in her office at the University of
Texas at Brownsville, where she is the Director of a Nursing Program and
where she conducts research on diabetes among indigenous people of the MX-US
binational region of South Texas and Tamaulipas.

She reports that some land owners in the rancheria area of El Calaboz, La
Paloma and El Ranchito, under pressure to sell to the U.S. without prior and
informed consent, have already signed over their lands, due to their ongoing
state of impoverishment and exploitation in the area under colonization,
corporatism, NAFTA and militarization.

This is an outrage, but more, this is a significant violation of United
Nations Declaration on Rights of Indigenous People, recently ratified and
accepted by all UN nations, except the U.S., Canada, and Australia.
Furthermore, it is a violation of the United Nations CERD, Committee on
Elimination of Racism and Racial Discrimination.

My mother is under great stress and crisis, unknowing if the Army soldiers
and the NSA agents will be forcibly demanding that she sign documents. She
reports that they are calling her at all hours, seven days a week. She has
firmly told them not to call her anymore, nor to call her at all hours of
the night and day, nor to call on the weekends any further.She asked them to
meet with her in a public space and to tell their supervisors to
come.Theyrefuse to do so. Instead, they continue to harass and
intimidate.

At this time, due to the great stress the elders are currently under,
communicated to me, because they are being demanded under covert tactics, to
relinquish indigenous lands, I feel that I MUST call upon my relatives,
friends, colleagues, especially associates in Texas within driving distance
to the Rio Grande valley region, and involved in indigenous rights issues,
to come forth and aid us.

Please! Please help indigenous women land title holders resisting forced
occupation in their own lands! Please do not hesitate to forward this to
people in your own networks in media, journalism, social and environmental
justice, human rights, indigenous rights advocacy and public health watch
groups!

Margo Tamez mtamez at wsu.edu

Jumano Apache West Texas-Chihuahua Lipan Apache South Texas-Tamaulipas,
Apacheria Nuevo Santander Land Grant–Basque Colony)
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