League of Indigenous Sovereign Nations
A Call to all Native People
by John Dacajewiah Hill
We of the League of Indigenous Sovereign Nations (LISN) of the Western
Hemisphere extend our warmest feelings of solidarity and unity to all
Indigenous Nations of traditional Indian people throughout the
continent.
On October 12, 1992, we have called for a demonstration in front of the
United Nations building in New York City from 12 noon to 5 pm at Dag
Hammerjold Plaza to demand recognition by the United Nations Security
Council that we are sovereign nations. As such, we demand a
representative elected by the League to have a voice in the General
Assembly, to document any and all atrocities committed against Native
people, and to have a vote to resolve conflicts between the other powers
in the Western Hemisphere and our traditional native governments.
This demonstration will exemplify that we have been forced to accept the
status of being wards of the federal governments, with an illusionary
form of self-governing Tribal Councils or Band Councils. Established by
the United States and Canadian governments respectively, these Councils
serve as new forms of control, and have weakened our power of
sovereignty, making us subjects of jurisdictional dictatorships. The
United States recognizes limited sovereignty of indigenous people within
its borders, but denies us the rights to self-determination and
independence. Tribal and Band Councils buy into this system and
compromise true sovereignty.
As a people, we just define sovereignty for ourselves and begin living
the realities of our sovereignty, which was clearly defined long before
the arrival of European peoples upon Indian land. What we suggest is
nothing more than the continuation and development of the ideals of our
ancestors.
If the various independent nations which have evolved out of the
destabilization of the Soviet Union are afforded dignity and respect as
nations; if the United States government can recognize and validate
those nations' calls for voting representation in the U.N. General
Assembly, then why can't the U.S. and the members of the U.N. Security
Council recognize and respect the same call by Indigenous peoples of
Sovereign nations within the western hemisphere?
To protect our indigenous sovereign nations against the continual
interest of corporations, which oppress us daily, and to protect our
native rights in general, it is extremely important that the other
nations of the world and their ambassadors to the U.N. General Assembly,
hear our voice.
There are many nations that have voting seats in the General Assembly
which have populations totaling less than 100,000 people Q one as few as
7,000 people. These nations have ambassadors to the U.N. The Dine
(Navajo) Nation alone has 450,000 people, yet they don't hold a seat
with full rights in the U.N. If we combined all our sovereign nations
into one great confederation, we would have have to apply, but simply
demand a seat. The political reality of our quest for this seat is
primarily a strategy to gain world attention to the ongoing atrocities
perpetuated against Indian people. It would serve as a world-wide
campaign to expose the hypocrisy of the terrorist regimes holding seats
in the U.N. Security Council which oppress Native nations. If the world
can condemn the occupation of Palestinian lands by Israeli Zionists, or
the forced relocations of Africans to the ten homelands of South Africa,
and other similar situations, then the world should know that these same
realities apply to Indian nations of the western hemisphere, and call
for its immediate end.
This goal could be accomplished if all our nations united in one great
confederation or league. A council of representatives would be elected
by all native nations on a regional level. This council would serve to
expose the exploitation and genocide of Indian people to the world, via
the U.N. General Assembly.
We have begun the creation of this League by holding conferences on
various sovereign Indian nations' lands, such as the Piscataway Nation,
the Mohawk Nation at Kahnawake, the Oglala of the Sioux Nation, and many
others to come. Out of these nation-to-nation talks, we are building a
confederation of united indigenous nations throughout the hemisphere,
working toward a common approach to the dilemma we face at the hands,
and many times the guns of aggressors. One major focus of the League is
to resurrect and strengthen the governments of all indigenous nations
that have been destroyed by the imposition of Tribal Councils.
Historically, we have fought long, hard wars against our aggressors, and
at the end of each war, the various powers were forced to recognize our
national right to control at least some major portion of the land stolen
from us.
After years of conquest and policies, the United States designed
negotiations called "peace" treaties. of the 371 such treaties made
between the United States and Indian nations, none of the pacts have
been honored by the United States.
These treaties in themselves acknowledge that the indigenous nations
have a right to self-determination and sovereignty. Ironically, the
various industrial robbers realized that the desolated lands that Native
people were relocated to contained vast deposits of ore and fossil
fuels, enough to perpetuate the lifeline of industrial society.
Subsequently, the corporate utility structure escalated its interest on
Indian lands by legitimizing genocide with bills passed and enacted by
Congress in order to seize more land. The importance of treaties became
clear in 1871, when the Appropriations Act initiated a halt to signing
of treaties with Indian people.
The governments of the western hemisphere continue to move for more land
seizures from native nations today, from the tip of Alaska to the
rainforests of Brazil, and in every Indian nation that exists throughout
the entire Western Hemisphere.
In 1934, the Indian Reorganization Act forced all Native nations to
destroy community-based control of land and resources by parceling out
Indian land to individual owners. This destroyed the unity and social
structure committed to the welfare of its nation. To assure that this
redistribution of land was effected, the U.S. government imposed a new
form of government called the Tribal (in the U.S.) or Band (in Canada)
Councils. These imposed governments used Indians to control Indians in
an illusionary form of self-government and self-determination, fully
funded by the federal government.
If we are ever going to stop the continual encroachment of European
society on Indian lands, we must completely abolish this form of
oppressive governance and return tour traditional governments. As we
move to obliterate this sell-out Tribal Council system, we must be ready
to replace it with viable alternatives that will strengthen our nations.
Sovereignty is one of the main objectives of the League. We must
formulate a hemispheric congress of all Native nations, and analyze
role-models of self-governing and create a hemisphere or national Indian
constitution.
Such a constitution was developed in the 6th century. Called The Great
Law of Peace of the Iroquois Confederacy, it is the oldest existing
constitution known to humankind. Created by an indigenous political
statesman and great visionary named Deganawida, the basic concept of a
democracy government of the people, for the people, and by the people
was formed. The "founding fathers" of the American Revolution of 1776
stole this concept from the Iroquois Confederacy. In the Iroquois
Constitution, all nations of the world are invited to become one in the
great Longhouse with equal power, if they will pledge to abide by the
Great Law, which is a way of life still lived by the traditional Mohawk
people of Kahnawake. Before Deganawida's mysterious disappearance, he
allied 28 Indian nations throughout North America to accept the Great
Law. While the League is not explicitly lobbying for the Iroquois
Constitution to be the only role model for Indian self-determination and
sovereignty, we have thoroughly studied this great document. We can
begin reversing the trend of colonial aggression and genocide.
According to the English dictionary, one of the definitions of
sovereignty is "an aggregation of nations with a central government,"
and the fourth definition states "such central government as practiced
by the Iroquois Confederacy." We are a people of many independent
nations, yet we have no form of central government which promotes
self-determination and sovereignty. Therefore, it is from this focal
point that we of the League intend to initiate the ongoing organization
necessary to mobilize all native representatives into a provisional form
of governing.
The process of this body will evolve only with the assistance of all
native people. The representatives of this League would be elected by
the majority of the traditional people. When this body has grown in
great representational numbers of Indian Peoples of the Western
Hemisphere, we will have effectively created our own united Indian
nations. Subsequently, through a democratic process, we will elect a
council of representatives from seven regions to represent Indian
nations in the U.N. General Assembly. Out of that council of seven, one
of those representatives would be elected the traditional spokesperson
on an annual rotating basis to the General Assembly.
The immediate goal of the League is to begin a popular movement to
demand a seat in the General Assembly and to demand recognition of the
League of Indigenous Sovereign Nations. We have already initiated
preliminary talks with members of the U.N. about sponsoring our call for
a voting seat and to assist in actively lobbying other countries who
would support our initiative.
This is not the first time this goal has been put forward. In 1934, the
Cayuga Chief Deskaje had successfully lobbied four countries, calling
for a seat in the (then) League of Nations. Unfortunately, he did not
have the united support, and was ostracized by the Canadian government,
forced to seek refuge from persecution at the Tuscarora Indian Nation.
We must work in unity to put an end to the 500 year invasion and death
of millions of Indian people. We hope to work with you soon.
League of Indigenous Sovereign Nations (LISN)
c/o Piscataway Indian Nations, Inc.
P.O. Box 312, Port Tobacco, MD 20677
301-932-0808
send mail to:
Sovereign People's Council
P.O. Box 610, Bowling Green Station, NY, NY 10274-0610
212-732-0485
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