Declaration of Cayey 2004

VI Native Gathering of the Americas

University of Puerto Rico at Cayey, Puerto Rico

April 25-30, 2004

 

The participants at the VI Native Gathering of the Americas, assembled in the City Cayey, wants to emphasize that indigenous spirituality and cosmovision form the fundamental framework of all of our aspirations. The major crisis of our times is the lack of ethics and moral values that undermine the dominant civilization in a fundamental way. The lack of ethics and moral values also affects and undermine the Native Peoples.

To Native Peoples spirituality is based on natural law and the laws of the Great Spirit. Spirituality is everything to the Native Peoples. Spirituality constitutes the framework for their economy, culture, politics, art, and holistic well being. Therefore, Native Peoples have the duty to vindicate fully, publicly, and coherently our spirituality; and to do so without shame and with determination, as a vital contribution to the solution of the great evils of the modern world.

In light of this, we declare:

To Native Peoples, the value of land is more than just something physical or something subject to proprietorship. It is a value that links and connects us to Mother Earth that sustains us, gives us wisdom, balance and harmony - a habitat for our vital existence. To us, land and peoples are one.

From the millennial native wisdom viewpoint, the pretense of the dominant system to appropriate the land in an exploitative or destructive way cannot be understood and cannot be accepted. The Natives cultures have been victimized on the basis of the doctrine of “discovery title,” invoked by the European invaders to usurp and justify taking possession of our lands. From time immemorial, these lands have been under the guardianship of our ancestors. The founders of the new states (formerly European colonies), while rejecting the imperial rule of their respective metropolis, appropriated its land titles flawed from birth for their new order, adding illegitimacy over illegitimacy, injustice over injustice. Thus, on the basis of historic and ethical considerations, the present titles of modern states over native lands can be neither valid nor can they be just.

The so-called “discovery title” doctrine used upon by the European potentates to divide among themselves the lands, waters, and resources of the Native Peoples was a lie and a fiction, because the lands of the so called New World were inhabited since centuries before by the autochthon peoples. That is to say, honestly speaking, the so-called “Discovery of the New World” never existed, therefore the European invasion was really an illegal and criminal act. Contrary to the legacy of the Great Spirit, the Europeans unlawfully assumed proprietorship and jurisdiction over such lands, waters, resources, thus impairing the millennial relationship between the Native Peoples and their lands. Flawed titles do not improve with age.

On the basis of current national and international law that have enshrined the recognition of self-determination and sovereignty of Native Peoples, the “discovery titles” doctrine is even more invalid and unjust. Native Peoples have an inalienable duty and right to strengthen and uphold the titles to ours ancestral lands. We urge international organizations, state governments and business world to fully assume their responsibility for the exercise of justice for safeguarding Mother Earth and her vital life sustaining elements from exploitation and depravation by factors alien to the same. This is imperative to insure the well being of Native Peoples and Humanity, in redress of a debt of genocide and destruction, and to contribute to the planetary healing.

The Great Spirit made us stewards and caretakers of the sacred territories of our ancestors and therefore we must assert these natural duties and rights, and the right to govern ourselves without external intervention.

We call upon the Native Nations and Peoples of the Americas to come together again and again to affirm these natural duties and rights, to honor this declaration, to reclaim what rightfully concerns us, and regain custodianship over our lands, waters, and natural vital elements which give sustenance to life.

Signed by:

Ramón Nenadich,                     Coordinator Native Gathering of the Americas, Puerto Rico

Rudy Al James,                         Secretary General, United Native Nations, Alaska

Diana James,                             Executive Director, United Native Nations, Alaska

Dave Bald Eagle,                      First Chief United Native Nations and Na?a of the Lakota Oyate

Josee Bald Eagle,                     Delegate Lakota Oyate Nation, South Dakota

Richard Grass,                           Chief of the Lakota, Nakota and Dakota Nation, South Dakota

Leroy Curley,                            Chief Lakota Nation, South Dakota

Garnett Black Bear,                                   Sacred Pipe Carrier of the Lakota Nation, South Dakota

George James,                           Peace Keeper of the Kuiu Kwáan Nation, Alaska

James Bailey,                            Atturney General of the Kuiu Kwáan Nation, Alaska

Tim McCloud,                           Delegate from Seattle, WA

Steve Brown,                             Delegate from the Yuki-Concow Nation, Round Valley, California

Embert James,                           Delegate from the Kuiu Kuan Nation, Alaska

Frank James,                             Delegate from the Shakan Kwáan, Alaska

Michael Boskofsky,               Ambassador Aleut Nation, Alaska

Gale Boskofsky,                      Delegate Aleut Nation, Alaska

Don Jacobs,                               Delegate of Arizona

Beatrize Jacobs,                       Delegate of Arizona

Gilberto Gonzales,                                    Delegate of the Traditional Circle of Native Elders and Youth, Nuevo MZxico

Hanh Le,                                     Delegate of the United Natives Nations

Scott McCarthy,                       Delegate of California

Lidia Dóniz,                               Delegate Tezkatlipoka Aztec Dancers, California

Valeriano CanchZ,                   President Maya Counsel of Elders and Spiritual Guides of Yucatán, MZxico

Sergio Ramírez,                        Delegado Nación Nahuatl, MZxico, Distrito Federal

JosZ Luis Fragoso,                   Delegado Nación Nahuatl, MZxico, Distrito Federal

Copitl S. Tapia,                        Delegada Nación Nahuatl, MZxico, Distrito Federal

Albaro MZndez,                        Delegado Nación Nahuatl, MZxico, Jalapa

Víctor Fragoso,                        Delegado Nación Nahuatl, MZxico, Guerrero

Calixta Gabriel,            Delegada Nación Maya QuichZ, Guatemala

AndrZs López,       Delegado Nación Maya Mam, Guatemala

Eleuterio Cahuec,               Delegado Nación Maya QuichZ, Guatemala

Alí García Segura,               Delegado Nación Bri bri, Costa Rica

Alejandro JaZn,                         Delegado Costa Rica

Lucindo Gómez,                        Delegado Nación Kuna, Kuna Yala, Panamá

Hillary Frederick,                     Pasado Jefe Nación Caribe, Dominica

Frank Bracho,                           Delegado de Venezuela

Pedro Pablo Guaña,                                    Delegado de Cayambe, Ecuador

Aníbal Puga,                              Delegado de Cayambe, Ecuador

Jaime Torres,                             Delegado de Takiwasi, Tarapoto, Perú

Ezequiel Zárate,                         Delegado de la Nación Quechua, Perú

Lucinda Pichicona,                                    Delegada de la Nación Mapuche, Chile

Martín Veguilla,                       Delegado Concilio Guatumacú a BorikZn, Puerto Rico

Doris O’Neill,                           Delegada Concilio Guatumacú a BorikZn, Puerto Rico

Abuela Guayeiba,                     Delegada Concilio Guatumacú a BorikZn, Puerto Rico

Brunilda Ferrer,                         Delegada de Puerto Rico

Víctor Cabello,                         Delegado de Puerto Rico

Denise Caraballo,                    Asistente Ejecutiva, Centro de Estudios Indígenas de las AmZricas

Luis Galanes,                             Director Departamento de Ciencias Sociales,