Intervention: Investigation of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office

Barrio Defense Committees

INTERVENTION

Public Forum

February 29, 2012

Submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice

Carl Hayden High School
Phoenix, Arizona

Re: Investigation of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office

Esteemed Representatives and Members of the Public in Attendance:

Recommendation:

The Barrio Defense Committees consider the presence of J. Arpaio in the schools of our community as a criminal act of child abuse of our innocent children that causes long lasting emotional trauma to our students and damages the confidence of our community with the public school systems themselves as accomplices to this abusive behavior.

As a criminal act that violates the civil and human rights of our children, we demand that the Justice Department remove the veil of impunity that that Mr. Arpaio abuses in order to realize an investigation and bring prosecution against the current Maricopa County Sheriff (J. Arpaio) for these criminal offenses of child abuse of involving our unprotected children in violation of the Right of Equal Protection under the US Constitution and the Plyler v. Doe Supreme Court decision which is the law of the land.

La Familia

by Joaquín Chiñas

Mr. Arpaio has time and again demonstrated the abuse of power with a threatening and unprofessional attitude, implementing policies and practices of racial discrimination under color of law, i.e. AZ SB1070, which is openly proclaimed as a legislative tactic to foment a "War of Attrition" against our community as a whole, and Mexicans in particular.

A War of Attrition cannot be regulated, it cannot be softened with Pacts with the Devil when these “law enforcement” officials obstruct and manipulate with blatant abuse of power their public office, openly acting to thwart any existing or proposed regulation that would command that JUSTICE be the standard for delivery of public services.

We are all members of the public.  We all pay taxes for public services. Correspondingly, the attitude and performance of public servants must protect Civil Rights and respect the Human Rights of each person without discrimination.

THEREFORE, for the reasons stated and the utter lack of professionalism and respect for civil and human rights we demand the immediate intervention of the Department of Justice to end this regime of abuse against our children and families, our communities and public institutions by J. Arpaio and install the position of interim sheriff for Maricopa County with an authority appointed by the Department of Justice.

"Stopping Mexicans to make sure they are legal is not racist.  If you have dark skin, you have dark skin! Unfortunately, that is the look of the Mexican illegal."
Files of Maricopa County Sheriff J. Arpaio,
quoted on page 28 of US District Court Case 2:07-cv-02513-GMS
Document 494 12/23/11

Melendres v. Arpaio  

###

           

Intervencion: Investigation of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office

Los Comités de Defensa del Barrio

INTERVENCION

Foro Publico

29 de febrero de 2012

Con el US Department of Justice

Carl Hayden High School

Re: Investigation of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office

Estimados Miembros  de la Mesa y Miembros del Publico en Asistencia:

RECOMENDACION:

Los Comités de Defensa del Barrio consideramos la presencia del Sheriff Arpaio en las escuelas de nuestra comunidad como un acto criminal de Abuso Emocional de nuestros hijos que son estudiantes.  Como acto criminal que viola los derechos civiles y humanos de nuestra niñez, DEMANDAMOS que el Departamento de Justicia realice investigación y juicio contra el Sheriff del Condado de Maricopa (J. Arpaio) por estos delitos criminales de abuso de la niñez.

El Sheriff Arpaio ha mostrado una actitud que amenaza con políticas y practicas de discriminación racial bajo el color de ley AZ SB1070 que admite ser una “Guerra de Atrición” contra nuestra comunidad, y los Mexicanos en particular.

Una Guerra de Atrición no puede ser regulado, ni suavizado con pactos con diablos que siempre mienten y manipulan con el abuso del poder de su oficina cualquier regulación que existe para que la justicia sea la norma de los servicios públicos.

Todos somos miembros del publico.  Todos pagamos impuestos para los servicios públicos.  El tratamiento de los servidores públicos tiene que respetar los Derechos Civiles y proteger los Derechos Humanos de cada quien sin discriminación.

POR LO ANTERIOR, y falta de profesionalismo y respeto a los derechos civiles y humanos DEMANDAMOS la intervención del Departamento de Justicia de la manera mas rápida para poner fin a este régimen de abuso contra nuestros niños y familias por parte del Sheriff Arpaio y que se restituye el puesto del Sheriff con una autoridad interino nombrado por el Departamento de Justicia.

Ya Basta del Sheriff Arpaio!

FORO COMUNITARIO 

Necesitamos su recomendación para someter en

ACUERDO QUE SERA OBLIGADO A FIRMAR EL MARICOPA COUNTY SHERIFF J. ARPAIO
POR EL
DEPARTAMENTO DE JUSTICIA

Cuando:                 5:30 PM

Fecha:        Martes 28 de Febrero 2012

Lugar:   CARL HAYDEN HIGH SCHOOL

               35 AVENIDA Y ROOSEVELT

TRAIGAN SUS TESTIMONIOS Y COMENTARIOS CONTRA ARPAIO.

UNA OPORTUNIDAD DE DEFENDER A SU FAMILIA Y SU COMUNIDAD CONTRA ABUSOS Y PERFIL RACIAL.

LLAME A

LOS COMITES DE DEFENSA DEL BARRIO (CDB)

(602)314-5870

********************* 

TONATIERRA
Press Release

Contact:          Salvador Reza 

Date:               February 27, 2012  

Phoenix, Aztlan (Donde vive el espíritu de la verdad)

En estados unidos no hay que preocuparse de un golpe de estado por el ejercito. Tenemos que preocuparnos de un golpe de estado por un anciano Sheriff al que todos los candidatos de la derecha vienen y le besan la mano y le otorgan tributo como a Don Corleone de la película “El Padrino.”

El Domingo por la mañana encendí la televisión para ver que trataba Jorge Ramos en el programa AL PUNTO. Para mi sorpresa allí estaba el Sheriff Arpaio burlándose de nosotros otra vez. Sin embargo no solo se burlaba de nosotros, sino del Presidente Obama y sus intentos por frenar las practicas anti-constitucionales del Sheriff.

No solo se conformo Arpaio, con decir que el iba a seguir arrestando “ilegales extranjeros” como el lo dijo en el programa, sino que también había lanzado una investigación sobre la autenticidad del acta de nacimiento del presidente Obama. Según el anciano alguacil, el había iniciado la investigación a petición de “250 miembros del Tea Party.” Hoy en día una gran cantidad de miembros del Tea Party son los mismos racistas de lo Minute Men, el Partido NAZI, y miembros de pandillas de motocicletas que se comunicaban con el Sheriff para decirle donde conducir redadas en los centros de trabajo, o negocios frecuentados por nuestro pueblo de tez morena y rasgos de raza indígena. Dijo que el tenia la autoridad para investigar crímenes cuando venían los ciudadanos a pedírselo. En este caso por supuesto el “criminal” al que se refiere el Sheriff no es nada mas ni nada menos que el Presidente Barack Obama.

Si seguimos la lógica de Arpaio, todo lo que se necesita para justificar una investigación es que la persona sea un “enemigo político.” No se conforma con la investigación e intimidación de jueces, oficiales electos, organizadores comunitarios, sino que ahora lo llevo al nivel del Presidente de Estados Unidos.

Y en realidad me pregunto. ¿Que necesita el Departamento de Justicia para venir y tomar posesión de las cárceles y las operaciones del Sheriff? ¿Que se presente en la Casa Blanca con un par de esposas y calzones Rosita para arrestar al Presidente por “robo de identidad,” y trabajar “ilegalmente” como Presidente de Estados Unidos?

El anuncio del Sheriff Arpaio de estar investigando al Presidente se acerca a “High Treason” que en español se traduce a (Alta Traición). No sabemos cual será el siguiente paso del Departamento de Justicia. Lo que si sabemos es que nosotros llevaremos las recomendaciones del Pueblo que se recaudaron este Martes en el Foro Publico al Departamento de Justicia y le pediremos que ya no es tiempo de vacilar. Bull Connors, el Sheriff que arresto miles de afro-americanos en la lucha por desegregar estados unidos, en sus peores momentos nunca se atrevió a retar al Presidente Kennedy que ordeno las tropas para desagregar Alabama y Mississippi, sin embargo Arpaio no solo reta al Presidente Obama, sino que cuestiona su derecho a ser Presidente acusándolo de “Illegal Alien” y por tal lanza una investigación criminal mientras el “azote” de Osama Bien Laden, Omar Gadafi, y Mubarak, se revuelve en un montón de excusas burocráticas temiéndole al Sheriff mas senil y anciano del Oeste.

 ***********

Enough of Sheriff Arpaio !   

COMMUNITY FORUM

We need your recommendations to submit on the Agreements Sheriff Joe will be forced to sign with the Department of Justice

Time:                                   5:30 PM

Date:                        Tuesday February 28, 2012

Location:            CARL HAYDEN HIGH SCHOOL

                           35 AVE AND ROOSEVELT 

BRING YOUR TESTIMONIES AND COMMENTS AGAINST ARPAIO.

AN OPPORTUNITY TO DEFEND YOUR FAMILY AND COMMUNITY AGAINST ABUSES AND RACIAL PROFILING.

CALL THE 

COMMITTEES IN DEFENSE OF THE BARRIOS (CDB)

(602) 314-5870

Tonatierra Tlahtolli: Foro Publico - Recomendaciones al Departamento de Justicia

February 19, 2012

Phoenix, Aztlan (Donde vive el espíritu de la verdad)

Todos están invitados a dar su testimonio oral o por escrito al panel compuesto por el pueblo, políticos, profesionistas, y diferentes representantes y personalidades que llevaran las recomendaciones hasta Washington D.C.

Foro Publico

Recomendaciones al Departamento de Justicia

Investigación sobre el MCSO Sheriff Arpaio

Martes 28 de Febrero a las 6 P.M.

Escuela Carl Hayden 35 Avenida y Roosevelt

Derechos Civiles : Derechos Humanos : Derechos Indigenas

Derechos de la Madre Tierra

Dice un viejo refrán, “Espera que se acabe el circo para verle la cara a los payasos.” Y ahora que se le cayo el circo al Sheriff Babeu sabemos de lo sabio de algunos refranes que toman relevancia con la situación absurda de Arizona. Mientras el Sheriff Babeu hablaba de “cerrar” la frontera y deportar a los transgresores al ser electo al congreso, el periódico Phoenix New Times revela que tenia una relación amorosa con un joven mexicano gay.  Al parecer, según el periódico, el joven fue amenazado con deportación por Babeu, cuando el Sheriff Babeu, alumno de Arpaio, decidió lanzarse a la carrera política.

            Otro refrán también dice, “En casa de vidrio no hay que tirar piedras.” Y ese no solo se aplica al Sheriff Babeu, sino también a su maestro, El Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Ahora que le dieron la estocada de muerte a los acuerdos 287 g al quitarle los fondos para operar a nivel nacional. El Sheriff Joe Arpaio, otro payaso al que ya le conocemos la cara, sigue dividiendo familias retando al propio Juez Murray Snow que le dijo que no podía seguir pidiendo papeles a personas que cometieron simples violaciones de transito. Pero no, el Payaso no se da cuenta que su circo también se esta derrumbando y sigue citando las leyes estatales como las leyes que le permiten seguir actuando como migra aun si ya le quitaron su autoridad de migra. Eso no es todo, tiene que firmar un acuerdo con el departamento de justicia de no seguir violando la constitución de estados unidos y dejar de ejercer perfil racial, maltrato de prisioneros, y dejar de discriminar.

            Y es precisamente por esta razón que nos unimos al llamado de la Coalición “Black Brown Coalición” compuesta por Afro-Americanos, Pueblos Indígenas, y Comites de Defensa del Barrio junto con otras organizaciones para invitarlos a dar sus recomendaciones sobre que debe de ser incluido en los acuerdos que Arpaio será forzado a firmar con el Departamento de Justicia. El Foro Publico de Consulta al Pueblo se llevara a cabo en la Escuela Karl Hayden.

            Ya es tiempo de ponerle un fin al reino del terror del Sheriff Arpaio. Sera un payaso pero es un payaso peligroso que pone en peligro el bienestar de nuestros hijos, nuestras madres, y nuestras familias. Para mas información sobre este Foro Publico llame al 602 314-5870 o acuda a la reunión semanal de los CDB’s el próximo lunes 27 de febrero. Ponga su granito de arena y termine con el terror de Arpaio.

TONATIERRA TLAHTOLLI: Foro Publico sobre los Abusos de MCSO, J. Arpaio

Donde vive el espíritu de la verdad

Phoenix, Aztlan

 Public Forum on the Abuses of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, J. Arpaio

US Department of Justice
Solicitation of Recommendations

Martes 28 de Febrero 2012 Tuesday

Carl Hayden High School
3333 West Roosevelt

6:00 PM - 9:00 PM

******

La Familia by Joaquin Chiñas

 La Palabra de TONATIERRA

February 13, 2012 

Salvador Reza

Durante la ocupación NAZI de Francia, la población francesa estaba en Shock y mucho de ellos colaboraron con Hitler en un intento de sobrevivir. Marshall Philips Pétain el primer ministro Francés ignoro el llamado de Charles de Gaulle a resistir en el campo francés y acepto colaborar con Hitler. La razón que lo llevo a tomar partido y sacrificar su propia gente fue la sobrevivencia personal y a su modo de ver, Sobrevivencia de Francia.

Fue un precio muy alto. Ceder la soberanía de su pueblo a la ocupación NAZI, significo la destrucción de Francia que se convirtió en el campo de batalla internacional. También significo el desprecio de su mismo pueblo que han borrado toda referencia a el, y simplemente es recordado como Traidor. Lo mismo paso con Pierre Laval que no solo colaboro con los NAZI sino les dio ayuda enviándoles trabajadores franceses para ayudar en las fabricas alemanas. Cuando Hitler le pidió que formara una milicia para luchar contra los Franceses en Resistencia, no solo le ayudo sino capturo miles de judíos franceses que fueron exterminados en los campos de concentración alemana.

Que lecciones nos da la historia ahora que enfrentamos enemigos como Russell Parece, como el Sheriff Árpalo, como la gobernadora Brewer, y toda su ira en contra de nuestro pueblo. Algunos piensan en colaborar no solo con ellos, sino con la propia migra que separa nuestras familias como si fueran animales. Supuestos lideres religiosos no titubean en participar en la propaganda aceptando talleres y tours de como la migra respeta los derechos humanos de aquellos que deporta. Como si la deportación de nuestras propias tierras no fuera una violación de los derechos humanos como reza la Declaración Universal de Los Derechos Humanos. El Sheriff Arpaio, busca colaboradores para formar una Mesa de Consejo para cumplir con los “acuerdos” que serán forzado a firmar con el departamento de justicia. Esos colaboradores seguro dirán que lo hacen para asegurarse de que Arpaio cumpla con los acuerdos.

El próximo 28 de Febrero se esta planeando una consulta del pueblo donde queremos saber que piensa usted. 

¿Que demandar del Sheriff en los acuerdos que tiene que firmar con el gobierno Federal? 

La consulta tomara lugar el martes 28 de febrero en la Carl Hayden High School, 3333 W. Roosevelt a las 6:00 de la tarde. No hay razón para no poder participar. Las recomendaciones del pueblo se le darán al Departamento de Justicia. Sin embargo mucho de nuestro pueblo piensa que no puede haber arreglos con criminales que no les duele el Corazón dejar niños sin padres, familias separadas, y que utilizan dinero ajeno para perseguirnos. Les mantendremos informados sobre el lugar.

Para mas información llame al (602) 314-5870.

Si ha sido maltratado, o abusado dentro o fuera de la cárcel durante algún incidente con el Sheriff  necesitamos su opinión y su testimonio para darle al Departamento de Justicia. Si usted piensa que el Departamento de Justicia debe tomar control de las operaciones del Sheriff.  También queremos su opinión.

Los Comités de Defensa del Barrio

TONATIERRA 

*******************************************

 
"Stopping Mexicans to make sure they are legal is not racist.  If you have dark skin, you have dark skin! Unfortunately, that is the look of the Mexican illegal."
Files of Maricopa County Sheriff J. Arpaio,
quoted on page 28 of US District Court Case 2:07-cv-02513-GMS
Document 494 12/23/11

Melendres v. Arpaio 

US Human Rights Network: Dare to Struggle, Dare to Win

US Human Rights Network
February 2012 Podcast:
Dare to Struggle, Dare to Win
Kali Akuno inteviews Tupac Enrique Acosta of TONATIERRA and Chirs Crass of the The Catalyst Project
*******

NATIONHOOD and SUSTAINABILITY

“Freedom is not a free ride, you got to get out and push.”

After Selma, Dr. Martin Luther King said: “We have emerged from the era of Civil Rights to the era of Human Rights”.  He said that in 1967 and in 1968 he was assassinated.  Five days before his death, in an intimate conversation with Harry Belafonte, he shared his concerns over the trajectory of the US civil rights movement, revealing, “I am afraid we are integrating into a burning house.”

Today we know it is not just the house that is burning, but due to global warming driven by industrial greenhouse gas emissions and the failure of the recent global UN Climate Change Conferences (Catastrophe of Copenhagen 2009, Collapse of Cancun 2010, and the Disaster of Durban 2011) we are plunging headlong past the brink of planetary Climate Chaos.  In this “we” there is no “they”. 

Without meaningful mechanisms of control and elimination of industrial carbon emissions by human society into the atmosphere which we share with all life, the global environment and the continent of Africa especially is doomed to suffer from the devastating effects of global warming and extremes of environmental degradation.

Today we recall the lessons learned and know that lessons still have not been learned since that Bloody Sunday crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge over the Alabama River en route from Selma to Montgomery in 1965.  Today we know that we have overcome much, yet much remains to be done in our quest for liberation and self-determination. We know that the great strides of the US Civil Rights movement were steps in the longer journey of liberation and self-determination for All Peoples.  We also know by having lived the experiences of the Environmental Justice movement of the present generation, that we must make the connections to link our Civil and Human Rights campaigns to the global fight by Indigenous Peoples to defend the Rights of Mother Earth.

“Justice is always compelling, not always popular.”

As Nican Tlacah, as Indigenous Peoples of Abya Yala, Mother Earth we today we are speaking of TERRACIDE: the willful and premeditated crime against Humanity and the Rights of Mother Earth that results in the destruction of the capacity of Earth to be a Mother to the Future Generations. 

As Indigenous Peoples, we are called to engage human society at the planetary level in order to put in place the necessary communications platforms and strategic alliances to BRIDGE the MOVEMENTS of CLIMATE JUSTICE across cultures, continents, and Peoples.  There is only a single Sea, and the oceans of Mother Earth do not separate us, but instead unite us in Spiritual and Ecological responsibility to protect the Natural World for the Future Generations: World Water ONE (www.www.www)

The Bridge is before us.  We shall pass.  Here in Arizona, we shall pass through the gruesome and dehumanizing Nightmare of Manifest Destiny disguised as the “Rule of Law” and continue on our journey to achieve our global humanity.

Today we awake not in dream but in realities that command that the injustices of Environmental Racism be addressed and responses from the grass roots communities most impacted be articulated and implemented as public policies of Sustainability, Environmental Justice, and Climate Justice. 

We have come a long way.  Yet, we have a long way still to go.  Let us begin once again, Building Understanding and Solidarity, let’s all GET ON THE BUS!

From Civil Rights to Human Rights, Indigenous Rights and the Rights of Mother Earth!

Local - Regional – Continental – Global

*******

YouTube:

Nationhood and Sustainabilty: FIRE IT UP!

Our Nations

Have been put on reservations,

Our Nations are in the hood,

It’s done by robbin’

It brings the throbbin’

Of my heart up to my brain

And the thought

Of what ought

To be done

Is what I say,

Is what I mean:

It’s not about

WHAT

We want

It’s what we

WILL.

Tupak Huehuecoyotl

2/7/2012

FREEDOM RIDERS: NATIONHOOD and SUSTAINABILITY

FREEDOM RIDERS

NATIONHOOD and SUSTAINABILITY

“Freedom is not a free ride, you got to get out and push.”

La Familia by Joaquín Chiñas

After Selma, Dr. Martin Luther King said: “We have emerged from the era of Civil Rights to the era of Human Rights”.  He said that in 1967 and in 1968 he was assassinated.  Five days before his death, in an intimate conversation with Harry Belafonte, he shared his concerns over the trajectory of the US civil rights movement, revealing, “I am afraid we are integrating into a burning house.”

Today we know it is not just the house that is burning, but due to global warming driven by industrial greenhouse gas emissions and the failure of the recent global UN Climate Change Conferences (Catastrophe of Copenhagen 2009, Collapse of Cancun 2010, and the Disaster of Durban 2011) we are plunging headlong past the brink of planetary Climate Chaos.  In this “we” there is no “they”.

Without meaningful mechanisms of control and elimination of industrial carbon emissions by human society into the atmosphere which we share with all life, the global environment and the continent of Africa especially is doomed to suffer from the devastating effects of global warming and extremes of environmental degradation.

Today we recall the lessons learned and know that lessons still have not been learned since that Bloody Sunday crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge over the Alabama River en route from Selma to Montgomery in 1965.  Today we know that we have overcome much, yet much remains to be done in our quest for liberation and self-determination. We know that the great strides of the US Civil Rights movement were steps in the longer journey of liberation and self-determination for All Peoples.  We also know by having lived the experiences of the Environmental Justice movement of the present generation, that we must make the connections to link our Civil and Human Rights campaigns to the global fight by Indigenous Peoples to defend the Rights of Mother Earth.

“Justice is always compelling, not always popular.”

As Nican Tlacah, as Indigenous Peoples of Abya Yala, Mother Earth we today we are speaking of TERRACIDE: the willful and premeditated crime against Humanity and the Rights of Mother Earth that results in the destruction of the capacity of Earth to be a Mother to the Future Generations.  

As Indigenous Peoples, we are called to engage human society at the planetary level in order to put in place the necessary communications platforms and strategic alliances to BRIDGE the MOVEMENTS of CLIMATE JUSTICE across cultures, continents, and Peoples.  There is only a single Sea, and the oceans of Mother Earth do not separate us, but instead unite us in Spiritual and Ecological responsibility to protect the Natural World for the Future Generations: World Water ONE (www.www.www)

The Bridge is before us.  We shall pass.  Here in Arizona, we shall pass through the gruesome and dehumanizing Nightmare of Manifest Destiny disguised as the “Rule of Law” and continue on our journey to achieve our global humanity.

Today we awake not in dream but in realities that command that the injustices of Environmental Racism be addressed and responses from the grass roots communities most impacted be articulated and implemented as public policies of Sustainability, Environmental Justice, and Climate Justice. 

We have come a long way.  Yet, we have a long way still to go.  Let us begin once again, Building Understanding and Solidarity, let’s all GET ON THE BUS!

From Civil Rights to Human Rights, Indigenous Rights and the Rights of Mother Earth!

Local - Regional – Continental – Global

TONATIERRA

NAHUACALLI EDUCATORS ASSOCIATION

Los Comités de Defensa del Barrio

US Human Rights Network

Black-Left Unity Network

*******

Nationhood and Sustainability

Our Nations

Have been put on reservations,

Our Nations are in the hood,

It’s done by robbin’

It brings the throbbin’

Of my heart up to my brain

And the thought

Of what ought

To be done

Is what I say,

Is what I mean:

It’s not about

WHAT

We want

It’s what we

WILL.

Tupak Huehuecoyotl

Message to Selma

TONATIERRA

PO Box 24009

Phoenix, AZ  85074

NATIONHOOD and SUSTAINABILITY

From Selma to Phoenix, from Civil Rights to Human Rights,

Indigenous Rights and the Rights of Mother Earth!

Message to Selma

2012 Bridge Crossing Jubilee
C/O Faya Rose Touré

February 13, 2012

Dear Relatives,

It was a great honor to receive Mr. Bruce Carver Boynton and his wife Betty here in Phoenix last month upon the community screening of the PBS documentary film “Freedom Riders”.  When we looked upon the scenes of “Bloody Sunday” March 7, 1965 on the Edmund Pettus bridge we also were brought to anguish once again in recollection of the trauma and injuries which we as Indigenous Peoples have suffered at the hands of “officers of the law” that implement with state sanctioned violence the doctrines of “white” supremacy and racial discrimination going back to October 12, 1492.

As Indigenous Peoples, we are not immigrants in our own continent, and we know through our millennial history that what is now known as the state of Alabama was in the not too distant past part of a vast cultural confederacy based on the practice of maize agriculture which has its deepest roots in the central part of Anahuac, Mexico.  The anthropologists call them the “Mound Builders”, but to us they are our ancestors and relatives. We are speaking of histories that through the same mechanisms of state sanctioned violence, in this case intellectual violence, have been denied and denigrated in the US Public School system in order to enhance and establish the “Racial Profile” of America as a country of constituencies whose only legal, political, cultural, and economic superstructures could be validated and officialized by the European American narrative of colonization and empire.

Before the 1830 Indian Removal Act, President Andrew Jackson told the Muscogee Creeks of Alabama:

“Beyond the great River Mississippi, where apart of your nation has gone, your Father has provided a country large enough for all of you, and he advises you to remove to it. There your white brothers will not trouble you; they will have no claim to the land, and you can live upon it you and all your children, as long as the grass grows or the water runs, in peace and plenty. It will be yours forever.”

Ancient Trade Routes of Indigenous Nations of Abya Yala

Relatives, we are sending this message of “trouble” to you now from far beyond the Mississippi, beyond the “Red Man’s Land” of Oklahoma.  Today we send this message to Selma, Alabama from Phoenix, Arizona knowing that the ancestral ties that at one time linked both of these ancient territories of indigenous cultural identity as Nations of Mother Earth, also tie us to each other through the Spirit of Maize to all our relations of all other continents of the planet.  Here in Arizona we are undergoing a the Wakeup Call from the Nightmare of Manifest Destiny as we face the juggernaut of ethnic cleansing that became US Policy in 1830 with the Indian Removal Act, which then set the stage for the US invasion of Mexico and the imposition by force of the border by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (US-Mexico 1848).

With the passage of AZ SB1070 in 2010, and then AZ HB2281, the process of ethnic cleansing by state legislative actions that are openly being described as a “war of attrition” set the stage for what is now AL HB56 and other similar initiatives by state legislatures across the country to insert themselves into the federal realm of immigration policy by enacting legislation that criminalizes migrant workers and their families in blatant violation of Civil Rights, Human Rights, and Indigenous Rights.  In the background of these initiatives, in criminal collusion, are the private prison industry and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a Koch brothers funded project.

On January 25, 2012 when Mr. Bruce Boynton intervened on our behalf before the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors by testifying and submitting as Evidence of Right the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (adopted by the General Assembly on September 13, 2007) a new chapter in our intercontinental struggle for social justice and self-determination began.  Now we turn to you in Selma and call upon your courage and consideration to take our struggle into account as we also honor and celebrate your fight for Civil Rights within the societies of the Americas.  To emphasize, for us the African American experience is not limited to the “African-United Statesian” frame for we know and have met with communities and leaders of the African American constituencies in Mexico, in Panama, in Ecuador, in Bolivia and across the entire continent of Abya Yala [the Americas], and in Africa as well.

It is an honor to receive the invitation to participate in the 2012 commemoration celebration of the Bridge Crossing Jubilee in Selma, Alabama.  We graciously accept, and will be in communication to plan out the strategy and logistics of our “Freedom Ride” to Selma and back to Phoenix.  May we meet soon, and continue on our journey united as children of the Nations and Pueblos of Mother Earth:

From Civil Rights to Human Rights, Indigenous Rights and the

Rights of Mother Earth!

Tupac Enrique Acosta, Yaotachcauh

Tlahtokan Nahuacalli

TONATIERRA

Email: chantlaca@tonatierra.org

NAHUACALLI

Embassy of Indigenous Peoples

www.nahuacalli.org