Dine' Chili Yazzie: 'We must get our land back, we belong to the land'

'The Creator placed us here for a purpose'

By Duane 'Chili' Yazzie
Censored News

We must get our land back. For too long we have been told by the United States Federal Government that it is the Trustee and we are the wards; that they own the land and that we are just “being allowed to live on the land”. 

We unequivocally reject the idea. We may not own the land, but the federal government does not own it either. It is a pathetic statement to say you own land, any land. The idea of owning land is an illogical concept, it contravenes the Original Intent.
We are more correct when we say “this is our land”, that is not the same as saying we own it.

This is our land by virtue of the fact that we were here first. It is our contention that the Creator placed us here for a purpose, it was not coincidence; the Creator is not coincidental. Our concept is we belong to the land and the land belongs to us, we belong to each other. The same way we belong to the mother who brought us into the world, we belong to each other, we don’t own each other.

The Federal Government holds a piece of paper called the Title to the Land; in the context of the Original Intent of the Creator placing us on this land, that piece of paper don’t prove nothing. However, if that piece of paper is to be regarded as sacred and to have value in the halls of Congress, the bench of jurisprudence and the desk of the President, then we want that piece of paper.

The United States Federal Government determined that it would be the Trustee, that it would hold the land “in trust” for us. At the time it declared us to be incompetent to have land, ignoring the fact that we had been in a life sharing co-existence with the land for centuries prior to the Great Intrusion.

Our reality is our present circumstance, we are the wards and the Federal Government is the Trustee with control of our land. Our best option is to work to get control of the land that has our name on it. I believe it is doable, the thought of us getting title to our land is not a futile dream. 

We need to appeal to the magnanimity of the United States Federal Government and prove that we no longer need to be wards and that we are competent to take care of our lands in all respects. We need our scholars of law and political scientists to think outside-the-box of their American academia training, while honoring Indigenous thought principals on land and chart a course for us to get our land back.

Thanks Chili for allowing Censored News to share your statement.

Chili Yazzie was an original member of XIT, the voice of the American Indian Movement in the 1970s, and later served as Navajo Council Delegate and Shiprock, N.M., Chapter President during his ongoing lifetime of service.

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http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2013/12/dine-chili-yazzie-we-must-get-our-land.html

Longest Walk 4 headed over Echo Pass, California

Sunday, Dec. 8, 2013:  Walk 4 die-hards are chaining up the support vehicle tires, ready to walk over Echo Pass, Calif., will be in Shingle Springs Miwok for stay place tonight! The walkers are on Hwy 50 headed toward Shingle Springs, Sacramento and Alcatraz! Photos by Bad Bear.

Robert Free's dramatic moments with Nelson Mandela

Robert Free's tepee Occupation of Alcatraz 

Freedom Fighters

Robert Free, who was at the Occupation of Alcatraz and the Stronghold of Wounded Knee 1973, shares his dramatic time with Nelson Mandela

By Robert Free

Censored News

At a breakfast with Nelson Mandela in the 90s at Seattle University, with 600 community activists, I held up a sign to 'Free Peltier' as Mandela talked. While attacked and packed off immediately by state department security, I turned and yelled to Mandela, "Madiba! Help me!"

Heading off to jail, the organizers came running to the cops and said Nelson Mandela would not continue speaking until I was returned and allowed to hold my banner to 'Free Peltier.' When I was returned he looked to me and the crowd and said, "There is the gentleman with the banner! I am not afraid of freedom fighters. I am one myself!" and with that he left the stage. 

I had remembered his tribal elder name was Madiba -- a great honor -- to have him call me a freedom fighter. Mandela showed the world how to move with love in his heart and not hate!

Nelson Mandela and Graca Machel at 
Seattle University,
December 1999

I had planned it all and asked the organizers Teledisky, Gates Foundation, Russell investments what Tribal protocol were in place to receive him. This was after I heard that he was coming to Seattle and said that "he would respect the tribes land he was entering. Mandela as a tribal person would follow tribal protocols."

I knew they would not have an idea, so I was asked to put them together: Had a Talking stick carved by Chief Charles Elliott and offered to Mandela by Chief Cecile Hansen's grandson, Duwamish and Alaskan dancers welcome him on arrival. That gave me an invitation and access to his events. Also had the organizers pay for it all, and had Free Peltier carved on the talking stick.

Mandela would not leave to other events. He stated at the arrival at the airport, "I can not leave until I had shaken the hand of every dancer and welcoming natives!"

So he came by and shook the hand of each of us and especially the children and in slow Indian time smiled and spoke and hugged the people saying repeatably, from him and his wife Graca Machel, "Thank you so much! you have made us so very happy!"

Thank you Robert Free for sharing your story with Censored News!

Read more:
Nelson Mandela, said during his visit to Oakland in 1990, "All these letters which I have received described of the conditions of the American Indians here, and I can assure you that they have left me very disturbed." Read more: http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_23553867/mandelas-1990-speech-oakland-we-cannot-turn-back?source=pkg

CIA helped jail Mandela
http://www.globalresearch.ca/crocodile-tears-it-was-the-cia-that-helped-jail-nelson-mandela/5360582

Video Umatilla at Halted Tar Sands Megaload Oregon

Article at Censored News:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2013/12/umatilla-and-activists-block-tar-sands.html

Video: December 3 2013: Members of the Confederated Tribes of Umatilla Indian Reservation and friends gathered tonight in Pendleton, Oregon to hold ceremony at the site where the Omega Morgan "mega load" remains.