The Chief's Prayers

Today is both the start of the month of Santa Rosa for the Carib Community in Arima, Trinidad & Tobago, as well as African Emancipation Day. Sometimes the two events are jointly celebrated on top of Calvary Hill in Arima, where the events begin at 6:00am with the blasting of the cannon. As that cannon is blasted, this post is scheduled to go up. Usually a smoke ceremony is held by the Caribs, and this is a collection of some of the prayers used by Chief Ricardo Bharath Hernandez. Best wishes to the Carib Community and Happy Emancipation Day!

LOKONO PRAYER

Adaiahiili Tamushi Anshika ba

O Great Spirit God give us your

Maiauhii daiba wai koma anshihi

Peace so we can love as you love us

Amarita mun sakwa daiba

Make us healthy so

Wai koma kamunka usahu kahiihii

We can have a good life

Wa chin achi waianchicha

We praise you O Lord

AMERICAN INDIAN PRAYER

Oh, Great Spirit

Whose voice I hear in the winds,

And whose breath gives life to all the world,

hear me, I am small and weak,

I need your strength and wisdom.

Let me walk in beauty and make my eyes ever behold

the red and purple sunset.

Make my hands respect the things you have

made and my ears sharp to hear your voice.

Make me wise so that I may understand the things

you have taught my people.

Let me learn the lessons you have

hidden in every leaf and rock.

I seek strength, not to be greater than my brother,

but to fight my greatest enemy - myself.

Make me always ready to come to you

with clean hands and straight eyes.

So when life fades, as the fading sunset,

my Spirit may come to you without shame.

(translated by Lakota Sioux Chief Yellow Lark in 1887)

published in Native American Prayers - by the Episcopal Church.

http://guanaguanaresingsat.blogspot.com/2011/07/santa-rosa-carib-community-of-arima.html

LOKONO-ENGLISH PRAYER

We send our prayers to the Great Spirit

Adaiahiili Tamushi

Whose manifestation we see in the spirit of the hawk,

Whose spirit we see in the mighty wind,

Whose spirit manifests through the sacred fire,

Who gives sustenance through the waters,

Who is ever-present in the forests,

And who gives us the provisions of the earth.

And through Santa Rosa,

We ask that he may receive our prayers,

As we pray for forgiveness,

As we pray in thanksgiving,

As we pray for continued blessings

For our Community,

For our Borough,

For our nation,

And for our world.

Amen.

---

Here are some more prayers in the various Indigenous languages of the Caribbean:

THE LORD’S PRAYER IN THE MAINLAND CARIB LANGUAGE

Kioumoue tetaniem oubecouyum:

santiketàla eyeti:

membouilla biouboutou malibatali:

Mingatte-catou-thoattica ayeoula tibouic monba cachi tibuic-bali oubecou.

Huere-bali im-eboue bimàle louago lica hueyou icoigne:

roya-catou-kia-banum huenocaten huiouine cachi roya-ouabàli nhìuine innocatitium ouaone.

Aca menépeton-ouahattica toróman tachaouonnê-tebouroni:

irheu chibacaiketa-baoua touaria toulibani-hanhan-catou.

THE HAIL MARY IN THE CARIB LANGUAGE

Mábuiga María

Buíntibu labu gracis

Búmañei

Abúreme biníuatibu

Jádan sun

UUríña biníuatiguiyé

Tin bágaim Jesus.

Sándu María lúguchu

Búnguiu

Ayumuraguabá uáu

Gafigontíua

Uguñetó, lídan

Ora uóuve. Ítara la.

THE LORD’S PRAYER IN THE WARAO LANGUAGE

Karima, najamutuata jakutai,

Jiwai yatomanetekunarai.

Jirujuna rujanu rijana.

Najamutuata jiaobojona eku abaya.

Raina eku monukajase jiaobojona eku abakunarai.

Kanajoro ama saba jakutai taisi kamoau.

Kaisiko asiraja nonajakutai taisi kuare barinaka kaobojona bereaoko.

Taisi monuka kaobojona asirajasi kuare barinaka bere.

Kayakara minaka jau.

Tiarone asiraja arotuma amojekumo kejeronu.

Iji are Airamo tane rujakitane ja.

Iji are jijara taeraja.

Iji are Airamowitu.

Amén.

Nicaragua's Miskitos Seeking Independence?

The BBC reported on 03 August 2009, in an article by Stephen Gibbs titled "Nicaragua's Miskitos seek independence," that a group of elders have proclaimed their loyalty to the "Community Nation of Moskitia." No indication is provided of the degree to which these elders represent the popular wishes of fellow Miskitos (indeed, it is cast in doubt), or how this plan for sovereignty will impact on other, non-Miskito indigenous persons on the Caribbean coast of the country, as well as non-indigenous Nicaraguans. We are told, however, that they have a flag and an anthem.

Gibbs suggests that the main reason for the proclamation of independence is primarily economic: outrageously high unemployment of 80% in some parts, while oil drilling concessions in the area are being offered, and the fact that those employed on government-licensed lobster fishing vessels have seen their wages cut.

The Miskitos were allied with the British throughout the 1700s and 1800s. In the 1980s, many joined and supported the US-funded and equipped contras, fighting against the Sandinista Revolution. The president at the time, Daniel Ortega, is once again the president, and the article provides no indication of any response from him. The Sandinista government in the 1980s was the first in the Americas to produce an ambitious autonomy plan for the so-called "Atlantic Coast" region.

Bolivia: Universities for Indigenous Peoples

This story was published by the Latin American Herald Tribune, 12 August 2009:

LA PAZ – The three universities for indigenous peoples promoted by the government of Evo Morales began their activities with a total of 480 students, Bolivia’s Education Ministry said in a communique.

The students, who were selected in indigenous communities and will be able to take advantages of scholarships, began their studies Monday at what Education Minister Roberto Aguilar called an “historic moment for the educational and university environment.”

Aguilar made his remarks on Sunday at the official inauguration of the Guarani-language university at Kuruyuki in the southeastern province of Chuquisaca, which will bear the name of indigenous hero Apiaguaiki Tumpa.

In the town of Chimore will be a Quechua-language institution with the name of Casimiro Huanca.

The other university, Tupac Katari, will be established in the Andean town of Warisata, near La Paz, where the medium of instruction will be the Aymara language.

The indigenous universities “will open up (for the students) not only the Western and universal world of knowledge, but the knowledge of our own identity, culture; without leaving to the side the hope and yearning of the peoples” said the education minister.

Therefore, he urged the students to take advantage of their classes to transfer the knowledge they acquire to their communities.

“You have the right to educate yourselves as part of the right of peoples. It’s a right won with blood and sacrifice,” said Aguilar.

Morales, an Aymara, is the first indigenous president of Bolivia, where Indians make up around 60 percent of the population of nearly 10 million. EFE

Indigenous Colombians Protest for Land Rights; Shot & Beaten

POPAYAN, Colombia (CNN) -- Thousands of Colombian Indians plan to protest government policies on Tuesday in the country's second-largest city, marking more than a week of demonstrations against the nation's free-market economic policies.

Indian leaders in the mountains of southwest Colombia announced during the weekend they were gathering as many as 20,000 protesters and would begin to march Tuesday on the city of Cali, an industrial and agricultural hub.

At least two Indians have been killed and more than 80 have been injured in the protests, which began October 10 and have included a blockade of the Pan-American highway. The government says as many as 70 security force members, mainly riot police, have also been injured.

During the past week, protesters throwing rocks and firing sling shots, catapults and Molotov cocktails, have clashed with riot police, who fought back with tear gas, rocks and batons.

The Indians also say the security forces have been shooting at them with rifles and canisters packed with shrapnel. President Alvaro Uribe has denied that police and army forces have been using lethal force against demonstrators, but medics say they have treated scores of Indians injured by bullets and shrapnel.

The protesters allege one of their own, 27-year-old Taurino Ramos, was fatally shot in the head by police. The police have made no official comment.

A formal autopsy was not conducted because the Nasa tribe, to which Ramos belonged, opposes autopsies for cultural reasons.

Seven Indian tribes in southwest Cauca and Valle del Cauca provinces launched the protests to coincide with the date of October 12, known in the United States as Columbus Day and in much of Latin America as Dia de la Raza, or Day of the (Indian) Race.

Latin America's Indian communities equate the discovery of the Americas by Christopher Columbus in 1492 as the start of the Spanish colonial invasion, which led to millions of Indian deaths in wars and from disease. The Spanish invaders drove the Indian populations off their ancestral lands and deep into jungles and mountains, as they plundered resources, including gold and silver.

Since then, the Indian population has become an ethnic and economic underclass in Colombia and in most of Latin America. They rank among the poorest sectors of society.

The Indians have called for the government to fulfill previous pledges to give more land to Indian reservations, guarantee better health care and education, and to stop big business and multinational companies from encroaching on their lands.

Under the Colombian constitution, all subsoil rights belong "to the nation," which effectively means the government can, and has, granted mining rights to national and multinational corporations on lands claimed by Indians.

The Indians, whose lifestyle and religion is connected closely with preservation of the environment, are bitterly opposed to unrestricted mining in their territory.

"We oppose these types of indiscriminate mining activities allowed under the new mining code," Luis Fernando Arias, secretary general of the National Indigenous Council of Colombia (ONIC), told CNN by telephone.

Indian leaders describe their protest as "anti-capitalist." They see their struggle as another reflection of growing worldwide concern over free market economic policies and financial management, which they say were to blame for the recent meltdown in global stock markets.

"The capitalist system our government imported from the United States is a failure. The world is bankrupt," Aida Quilcue, a protest leader, told CNN.

"This shouldn't just be a fight by the Indians but by everyone in Colombia and across the world who rejects this deadly capitalist model."

About 1.3 million Indians divided among 102 tribes or ethnic groups are living in Colombia, the government estimates.

The government argues the Indians are well provided for with more than 66 million acres of reservations.

But Indian authorities say the statistic is misleading since much of the land is jungle, mountain or swamp -- and protected as an environmental reserve. They say almost 500,000 Indians have no land at all.

Last week, Indian protesters briefly blocked the Pan-American highway, a symbolic target as well as a major trade route for road cargo traveling the length of South America.

The highway was conceived in 1923 as a way to unite the Americas. It runs some 29,000 miles (48,000 kilometers) from Alaska to Patagonia at the southern tip of South America -- broken only for a few miles between Panama and Colombia in a lawless region of thick jungle.

Restoration: More Indigenous than the Ancestors, in the Poet's Eye

I was struck by this passage from Derek Walcott's acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992. I had read this at the time it was released and had forgotten this passage until I accidentally found it again in the last few weeks.

Break a vase, and the love that reassembles the fragments is stronger than that love which took its symmetry for granted when it was whole. The glue that fits the pieces is the sealing of its original shape. It is such a love that reassembles our African and Asiatic fragments, the cracked heirlooms whose restoration shows its white scars. This gathering of broken pieces is the care and pain of the Antilles, and if the pieces are disparate, ill-fitting, they contain more pain than their original sculpture, those icons and sacred vessels taken for granted in their ancestral places. Antillean art is this restoration of our shattered histories, our shards of vocabulary, our archipelago becoming a synonym for pieces broken off from the original continent.

The love that goes into restoration is even stronger than the love which took reality for granted. In the vision of the poet, what some have called the "Taino restoration" brings us face to face with people who are more firmly committed, attentive, and protective of indigenous heritage than even the ancestors that they take care to respect -- what a refreshing difference from scornful remarks about the "neo-Taino" as mere "wannabes" who are not "real," not "real" like "real Indians of the past." I take it that "white scars" can have multiple meanings here: a direct reference to glue, thus of binding, and healing; the sea, uniting Caribbean islands, these fragments of the mainland; and/or, the history of colonialism, white domination, that wrought the breakage to begin with. And finally the poem places the Antilles within a South American embrace, now bringing together the poet with the archaeologist while reminding a region of a history that is too often forgotten, willfully even.

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Blogs for Indigenous News and Commentary

Normally I would be careful about recommending a website or blog whose authors/creators are not well identified, but CENSORED appears to be well worth visiting for those interested in indigenous news from a radical and militant perspective. Many of the current articles discuss Zapatista meetings, communiques from writers associated with the Mohawk Warriors Society, and pieces critical of U.S. actions in Iraq as well as domestic spying in the U.S.

Indigenous Issues Today is a relatively new blog authored by Dr. Peter N. Jones, director of the Baau Insititute in Boulder, Colorado. Dr. Jones, of Welsh, Norwegian, and Choctaw ancestry, has also worked with indigenous peoples from the Dominican Republic, among others. The following information about the blog and the Institute came from a recent press release by PRLEAP.COM:

Indigenous people today face more challenges than any previous generation. Large multi-national companies are extracting all types of natural resources from indigenous peoples traditional homelands. Ecotourism is having an adverse effect on traditional indigenous cultural values. The establishment of large preserves for wildlife management has caused detrimental impacts to traditional subsistence lifeways by indigenous peoples throughout the world. In order to help mitigate these ongoing and constant impacts, the Bauu Institute and Press began publishing the Indigenous Issues Today news blog.

The Indigenous Issues Today news blog is written as a form of social outreach for those who want to find out what is happening to the worlds indigenous peoples and as a means of informing the public about one of today's central human rights issues. With over 20 posts on 15 indigenous groups located in 8 countries, the blog has already garnered a lot of attention. Primary topics have included timber harvesting in Chile and its impacts to the Mapuche people, oil and gas development among the Ute peoples of southern Colorado, and commentaries on the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights....

Dr. Jones said, "Although there are a number of blogs that cover a particular topic or indigenous group, this blog is the first to examine in detail one particular issue at a time while still taking a global perspective. A larger understanding is developed as to the problems facing indigenous peoples around the world." With the Indigenous Issues Today news blog, Dr. Peter N. Jones hopes to reach out to people from all walks of life.

About the Bauu Institute and Press

The Bauu Institute and Press is a science and applied research institute. Since 1998 the Institute has conducted a wide range of environmental, psychological, and social science projects. The Institute works on a range of local, state, federal, and tribal based levels, and are especially adept at working with indigenous peoples.

Taino Festival in the Dominican Republic

JUEVES, AGOSTO 09, 2007

Noticias del Frente Ancestral 028

DIA INTERNACIONAL DE LOS PUEBLOS INDIGENAS DEL MUNDO 2007

1er. Encuentro Taíno de Kiskeya - 2008: Primer Anuncio

Sol Taino

Museo del Hombre y la Mujer Dominicanos & Cinemateca Nacional
Plaza de la Cultura
Avenida Máximo Gómez
Santo Domingo, Kiskeya

Lunes 21 de enero, 2008; 4:00 – 10:30 pm

Programa Tentativo

Ponencias magistrales a cargo de: Bernardo Vega, Carlos Andújar y Domingo Abreu; Lynne Guitar y Antonio de Moya (Consejo de Ancianos/as, Guabancex Viento y Agua). Museo del Hombre y la Mujer Dominicanos.

Conversatorio con Martín Veguilla - Director del Festival Taíno de Jayuya y líder del Concilio Guatumacúa de Puerto Rico – Invitado Especial. Museo del Hombre y la Mujer Dominicanos.

Estreno nacional de la película puertorriqueña: “Taínos, la última tribu.” Cinemateca Dominicana.

Visita de Benjamín López, director de la película puertorriqueña: “Taínos, la última tribu” y venta de las ediciones en DVD originales de la misma. Museo del Hombre y la Mujer Dominicanos.

Exhibición de la película infantil “Ogú y Mampato en Rapa Nui”, con una historia acorde al tema aborigen. Cinemateca Dominicana.

Exhibición de videos acerca de la Cultura Taína de Soraya Aracena. Cinemateca Dominicana

Instalación-ofrenda a los ancestros por Pascal Meccariello. Museo del Hombre y la Mujer Dominicanos.

Exposiciones fotográficas de arte rupestre de Alfredo Roldán y Daniel Dubai. Museo del Hombre y la Mujer Dominicanos.

Degustación de casabe y video del proceso de preparación actual del mismo. Museo del Hombre y la Mujer Dominicanos.

Exhibición y venta de artesanía y cerámica de inspiración aborigen. Museo del Hombre y la Mujer Dominicanos.

Degustación y venta de productos relacionados y venta de diversos platos que muestran la influencia taína en nuestra gastronomía. Alrededores del Museo del Hombre y la Mujer Dominicanos.

Show de títeres sobre mitología taína por Ernesto López. Museo del Hombre y la Mujer Dominicanos.

Narraciones de leyendas y cuentos de nuestros campos por Guaroa Ubiñas. Alrededores del Museo del Hombre y la Mujer Dominicanos.

Partido de pelota Taína con los jugadores de Batey de Azua. Alrededores del Museo del Hombre y la Mujer Dominicanos.

Performance de Geo Ripley (Consejo de Ancianos/as, Guabancex Viento y Agua) . Museo del Hombre y la Mujer Dominicanos

Concierto de música neo-taína y ritmos folclóricos de nuestra cultura, con Irka Mateo (Consejo de Ancianos/as, Guabancex Viento y Agua) y su grupo Boutí. Museo del Hombre y la Mujer Dominicanos

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Microcuentos tainos para niños

Por: Fátima Portorreal
Consejo de Ancianos/as, Guabancex Viento y Agua

Especial para epistheme

Así es, así dicen: ¡Se llamaba Opiyel!

Opiyelguobiran

Para mi sobrina Kiara

Santo Domingo, Enero 2007

Según cuentan, en una nubosa noche, cantaban los toricos y a lo lejos, muy allá de la espesura de la fronda de doña Francisca, el chirrido del pitanguá se mezclaba con los grillos saltarines. Mientras tanto, en el charco de Itabo, croaban y croaban las verdes ranas, desafinando a los cucús y agriando a las lechuzas.

De repente, tras un leve movimiento, de la rama del laurel de Fifito, salta el pegapalo, la birijita, y por supuesto los jilguerillos que adormecidos por la penumbra, no acababan de entender tal alboroto… “¡Oye!” -- le gritó el pegapalo – “Deja de moverte y abre los oídos, ¿qué me dices, rayado pajarito?, escucha por favor…”. Del real camino de Acacia y no lejos del charco de Itabo, unas voces raras y una cuadrilla de raros humanos se dirigen a la fronda… “Escucha… Por favor, escucha…”.

“Camina, camina más deprisa” -- decía Macocael – “¿Acaso no conoces a las opias? Se comerán las guayabas, antes de que las guayzas tiren de un jalón, las sogas de Opiyelguobirán. No habrá para nadie. Correrá y correrá tan deprisa, que hasta el dulzor se perderá en sus dos grandes fosas. Dicen que no hay nadie como él, sus largas patas y dientes afilados desbarrigan corceles, descascaran el samo, la semilla de higuereta y hasta el duro caparazón de la hermana hicotea.”

“Camina, camina… que despertarán las avecillas y si no se dan cuenta, llegaremos primero al guayabal. Yo comeré las más amarillas; tú recogerás las que el hermano Inrirí tumbó por la prisa, antes del anochecer. Ellos, los amigos toatoa cargarán el resto… deprisa, deprisa, que se oyen los pasos de Opiyel…”.

Pero las imprudentes birijitas, asustadas con la corredera, silbaron y silbaron tan fuertemente que los toatoa se cayeron, los pequeños humanos se dispersaron, y el terrible Opiyel asustado y enredado con tal algarabía, creyó que las opias anunciaban el alba. Corrió y corrió tan deprisa entre las charcas de Itabo, que sin percatarse, un humano tiró de su cuerda y lo arrojó al charco. Así cuentan y así supe que de cualquier charco durante lunas oscuras y para siempre, Opiyelguobiran, el dios perro, sale a buscar guayabas.

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Entre Lágrimas, Encontrando a una Ciguapa

Bonao, Diciembre 2006

Lo cierto no la invoco, más si fuera él, adosaría su nombre, rotulando círculo tras círculo en las umbrías estercoleras de la isla… huir de la sombra, no podría. ¿Aceptar su mirada…? Si fuera él… créanme… no la invoco. Denunciaría su nombre en la plaza de los hombres y la colgarían por impúdica y atrevida. Créanme… si fuera él, no le quedaran palabras. Las atrevidas Lauras trocearían su lengua y al amanecer de cualquier día o de cualquier noche, correrían a vomitarla en otras tierras. Si fuera él, no la enterraría… por si fuese a nacer, le pincharía los ojos… removería afanosamente los iris, la arrojaría a los riscos y ocultaría su sonrisa al oeste, porque allí muere la luz. Si fuera él, la dejaría agonizar y dormiría tranquilo, porque el silencio de sus labios no podrá amarrar el amor. Créanme… si fuera él, andaría tranquilo, porque sus torcidos pies, jamás se inclinaran a la luz.


Simbolo Taino

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Así Nació el Mar

Santo Domingo, Diciembre 2006

Oye, algunas cuentan que en sus ojos llorosos y en su inmenso vientre había cicatrices y que día tras día, las danzarinas ranitas croaban y croaban, hasta que el apenado abuelo expandía y expandía el verano. Y mientras tanto y poco a poco, ella se estiraba y estiraba hasta que dos sonidos, al compás de la tierra, seguían al sol… pero de pronto y de un tirón, el centro se expandió tanto que de la abierta boca de Itiba salió el agua cristalina y gemimos las caracolas. Así me cuenta mi hermana luna que se formó el mar, y de ella nosotras.

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La de Cinco Nombres

Santo Domingo, Noviembre 2006

Sentada sobre sus fuertes piernas para nada se adormecía. Parecía sobrecogedora aquella postura, pues su robustez exuberante mostraba aquellos contornos femeninos que sus extremidades hídricas sostenían ágilmente. ¿Qué mujer es Atabey?, y ¿Qué memoria se perdió en mi cuerpo, que alejó la fuerza primigenia de la madre? ¿En qué lugar se quedó la vitalidad de la abuela, aquella que tiene Cinco Nombres? ¿Adónde se fue la ligereza? ¿Es acaso la inexactitud de lo masculino, lo que no me permitió confrontar la amplitud del poder femenino y sus habilidades marinas? Acaso recodar es lo preciso, si al desmemoriado cuerpo pregunto: ¿Adónde está la abuela, la de la esencia, la que no tiene principio, la de las Cinco Memorias? Aquella, la de la metamorfosis, semejante a todas las ranas, a las cuales les he temido considerablemente.

¿Adónde está la fuerza femenina que me nombra, aquella abuela que en los charcos, arroyos y océanos nunca se asemejó a la serpiente occidental, ni cristiana, pero que irremediablemente se intentó borrar de nuestros cuerpos y sueños? ¿Adónde están los conciliábulos que te marginaron a los cuentos populares en las noches borrascosas de la ruralía isleña, sin pensar que algunos/as te encontrarían en las aguas cristalinas, en los bosques, cuevas y aguas termales de la isla? ¿Te ocultaste? No lo creo. ¿Permaneciste en silencio? No lo creo. Mas intuyo que te confabulaste con los pedigüeños, con los senderistas, con los cimarrones, con los desvencijados de la ruralía. Mas sin ellos saber, allí estabas, en las aguas cristalinas, entre la bruma de la fronda, esperando a que desvelen los sueños y te invoque en los altares, multiplicando diversas identidades, tras el atardecer o en las noches de luna llena.

¡Aquí esta! Ya te veo. Ahora puedo tocar mi cuerpo, sentirte multiplicada con mis manos, aceptando lo que tus Cinco Memorias conocen.


Tony Yaguarix de Moya

Reprinted by Jorge Baracuteu Estevez

Agueybana III reclaims Puerto Rico?

Se qu te va interesar. Salio hoy en las portadas de http://www.endi.com/ y en http://www.primerahora.com/

"Nosotros los indios taínos de Boriquén…"
En medio de la vorágine que provoca en Puerto Rico la eterna discusión del status político, una novel demanda presentada en el Tribunal Federal por un "noble descendiente de la real dinastía del cacique Agüeybaná" cuestionó sin éxito la legalidad de la soberanía estadounidense sobre la Isla.

Juan Ramón Nadal, hijo, "conocido también como Agueybaná III, Jefe Supremo de la Isla de Boriquén, descendiente de sangre de Agüeybaná", reclamaba en su demanda, desestimada por la jueza Aida Delgado, que se certificara como clase la acción presentada a "nombre de los indios taínos de la Isla de Boriquén".

El autoproclamado Agüeybaná III, quien cumple una larga condena en la prisión de Shawangunk, en Walkill, Nueva York, por delitos no especificados, exigía a Estados Unidos una compensación de $515 mil millones por el usufructo de Puerto Rico.

"Nosotros, los indios taínos de la Isla de Boriquén, cuatro millones de personas, que somos una mezcla de sangre taína (nativa), africana y europea… desde tiempos inmemoriales, formamos una nación soberana e independiente", reza parte de la demanda.

"Tras la formación de la Isla de Boriquén, nosotros indios taínos y nuestros ancestros hemos sido y somos los únicos y exclusivos dueños de la Isla de Boriquén, gobernada por nuestras leyes, usos y costumbres...", sostuvo.

Es así que el "tataranieto de Agüeybaná" exigía que se ordenara a Estados Unidos ceder todo reclamo de soberanía y títulos sobre Puerto Rico.

"Estados Unidos evacuará de inmediato la Isla de Boriquén, ahora bajo la supuesta soberanía estadounidense, y al año de la cesión de soberanía nombrará unos plenitenciarios que se reunirán en San Juan, Isla de Borinquén, para arreglar la evacuación de la Isla y negociar y concluir un tratado de paz…"

"Nosotros los indios taínos éramos los ocupantes de la Isla de Boriquén antes de la llegada de Estados Unidos", agrega. "No somos un territorio de Estados Unidos, ni parte de la Unión".

"Nosotros los indios taínos somos una nación política independiente, que no rinde su derecho a la independencia y la autodeterminación", sostiene.

Llama la atención que el autoproclamado Agüeybaná está recluido en Shawangunk donde, según información obtenida en la red cibernética, han cumplido cárcel prisioneros tales como las Panteras Negras, afroamericanos convertidos al islamismo, y posiblemente algún boricua.

Sin capacidad jurídica
La jueza Delgado desestimó la demanda aduciendo falta de jurisdicción y ausencia de capacidad jurídica, aunque no le disputó al demandante "el derecho de considerarse un descendiente de la dinastía de los taínos".

Indicó que la acción no la trajo una "tribu india o banda o cuerpo gobernante reconocido por el Secretario del Interior", que establecería la jurisdicción.

Segundo, dijo, el demandante no tiene capacidad jurídica para reclamar un daño o interés legal que no sea especulativo e hipotético.

"Me cuesta pensar que la referencia a daños sea una invitación a adjudicar la historia política entre Estados Unidos y España…", apuntó Delgado.

"Aunque el demandante no especifica, parece que a esto es que se refiere cuando habla del acto mediante el cual Puerto Rico fue entregado de forma ilegal a Estados Unidos".

"El demandante se fundamenta en una ilusoria percepción de sí mismo como gobernante autoproclamado de los extintos indios taínos y su punto de vista e interpretación de la historia de Puerto Rico, que no se puede tomar de forma racional, ni es suficiente para establecer un reclamo bajo el que se le puede conceder un remedio", sentenció Delgado. -- Sonia Migdalia Rosa-Vélez M.A.

The CAC Welcomes a New Editor!

On behalf of the editorial board of the Caribbean Amerindian Centrelink, I wish to an extend an especially warm welcome to our newest editorial member, Tracy Assing from Arima, Trinidad. All of the current editors were unanimous in supporting her joining us. I am also very happy to have corresponded and met with Tracy in Trinidad and I look forward to hearing/reading more from her. What follows is a personal introduction written by Tracy.


I was raised in the Carib Santa Rosa community of Arima. All four of my grandparents come from various First Nations people and much of their knowledge has been passed on to us. I am especially concerned about the historical inaccuracies still being taught in our country's schools, about the trespass of our ancestral hunting and fishing grounds and significant archaeological sites, about the cosmetic recognition we receive from political parties, about the level of control exercised by the Catholic church over our elders.

I have questions about what has been accepted and propagated in the past. My great aunt (sister of my father's father) is the current "Carib Queen" Valentina Medina.

The community raised under the "Carib Santa Rosa" umbrella is waking to itself.

I am an Assistant Editor at Caribbean Beat magazine and have a multi-media work history with stints in radio, television, magazine/journal and newspaper publishing over the last 12 years.