From Rhonda LeValdo, Pres., NAJA

This from Native America Calling

News from the Native American Journalists Association

by Native America Calling on Tuesday, August 24, 2010 at 12:14pm

Rhonda LeValdo Statement

It is upsetting that in today's world a political leader like New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg would tell the Governor of New York, David Paterson to resort to violence when dealing with the issue of untaxed cigarettes on Native American tribal land.

In a radio excerpt Mr. Bloomberg talked about those sales and stated on his radio show: "You know, get yourself a cowboy hat and a shotgun. If there's ever a great video, it's you standing in the middle of the New York State Thruway saying, you know, 'Read my lips - the law of the land is this, and we're going to enforce the law.'"

Going to archaic methods of pressuring ethnic minority groups is never an option.

I am asking that Mayor Bloomberg issue an apology to all tribal nations for his suggestion of violence against Native Americans.

Letter to Mayor Bloomberg

August 20, 2010

Dear Mayor Bloomberg,

The use of the Cowboy and Indian theme when describing how to deal with the tribes in the state of New York demeans all Native American tribes as a people. By enforcing this stereotype you also perpetuate an image of the past that certainly does not pertain to the tribes that reside in your area.

It is apparent you need to open up lines of communication with the tribes to regain some sort of diplomacy. It would also be important to understand what tribal sovereignty is.

Tribes in the area of New York were there before the state was what is known now as New York. It is astonishing that you would take the cavalier attitude of showing them a shotgun to make tribes do what you or your state wants them to do.

Inflicting violence on any ethnic group is not prudent. Even your own faith of being Jewish, would know this course of action is wrong and certainly not humane.

I ask you issue an apology not only to your area tribes but to all tribal nations for suggesting violence against Native Americans.

Sincerely,

Rhonda LeValdo President, Native American Journalists Association

Guyana: Indigenous Peoples Fight Land Grabs

Guyana indigenous demand say over land
Sat Jul 3, 2010
By Neil Marks, Reuters

GEORGETOWN (Reuters) - Guyana's indigenous people are agitating for more land rights as the World Bank prepares to spend hundreds of millions to help nations benefit from a U.N. program to help slow deforestation.

The World Bank has granted Guyana $200,000 (131,587 pounds) to help refine its proposal to reduce emissions from deforestation. But Amerindian leaders insist the government's proposals do not address its international obligations to indigenous people.

"We have urged governments and international agencies to protect our traditional practices and help resolve outstanding land issues," Tony James, president of the Guyana's Amerindian Peoples Association (APA) said at a World Bank meeting.

Guyana, a former British colony perched next to Venezuela, is about 80 percent covered with forests and has one of the most varied biodiversities in the world. Amerindian communities make up about 10 percent of the population.

Indigenous leaders accuse the government of snatching their traditional lands through poor demarcation, saying in some areas, communities were demarcated without their knowledge.

The Amerindian Act of 2006 gives Amerindian villages legal powers to manage and conserve their lands.

"Some community lands are being sliced by half, some by quarter, some by three-quarters," said John Adries, the leader in the Parima community, inhabited by 600 Arekuna people.

Guyana's government is seeking international partnerships for incentives to keep alive 15 million hectares of untouched forest. Amerindian communities have been told they can opt into the initiative or choose not to be part of it.

Amerindian communities have in the past been sharoly critical Guyana's low carbon strategy, a forest saving deal with Norway that could give the country $250 million over the next five years.

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Guyana's indigenous people charge land abuses 

Friday, July 2, 2010
By Neil Marks

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (Reuters) -- Guyana's indigenous people are accusing the government of snatching their traditional land through poor demarcation as the authorities try to benefit from a UN program to preserve the country's rainforests.

The World Bank has given Guyana $3.6 million to help prepare a plan for the UNprogram to slow deforestation. But Amerindian leaders insist the government's proposals do not address its international obligations to indigenous groups.

"We have urged governments and international agencies to protect our traditional practices and help resolve outstanding land issues," Tony James, president of Guyana's Amerindian Peoples Association (APA), said at a World Bank meeting.

Amerindian communities make up about 10 percent of the population of Guyana, a former British colony next to Venezuela.

The country is mostly covered by forests and boasts one of the world's most varied biodiversities.

Indigenous leaders say the government is taking over traditional lands through poor demarcation, and that in some areas communities were demarcated without their knowledge.

The Amerindian Act of 2006 gives Amerindian villages legal powers to manage and conserve their lands.

"Some community lands are being sliced by half, some by quarter, some by three-quarters," said John Adries, the leader of the Parima community, which numbers 600 Arekuna people.

In an example of what they said was poor planning, they said a hospital that serves indigenous people in the mountain village of Kato was left out of land demarcated by government.

Guyana's government is seeking international partnerships and incentives to protect 15 million hectares (37 million acres) of forest.

Amerindian communities have been told they can opt into the initiative or choose not to be part of it.

Amerindian communities have in the past been sharply critical of Guyana's low carbon strategy, a forest-saving deal with Norway that could earn the country $250 million over the next five years.

Indigenous Cosmopolitans: New Book on Transnational and Transcultural Indigeneity in the Twenty-First Century

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Published by Peter Lang USA, 2010:
New York, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, Oxford, Wien.
X, 223 pp., num. ill.
ISBN 978-1-4331-0102-1
Order from the publisher, or,
Order from Amazon.com.

Book Synopsis:

What happens to indigenous culture and identity when being rooted in a fixed cultural setting is no longer necessary – or even possible? Does cultural displacement mean that indigeneity vanishes? How is being and becoming indigenous (i.e., indigeneity) experienced and practiced along translocal pathways? How are “new” philosophies and politics of indigenous identification (indigenism) constructed in “new,” translocal settings? The essays in this collection develop our understandings of cosmopolitanism and transnationalism, and related processes and experiences of social and cultural globalization, showing us that these do not spell the end of ways of being and becoming indigenous. Instead, indigeneity is reengaged in wider fields, finding alternative ways of being established and projected, or bolstering older ways of doing so, while reaching out to other cultures.

Reviewers’ comments:

“Timely and original, this volume looks at indigenous peoples from the perspective of cosmopolitan theory and at cosmopolitanism from the perspective of the indigenous world. In doing so, it not only sheds new light on both, but also has something important to say about the complexities of identification in this shrinking, overheated world.Analysing ethnography from around the world, the authors demonstrate the universality of the local – indigeneity – and the particularity of the universal – cosmopolitanism. Anthropology doesn’t get much better than this.”–Thomas Hylland Eriksen, Professor of Anthropology, University of Oslo; author of Globalisation.

“This collection takes the anthropological study of indigeneity to an entirely new level. Bringing together an impressive range of case studies, from the Inuit in the north to Aboriginal Australian in the south, the authors fundamentally challenge the assumption that that indigeneity and transnationalism are separate and opposed conditions. They reveal with engaging ethnographic richness and historical depth that contemporary indigeneity is a rooted cosmopolitanism and that this indigeneity of roots and routes is being continually reinvented in ways that challenge conventional understandings, both within anthropology and in the wider public arena. This exploration of re-rooted cosmopolitanisms and remixed cosmopolitan indigeneities is also a major contribution to the anthropology of globalisation….This theoretically sophisticated collection will be essential reading for anyone in the humanities and social sciences seeking to understand the nature of contemporary indigeneity.”–Jeffrey Sissons, Associate Professor, Cultural Anthropology, School of Social and Cultural Studies, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, Author of First Peoples: Indigenous Cultures and Their Futures.

Contents:

Maximilian C. Forte: Introduction: Indigeneities and Cosmopolitanisms

Maximilian C. Forte: A Carib Canoe, Circling in the Culture of the Open Sea: Submarine Currents Connecting Multiple Indigenous Shores

Craig Proulx: Aboriginal Hip Hoppers: Representin’ Aboriginality in Cosmopolitan Worlds

Carolyn Butler-Palmer: David Neel’s The Young Chief-Waxwaxam: A Cosmopolitan Treatise

Arthur Mason: Whither the Historicities of Alutiiq Heritage Work Are Drifting

Frans J. Schryer: The Alto Balsas Nahuas: Transnational Indigeneity and Interactions in the World of Arts and Crafts, the Politics of Resistance, and the Global Labor Market

Julie-Ann Tomiak/Donna Patrick: Transnational Migration and Indigeneity in Canada: A Case Study of Urban Inuit

Robin Maria DeLugan: “Same Cat, Different Stripes”: Hemispheric Migrations, New Urban Indian Identities, and the Consolidation of a Cosmopolitan Cosmovision

Linda Scarangella: Indigeneity in Tourism: Transnational Spaces, Pan-Indian Identity, and Cosmopolitanism

Nigel Rapport: Conclusion: From Wandering Jew to Ironic Cosmopolite: A Semi-Utopian Postnationalism

Download a PDF of the book advertisement sheet.

Download a PDF of the Table of Contents.

Taino Awards

New York, New York (UCTP Taino News) http://uctp.blogspot.com/ - A diverse group of Taino community members gathered on Saturday, 24 April to support the second annual “Taino Awards.” The event was held at the Nuyorican Poets Café and it was presented by the KuKarey Spiritual Circle and Yamocuno Tanama Yucayeke Taino organizations.

Hosted by Caridad "Kachianao" de la Luz, the awards celebrated individuals “who unselfishly give of themselves everyday to the Taino community.” The awards recognized educators, artists, humanitarians, youth, elders and other community members.

The 2010 award recipients included Vanessa Inarunikia Pastrana, Roman Perez, Carlos Rivera, Jose Munoz Vazquez, Mildred Cruz, Miguel Sobaoko Koromo Sague, Enrique Correa, Casa Atabex Ache, Edwin Cedeno, Taino Almestica, Francisco Baerga, Luis Ramos, Joe Kaonabo Garcia, Dalia Viera, and Roberto Mukaro Agueibana Borrero.

http://uctp.blogspot.com/