Organizing for America | Christopher Groden's Blog: International Day of Solidarity with Indigenous Peoples of the Americas

International Day of Solidarity with Indigenous Peoples of the Americas

By Christopher from Belfast, ME - Oct 29th, 2008 at 2:19 am EDT

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On October 11th 300 people gathered in Paris, France for the International Day of Solidarity with Indigenous Peoples of the Americas after several presentations from other Indigenous peoples from Chile, Mexico, Bolivia, French Guyana, US, and Canada. This event was also celebrating the 30th year anniversary for the Committee in Solidarity with Indigenous Peoples of Americas which also represents the Leonard Peltier Support Group in France.

This statement was read by Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee.

Greetings my relatives from all over the world!

I am extremely sorry I can't be there with you today. I am deeply honored that I can speak to you today even though it is through someone else. First, I want to commend you all for your dedication in furthering rights for Indigenous People throughout the world. Prison has a way of causing deep reflection as I suppose any form of isolation would. In my reflection, I have always come to the conclusion that my relationship with the Creator, my family, the earth, my fellow Indigenous relatives are the most important things to me. I try to keep up with what is going on in the world by any form of media that is available to us. I know many of you in your homelands are greatly persecuted and displaced from your homes. I know many of you are exploited, with resources taken away, and I know that oftentimes your people are killed because multinational companies want the resources from
your land. I want you to know that I recognize that we have a common enemy. That common enemy has many faces. It speaks many different languages and wears many different uniforms. I know that its motivation is always the same. They are motivated by their obsession for wealth and their greed, always taking more than they need from the earth. I can't say that I know the answer for our survival. I'm sure there isn't any one answer but I truly believe that whatever the answer is, it has to begin with us. We must find every way that we can to make ourselves strong; to make our children strong; to make our faith strong and our connection to Creator strong. We must learn to use the tools of today to protect ourselves from the challenges of their greed tomorrow. We must be relentless in teaching our children how to fight back. We must be relentless in warning our children to not become like the enemy. We must be relentless in teaching our children to respect Mother Earth, the Creator, their fellow man, and to respect their brother's vision while maintaining their vigilance and guard over our lands and resources.

Someone once said that the greatest battle a warrior must fight is the one inside himself. We must develop ourselves first, and then seek to develop self discipline and self respect within our own groups. I have seen it happen time and time again. Some of our people have self destructed within their own organizations before they had begun to contend with the enemy. I hope I haven't offended anyone by what I have said. I am just being honest about the most significant challenge we face. We cannot demand our rights. We cannot demand respect. We cannot demand our freedom or any of these other things until we are in a position of strength. One of the ways we can magnify the strength we do have is by continually networking with one another, forming alliances, the way we are doing here today.

Also we should seek to teach the world about our Indigenous traditions that have allowed our survival. We should seek to teach the world of the greatest manifestation of the Creator that we have to relate to and that is Mother Earth. We should teach the world that the highest technology in all the universe is the technology of the Creator. The most productive thing that we can do is to seek to live in harmony with that technology, with the environment the Creator has provided for us. And perhaps in that teaching we will find a way to destroy our enemies by making them our friends. In the meantime, we must stay strong and strengthen ourselves and our children. We must further our alliances and networks as you are doing here today. My heart and love goes out to you. My thoughts and prayers are with you.

I would like to say a special thank you to the organizers of this event and a special thank you for the opportunity to speak to you. I thank you with all my heart.

Your relative,

In the Spirit of Crazy Horse

Leonard Peltier

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