Victoria Tauli Corpuz works with the Cordillera Women's Education and Resource Center on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. The Center works to empower indigenous women in the face of militarization, development, aggression and ethnocide. Corpuz also works with the Cordillera People's Alliance, a coalition of approximately 120 indigenous people's organizations.
Multinational Monitor: Why was the Cordillera People's Alliance formed?
Victoria Tauli Corpuz: The Cordillera People's Alliance came together and formed into an alliance in 1984. Prior to that, there had been a series of struggles with the Cordillera peoples over the dam issue and mining and logging concessions in the region. These are very localized struggles, but eventually they became more integrated. As a result, an indigenous people's movement for self-determination started developing. The many emerging organizations decided to come together so that they could have more impact on the government.
The Cordillera area is largely forest. These are areas where people have been living for ages. Communities have residential areas with rice fields, and then they have the forest, which is communally owned by the tribe. Those are their hunting grounds, those are where their sacred trees are, those are the areas where the water comes from. These forests are very much protected by the people. They know the forest is where their life comes from, where their water comes from, where the fertility of the soil comes from and where their wood and wild food comes from. So it's a very integral part of the daily life of the people.
MM: What were some of those early struggles?
Corpuz: The Chico dam project, which was funded by the World Bank, was one. It involved the construction of dams along the Chico River, which runs within the Cordillera region. These dams would have displaced about 300 families in one particular community, and several villages would have been eroded and flattened. Of course, the people resisted; they resisted the whole project. [The builders] didn't get to the first step. They were able to do the survey; in one area they were able to set up some foundations in the river; but the people fought against all these things. It took such a long time before anything could be done that the World Bank decided to cancel the whole project in the mid-1970s.
The project had become a big embarrassment for the World Bank. The early reports said that no people were going to be affected by the dams. That was entirely wrong; many people were living just beside the river, because that is where the rice fields and the burial grounds are. It is their ancestral land. So the people were willing to die for it. They armed themselves. They are warrior societies and engage in tribal wars with each other, but this time they united among themselves and really put up a united position against the whole project. The government sent in a lot of military men, but the people persisted in their opposition. After two to three years, they decided to cancel the whole project. Now they want to revive the project. But the opposition has already been forged.
The fight against the Chico dam was really something which strengthened the people's will to unite themselves. They saw that with unity they were able to stop a project which had been designed and promoted by a big multilateral bank. In fact, there was one article that said that it was the first time that pre-industrial, "uncivilized," as they always say, peoples were able to stop a World Bank project.
Immediately after that, President Marcos gave a big logging concession - something like 200,000 hectares of pine forest - to one of his cronies, a corporation which makes cellophane and related products. The project was opposed by the people of Abra, one of the Cordillera provinces. The company was able to set up a mill and begin logging on some mountains, but because of the consistent opposition, the whole project stopped.
So these two particular projects were stopped by the people's opposition. These successes spurred the development of a lot of organizations among the people. By 1984, members of these organizations decided to form themselves into a federation - the Cordillera People's Alliance.
MM: What are the main concerns of indigenous people in the Cordillera today?
Corpuz: The main concerns are still basically the same. Our region has been always considered a resource base area by the government. It has rich natural resources, a lot of gold, a lot of minerals, intricate river systems which can be a source of hydro-power and tropical rain forests and pine forests. Ever since the colonial period, governments have been trying to exploit these natural resources.
Right now, we have problems with open-pit mining operations. The biggest and oldest mining company in the Philippines, the Benguet Corporation, has been operating in our region since 1905. Suddenly Benguet decided that it is not going to do underground tunneling anymore but will convert its operations into open-pit mining. This is devastating the whole area. Mountains are being bulldozed. So now the people in those villages which are affected are opposing the whole project. They have been setting up barricades to stop the operations of the open-pit mines. There is a stalemate now because the company decided to stop doing the open-pit mining in the areas where the people are setting up physical barricades. But I think they are really bent on pushing through with their plans.
And then CRA, the Australian affiliate of the British Rio Tinto Zinc, wants to expand its operations. The net impact is again that the people who have been doing small-scale mining in those areas will be displaced and their rice fields also will be destroyed.
The more complicated problem which is affecting the whole region is the militarization that is coming along with the mining and logging operations. Right now the region is targeted as one of the areas for comprehensive counter-insurgency operations. We have a lot of areas right now which are being subjected to aerial bombings and strafings.
We suspect that one reason that the military is doing this is so that logging will be facilitated. A lot of logging operations have been stopped because of the opposition of the people. I think that, because the Philippines has a big foreign debt, the government is doing everything it can to facilitate the entry of multinational corporations, so that their investments can help earn foreign exchange for us to pay our debt.
In fact this was confirmed when we had a dialogue with the military men who are operating in the area. One of the generals who was heading operations, General Manlongat, said "It's true, one of our roles is to insure that the economic activities of these companies will be able to be pushed through. If we don't militarize the area, then the companies cannot pursue their economic activities."
Those are the kinds of issues that we are confronted with right now. And it's also one reason why we want to become part of bigger alliances internationally. They will provide us with the opportunity to project the issue internationally.
MM: Can you describe the Benguet situation and explain how the company's operations are affecting people in the Cordillera?
Corpuz: Benguet's open-pit mining operations have already displaced some people from their communities. Small-scale miners' tunnels are covered and they're not allowed to proceed with their own mining activities. Several rice fields have already been covered. What is worse is that the water sources have disappeared - several of the springs are now gone. So people will have to buy water all the way from the city at very expensive prices. The other effect is the pollution. The open-pit mining operations are causing tremendous erosion. Recently Benguet's mill released some of its waste and caused toxic poisoning among the people. The people that live around the area started vomiting and experiencing watery eyes and headaches. Later on it was confirmed that these problems were caused when the mill spilled its wastes.
MM: Who owns the land Benguet and the other companies are mining?
Corpuz: That's a big issue. Legally, at least underground, the land is owned by the mines. They have patented claims to the land which were facilitated by a law called the Mining Act. The act says that the mines can be owned by mining corporations and that they have rights underground - it doesn't really say that they have rights above ground, however. But the people are already being displaced from their communities. In effect, there's nothing that's going to be left for them because of the open-pit mining operations.
It's very difficult for the people to win legal battles because the law is really siding with the mining corporations. Even the government's environmental impact study gave the companies clearance for their operations. The people cannot win when they depend on the legal framework, relying on the law or environmental assessments. So they have to resort to para-legal activities like barricading and doing mass actions, mass campaigns. These are the only things left.
MM: How has the government responded to these types of activities?
Corpuz: They deployed a military detachment to the community and arrested the leaders of the opposition. There is still a court case going on right now. That's the response of the government. And they are also saying that as far as the government is concerned, operations of the companies are legal. But the people are continuing their efforts to resist, hoping that they will be able to at least delay the full operations of the mines.
MM: Are the organizations fighting the mining companies independent or part of the rebel New People's Army (NPA)?
Corpuz: They are independent community organizations. These are organizations of small-scale miners, women's organizations, community-based organizations and youth organizations. Some of them were just created because of this struggle, and others existed before the fight. All of these organizations were created by the people themselves to be able to effectively address their issues in the community.
The NPA is not in the particular place where the mines are. But in the other areas, in the mountains, of course they are there. There are also a lot of people's organizations which were set up even before the NPA was there. Whether they come together because of a particular issue is incidental. Because the opposition to mining and logging operations was there even before the NPA was there. Much of the opposition was led by women who were not really organized. But because they were the ones who were doing the farming, they were the ones who were really taking care of the land. They felt that these threats to their role as food producers were very serious. So on their own initiative they opposed these particular projects.
MM: Could you discuss the government's military operations further?
Corpuz: The military deployed several battalion formations into the region in October 1990. The reason was that the Cordillera is a rebel-infested area, so they put in all these military men. Presently, we have something like 20,000 military men, operating within the whole region. It used to be just company-sized operations; now they have brigade-size deployments carrying out not just ground operations but comprehensive air and ground military operations. There are Tora-tora planes and helicopter gunships hovering around the communities they would like to evacuate, and they're dropping rocket bombs into the communities.
MM: Do you believe the rebel presence is the real reason for the military deployment?
Corpuz: Well, there really are rebels, but not that many and they are not all over the place. We think that the government is really using the rebels' presence as a pretext to insure that their programs for "development" of the region will be able to be pushed through.
That's what happened with Marag Valley, one of the valleys in the region which is very rich with tropical rainforests. The people have prevented logging in this area for years. They have always protested whenever the logging concessions would come in. They would burn bulldozers. Large-scale military operations in the Cordillera first started in the Marag Valley. But at the same time, I think the government would really like to pursue [the plans they have for the region] because of the need for additional income, and using the military is one way of doing it. Of course the government would like to stop the insurgency in the region. Right now we have an energy crisis in the whole country, and the government is planning to build hydroelectric dams, outside of the Chico Dam, that were previously stopped. We have the Abulog-Gened Dam which is funded by the Asian Development Bank, and various other dam projects plotted for the whole region. This is the time that the government will try to pursue all of these projects.
MM: What is the military doing to the people?
Corpuz: In several communities they are forcing them to leave their communities, using the theory of removing the water from the fish. They think the NPA is being coddled by these people, so they have to remove the communities so the NPA will become hungry.
However, these people have been living there for ages, and you cannot just kick them out, so the military is also imposing economic blockades and food blockades. Food which the people would bring into the communities is being stopped at the check points. They ask, "How many members are in your family?" Then they try to measure the amount of food that you can bring in, which will feed your family for a week. So after one week, you have to hike several kilometers again to get what is left from the military detachment.
The military operations have been going on for more than a year. They are creating a lot of problems for the people. They cannot harvest their rice fields anymore. Many of them are scared to go out because of the mortar shellings. Several of the people have been hit by stray bullets. They are also given a curfew, and so the food production has really gone down.
The people are also not allowed to perform the rituals that they have been performing for years. That's why we think that the military operations are ethnocidal - the very activities of the people which are important for their continuance as distinct peoples are being destroyed. We have rituals before we plant rice. After we harvest rice, we have several rituals to ask blessings and also to appease the spirits of our ancestors. But with the military operations going on, we cannot do these things. Everything has been disrupted.
MM: What happens to the people who are forcibly moved?
Corpuz: The worst thing is when they ask you to evacuate. Some people have been evacuated already. They are brought into hamlets where they virtually cannot do anything; they are just relying on the relief that the relief legions bring in. Life in the hamlets is very constrained and controlled. Several times we have undertaken fact-finding missions to gather data about what's happening to the people, and even then we are not allowed to go into the hamlets. So the hamlets are really creating hell for the people in them.
MM: Aren't things better than they were under the Marcos dictatorship?
Corpuz: For us, it really got worse under Aquino, because this is the first time we've been subjected to military operations of such an extent. It's much worse now.
I don't know what's happened with a government that's supposed to be democratic. In the end, it is catering to all interests besides those of the people.
Ariel Araujo works with the Mocovi Center, an organization made up of 42 groups representing the Mocovi people of the Santa Fe area of Northern Argentina. Established in 1984, the coalition advocates for indigenous self-determination.
Multinational Monitor: Why did you form the Mocovi Center?
Araujo: All determinations about the Mocovi people and our lands have been made by the state since 1904, when the Argentinians invaded our area and fought a war against us. We were massacred and became the victims of genocide. From the 1900s until 1953, we were subjected to domination. In the 1980s, we saw that it was very important to establish a formal organization to promote the Mocovi position.
Our way of working expanded and spilled over into the other indigenous groups in Argentina. We are now working with indigenous organizations from all around the world. At the international level, our organizations are becoming very well-known.
MM: Why was your land invaded?
Araujo: The Mocovi and other people in this area had long been at war, initially with the Spanish, who could never win militarily. When Argentina became independent from the Spanish crown, it took them 80 years to win the war against our people. They were finally able to [defeat us] because they had better military technology.
They fought the war so that they could occupy our land and get hold of the natural resources, in particular the forests. That became cause for trans-continental migration, which then brought people from Europe across to Latin America to settle. It was really important [to the government] to be able to offer our territories to those people coming in. After all the years of war, the whole project and aim of the government was to make those lands available to the settlers, make them into huge properties and large estates for rich people and to make them available for timber and logging companies.
MM: How much of your land was taken?
Araujo: Ninety-eight percent of all indigenous territories have been taken. A lot of our work is to try to get some of those lands back. The Santa Fe area has 13 million hectares and we owned 9 million of them. Santa Fe is now completely extended all over our ancestral territories. We have been having discussions with the governor in Santa Fe, saying that they should respect the treaties they signed with us in the last centuries and at least return 10 percent of those areas to us.
MM: Do most of the Mocovi live in the remaining 2 percent of the land or have they been integrated into Argentinian society?
Araujo: At the moment, we are about 30,000 people. On the whole, the Mocovi people have found ways to maintain a very traditional lifestyle despite the fact that 70 percent of the forest has been removed. This has left us in a position where we had to change elements of our way of life so that we could survive.
I want to see a situation where those lands are returned so we are able to revitalize those territories by replanting forests. There are a number of dimensions involved in reestablishing ecosystems and biodiversity. We know how to do it, because we have an economic and development model that remains sustainable, allowing us to take produce from the forest without destroying it. We would like to make sure that our models are funded and supported because we know that it is the only way that we can guarantee life. We are absolutely convinced that it's not only for our betterment, but that our models provide answers for many people of the world.
MM: Could you describe the Mocovi economic model?
Araujo: The base of the economic model is the people of the community. [Each person takes part] in a democratic process to decide the way in which things will be done for the betterment of everyone. When we fish or go to the forest, we work to support ourselves in a way that is least damaging and sustains the community. For us, quality of life is not about money, it is about continuing to live in the forest, to eat fresh fish from the water and to maintain our culture.
Another part of the economic model is the exchange of products between groups of indigenous peoples without going through a marketing process. The community that fishes gives fish to the group in the mountains in exchange [for another product].
We are also doing something rather unique now - we are opening up those sorts of models to other groups who are not indigenous. Poor and marginalized people who are also not part of the big marketing system can now participate in these trading arrangements so that they can begin to understand that there is another economic model.
MM: Which groups of people are posing the primary threat to the forests and the ecosystem?
Araujo: The [people] that make the most trouble in the forests are the governments. Because it's the governments that give the leases to the big timber companies to come in to cut timber. They're the people who make the decisions about colonization and putting people into our territories. And they're also the people who make the decisions about huge hydro-electric schemes. All of these things directly impact upon us as people who live in these areas.
Multinationals always [cause] a lot of damage, if governments allow it. They get away with what they can. They have their own specific interest, which is to accumulate capital.
That's why we're talking now to governments. We would also like to speak to multinationals, but it's really important that governments begin to understand what the problems are and how we see them. When new shoes are very pretty but pinch your toes, you try to walk with them - but in the end you throw them away. That is what is happening with the current model of development. It does not provide the solutions for people's needs, so they are looking for other solutions.
We really believe that as indigenous people our economic model could be part of the answer. We would like to see humanity have the opportunity to change. Within our philosophy, nature has her own intelligence, which means that she will always do what is needed for herself. If in fact man does enough harm to her, she can make sure that man disappears. But she will stay. And she will regenerate other forms of life. So most of our work that is about saving the environment is really about saving humanity.
MM: How responsive has the Argentine government been to your approach and to your specific demands for getting land back?
Araujo: The Argentine government has continued its policy of forced assimilation of indigenous peoples. In one recent case, the government burned down the houses in several communities so that it can put timber companies in the forest areas. They have used the police to burn the people out and get rid of them, purely along racial lines. This is now a policy of the Argentine government.
The Argentine government has publicly stated that indigenous people are of no priority to them. They're in a situation where they're looking to open their markets to bring overseas money in. No one at the top level of the Argentine government has an interest in the indigenous peoples or the marginalized and poor people of Argentina. The effort to bring in foreign money is a political action that has nothing to do with helping people.
While the United States and Europe are talking about the post-industrial epoch, the Argentinean government is talking about the need to industrialize. The developed countries, which now know that their economic model doesn't work, are trying to export it to the South and get rid of it. That's what is causing problems.
MM: Have the recent civilian administrations treated indigenous people differently than the dictatorship did?
Araujo: In fact, this government has a more hostile position toward indigenous people than the military. The situation is worse now than it was with the military government. During the time of the military, they would never have gone in and burned an indigenous community down. That sort of thing happened 40 years ago. But now [history] is starting to repeat itself.
MM: Why do you think they are so cruelly trying to force assimilation?
Araujo: Indigenous people are a problem for them. We've never fit into their model, and our territories are the ones that have all the natural resources. The government needs our territories and our lands so they can give them to timber and petroleum companies. But it's our land. It's where we live.
Daví Kopenawa Yanomami was the first of the Yanomami people to recognize the threat the Yanomami faced from gold prospectors and land invaders in Brazil. Today, the Yanomami are the subject of worldwide attention, their very survival threatened by epidemics of malaria and other diseases. Multinational Monitor interviewed Daví Yanomami at the Rio Earth Summit.
Multinational Monitor: Why did you choose to attend the Rio Earth Summit?
Daví Kopenawa Yanomami: I know that the authorities and many people came here because the planet is sick and they are trying to find out how to cure it. The people who come from many places, from the other side of the big lake, all come here to learn about how we [the Yanomami and other indigenous people] live.
I want to speak giving the message from Omai. Omai is the creator of the Yanomami who also has created all the shaboris that are the shamans. The shaboris are the ones that have the knowledge, and they sent two of us to deliver their message. The message is to stop destruction, to stop taking out minerals from under the ground, to stop taking out the steel with which all the metal utensils are made, and to stop building roads [through forests].
We feel that a lot of riches have already been taken out of the indigenous lands, and a lot of these riches are getting old and useless, and it would be much better if the Brazilian government would give these riches to the poor in Brazil. Our work is to protect nature, the wind, the mountains, the forest, the animals, and this is what we want to teach you people.
MM: What has been the effect of gold mining on the Yanomami people and their land?
Daví Yanomami: In the years 1986 and 1987, the gold miners, the small-time gold diggers, known as garimpeiros, invaded our territory. In the very beginning of the invasion, in 1987, the garimpeiros killed four Yanomami.
They have now opened up air strips, to be able to settle down in the area, to bring in food, to bring in their tools and to start mining. There were between 40,000 to 50,000 invaders on our lands.
After some months of staying on our territory, they started to transmit malaria to us. That means that the garimpeiros were already sick. Mosquitos bit the garimpeiros and then bit us. That is how we got the disease.
The garimpeiros also brought in other diseases. There are complications of pneumonia, sometimes associated with malaria; tuberculosis; skin diseases that often are associated with other diseases, and, especially in children, can be fatal; there was an epidemic of yellow fever in the area; hepatitis.
MM: How many of the Yanomami have been affected by these diseases?
Daví Yanomami: Some 15 percent of the Yanomami have died in the last three years. Last year, in 1991, the National Health Foundation registered 175 deaths, of which 110 died of malaria. That is very underestimated. One can assume there were four times as many people who died last year.
MM: The diseases were all brought by the garimpeiros?
Daví Yanomami: Many of these diseases were not registered before the invasion in the Yanomami area. Malaria existed only in the outskirts of the Yanomami area. However with the arrival of the garimpeiros, it became the main reason of the deaths.
MM: What steps are being taken to confront this spread of disease?
Daví Yanomami: The Brazilian government has set up a health project run by the National Indian Foundation of Health, which is trying to eradicate malaria. However, it is very difficult to do this and they have not been able to do it yet.
We also have our own project. We are at the present time working in an area of about a thousand Indians, and we have already taken doctors and nurses to a number of areas throughout our territory, and we are now opening a new site. This project has been helping us a lot.
MM: What is your reaction to President Collor's recent legal demarcation of your land?
Daví Yanomami: News of the demarcation was very, very good news for us. We have been fighting for 30 years for this. President Collor has set aside a special budget, for FUNAI, the National Indian Foundation, to be able to do this work and they finished the demarcation recently.
MM: Is the demarcation sufficient?
Daví Yanomami: I don't believe it's really guaranteed. I don't believe that the demarcation and the ratifying of the law is enough because we have a lot of enemies. There are the militaries, there is the governor and other politicians who are getting payrolls. There are also big Brazilian, American, German and Japanese mining companies that have a big interest in trying to change this law and to enter our territory.
MM: What else should be done to protect your land?
Daví Yanomami: Although FUNAI has set up Indian posts that are supposed to protect our lands, it will be very difficult to operate them because FUNAI has no money. We the Yanomami also have a rule. We have to look out, we have to watch where the garimpeiros are entering. It is a preoccupation that we have and that the Commission for the Creation of the Yanomami Park has, so that through this vigilance we can detect where the new invasions are occurring.
MM: Have you experienced any racism at the Earth Summit?
Daví Yanomami: We feel that there are many white people who don't like the truth and that they don't like it when we tell the truth about things. This is how discrimination starts.
MM: How does racism affect the lives of the Yanomami?
Daví Yanomami: The Portuguese [and their descendants] have done cruel things to our people, and the fact that many Yanomamis have died with the invasion of the garimpeiros is proof of it. These people want to get rid of the Indians; they pay off people to kill the Indians. They have lawyers that will defend them and get them off without having to be punished.
In Roraima there is really a big problem of discrimination against Indian populations. In the city of Roraima, the white people often refer to Indian populations as bishus, which means animals. The white people say that they know everything, that they know how to make machines, to make radios, they have technology and that the Indians are lazy, that we only eat and sleep and don't produce and that we are animals.
These are the people who want to cut down the forest and sell the wood to Japan and other countries. They are the ones who are interested in minerals to make rings and necklaces. And they are destroying our lands.
The Brazilians want to destroy the Amazon because they're very worried that the foreigners will come and take everything away. They want to be the first to make use of it. Our enemies say that the people who work with us [foreign non-governmental organizations] are interested in working with us because they are really interested in taking our riches.
MM: What has been your reaction to the Earth Summit?
Daví Yanomami: We have asked the shaman to get in touch with his teacher, an elder shaman, and tell him that this conference is taking place, and tell him that he should do some special shamanism so that the Americans should agree with what's going on here. They are asking the help of the older ones, who are the elders and teachers, so they should give more force to them here, and speak so that they will be able to communicate with President Bush, and convince him to go along with the other countries to save the universe. We don't want to hurt him. We want to ask him to respect us. And we want to ask him to sign the [biodiversity] treaty together with the other nations and to return our rights to life.
President Collor should also agree with preserving the planet. If he doesn't, then we are going to get together all of the shamans of Brazil and we are going to do a very strong shamanism.
President Bush thinks that he is the owner of the world but the shamans are the ones who have the knowledge. He is not the first world. We are the first world.
Eliane Potiguara is coordinator of GRUMIN, the Indigenous Women's Education Group in Brazil. GRUMIN works with indigenous women to promote their economic, political and social self-determination. Among its many activities, GRUMIN publishes the GRUMIN newspaper and organizes courses on both indigenous history and handicrafts such as basketmaking and painting.
Multinational Monitor: What problems are presently confronting the Potiguara Nation?
Eliane Potiguara: The Potiguara Nation is a group of 5,000 people. Half of our land, about 22,000 hectares, is owned or is being held by AGICAM, a sugar cane processing company. These land owners invaded the Indian land with government support to plant sugar cane. Today, the land where their plantations are and surrounding the sugar cane factory is totally destroyed. The destruction has caused the rivers to be polluted. The fish are contaminated and dying. The shrimp are also dying due to the infusion of a chemical into the rivers called vihoto, which is produced when the sugar cane is processed into alcohol. Bites from mosquitos exposed to the chemical are very bad for children's skin.
We have talked to the Brazilian government and stopped the invasion of our land. Shortly we shall be given some reparations, perhaps money, for the damage that's been done to our land. But I don't know if this return is going to be sufficient to rebuild the land, to replenish it to its former state.
MM: What is the process by which the government agreed to reparations?
Potiguara: Research was done in which all the people whose land had been invaded were surveyed. The court listened to the victims who proved that the community was indeed suffering from the land invasion. But we are afraid, because the Northeast of Brazil is a conservative area. There is a strong group of landowners who are very united and who have enough power to act against any action which opposes their interests.
MM: How does the destruction of Potiguara land affect your people?
Potiguara: We are suffering directly from the impact of environmental degradation. It damages the physical condition of the indigenous peoples as well as the psychological sanity of the people. There is a high rate of alcoholism in the community. There is a high rate of infant mortality and maternal and infant malnutrition. Many women have breast or uterine cancer. Our community has been totally abandoned. There is no health care, no education and no employment. We are a people in the process of extinction.
All of this is the [result] of environmental degradation. Yet the government is not allowing us to conserve the environment. [Officials] are not talking with indigenous peoples who have a sustainable form of development in their areas.
MM: Why is there a high rate of alcoholism among the indigenous population?
Potiguara: The refinery that invaded our area brought the alcohol. They paid our laborers with a Brazilian alcoholic drink. Our indigenous leaders made others realize that we should not [accept] alcohol as payment. And a lot of Indians stopped drinking.
But there are other reasons why the Indians drink. We are often taken over by the process [of invasion and forced assimilation]. That is why our group works with the empowerment of the individual and the growth of consciousness. There are cases of suicide in our tribe. There is lack of perspective and lack of hope for the future.
All of this is motivated by misery and poverty. Before this process of destruction, we had food in our homes. Now our food is contaminated and we can't eat. Our culture has been molested. We have witnessed our homes being destroyed due to invasion. There is lack of equilibrium in our homes and our families are in chaos. We are really making an appeal for help - we are crying for help.
MM: What programs are you implementing for community empowerment?
Potiguara: We have educational programs to maintain our cultural heritage and to train indigenous teachers. We are working on the project of [obtaining] a milkgoat for each family. We are facing the problem of malnutrition and other health issues for infants, children and women. We are working on the empowerment of women in the family, and finding ways to support women who lack prospects for the future. We are working to [support] indigenous spirituality, because we believe that women have a very sacred relationship with the land and with God. This relationship is going to help us to be strong, to fight for our rights and to put our projects into effect.
MM: What should be the role of the Brazilian government in the establishment of indigenous rights?
Potiguara: What we want at a concrete level is a work group to reforest our lands that were deforested by government. We want our rivers back, our fish back, our environment back.
Above all, we want our land to be demarcated, and the demarcation to be respected. Many Brazilian politicians do not recognize our need to have our land. Congress has been lobbied to disregard our right to the demarcation. We need a campaign to call the attention of the politicians to our plight.
We want a health and education program within our community that we control - not the priests, the anthropologists, the historians or the government. We should be in control of the money and the program.
The governments have paid some attention to us only in the past few years. The meetings we've had to discuss development so far are useless. Why are they meeting with us now? To solve our problems or to solve their own problems? We want the government to sit and talk with us. They should ask us what kind of work we want done within our communities.
During the last 500 years, we have been tortured culturally and spiritually. We want to say what we believe. We want our indigenous organization. We want the preservation of our culture, our language, our spirituality, and to retrieve our dignity which was lost during this whole process.
Carletta Tilousi works with the Albuquerque, New Mexico-based Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice, which addresses issues relating to the environment and racism. She is actively involved in a fight to prevent uranium mining in the Grand Canyon, which she charges would endanger the health of her people, the Havasupai.
Multinational Monitor: What is the Havasupai people's relationship to the Grand Canyon?
Carletta Tilousi: My people have lived in the Grand Canyon for a long time. Once in a while my people come out of the Canyon for supplies. But we are meant to stay in the Canyon. The first time the National Forest Service came into the Canyon, they found that we were living there and decided to kick us out. That is when they formed the National Park, which is how they are making their money. When you go to the National Park, you will never be told anything about Havasupai. They want to pretend we are not there.
We keep to ourselves. We do not want to announce ourselves, but now we have to because of the situation we are in.
MM: What is the primary problem facing the Havasupai people?
Tilousi: There are many industrial corporations in the country that want to mine near and in the Grand Canyon, because the world's richest source of uranium is there. There are 90,000 uranium mine claims. Many of them are active already; many more are now becoming active. The active mines are contaminating animals and people, most of whom do not realize the mines are operating because they are fenced off.
If the companies mine uranium in the Grand Canyon, they will take it to the Nevada test site where Native Americans live and test their uranium bombs there. The people who work for them will be contaminated just as the Native Americans will be contaminated.
In our culture, we believe that people are not supposed to take things out of the ground. We also are not supposed to make bombs.
Energy Fuels Nuclear and Union Pacific are the companies that own the mines that directly affect my tribe. The first one, Canyon Mine, is near our sacred site, Red Butte. We go there to pray and do sacraments.
The other, Sage Mine, is closer. It is on the east side of the Canyon, five miles from my home. When they mine that uranium, our water is going to be contaminated. The waste from the mine will seep down to the groundwater and contaminate our drinking supply.
We have been fighting the companies' plans through the legal system since 1984. We took our complaint as far as the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Recently we took it to the United States Supreme Court, which refused to hear our case. Their excuse was that we do not have enough evidence to prove that our water will be contaminated from the mining. The companies and the courts are trying to tell us that we will not be contaminated. But any kind of mining will kill people.
The mine shaft at the Canyon Mine is already built. Sage Mine so far is just a spot where they found uranium. They have marked it with an "X" in preparation for the mining to begin. They have not begun mining yet because uranium prices are not high enough. If Bush is re-elected, uranium prices will go up and those mines will start operating immediately.
The Grand Canyon is a natural wonder of the world. Millions of people visit, yet they do not know about the mining situation. The companies are saying, "You cannot tell them because we want to make money. We want to make bombs. This is our business. If we don't mine uranium, we cannot continue to live in luxury." But I think that we should get the word out into newspapers and television and let the tourists know what is really happening.
MM: Does the land being mined belong to your people?
Tilousi: The mining is on aboriginal land that now belongs to the National Forest Service. The Forest Service kicked us off our land. They moved us all the way to the other side of the canyon. Because we kept fighting for our land, they passed a bill that states we can hunt deer, pick piñons, camp and visit Red Butte.
MM: Do any of your people work in the mines?
Tilousi: No. There are 700 people in my homeland, and as indigenous people none of us want to support any of those industrial corporations or to take any part in their operation.
MM: Do you get any royalties from the mining operations?
Tilousi: No. We are suing the National Forest Service for giving the mining company a permit to mine uranium in the canyon. The National Forest Service has a lot of money. We live in the bottom of the Grand Canyon, and we do not get any of that money.
In 1984, when we began fighting the mining, the companies came and said that if we let them mine uranium, they would give us schools and money for education. They were trying to bribe us. We said no. This is our life that is at stake. This is the only place we have left.
Most members of my family are isolated from the cities. They do not know how to speak English. They cannot drive cars. They cannot suddenly change over night. We need to live there. Most of the young people are taking the stance that we are going to stay no matter what happens. The companies want to see us deteriorate, they want to see us die. But we are not going to give up no matter how hard it gets.
Joseph Gosnell is the executive chair of the Nisga'a tribal council, the political arm of the Nisga'a Nation. Approximately 2,500 of the 6,000 Nisga'a people live in the Nass River valley of northwestern British Columbia, Canada. The Nisga'a claim title to 9,600 square miles of the region as their homeland.
Multinational Monitor: What is the function of the Nisga'a tribal council?
Joseph Gosnell: One of the principle reasons for the formation of the tribal council was to address the question of whether we own the land. Ownership was designated to us through what is called aboriginal title.
The court case to determine whether the Indians of British Columbia have aboriginal title to the land was called Calder et al. versus the Attorney General of British Columbia. We brought the case before the Supreme Court of British Columbia and we lost. We brought it to the appellate court of British Columbia and we lost again. We then brought it before the highest court, the Supreme Court of Canada. Three judges said that aboriginal title no longer exists. The other three judges said that aboriginal title is still in existence. The Supreme Court ruling was a major victory as far as our people are concerned. That ruling alone opened up approximately 60 percent of the land mass of Canada for negotiations with the aboriginal nations.
Today, there have been settlements in Quebec and the James Bay region, as well as a major settlement in an area called Nunavut in North Central Canada. Some of the nations in the Yukon region have also signed agreements. Our tribal council has been in negotiations for 16 years. Two years ago we signed an agreement in principle between our tribe, the government of British Columbia and the government of Canada. As far as I know there have been 27 cases accepted for negotiations in the province of British Columbia alone. There's a timeframe on negotiations; all agreements in principle must be arrived at by the end of March 1993.
MM: What is the framework of the negotiations?
Gosnell: The purpose of our current negotiations is to determine the division of land. We've indicated very clearly to both levels of government in Canada and to the general public that we are prepared to share the land and its resources. The extent of this is a negotiable item on the table, as are items regarding fisheries and both surface and sub- surface minerals.
MM: How do you envision managing the resources in the land you gain control of?
Gosnell: That depends on what kind of treaty we can arrive at with Canada. If we are going to be self-sufficient, we will need land that will sustain our people in perpetuity. We will change the way in which minerals are extracted from our territory. Our people should be able to rely on the land for the next 200 years and further into the future.
We are embarking on a fisheries program to revitalize our river, which is the third largest salmon producing river on the British Columbia coast. All species of salmon migrate to this river. But since the commercialization of fisheries, the number of salmon returning have been on a steady decline. Our program will benefit not only our people, but the citizens of British Columbia and those outside of Canada who come to our area and use the fishery.
There will be a program of a similar nature in the forest. The removal of the forest resources has taking place in our territory for 38 years. We are opposed to the clear cutting of the land. Reforestation began only two years ago, and we are not entirely satisfied at the rate the deforested areas are currently being replanted. A lot more work needs to be done. Only worthless brush now grows in the lower bases of our valley where the spruce trees and hemlock were removed. A year ago, in the northern part of our territory, a 5,000 hectare piece of territory was clear-cut. The [extent of the damage] is visible from space satellite shots that we use to see what is happening on our land.
We are not opposed to development in mining, forestry or fishing, but we believe that development must take place at an orderly rate. Companies cannot just come in, rape the land and leave. We recognize that people must survive, including our own people. We have indicated very clearly to the government that we are not opposed to development if we can arrive at agreements between ourselves and industry as to how the resources are removed.
MM: What has been the impact of mining on your land?
Gosnell: There was a mine in our valley on the coastal part of our territory in the late 1940s. At that time, there were no environmental requirements for the dumping of waste, and no regulations for smokestacks. This mine laid waste to a huge portion of our territory. Absolutely nothing grows there now. Forty years after the closing of the mine, the vegetation is beginning to come back, but even today the trees are stunted.
Amex, an American company, operated another mine in the same general location for the extraction of molybdenum, used for the hardening of steel. The tailings that came out of this mine were dumped into the inlet. Although regulations were created regarding the dumping of tailings five years ago, Amex gained special dispensation from the government of Canada enabling them to continue to dump mine tailings directly into the inlet. We were opposed to that dumping. The mine shut down about two years ago, claiming that mining there was not economically competitive.
MM: Have the Nisga'a received any royalties or return from the mining, fishing and logging operations?
Gosnell: There have been absolutely no royalties of any kind with regards to the removal of the non-renewable resources, the minerals. Seventy of our people do currently hold fishing licences and that enables them to take part in the commercial fishing sector along the coast of British Columbia.
When active logging began in our territory, we were provided with assurances from the company that came into the valley that our people would be the first hired and the last to be [laid off]. Unfortunately, it did not work out that way. Our people were the last to be hired and the first to be let go. Despite this fact, in the beginning, there was some benefit to us because approximately 80 people from our community were directly involved in the forest sector. That is no longer the case. The company has moved and the names have changed several times over the 38 years since logging began in the valley. Today, very few of our people are directly involved in the logging operation.
MM: What programs has the tribal council initiated to promote the self- determination of your people?
Gosnell: We have a school district, District 92 Nisga'a. All members of the school board and the board of trustees are our people, with the exception of one individual who represents the 250 non-natives in the valley.
The language that we speak, Nisga'a, is currently taught in our school as part of the compulsory curriculum. Both spoken and written Nisga'a is required to be taught from kindergarten to grade 12.
We also have a health care organization. Again, all the members of the board that control the operation are our own people, with the exception of one to allow representation for the non-native residents in the valley.
MM: Could you describe the system of laws used by the Nisga'a people?
Gosnell: We have a law called Ayuukhl which determines the [allocation] of resources, the way we live, how people get married and what happens when people pass on. Ayuukhl governs the lives of our people in all respects. We have a clan system. There are four major clans in the valley: the eagle, the wolf, the raven and the killer whale. Anyone Nisga'a born in our valley falls under one of these clans.
When somebody gets married, the members of the tribe offer that person assistance, financially and otherwise. When a person dies, the tribe also comes to assist. A person does not need to be wealthy to gain assistance; to help [others] is a requirement of our law. More recently we have begun to lend assistance to those who do not belong to our tribe. We recognize that when people run into financial difficulty, sickness or death, they too need assistance even if they are people of other than our own race.