10.29.2003
Turtle Island
Why should I mourn at the untimely fate of my people?
Tribe follows tribe, and nation follows nation,
like the waves of the sea. It is the order of nature,
and regret is useless.
Your time of decay may be distant,
but it will surely come,
for even the White Man
whose God walked and talked with him
as friend with friend,
cannot be exempt
from the common destiny
"We may be brothers after all.
We will see."
--Chief Seattle,1853
Scales of corn and coffee balance indigenous futures
http://IndianCountry.com
by Brenda Norrell / Correspondent / Indian Country Today
October 29, 2003 - 1:07pm EST
SEATTLE - Seated in the Seattle home that has been a center for resistance
movements with a tipi on its front lawn, Robert Free talks of the pressing dangers
of free trade to indigenous peoples and lessons learned from protests of the World
Trade Organization negotiations in Cancun, Mexico.
"I visited with Mayan Indians who work long days and get only a couple of dollars
for a kilo of coffee," Free said after traveling through southeast Mexico.
While in Cancun, Free met with a delegation of 500 Mayan elders. They found it
hard to believe that coffee sells for $2 a cup in Seattle.
"I told them I would challenge the many Indian casinos in the United States and
other corporations and organizations to at least buy fair trade coffee that gives
Mayans a decent price for their long toil."
Free said it would be a gesture of solidarity for Indians in the north to support
Indians in the south in this way.
"The vast majority of indigenous people are not privileged like the Indians in the
United States and Canada who have treaties and reserved land - even though they
are kept manipulated in the U.S. and Canada by imposed puppet governments.
"Most indigenous live marginalized, facing their own poverty without food stamps
or anything. Yet they are the caretakers of the vast majority of the resources on
this planet."
Free said gold from indigenous lands funded the empires of Europe and the great
artworks like those of Michaelango. Now it is a time for this wealth to be returned.
"The Catholic Church is the greatest land owner, yet they are the perpetrators of
child sexual abuse and the destruction of family and culture. They have a moral
obligation to return the wealth, like the gold they have stolen," he said.
As an example in the United States, he said, "The gold of the Black Hills funded
the United States economy."
Free is a veteran of the struggles at Alcatraz, Wounded Knee, the Longest Walk,
fishing rights in the Northwest and freedom for Leonard Peltier. He created the
BEAR Project for Indians with AIDS.
Free attended the Cancun protests at the invitation of indigenous campesinos and
is now editing video footage for a film on trade issues and protests in Cancun from
the perspective of indigenous peoples.
Calling the practice "corporate welfare," Free said WTO negotiations in Cancun for
crop subsidies for elite farmers in wealthy countries would have led to more suffering
for indigenous peoples.
The negotiations were halted after Korean farmer Lee Kyong-hae, 56, stabbed himself
to death in Cancun on Sept. 10 during a protest.
Free said he interviewed Kyong-hae on video the same morning he killed himself on
the fence with a knife wound to the heart.
"It was a very sad time, but it changed the whole tone of the demonstrations. It helped
defeat any negotiations for agreements for agricultural subsidies."
Free said 70 percent of all corn in Mexico is now genetically modified. One reason it places
poor farmers in peril is because of the transfer of pollen.
If pollen from a corporate-owned strain of corn pollinates an indigenous farmer's crops,
it is a disaster for an indigenous farmer. "They can shut down your farm."
With cheap, subsidized corn from the United States flooding the market in Mexico,
indigenous farmers find it difficult to sell their corn.
"People can by cheaper corn," Free said.
Further danger lies in the fact that the North American Free Trade Agreement and World
Trade Organization agreements now supersede the U.S. Supreme Court, he said. "This is
happening so that corporate trade law will be the global law of the planet."
Free said the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas would expand free trade into
South America. It is being pressed forward without consultation with indigenous
people and would drive more indigenous into slave labor, without unions, health
care or any benefits.
"The corporate people make massive profits and the people suffer."
While in Mexico, Free saw another reality of the protests, non-Indians using
indigenous as a focal point, while keeping them out of the front lines of forums
and negotiations.
Free said organizations release "bureaucratic-babble" about Indian rights.
"It is linear western thinking, they leave out the spirit. That is what I saw
in Cancun."
"Seven-thousand Indians were camped in tents in hot weather with mosquitoes
in fields and schools, eating beans and rice." Meanwhile, organization leaders
stayed in nice hotels. Some non-Indian protesters wanted to create violence
without consultation with indigenous leaders.
"I challenged them to stop trying to use indigenous people to hide behind.
They didn't care that women and children were in the front of the march,
they wanted to hide behind them and throw rocks.
"It's OK to do that if they do that with the approval of indigenous people."
Free said those working in indigenous issues should follow indigenous
protocol, including consultation and respect for elders.
"Those who want to defeat the WTO and globalization must unite with indigenous
peoples." Free said there must be more inclusive representation.
"Otherwise, it's just the same people talking to the same people."
He said the enemy is real.
"Globalization is the attempt to have corporations rule the world. It lives on the
lands and resources indigenous peoples around the world.
"The success of indigenous peoples to keep their lands and resources will be
the defeat of colonization which has been going on for 500 years."
