Answer to BuZh and Harper on failure to ratify the UN Declaration of Indigenous Peoples

Indigenous Alliance of the Americas

on

500 Years of Resistance

Declaration of Quito, Ecuador

July 1990

The Continental Gathering "500 Years of Indian Resistance," with representatives from 120 Indian Nations, International and Fraternal organizations, meeting in Quito, July 17-20, 1990, declare before the world the following:

The Indians of America have never abandoned our constant struggle against the conditions of oppression, discrimination and exploitation which were imposed upon us as a result of the European invasion of our ancestral territories.

Our struggle is not a mere conjunctural reflection of the memory of 500 years of oppression which the invaders, in complicity with the "democratic" governments of our countries, want to turn into events of jubilation and celebration.

Our Indian People, Nations and Nationalities are basing our struggle on our identity, which shall lead us to true liberation.

We are responding aggressively, and

-commit ourselves to reject this "celebration. "The struggle of our People has acquired a new quality in recent times.

This struggle is less isolated and more organized.

We are now completely conscious that our total liberation can only be expressed through the complete exercise of our self-determination. Our unity is based on this fundamental right.

Our self-determination is not just a simple declaration.

We must guarantee the necessary conditions that permit complete exercise of our self-determination; and this, In turn must be expressed as complete autonomy for our Peoples.

Without Indian self-government and without control of our territories, there can be no autonomy.

The achievement of this objective is a principal task for Indian Peoples however, through our struggles we have learned that our problems are not different, in many respects, from those of other popular sectors. We are convinced that we must march alongside the peasants, the workers, the marginalized sectors, together with intellectuals committed to our cause, In order to destroy the dominant system of oppression and construct a new society, pluralistic, democratic and humane, in which peace Is guaranteed.

The existing nation states of the Americas, their constitutions and fundamental laws are judicial/political expressions that negate our socio-economic, cultural and political rights.

From this point in our general strategy of struggle, we consider it to be a priority that we demand complete structural change; change which recognizes the inherent right to self-determination through Indian own governments and through the control of our territories.

Our problems will not be resolved through the self-serving politics of governmental entities which seek Integration and ethno-development. it is necessary to have an Integral transformation at the level of the state and national society; that is to say, the creation of a new nation.

In this Gathering It has been clear that territorial rights are a fundamental demand of the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas.

500 Years Commission

From our point of view, 1492 marked the beginning of the Invasion of our peoples by European empires. Colonization and the installation of an exploitative, oppressive regime were the consequences of these invasions.

However, ~ resistance movement and Indigenous offensive also emerged In an effort to repudiate the occupation, pillage and elimination of entire peoples.

Neither the invasion, nor the regime has come to an end.

Both continue to affect not only Indigenous Peoples, but all the societies within the nations. Thus, the resistance and the struggle of our peoples for freedom continues.

Resolutions*

That the 12th of October be declared a day of mourning and destruction of our cultures rather than a "Dia de la Raza" or day of discovery.

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