Navajo youth peacemaker to Iran

By Brenda Norrell

OAK SPRINGS, Ariz. -- Navajo Michelle Cook, 23, from Oak Springs, Arizona, recently served as a peace delegate to Iran, with the intention of doing what she could to prevent the United States from declaring war on Iran. While in Iran, she found people much like Navajos at home. Cook was selected by the Fellowship of Reconciliation to participate as a civilian diplomat on a Peace and Friendship Delegation to Iran. This fact-finding mission was to shed light on and prevent a potential war between the United States and Iran.

Cook is a community worker, spiritual activist, and a recent graduate from the University of Arizona with a B.A. in Women's Studies and American Indian Studies. She has advocated for the rights and well being of indigenous peoples and communities both domestically and internationally including the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Cook is an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation. She currently resides with her Navajo grandmother on the Navajo Nation in Oak Springs Arizona.

"I went to Iran, because people have the right to hear both sides. Furthermore, the American people and Navajo people are entitled to know what we are being led into and deserve nothing less than full transparency when situations such as these arise. I went with a peacemaking tradition armed with Navajo prayer and the wisdom of the ancestors," Cook said.

Cook found the Indigenous Peoples of Iran linked to Navajos with the common bond of herding sheep and weaving. "It is the tribal peoples of Iran who are the renowned weavers of the many of the Persian Rugs. These tribes face some of the same challenges indigenous peoples in the Americas face, poverty, lack of health services, traditional mobility, and language revitalization to name but a few. In the United States rarely do we hear about these tribes or the beauty and diversity of Iranian peoples and cultures.

"I met with Iranian youth who are in the process of defining and redefining themselves in relation to Islamic Republic of Iran. I found a people who are in the process of striking a balance between ancient Islam and modernity. I found strong women who are defining women’s rights in Iran on their on terms and at their own pace.

"As I walked through those ancient sacred lands, I didn’t see terrorists. I saw the faces of real people; I saw families, mothers, fathers, and children, not racist stereotypes found in the media. Iran is home to many kinds of cultures and faiths. I found some of the most kind and hospitable people I have ever encountered. I found the people who practiced Islam to be a kind and prayerful people, much like Navajo people. In Islam guests and strangers are treated as messengers of God and are given great respect, I was this given this degree of respect and was invited into their homes, where we ate and prayed for peace together.

"Saying both Navajo and Islamic prayers.I wanted Iranian people to understand the diversity of America, the idea of sovereign Native Nations, of distinct peoples, as nations within a nation. I wanted them to understand some of the realities, strengths, and challenges of indigenous peoples in the United States, most importantly not to see Navajo as a vanishing people, but as active protagonists in a long and epic battle for complete harmony and self-determination. I wanted them to know the Navajo people not only as the people who walk in beauty but also as a fierce warrior people who have fought and are still fighting for the liberation, restoration, and healing of our peoples, the earth, her resources, our culture, and our language."

Upon her return from Iran, Cook said, "If the United States were to attack Iran it will be with no moral or legal authority. In fact an attack on Iran will be illegal under international law and could be seen as an act of aggression. Considering the current Iraq occupation and the volatile situations of occupied Palestine, Lebanon, Pakistan, and Afghanistan a U.S military strike would send an already unstable Middle East further into chaos and farther from any realization of meaningful and effective self-determination, peace, and security. This is not to say Iran is a utopia, Iran like all states has its own set of social, economic, and political dilemmas and these problems will only be effectively solved by the Iranian peoples themselves not by Americans from thousands of miles away. Iranian people and peoples of the Middle East are not 'terrorists' when they defend land and resources that rightfully belong to them. Unfortunately American people have been led to believe the stereotypes and often perceive Islam and peoples of Middle Eastern descent as nothing more than “terrorists” and violent people.

"As opposed to dialogue the United States has made threats of violence and have created sanctions that have isolated Iran from the international community, elevating anti-American sentiments as opposed to resolving core contentions. Many Iranians and American alike believe that the core contention between the U.S and Iran lie not in issues of 'terrorism' but rather Iranian control and management of its oil. The potential war with Iran would only benefit the oil companies who want to monopolize the market and dictate the price of oil. The lives of Navajo people and the welfare of American people are worth far more than green paper or barrels of lifeless Iranian oil for the profit of western trans-national corporations.

Read Cook's full report from Iran, "Navajo peacemaker, walking in beauty in Iran," at: http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2008/07/navajo-peacemaker-walking-in-beauty-in.html

After attending the Seventh Session of the United Nations Forum on the Issues of Indigenous Peoples in April, Cook reflected on the crisis around the world for Indigenous Peoples.
"Indigenous youth in many parts of the world also are experiencing blatant state sanctioned genocide and are legally denied fundamental rights to life as illustrated in the ongoing human rights crisis resulting from the Armed Forces Special Powers Act of the North Eastern Region of India. Under the authority of this legislation indigenous youth, women, men, and children of Manipur, Nagaland, Meghalaya, and the whole region of North Eastern Indian are routinely brutally, viciously, and legally murdered at the behest of the Indian government by the hands of the Indian army. Indigenous youth from this region request that the Armed Forces Special Powers Act be immediately repealed, that political prisoners such as Irom Chanu Sharmila be released, and that the international community condemn this genocidal legislation that allows the murder of innocent people and simultaneously denies them judicial remedies and recourse to justice."

Cook also shared the importance of Indigenous languages. "From Turtle Island (United States) Marcus Briggs one of the youngest speakers of the Muskogee language delivered the Indigenous Youth Statement on Language stating, 'Language is not used solely as mean of communication, rather it encompasses intricate complexities of our identity. Language is essential in shaping our worldviews as indigenous young people, and we do not deserve, nor can we afford to walk this earth without the opportunity to embrace our own language...and right here in the United States where 'English only" legislation denies our existence as indigenous peoples.' Upon hearing these words the indigenous peoples of the Permanent Forum rejoiced, the people shook rattles, and from the balcony war cries could be heard, everyone let out a roars of approval and admiration."

Cook also shared the message of another indigenous youth, Mr. Jorge Quilaqueo. This Machi healer of the Mapuche people of the lands, now known as Chile, gave his intervention stating, "We the young Mapuche who, with the help of our good ancestral spirits recommend to this Forum of the United Nation that it intercede with the State of Chile so that the latter will respect Human rights, the rights of my Autonomous Mapuche Nation and our former Parliament and Treaties, and so that it will stop attacking our Mother Earth...We are not terrorists for defending what belongs to us and to our grandparents. The State of Chile uses the tool of terrorism because it is afraid and because it knows full well that we, the Mapuche, are the owner and administrators of the territory as established by our Parliaments in peace agreements signed by the former Mapuche chiefs. So it was willed by our Father Creator". Many indigenous youth in the way of their ancestors continue to articulate rights using a western rights based systems but also using a discourse of spiritual rights and responsibilities based within indigenous legal systems and indigenous customary law."

Further, Cook relayed from the Permanent Forum the words of Michael Paul Hill, a Chiricahua Apache singer and spiritual activist, who delivered testimony on the human rights abuses at the US/Mexico border. Hill delivered the intervention on behalf of the Lipan Apaches Women Defense stating, "on behalf of the Apache land defenders from El Calaboz ranchería, El Polvo village (Redford) and the San Carlos Apache Communities. We as Indigenous border communities with traditional territories along the now US/MEX border corridor, along with our non-indigenous neighbors in the southwestern border region of United States and northern Mexico, stand against the political and physical walls, barricades, and fencing that the United States is constructing at this very moment... There are currently over 18,000 U.S. soldiers occupying our border communities with a buildup of up to 75,000 by 2010, and an estimated 8-10,000 Mexican soldiers currently deployed in the border towns and villages positioned for crackdowns on civil society indigenous protests against the construction of a Berlin-style wall which is dissecting Yaqui, O'odham, Opata, Mayo, Cocopah communities along the border. Indigenous women are particularly targeted by violence that militarization culture imposes on the U.S.-Mexico conflict region evidenced by the 4000+ disappeared and murdered women of Juarez and other border towns... We respectfully request that the UNPFII consider our recommendations to take an intersectional approach to climate change that involves consideration of militarization, industrialization, gender, and environmental degradation in the U.S.-Mexico militarized zone of occupation and conflict." Ahi'i'e Ussn, ahi'i'e diyini, ahi'i'e shimaa £ebaiyé T'nde-Nnee', ahi'i'e shitaa Sumá Ndé-Nneé"(http://lipanapachecommunity/ defense.blogspot.com/).

Cook reported, "The lands now known as the U.S Mexican border has been traditionally owned and occupied by numerous indigenous peoples for centuries. There are over thirteen self-identifying indigenous peoples including but not limited the Yaqui, Tohono O'odham, and the Lipan Apache. Within the past ten years the border has emerged as the United States and Mexico most misunderstood and obscured human rights crisis. For those communities whose lands lie on the edges of the empire it is clear that the conditions of racial discrimination and land grabbing have worsened remarkably. Without immediate direct action and intervention by both civil societies, the governments, and the United Nations the construction of the wall will cause irreparable harm to indigenous peoples residing there and hemispheric biological diversity."

Contact Michelle Cook at: cookmichelle7@gmail.com

Photos and statements at: http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/