Apache resisters in Texas: Homeland Security's Nazi genocidal tactics

Berkeley City Council condemns construction of border wall, supports Apaches at the border

EL CALABOZ, Texas -- Lipan Apache resisting the seizure of their land for construction of the United States’ border wall in Texas said Homeland Security is repeating the actions of the Nazis, as it seeks to seize land in the systematic genocide of indigenous and impoverished peoples.

Homeland Security filed suit against Eloisa Garcia Tamez on Jan. 29, who has been leading the resistance to the seizures of private lands in Texas. However, Homeland Security did not notify Tamez or other family members, who found out through the media.  

Tamez’ daughter Margo Tamez said, “When they listed our relatives in public newspapers, without serving papers to them in person, or through the mail, they repeat the actions of other hate-filled regimes of the past who purged out the 'unwanteds' and 'undesirables' from their societies -- such as the Nazi expulsion of the Jews in Germany, France and Italy.  

“These daily 'hit lists' of DHS in our community are sending clear messages to our people that again, we are the targets of genocidal thoughts and actions.” Eloisa Tamez has been ordered to appear in federal court in Brownsville on Feb. 7.

Margo Tamez’ comments came in a message of gratitude to supporter Wendy Kenin, after the Berkeley City Council unanimously voted to support the Lipan Apaches’ resolution on Jan. 29. The City’s resolution condemned the construction of the US/Mexico border wall.

Praising Kenin’s support in Berkeley, Margo Tamez said, “It is acts such as yours along with Gabriel Hernandez, who helped in the co-authoring of the Resolution for the City of Berkeley condemning the wall that beats the drum of justice which always foregrounds the drumbeat of the heart of truth.

“And, that truth is that the wall is a prison, intended to contain and to disperse and dislocate and disrupt ever further the indigenous people, and to pave over the negative impacts to indigenous people, the original aboriginal peoples, the impoverished, the sick and diseased, the malnourished, the negated forgotten 'Americans.’ To cover it up is the obvious goal of the administration.”

Margo Tamez said Apache on the Texas border are facing a great challenge to sustain their resistance against the administration, whose “caretakers are joining the band-wagon of profit.” Those include Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, and Hillary Clinton, D-NY, who announced their complicity with the building of the wall regardless of the Omnibus Bill, section 564, which requires consultation with community members, she said.

While gaining support, Kenin told the Berkeley City Council of the militarization of indigenous land at the US/Mexico border.

“Among the many issues about the wall that Homeland Security is lawlessly constructing through the International Boundary Zone between the US and Mexico, perhaps the least known issue is the continuous militarization of the indigenous communities who have been and still are terrorized bi-national peoples ever since the lines were drawn," Kenin told the council.

"The wall is a continuation and escalation of that militarization. The resolution on this council's agenda for the next meeting includes most relevant issues, but especially affirms the rights of these Native American communities according to international law.”

Margo Tamez said, “The Lipan Apache people of South Texas have a long history of genocide and oppression imposed upon them by settler societies and have been forced to the peripheries of said society, as a marginalized ethnic group in their own territories.”

The resolution also cites international rights. The Charter of the United Nations, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, affirm the fundamental importance of the right to self-determination of all peoples through which they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social, and cultural development, the resolution states.

Margo Tamez is now asking supporters to sign a resolution of support for Lipan Apache and indigenous peoples at the border. The resolution states an urgent need to respect and promote the rights of indigenous peoples affirmed in treaties, agreements and other constructive arrangements with States, including the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo.

Further, it states the rights of the Tamez family and future generations as the aboriginal peoples of El Calaboz, in the San Pedro de Carricitos Land Grant.

“The indigenous Lipan Apache people of the San Pedro de Carricitos Land Grant were recognized as indigenous first peoples of their territories by the Spanish and Texas empresarios in the area designated ‘Apacheria.’”

“Dr. Eloisa Garcia Tamez and her daughter, Margo Tamez, refuse to be further harassed, intimidated, and oppressed by the settler society’s insistence on the increased militarization of their traditional and aboriginal lands which has had negative and persistent lethal impacts on Apache lifeways, ecologies, agricultural ways, religious practices, and their future generations’ possibility to practice their Native American culture, and to be the stewards of the ancient plant medicines, and their sacred sites and burial grounds,” the resolution states.

The border wall represents a human rights crisis for indigenous and other peoples living along the international boundary zone between the United States of México and America and this human rights crisis has resulted in over 4,000 migrant deaths in recent years.

The resolution points out the devastating economic impact the border wall will have on South Texas, where residents on both sides of the border shop and carry out commerce in the neighboring countries. Free Trade agreements have already forced indigenous peoples into migration and exile from their homelands in the south.

Further, the resolution points out that Homeland Security has already waived all federal laws and court orders to build the border wall in fragile ecosystems in the west.

The laws waived include the Endangered Species Act, Migratory Bird Treaty Act, National Environmental Policy Act, Coastal Zone Management Act, Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, National Historic Preservation Act, Archeological Resources Protection Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, Noise Control Act, Solid Waste Disposal Act, Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, Farmland Protection Policy Act, Administrative Procedures Act, Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act, and countless other laws, protecting wildlife refuges, parks, sanctuaries and wildlife areas.

Resolution of Lipan Apache and Rio Grande indigenous: censored-news.blogspot.com