"Haudenosaunee statement read to UN - Special commission told 'racism is a part of the fabric of American life'"

NEW YORK CITY - The statement read by the Iroquois delega­tion to the UN Special Commission on Religious Tolerance on January 28 was an attempt to distill almost 400 years of Native and Europeans relations into a 5 minute address.

The clearly-worded, concise document was prepared by Tonya Gonnella Frichner, an Onondaga from Syracuse, New York, and an attorney with the Native American Law Alliance.

In the document, the Haudenosaunee identify themselves as a six-member Nation organized into a confederation, circa 1000 A.D., with the Tuscarora accepted as a sixth member in 1713. It explains that the Haudenosaunee lands and territories are in the Northeast of Turtle Island now occupied by the United States and Canada, with 18 territories spread throughout New York, Quebec, Ontario, Wisconsin, and Oklahoma, and approximately 63,000 people.

The statement explains that the initial agreement between Natives and Europeans colonizers was made in 1613 in Albany, New York with representatives of the Netherlands. The Guswenta (the River of Life) was the agreement that set the standard for the interaction of the two peoples, according to the Iroquois document. "It was based upon peace and friendship, as long as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. As long as the rivers run down hill and as long as the grass grows green, shall we keep this covenant. We agreed to call one another brothers."

The Iroquois explained to the UN that they still hold to this covenant, which "we call the grandfather of all treaties", and expect treaty partners to do the same.

However, the delegation claimed that the Christian nations operated under the assumption that they had "the divine right to extend their dominion over the entire world ... we, the Indigenous Peoples of the world were designated 'heathens' and 'pagans', and therefore nonexistent as far as ownership of the land was concerned. This destructive doctrine continues to generate intolerance of Indigenous Religions at the end of the twentieth century."

The UN was told that in North American, the doctrines were developed into federal laws, leading to both Canada and the U.S. enacting federal policies to extinguish Native Peoples' culture and languages. The Rapporteur at the UN heard that "to this day the Christian churches and leaders continue to missionize Native people. This has caused division within Indian communities between the traditional people and the Christianized people."

The Iroquois delegation summed up their presentation by posing the question "how can Native Peoples have religious freedom if their religions are not recognized as bonfire religions?" And the group claimed "Notwithstanding their purported secular nature, the United States, Canada, and Mexico continue to operate as Christian nations. Racism is veiled and difficult to deal with, but is part of the fabric of American life."

Norm Jacobs has been to the UN before as a representative of the Confederacy. He has also travelled to Geneva to present to the League of Nations. Jacobs commented, "the way I look at it is the Confederacy government is my government, anything they ask me to do I do everything in my power to fulfill it."