Vicam, Sonora, October 14th. The sun in the Yaqui territory shines strong. The first Encuentro de Pueblos Indigenas de America comes to a successful end. The 570 delegates of 67 groups from 12 different countries on the continent prepare to put together their conclusions, proposals, and declarations. And while observers, journalists, and militants from The Other Campaign prepare suitcases, little Lisa plays, among the chickens, with her mother Morning Star, who is from the community, Achumawi. She is a single mother and student who lives with her community in northeastern California. Morning Star, along with Riel Manywounds, of the dene nation, or “British Colombia”, discuss the situation and the fight with which communities and women are confronted.

The “progress” and the “modernity” into which the community of Morning Star was immersed in the United States society whose economy is the 4th in the world, threatens her survival and dignity. “98% of the population was exterminated during the gold rush, contaminating our water and killing our people, our women were violated and they stripped us of our land. It was a political action of the government”. The desire of the white businessman, anthropologists, and archaeologists seem to be the same: close to 450 sacred ceremonial sites are threatened by the construction of commercial centers, and in the University of Berkeley there are 40,000 remains of our ancestors. The sacred heritage cannot be recuperated by its’ legitimate inheritants, therefore the institution “says that they we cannot claim them. This shows a lack of respect to us and to our ancestors”, explains the young woman with indignation.

“In the dominant society the woman was taught to be competitive and to see the others as enemies. The relationship between child and the woman have been a part of our indigenous culture of survival. If I didn’t have the support of other women, I could not talk about my sacred sites and consciousness, I am grateful to be able to speak up about this”, affirms Morning Star.

The making of decisions and the urgency of the forming of our autonomous organization was important. “Men and women are colonized in different ways. The women decided that they needed to be respected within the men’s movement, and created the Movement of the Red Nations. It is disheartening that this still is not present in many of our communities”.

In respect to the meeting in Vicam she comments: “It has been wonderful, I really honor it. I want to thank the members of the Zapatista collective Comandanta Ramona (from California) because she made it possible for me to come. This meeting is the result of years of fighting for what our ancestors had dreamt of. We need to assume the responsibility of the messages of all of these fights.”

Next December, the Zapatista communities will invite the women of the world to a meeting for women. The continuing of the fight, for the interviewee, will center around this theme: “We have planned the trip. We are here with intention: to connect ourselves with the land, with each other, with our sacred objects, to have dignity, spirituality. And each one of us is connected with this in each battle that we fight. We have the passion to make it grow because it is our desire to make a change keeps us together”, she concludes.

Following the vertebral column of the mountains in the horizon of the town Yaqui, the Rocky Mountains, Riel Manywounds also contributes her words: “I belong to the Tsuu nation from my mother’s ancestry, and to the Nakazdli Carrier Dakelh nation, from my father. My ancestors came from Dene”.

She says that before the white man came, “the women had power and made decisions. Our people migrated to the mountains. The women knew what was coming. There was a genocide, but some survived. They introduced alcohol to us, and three quarters of the Dene were assassinated by the white men.

One of the constant criticisms during the meeting, mostly from the town of Lakota Omaha, was the state of existence of reservations where the majority of the indigenous live. These spaces were basically classified as concentration camps. “The government is slowly strangling us. Sometimes we cannot grow anything, there is no clean water. There are people killing each other or committing suicide because they feel completely surrounded by white people who hate them. Capitalism doesn’t work, and it is not going to work, it is only for the privileged; this is something that people need to understand”.

Another situation that was brought to attention by the communities and indigenous nations has been the installation of casinos in their territories. In regards to this phenomenon, Riel says: “The idea is to bring a larger income for the people, but money is not the answer. It creates more problems. It divides, the people drink and spend their money each night. It is the same as the addiction to capitalism”.

Canada is not the peace-loving country that the dominant society celebrates. In all of its territory there are close to 1,000 missing women, and in the area surrounding the trail of tears, 200 have been killed, the majority under the age of 25. For young Riel, this is not a new phenomenon: “They have repressed us. When the men assume the control, they create ‘bosses’ and they are installed into the systems of the government. They become drunk with alcohol and power. The women could no longer make their own decisions freely"

Riel coordinates with others to put together the magazine Redwire, which has close to 70,000 subscribers. She believes that due to the publication, “there is more consciousness, because there is more evidence. The people are seeing the reality, the government is caught with these murders, and each time we are more. We try to bring the truth to light so that the people can acquire a more critical thinking”.

In respect to the victories of the resistance and the meeting of Vicam she says: “The victory is to be alive and with this level of consciousness. I will bring with me what I have learned from Zapatismo: their discipline and their beauty; they teach that the power can be used to lift yourself, to make your heart beat and fight. All of the struggles make us stronger. We want to be independent, recognized, celebrate and learn our culture, connected with our motherland. This is the victory, the future of my people. I give thanks to my ancestors that offered their blood for our destiny. My dream is to be conscious and that more people will also do it through their own process”.