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.