FW: POCKETS of RESISTANCE No. 19

["Craven, Jim" <jcraven@xxxxxxxxx>]

POCKETS of RESISTANCE no. 19
July 2002
Pockets of Resistance is published online by Dark Night Press and supports
the struggle for liberation of indigenous peoples
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 This issue is dedicated to the Draft Blackfoot Constitution
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It is "Indian Days" -- rodeos, fancy-dancing, fry bread, etc. -- in
Blackfoot country and activists are approaching literally hundreds of
Blackfoot who are reading and signing their agreement with the Constitution.
We are dutifully recording all suggestions for additions or changes to be
discussed and incorporated in mass meetings. They are all risking a great
deal just giving their signatures. We are not having a "Constitutional
Convention" to be convened and held by elites to craft a Constitution whose
language and structure are designed to institutionalize and perpetuate the
rule, power and property of those elites -- like that of the US and most
other nation-states' constitutions. Our Constitution and demand for
recognition of traditional governments will come from and be ratified by the
so-called "governed" themselves. - Jim Craven, Solicitor General, Sovereign
Blackfoot Nation, July 2002

Dark Night relatives is committed to printing documents of self-governance
that stand as models of human liberation and a right relationship with the
natural world. To the Zapatista Revolutionary Laws of Women (Dark Night
field notes 8, 10), the San Andres Accords (DNfn 8/9, 20), and the Akwesasne
Good Mind Research Protocol (DNfn 14, 26), we here add highlights from the
draft Blackfoot Constitution now undergoing approval and fine-tuning. We
present the Preamble in full and those articles that distinguish themselves
by contrast with typical colonizer constitutions. Each article is followed
by a note from the Pockets of Resistance editorial board, detailing
significant features.

DRAFT CONSTITUTION OF THE BLACKFOOT (PIIKANI) NATION

Preamble
The Blackfoot People of the Blackfoot Nation, in order to secure our
physical and cultural survival, in order to provide for our common defense
and security, in order to provide for prosperity for all Blackfoot, in order
to secure redress for past and present injustices done to Blackfoot People,
in order to realize our internationally recognized right to independence and
self-determination, in order to form bilateral relations with other nations,
in order to respect the legacies and sacrifices of our ancestors and pass
them on to our descendants and in order to secure and protect our resources
and birthrights, do hereby declare that we constitute/are--and have never
relinquished our right to be or be recognized as--a sovereign nation and do,
also, hereby create and enact this Constitution. By any test or definition
of a nation under international law, we have met and continue to meet all
criteria: a) for establishing the fact of our nationhood; b) for requesting
recognition of our nationhood; and c) for recognition of our associated
rights to independence, sovereignty and self-determination. These criteria
are binding on any and all nations, especially those demanding similar
recognition for themselves. By virtue of and through this Constitution, the
traditional authorities of the Blackfoot Nation, with the consent of the
People of the Blackfoot Nation, in the exercise of our
internationally-recognized rights to independence, sovereignty and
self-determination, do hereby assert and give unto ourselves and our
posterity this Constitution in order to proclaim our existence as a nation
to other nations of the world and to preserve, nurture and protect the
constituent elements, whole, traditional institutions and authorities,
survival and fundamental values and culture of the Blackfoot Nation and its
People.
We, the Blackfoot People, as a whole People and Nation, have been brought to
a crossroads of history facing almost certain extinction as a People without
the assertion and protection of our nationhood, traditional institutions and
internationally-recognized rights to independence, self-determination,
survival and prosperity. Our Declaration of Independence and Constitution
are instruments for the assertion/protection of our traditional ways and
institutions and are absolutely essential to the survival, prosperity and
independence of the Blackfoot People and Nation..

Constitutional Principles
Article 1
The Blackfoot Nation is comprised of: the traditionally-recognized
authorities, leadership and representatives of the Blackfoot; members of the
Apatohsipiikani, Kainaiwa, Siksika, Amskaapipiikani and related "Bands" of
the Blackfoot; all those recognized by traditional authorities as Blackfoot
with or without current affiliations/residence with the existing "Bands" of
the Blackfoot. Members of the Blackfoot Nation must possess some degree of
Blackfoot ancestry and/or be adopted/recognized through
traditionally-recognized institutions; no specific "blood-quantum" is
required for recognition of Blackfoot citizenship.

POR: The Blackfoot Constitution explicitly rejects blood quantum as a
criterion of citizenship, a tool used by colonizing states to legislate
indigenous peoples out of existence. It also rejects all outside claims or
attempts by other entities to determine who is Blackfoot, claims
historically and currently made against them by the US and Canada.

Article 2
The Blackfoot Nation ascribes to multi-citizenship but reserves the right to
demand relinquishment of either Blackfoot citizenship or the citizenship of
another nation in the event that the rights, responsibilities or allegiance
of citizenship associated with another nation conflict with the rights,
responsibilities or allegiance associated with Blackfoot citizenship. All
rights of Blackfoot citizens, elaborated and protected in this Constitution,
shall never be invoked or affirmed as instruments to deny or abridge the
same individual rights of others or to compromise the survival and
prosperity of the Blackfoot Nation.

POR: Made citizens of the US or Canada without their consent, the Blackfoot
Constitution gives Blackfoot interests priority while letting individual
Blackfoot citizens retain what advantage can be gained from their
involuntary partnership with the colonizing states.

Article 3
In accordance with international law and internationally recognized rights
to independence, self-determination and survival of nations, the Blackfoot
Nation does not recognize and is not in any way under the authority of any
laws, policies, procedures, agencies, "officials", agreements or structures
imposed or recognized by any (past or present) colonizing powers or foreign
nations or any "authorities" not selected or recognized by and through
traditional Blackfoot authorities, institutions and Ways exclusively.

POR: The Blackfoot Constitution rejects the claims of any other state to
determine its statehood.

Article 4
Unless otherwise provided in this Constitution, any agreements between the
Blackfoot Nation and any other sovereign entities or Peoples, including
other First Nations, shall have the form and substance of an international
treaty. Treaties shall become an integral part of the "Supreme Law of the
Nation" to which all Blackfoot authorities and persons shall be bound,
anything in Blackfoot law or traditions to the contrary notwithstanding.

POR: The Blackfoot Constitution establishes parity of the Blackfoot Nation
with other nations

Article 5
(1) The Blackfoot Nation has never ceased to exist as its existence and
right to exist does not depend upon recognition or non-recognition by any
other sovereign entity or force. The Blackfoot Nation continues to exist
despite many attempts by colonizing powers at "non-recognition",
"termination", extermination or imposition of colonial, genocidal and
non-Blackfoot laws, institutions, "Tribal officials" and "trustee
relationships". The central purpose of the Blackfoot Nation is to guarantee
and protect the survival, prosperity, identity, rights and culture of the
Blackfoot People collectively and individually.

POR: The Blackfoot Constitution explicitly names the governmental, economic
and legal means that have been used to erase their nation, to forestall
their presentation in the future as legitimate instruments for use against
the Blackfoot .

(2) All members of the Blackfoot Nation are endowed by the Creator and/or
their Humanity, as sanctioned/recognized by law, to certain fundamental and
internationally recognized human and civil rights and freedoms to include
(and not to be limited to) the following: Freedom of Speech and Assembly;
Freedom of/from Religion; Freedom of Association; Freedom of the Press;
Freedom From Unreasonable and Illegal Search and Seizure of Property;
Freedom to Lawfully Own, Sell and Bequeath Personal Property; Right of Due
Process, Right to Appeal of Judicial Verdicts and Freedom From Double
Jeopardy; Freedom From Any Discrimination Based on Gender, Age, Disability,
Color, Blood-quantum, Sexual Orientation, Social Class, Religion, Political
Affiliations or Family/Clan/Band Affiliations; Freedom to Keep and Bear Arms
(for hunting, personal protection and militia responsibilities); Freedom to
Petition for Redress of Grievances; Right to Privacy; Right to Confront and
Answer Accusers and Accusations...

POR: This article adroitly addresses several issues that most "mainstream"
constitutions avoid or ignore. The first is the role of religious language
in a document. The mere presence of religious language implies
acknowledgment of a role for the spiritual in the governance of the people.
The US constitution for instance refers to a creator also, but elsewhere
calls for separation of church and state. The presence of this religious
language in its Constitution is readily cited by US citizens who would
impose their religious values on other citizens in public venues. Notably,
the Blackfoot themselves had their territory carved up for forcible
proselityzing by various Christian denominations. The wording of the
Blackfoot Constitution acknowledges the views of both spiritual and
non-spiritual citizens, while strongly implying that the rights it upholds
inhere in merely being human; it succeeds in being both respectful and
non-exclusive, while avoiding internal contradictions.
Second, the Blackfoot Constitution explicitly recognizes and seeks to disarm
several factors that can and do militate against equal rights for all
citizens: racist and family connections, sexual orientation and social
class. Of the three, social class is the great unmentioned and unmentionable
in the US and Canadian constitutions.
Third, the Blackfoot Constitution attempts to avoid US Constitution
difficulties with the Right to Bear Arms by being more specific about the
allowable purposes.

Article 7
The Blackfoot Nation shall adhere to and preserve and protect Blackfoot
survival, prosperity, heritage, values, customs and world view in all
expressions of terms and obligations of treaties which it may undertake with
other nations and/or in relation to relationships and interactions with any
foreign States surrounding or influencing Blackfoot territories...

POR: Cultural survival and continuance is an overt objective of the
Blackfoot Constitution. By implication, so is cultural diversity among all
nations. By contrast, Zapatista documents, defending the rights of a
multiplicity of indigenous nations in Mexico, frequently refer to the right
of each nation to retain its own cultural ways. Although the Blackfoot and
Zapatista emphases differ, both support the underlying principle that
cultural survival is at stake, is a critical value, and that the loss of any
culture diminishes all other cultures.

Article 10
Nothing in this Constitution shall authorize or be interpreted as consent to
the termination of any trust, or of any claim of fulfillment of historic
promises, or of any claim for receipt of any and all restitution for
historic and present-day human rights violations, or of any other
responsibilities of the United States and Canadian Governments or their
internal State/Provincial Governments to the Blackfoot Nation and People.

POR: The Blackfoot Constitution does not erase history or inaugurate an
amnesiac new era. This article denies the legitimacy of any attempts by the
nations that have hitherto denied Blackfoot sovereignty to wash their hands
of the past, present and the future. Freeing yourself from colonizers does
not mean that colonizers should be let off the hook.

Territory and Jurisdiction
Article 11
(1) This Constitution recognizes that the Blackfoot Nation and People are
primarily but not exclusively domiciled in areas of Canada and the United
States on lands including but not limited to, the present-day
"Reserves"/"Reservations" of the Siksika, Kainaiwa, Apatohsipiikani and
Amskaapipiikani Blackfoot/Blackfeet Peoples.
(2) This Constitution also recognizes that there is a Blackfoot Diaspora
that is dispersed throughout the United States, Canada and elsewhere, and
that such individuals have the right to participate in the rights, duties
and obligations of the Blackfoot Nation, having requested and met the
requirements for Blackfoot Citizenship...

POR: This article recognizes the results of many genocidal attempts to
dissolve the Blackfoot. Specifically, it rejects continued occupancy of
particular territories as determining Blackfoot identity, a criteria the US
government has used as a double-edged sword against many tribes in denying
them recognition as tribes even though it was US- instigated dispersals of
their populations that made it impossible to prove.

Article 14
The Blackfoot Nation shall devote itself to just, equitable and sustainable
environmental, economic, land-use, water, natural resource and other
policies and practices in accordance with Blackfoot traditions and values.
The Blackfoot Nation, in accordance with Blackfoot values and traditions,
shall be guided by the needs of future generations, preservation of the
Blackfoot Nation and sustainability in formulating and implementing all
environmental, economic, land-use, water, natural resource and other
policies and practices...

POR: The Blackfoot Constitution holds the Blackfoot Nation responsible to
future generations and to the world in which it lives. It includes the
environment in its economy from both ends, not just the use-end as a
notionally inexhaustible resource or as a luxury for the well-to-do.
Zapatista documents also explicitly mention human responsibility to other
life and beings in the environment.

Citizenship and Rights/Responsibilites of Citizens
Article 28
In accordance with Blackfoot traditions, any Blackfoot citizen convicted in
accordance with judicial processes that are conducted in accordance with the
Blackfoot Constitution, of treason or other designated high crimes against
the Blackfoot Nation, may be stripped of Blackfoot citizenship and suffer
banishment from all Blackfoot lands, resources and communities.

POR: This article gives loss of citizenship and banishment rather than
capital punishment as the penalty for crimes against the nation, unlike the
ferocious US provisions.

Article 29
All Blackfoot citizens shall have the right to respect for his or her
privacy, without prejudice to restrictions laid down by or pursuant to acts
by competent authorities of the Blackfoot Nation. Rules to protect privacy
shall be laid down by competent authorities in connection with the recording
and dissemination of personal data as well in connection with the rights of
Blackfoot citizens to be informed of data recorded concerning them, uses
made of such data and to have such data corrected.
Article 30
All Blackfoot citizens shall have the right of inviolability of his or her
person without prejudice to restrictions laid down by or pursuant to acts of
the competent authorities of the Blackfoot Nation.

POR: Articles 29 and 30 and honor protections of privacy that were not
provided by the US Constitution or that are currently being whittled away.

Article 31
All Blackfoot citizens who are capable of doing so shall have the duty to
cooperate in defending and maintaining the territories, sovereignty,
independence, self-determination and national security of the Blackfoot
Nation. This duty may be imposed on residents not Blackfoot citizens.

POR: This article is interesting for its expression of what is expected of
non-Blackfoot living on Blackfoot territory. Much US citizen resistance to
indigenous sovereignty and land restoration claims stems from abject fear at
what would happen to non-indigenous living on indigenous parts of a re-drawn
map. It might achieve a better balance to include more in the Constitution
on how the Blackfoot Nation sees its relationship with its resident aliens,
beyond this one constraint on their behavior. Ward Churchill addresses this
issue under the name of the Big Fear in "I Am an Indigenist," in his
Struggle for the Land.

Article 32
Entries into homes and other premises of Blackfoot citizens, searches and
seizures shall be permitted only in cases laid down by or pursuant to acts
by competent authorities of the Blackfoot Nation. Prior identification and
notice of purpose shall be required to enter a home or other premises
subject to exceptions prescribed by competent authorities and a written
report of entry shall be issued to the occupant.
Article 33
Privacy of correspondence, telephone, telegraph or any other media shall not
be violated without prejudice to acts laid down by or pursuant to acts by
competent authorities or with the authorization of those designated by acts
by competent authorities.

POR: Like Articles 29 and 30, Articles 32 and 34 address privacy issues that
are being eroded in the US in spite of its Constitution.

Article 34
Other than in cases laid down by or pursuant to acts of the competent
authorities, no Blackfoot citizen may be deprived of his or her liberty. Any
Blackfoot citizen deprived of liberty other than by a court order may
request a court to order his or her release and in such case, may be heard
by a court within a period of time to be laid down by competent authorities.
The court will order his or her release if it considers the deprivation of
liberty to be unconstitutional/unlawful. Trials of citizens shall take place
within reasonable periods of time and any citizen who has been lawfully
deprived of liberty may be restricted in the exercise of fundamental rights
only to the extent to which the exercise of such rights is not compatible
with the deprivation of liberty.

POR: The Blackfoot Constitution upholds the principle of habeas corpus in
contrast to current US erosions of its own constitutional promise.

Article 37
No citizen shall suffer being tried more than once for the same alleged
crime. All citizens shall have the right to legal representation in all
legal and administrative proceedings and are entitled to legal aid if
needed.
Article 38
It shall be the concern of the authorities to promote the provision of
sufficient employment for all capable citizens consistent with the resource
and other constraints faced by the Blackfoot Nation. Rules governing the
legal status and protections of working persons shall be laid down by acts
by the competent authorities. All persons shall enjoy freedom of choice of
work consistent with their own qualifications and necessary qualifications
for particular work. No persons shall suffer any form of discrimination in
application for work or at work nor shall any person suffer denial of work
due to nepotism, cronyism or any form of unconscionable favoritism.
Article 39
It shall be the concern of the competent authorities to secure the means of
subsistence of the population and to achieve the distributions of wealth
consistent with Blackfoot traditions and the survival and prosperity of the
Blackfoot Nation. Rules concerning social security and access to all
life-sustaining resources and needs for all Blackfoot citizens unable to
provide for themselves shall be laid down by competent authorities.
Article 40
It shall be the concern of the competent authorities and all Blackfoot
citizens to protect and improve the environment and not to waste or abuse
any and all creations of the Creator consistent with Blackfoot culture and
traditions.
Article 41
It shall be the concern of the competent authorities and all Blackfoot
citizens to promote the general health of the population, to provide for
equitable distributions of means of subsistence, to protect children and all
those unable to care for themselves and to promote social and economic
development for all citizens.
Article 42
It shall the concern of the competent authorities and all Blackfoot citizens
to provide comprehensive and ongoing education for all citizens consistent
with the resource and other constraints of the Blackfoot Nation. Educational
curricula shall provide knowledge and skills requisite for survival and
prosperity of the Blackfoot Nation including those necessary for relations
and trade with other nations; curricula shall also provide knowledge and
skills requisite for the knowledge, appreciation and survival of Blackfoot
culture, traditions and the Blackfoot Nation itself.
Article 43
It shall be the concern of the competent authorities to allocate resources
to ensure adequate housing, medical care and all other necessary means of
subsistence for all Blackfoot citizens consistent with resource limitations
and other constraints faced by the Blackfoot Nation. All Blackfoot citizens
capable of work are expected to contribute to the resources, survival and
prosperity of the Blackfoot Nation as a condition of access to the resources
and means of subsistence of the Blackfoot Nation.
Article 44
It shall be the concern of the competent authorities to redress any
inequalities of wealth, incomes, security, access to services, access to
information, access to legal assistance, access to government or access to
means of subsistence that threaten the social cohesion, traditions, survival
or prosperity of the Blackfoot Nation subject to resource and other
constraints and imperatives faced by the Blackfoot Nation.

POR: Articles 37 through 44 honor the government's responsibility to
Blackfoot citizens across a wide range of social benefits: work, food,
housing, education, health care, and a healthy environment. The language
regarding the environment rather indicates that the nation has a
responsibility to the environment rather than that the environment is to be
manipulated for the peoples' benefit, a significant emphasis, with the
understanding that respectful treatment of the environment is to the
peoples's benefit.

Government
Article 45
The Government of the Blackfoot Nation recognizes, operates and rests on the
principle that government is only legitimate when it governs with the
recognition and consent of the majority of the governed...

POR: This language, historically more honored in the breach than in the
performance, can be usefully compared with the Zapatista principle of
"governing by obeying."

Article 60
All deliberations of the Representatives shall be open to scrutiny by the
public of the Blackfoot Nation unless the Principal Chief and Advisors deem
that they be held in camera for cause consistent with the Blackfoot
Constitution. All votes shall be recorded with roll call if requested by one
member. Votes in camera may occur only with the authorization of the
Principal Chief and Advisors for cause consistent with the Constitution. All
decisions or proposals for laws and acts will be decided on the basis of a
good-faith attempt at consensus failing which a two-thirds majority of all
Representatives is required to pass laws for consideration by the Principal
Chief and Advisors...

POR: The Blackfoot Constitution accords priority to sunshine rather than
concealment, and consensus over majority rule.

Law and Judiciary
Article 65
In accordance with Blackfoot Law and traditions, the supposed "duality" or
differentiation between criminal and tort or civil law is rejected as
dangerous to the survival and prosperity of the Blackfoot Nation. All crimes
necessarily generate torts and many torts are crimes when seen in their
totality of humanity and real causes and effects.

POR: The Blackfoot Constitution gives expression to an indigenist and more
holistic conception of justice and law than the European model.

Article 66
The fundamental mandates guiding all law and judicial processes shall be:
Truth; Justice; Healing; Reconciliation; Prevention of Future Abuses;
Survival and Prosperity of the Blackfoot Nation. All rights, policies,
judicial procedures, protocols and regulations governing individuals,
judicial processes and government are without prejudice to and subordinate
to these survival imperatives and mandates...
Article 70
All Judicial proceedings, procedures, findings and sentences must consider
the totality of effects not only on the accused and convicted but also on
the families of the victims and accused or convicted as well as on the
survival and prosperity of the Blackfoot Nation and People. Family relations
and other associates of an accused or convicted person, if not complicit
with that person, shall suffer no penalties, discrimination, revenge or
negative effects from association with the accused or convicted person. In
the event that family relations suffer economic hardship as a result of
conviction and punishment of a convicted person, those persons may draw
material support from the Blackfoot Nation as a whole...

POR: Articles 66 and 70 reflect that the Blackfoot consider it a legitimate
function of the Blackfoot justice system to promote wider social goals such
as healing, reconciliation and prevention of crime rather than treating
crime as a two-party quarrel between two citizens or a citizen and the state
without regard for, say the affects on society as a whole or as individuals.
Its aim is essentially restorative rather than retributive.

CONNECT:
The full text of the draft Blackfoot Constitution and other documents are
posted at the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of
Minnesota at http://www.chgs.umn.edu <http://www.chgs.umn.edu>  under
"Histories, Documents and Narratives"


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Pockets of Resistance is published online by Dark Night Press and the dark
night relatives who support the struggle for liberation of indigenous
peoples, and thereby human liberation, by addressing the factors and
conditions that make this necessary. For us the struggle for liberation
involves the creation of circumstances in which relationships based on
recognition of and respect for the interconnectedness among all living
things are given primary value.

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Thanks for reading Pockets of Resistance. With each online newsletter, our
mailing list has grown. We suggest a donation of $12.00 a year or a dollar a
newsletter to help us cover our expenses. You can send your donation to Dark
Night Press, P.O. Box 3629, Chicago, IL 60690-3629.
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...resistance against neoliberalism isn't taking place only in the mountains
of the Mexican Southeast. In other parts of Mexico, in Latin America, in the
United States and Canada, in the Europe of the Treaty of Maastricht, in
Africa, in Asia, in Oceania, pockets of resistance multiply. Each one of
them has its own history, its own differences, equalities, demands,
struggles, and accomplishments. If humanity still has a hope of survival, of
improvement, that hope is in the pockets filled with the excluded ones, the
leftovers, the ones who are disposable.... There are as many shapes as there
are resistances, and as many worlds as there are in the world. So draw the
shape you prefer. As far as this thing about pockets goes, they are as rich
in diversity as the shapes resistance takes.
-Subcomandante Marcos, "Seven Loose Pieces of the Global Jigsaw Puzzle,"
Mexico, June 1997

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online: www.darknightpress.org

Pockets of Resistance can temporarily be found on NativeWatch/Z Net at:
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<http://www.horizons.k12.mi.us/~aim/nwindex.html>

"Dark Night" recalls the words of Seattle who, two generations before the
massacre at Wounded Knee on December 29, 1890, forecast a future for his
relatives which promised to be long and dark. Dark Night Press and the dark
night relatives are engaged in ending the darkness.





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