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Transcription: [00:07:13]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
Uh hum
[00:07:13]

{SPEAKER name="Unknown Speaker"}
America's policy was to establish reservations on private land and have Indians become [[??]], basically.
[00:07:23]

{SPEAKER name="Unknown Speaker"}
My question is, is Guatemala planning to establish reservations for Indians?
[00:07:29]

{SPEAKER name="Unknown Speaker"}
And my second question is, is there any chance that the Indians in the United States will take lessons from the Mayas and try to achieve independence or sovereignty from the United States?
[00:07:40]

{SPEAKER name="Unknown Speaker 1"}
I ask that question because, [[audience member laughs]] It's not funny.
[00:07:43]

{SPEAKER name="Unknown Speaker 1"}Because in South Dakota, the Sioux Indians do want [[??]] returned, even though white people don't think it should be returned.
[00:07:50]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
You wanna respond?
[00:07:51]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 2"}
Yeah, uhh. It's- It seems the government is trying to put the people, like the United States government, put the Indians in the United States reservations.
[00:08:02]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 2"}
Now, the government in Guatemala called this move, in sophisticated words, they said, "polls of development."
[00:08:12]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
Development polls.
[00:08:13]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 2"}
Development polls.
[00:08:14]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 2"}
That means that they are going to civilize the Indians, putting them in some kind-- different from their environment, like Duncan says.
[00:08:26]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 2"}
But this is practically killing,
[00:08:31]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 2"}
making some kind of ethnocide to the Indians,
[00:08:34]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 2"}
because they are going in these places to be reeducated in other ways, not their ways as Indians.
[00:08:43]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 2"}
And I think that's the way we are going to be.
[00:08:49]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 2"}
And the only hope we have now, is trying to have the respect of other countries to live as we used to live in Guatemala, as Indians,
[00:09:02]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 2"}
proud of ourselves, and trying to preserve some kind of rights we still have, in many ways.
[00:09:10]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 2"}
Duncan, the American Indians; they are trying to give us now support.
[00:09:17]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 2"}
And 5,000 Indians living in United States from Mayan origin,
[00:09:23]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 2"}
they say if the government is not giving you asylum, or some kind of safe haven, we're going to take you in our reservation,
[00:09:32]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 2"}
and we are going to protect you, because you are our brothers and sisters.
[00:09:37]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 2"}
And they believe that the corn is one of the sacred grains, that we give to the American Indians.
[00:09:50]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 2"}
And they are saying, "Thank you," for sending us this, this.
[00:09:55]


{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
So they are responding in this way.
[00:09:57]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
In other words, corn was originally developed in the Maya area.
[00:10:01]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
Corn and beans. And diffuse many, many centuries ago of course up until the Native Americans up here.
[00:10:07]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
And the Native Americans here have said "Thank you, Mayas, for having given us corn.
[00:10:12]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
If you ever need a place to stay, If the US government, in the end, does not give you asylum."
[00:10:16]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
And it's very hard right now to get asylum as a Native American from Guatemala,
[00:10:22]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
or from, or as an El Salvadorian, or someone from Central America, to gain asylum here.
[00:10:28]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
"If they won't give it to you, we will give it to you.
[00:10:30]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
You can come on our reservations and live with us."
[00:10:32]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
So that's been a very important--

[[Cross talk]]

{SPEAKER name="Unknown Speaker 1"}
And that's my point.

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
Uh huh

{SPEAKER name="Unknown Speaker 1"}
My point is not--
[00:10:38]