After 500 years, how do they define who is an indigenous person? After I had my DNA tested, the mitochondrial DNA on both my maternal grandmother and paternal grandmother showed that they were haplogroup B4--which is considered a source for Native American DNA. However, I wasn't raised on a reservation and neither were my parents or grandparents. My maternal grandmother did not speak a Native American language, but my paternal grandmother did. She spoke Otomi from central Mexico. My parents spoke English and Spanish. I speak English and Spanish. My maternal grandfather was an Anglo. My paternal grandfather was from Mexico but his DNA analysis showed that his DNA had originated in the Middle East and had arrived in the Americas by way of the Iberian peninsula. So what am I?

I am guessing that most people in the Americas--North and South-- are probably like me. They are probably an amalgam of different sources. So how do they determine who is indigenous? Answering this question is critical because without some kind of real scientifically based answer to this question the whole issue of indigenous rights becomes moot. Are you going to base it on culture and language? Well, since culture is learned, then anyone can learn the language and the culture and be indigenous.

Probably most of the Mexica crowd would tell me that I am indigenous based on nothing else than my appearance and that I am a traitor to my "race". But really, race doesn't exist as a scientific fact, so I can't be a traitor to my "race".

I think that asking this question about who qualifies as indigenous is the crucial first step in rationally dismantling their arguments.

Also involved with the May 29th "Day of Action Against SB1070" is a group called the Phoenix Class Warfare Council" where they describe themselves this way:

PHOENIX CLASS WAR COUNCIL is a fanatical, revolutionary anarchist group pressing the attack against capitalism, the state and all systems of hierarchy and oppression. We fight for a self-determined, projectual life for ourselves and all humanity. We oppose those who hinder working class self-organization. We are libertarian and libertine. We support movements but we don't wait for them. We are in the thick of it.

http://firesneverextinguished.blogspot.com/

Where is Bill Clinton calling this group out as inciting hatred? Where is anyone in our government calling this group "domestic terrorism" for their radical government overthrow rhetoric? Is that crickets I hear chirping?

Also see this link with more of their radical anarchist ideology:

http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20100518191141426

From the above link:

The racist rift that has, for the rest of the country, burst quite impolitely out into the light of day continues to deepen and polarize. In Phoenix, violence has already broken out on at least two occasions, leaving one dead, and we're heading into what promises to be a particularly hot summer, even by Arizona standards. If nothing happens to change it, SB1070 will go into effect on July 28th, when the temperatures march towards 120 degrees. The kind of days where you sweat just sitting still. The forces of reaction, armed and ready, prepare to form up to defend the border again. The National Socialist Movement, who we successfully countered last year, have re-emerged from their holes at long last and are interviewed on television by a complacent, cowardly and pitifully uncritical media afraid to call them the Nazis that they are. Things are in flux and the struggle intensifies. It's too early to call this "Bleeding Arizona", but we do wonder: are we on the verge of an explosion?

It is in that context that we decided to put up this note to our comrades in the state and, in particular, outside it. We know that you rely on us for analysis and news about the class war here. We apologize for not updating the site as much as we have in the past. And for not directly addressing the ever-growing crisis in our backyard with the written word as much as we would like to. It may help you to know that we have begun along with some other comrades a new site to chronicle all the resistance to SB1070. You can get updates on the situation in Arizona very easily there and we add several new articles a day from a variety of sources.

The site they refer to is this one:

http://sb1070resistance.blogspot.com/

Our government is MIA in protecting us and now we know that we have radicals bent on turning this into a class warfare bloody fight. Enough is enough... We want these revolutionary jerks rounded up and arrested NOW before they create the "shot heard round the world" in Arizona!

And there's more - this was part of the "May 29th Call to Action" for Phoenix at
http://sb1070resistance.blogspot.com/2010/05/end-border-militarization-contingent.html

They said:

O'odham Solidarity Across Borders Collective sends you greetings from occupied O'odham lands,

We urge all who support indigenous nations and migrant communities to join us on Saturday May 29th at the National Day of Action Against SB1070 to demand that Border Patrol (BP), Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE), their parent entity, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the Obama administration end militarization of the border, end the criminalization of immigrant communities, and end their campaign of terror which tear families apart through increasing numbers of raids and deportations.

This contingent is in support of the O'odham elders, and other indigenous elders that will be leading the march. It is a follow-up to last Friday’s (May 21st) Peaceful Occupation of the US Border Patrol Headquarters in Tucson, AZ. We hope to use this formation to voice the end of border militarization and racist, colonial laws that attack not just indigenous communities, but migrant ones too. We hope to project true Indigenous/Migrant solidarity in the face of the state's police oppression, and the immigration reform movement’s suppressive tactics to further marginalize the indigenous voice in border policies and colonial laws that affect us all.

The contingent also calls on the State of Arizona to repeal the racist Senate Bill 1070 that criminalizes immigrant communities on the state level, makes it illegal to transport or harbor an undocumented person regardless of family relationship, requires police agencies to engage in racial profiling, and ultimately is an attempt to ethnically cleanse Arizona of those with brown skin.

The contingent demands:
• An end to border militarization
• The immediate repeal of SB1070 and 287g
• An end to all racial profiling and the criminalization of communities of color
• No ethnic cleansing or cultural genocide
• No border patrol encroachment/sweeps on sovereign native land
• No to comprehensive immigration reform that further militarizes the border or exploits migrant labor
• No Deportations
• No Raids
• No ID-verification
• No Checkpoints

• Yes to immediate and unconditional regularization (“legalization”) of all people
• Yes to human rights
• Yes to dignity
• Yes to respect
• Yes to respecting Indigenous Peoples inherent right of migration

Support looks like:
• Banners calling for an end to border militarization,for migrant/indigenous solidarity, and drawing the connection between racist laws like SB1070/287g/HB2281, immigration reform and the destruction of indigenous and migrant communities.
• Noise makers, puppets and other visuals, etc.
•Cop Watching, video documentation, legal observation of the contingent and the march to ensure safety in light of police repression
•Medics prepared for sun exposure, dehydration, police attacks
•Our own “security” – not to police our people, but to deescalate the police, step-in as a barrier in case of a police attack, help people cross the street, etc.
•People who can flyer/lecture expressing our message.

Join us on Friday, May 28th to help prepare for the following day. Bring materials to finish making signs, banners, noise makers, etc. To connect, let us know you're down, meet up with us on Friday, if you have any questions or for more information, contact Alex Soto @ 602.881.6027 or Ned @323.541.2352 or stopbordermilitarization@g
mail.com.

------------------------------

Funny that they don't seem to have an issue with all of that in MEXICO.. America - we are under attack by anarchists and reconquistas and if you doubt it at all - you're not paying attention.

Why has my comment been removed? Scared of the truth?

The Southern Poverty Law Center must have overlooked them as a HATE Group LOL.

I have no idea other than cash why you are advertising for Gore to be Sheriff for San Diego.
He an open border politician if we've ever seen one.
He's pc till the cows come home.
We need Jay LaSeur for Sheriff.
He'll make sure our laws are followed.
He won't pick and choose which laws to follow.
Count me an American citizen tired of the law enforcement in San Diego pandering instead of enforcing!!

HistoricalFactCheck said:
"why has my comment been removed? scared of the truth?"

Why is your email address fake? Scared of the truth? All of your allegations are BS and I have already addressed them. You want to continue to spew false allegations go do it on your own website.

"I have no idea other than cash why you are advertising for Gore to be Sheriff for San Diego."

The ads come from Google. They serve them based on the content, I have no control. They also are sneaky and show people from the SD area different ads than others.

Funny that is not what the Mexicans said when Sam Houston whooped their asses at San Jacinto. Feeling confident you little American hating racists? Then bring it on... we will make what Sam Houston did look like a warm up exercise.

These illegals are NOT indigenous, the placards they doctored up are laughable, when you examine them closely. You can tell by looking at the bone structure, that they do not have the same bone structure. The closest one is the older woman in the middle shot, though her face was used to mirror the indigenous person, because the Hispanic woman has a fat face. Her nose, her entire face is Hispanic.

As an indigenous woman, I know my people's history, and the ancestors of illegals from Latin America came here from Spain, they committed genocide against the indigenous peoples of those lands, and there weren't enough left afterwords to ensure an indigenous bloodline for one country, let alone the entire scope of Latin America. What's more, the remaining few indigenous peoples that still survive to this day are looked down on, and discriminated against. Latin Americas are extremely racist.

If you talk to any of the native tribes in the US southwest, near the border, you learn how much the waves of illegals their gangs and drug cartels anger them. Their tribal lands are invaded and their people are terrorized. Their children are targeted, especially their daughters, by human trafficking gangs who seek to kidnap their daughters to force into prostitution. They don't consider those illegals indigenous and are mightily offended by these insults.. but their concerns aren't listened to, as ours are not.

These questions are for Jenny (and anyone else that would like to chime in);

The Human Genome Project claims that there is no scientific evidence for the concept of human races, therefore there is no Hispanic race. And if there is no Hispanic race, then what is an Hispanic face? How is it different from an indigenous face? What are the specific physical characteristics that you use to separate people into one category or the other? Are there other non-physical characteristics that you use to define and categorize people? And does this classification system hold up every time you apply it?

Where I live in the SW there are lots of people that self-identify as Hispanic but have what many people here and lots of other places would call indigenous faces. Hmm. There are also lots of people here who self-identify as Native Americans and live on reservations and participate in Native American culture but have Hispanic names. So what are all of these people? How would your classification system define all of these people and separate them into their appropriate categories? Again, what are the standards?

There are plenty of people in Mexico, especially in the Sierra Tarahumara in Chihuahua, in Oaxaca, in Chiapas, in Michoacan and in Yucatan who speak an indigenous language, who still dress in indigenous dress and who practice indigenous culture yet have Hispanic names and fat faces and sometimes (not in all cases) speak Spanish. So what are these people? Are they Hispanic by virtue of having been born in Mexico? Or, are they indigenous? Again, what standards are you using to sort people into one category or another? This same kind of situation occurs with people in Guatemala, Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay and Brazil. So, again, what standards do you use to categorize people? How do you know who is indigenous and who is Hispanic?

I’m not asking you these questions to give you a hard time nor to criticize you. I’m asking because for one thing I really want to know how your system of categorization works. I want to know on what it is based and I want to know if it is regularly consistent. I take seriously your ability to define people as Hispanic or non-Hispanic and I want to understand how you do it. By your writing you obviously take seriously your ability to know the difference and I want to learn how you do it.

I’m asking also because I think that how we categorize people based on “race” is a fundamental issue that needs discussion and definition. So much of the “rights” that people claim are based on “race”, so shouldn’t we have some kind of discussion about how we determine what race is and who is Hispanic and who is indigenous and who is white so that perhaps we could eventually have an objective standardized system based on science that would make classifying people easier and well, objective? Maybe one of the first steps is to define how we each determine how we each categorize people we meet.

I dont have much to say to you, just that you are a racist a$$ that doesnt deserve the success you have had. Not all illegal immigrants come to this country to cause harm! both my mother and father came to this country with the hopes of giving my sister and i a better life. And your belief that we want to overthrow the goverment is absurd. I know that there are some foreigners that really do hate america, but for the most part we are just here to make a better life for ourselves than we would of had elsewhere. I am enlisted in the US ARMY, so why would i want to cause harm to the country that i swore to protect? Long story short, you and all your redneck buddies can all go and have a merry old time at your rally, while my "illegal" friends and i jus sit in our homes and say to eachother " F*ck THEM, they cant stop us"... You dont deserve to wear that uniform, oh wait, your old a$$ is probably ready for the VA's assistance...lol... And any time you are in Indianapolis and you see an "illegal" in his BDU, and the tag reads Giron-Quinonez, feel free to come up to me and give me your thoughts on my comment so i can knock those old a$$ glasses off your face......

F*ck you, prick
PVT Giron-Quinonez

Ps... LATINOS UNIDOS,JAMAS SERAN VENCIDOS!! dont know what that means? look it up a$$hole, or better yet ask your wife, im sure one of my fellow "illegals" has given it to her on numerous occasions... if not, she at least knows "Ay papi,Que rico" LMFAO!!!!

Well, despite the fact that extremism in any form, i believe, is detrimental to equality everywhere. However, we should realize, that those signs are mostly satire. It uses old white supremacist (and current anti-immigrant extremism) lingo, buzz-words, and protest signs. If you really think about what they're doing, It's kind of funny.

Excuse me Alex, but those signs are NOT satire. They mean what they say and the people who carry them are serious about what they are saying. I've known people who believe this and they aren't kidding and they aren't that few in number.

Don't write it off as satire. It isn't.

PVT Giron-Quinonez: You don't seem to get the point... If you don't have a ticket you can't go to the concert. Because the people that do have them have PAID FOR THEM! They didn't sneak in the back door and take someone else's seat.

@jenny

first of all the drug cartels are white mexicans, people of european ancestry. who controls mexico and all of latin america? they do, it's not the native mexicans who have the deep pockets and control.

on top of that i'm both native american and native mexican. tohono o'odham and mayan, i live on the reservation and i don't hear of children being "targeted and forced into prostitution" by the drug traffickers. yes, they suck but they mainly attack migrants from central america.

i'd also like to add the fact that many indigenous tribes in mexico and latin america still retain their wondrous cultures. here in the u.s it's only the elders who speak the languages and observe the customs. no sense of identity really. it doesn't matter what kind of surnames we have, we are still native. just like a navajo may have a last name like "key," or a pima like me a name like "gomez." surnames, nor the languages we speak do not define us racially. i speak tohono o'odham, spanish and english. am i a latina? am i british? nope..

lastly what is it you're mad at? is it the fact that most native americans, as in indigenous people from the u.s. can't keep up? this whole thing with the alcoholism and high unemployment rate is getting really old. at least natives from central and south america work. and i'm talking about natives as in mayans and aztecs, not the people you see in arizona and texas who come from sonora and sinaloa. those are white mexicans who are hispanic and latin, nothing to do with us, and you have no right lumping us together.

The Mexica Movement is getting more and more support. Many Xicanos are joining this movement.
If we all have Native American blood running through our veins, then leave everyone alone, we all belong here!
We are being judged by the color of our skin! This is the uprising. We are headed towards civil war if this isn't resolved. If our people keep getting picked on, jailed,stopped for no reason, other than skin color. There will be an uprising and it won't be pretty. ONe more thing the world is watching!!!!!! it's watching how we are being treated and losing respect for it. Punto....