{"id":363127,"date":"2022-02-28T06:00:36","date_gmt":"2022-02-27T20:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=363127"},"modified":"2022-02-28T06:00:36","modified_gmt":"2022-02-27T20:00:36","slug":"gonzales-defends-indigenous-ownership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/gonzales-defends-indigenous-ownership\/","title":{"rendered":"Gonzales defends indigenous ownership"},"content":{"rendered":"
Screengrab shows Northern Marianas Descent Corporation president John Gonzales during last Friday\u2019s State of the US Colonies discussion panel with leaders from American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cAbsolute sovereignty does not mean that we should relinquish our timeless, decades-millennial-generation-old connection, irreparable connection, unequivocal connection, unconditional, inseparable connection to our land, water, sea, and air.\u201d <\/p>\n

Thus said Northern Marianas Descent Corporation president John Gonzales last Friday, Feb. 25, as he joined leaders from American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands on a discussion, hosted by the Power4PuertoRico Coalition, on the State of the US Colonies. <\/p>\n

Speaking to \u201cdefend the rights of indigenous ownership,\u201d Gonzales talked about the execution of the Covenant (U.S. Public Law 94-21, where the Northern Mariana Islands became a Commonwealth, in political union with the United States), particularly on the military use of the land.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn that covenant, it says that two-thirds of Tinian and just a little bit of acreage of the piers in Tanapag Harbor will be used as staging grounds for the United States to build and do training, strategic practices, for its military defense on forward,\u201d Gonzales said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLest we forget, the United States has used our islands as dumping grounds for UXOs (unexploded ordnance) and to this date, the United States has reneged on its moral obligation to clean our islands of the military dump and waste that litter through our islands,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

Gonzales said the NMDC, in a show of resistance, alongside other nonprofit organizations, have worked, fought, and sued the United States in federal courts for environmental justice. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey promise us that they\u2019re going to consult with us\u2014free, prior and informed consent. The fact of the matter is in our indigenous cultures, putting up a CD worth thousands and thousands of pages, putting it up on online platforms for people to review it without face-to-face consultation, is an insult,\u201d Gonzales said. \u201c[It] is a smack on the authenticity of the United States because our culture requires that we sit together and confer and consult and discuss and dialogue and discourse, and then amicably reach a decision. That has never been the case. \u2026We need to at least get down to the basics and confirm and consult with free, prior and informed consent.\u201d <\/p>\n

The NMDC president also called on those who call the islands home to reach out to policymakers, leaders, and other nonprofit organizations, adding that the territories need to have a seat at the table to get the chance to correct the wrongs that have been systematically practiced and deliberately done by the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is only until we hold hands and become inseparable can we\u2026educate and make the United States informed\u2026but more importantly, that we finally get the chance to truly, authentically, ingeniously, exercise our right to self-determination that respects our cultural, indigenous, tribal connection to our land, air, sea, and water.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cAbsolute sovereignty does not mean that we should relinquish our timeless, decades-millennial-generation-old connection, irreparable connection,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":363129,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-363127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}