Yaqui In The House With Tanori

“INJUSTICE ANYWHERE IS INJUSTICE EVERYWHERE.”

I had said I would introduce a Native American, or better said, indigenous co-host to you in my Boldly Feminine introduction. I would like to remind those listening that ninety percent of the ecological biodiversity of the planet is being safeguarded by the small, five percent of indigenous peoples that inhabit our planet. These include the tribes of the Savannah in Africa, such as the Masai, the Maori of Australia, the Inuit of Alaska, the Aymara of Peru, the Cabecar of the Amazon, the Asmat of New Guinea and many many more. In spite of their devotion to preserve the divergent species that co-habitate this small blue planet we all share - seventy percent of animal species have disappeared since 1970. The protective, respectful indigenous culture of foresight that coexists by planning seven generations into the future has been obliterated by consumerism, the consequences of destructive capitalism, mass consumption and  the normalization of immediate gratification.

It is my pleasure to introduce to you today Tanori, a wonderful human of the Yaqui tribe. The Yaqui are an UTO-AZTECAN speaking indigenous people, widespread in the americas but who  principally inhabit the western hemisphere of North America, from lower Canada to the farthest reaches of the Yucatan in Mexico.

The Pasqua Yaqui tribe based in Tucson, Arizona is the ONLY federally recognized Yaqui tribe in the United States though, as mentioned, their people are spread widely across a vast area of the American.

There was a period of armed conflict that began in 1533 that extended up until 1929 called the Yaqui Wars, fought between New Spain, its successor the Mexican state, and the indigenous Yaqui Indians. Over the course of nearly 400 (FOUR HUNDRED) years, massacre after massacre was brought repeatedly against the Yaqui by either the Spanish or the Mexicans in an attempt that failed at complete genocide, but forced the deportation of Yaquis into slavery as far as the last reaches of the Yucatan peninsula.

As you can tell with Tanori, the Yaqui are historically a very tall people in stature. Due to their physical strength, they were relentless in the defense of their land, peoples and customs for century upon century and to this day have settlements high in the Sonoran mountains of Mexico, virtually unvisited by outsiders where they keep to themselves. These factors have been instrumental in preserving their language, customs and culture over hundreds of years to the present day.

I’m going to have Tanori join in now and it’s very helpful that he has studied his culture as part of his university education. I also wanted to invite him speak of his experiences being a Yaqui born on lands that his ancestors inhabited and governed for millennia, but to which he actually, today, has no rights. I had questions about passports, laws, governance, law enforcement, tribal mores, American norms and so many factors that affected him personally as well as disaffected him socially.

So as per my podcast with Jane Elliott, the diversity educator par none, let’s re-iterate the golden rule: “Race is a concept and species is a fact.“ We as a human species all began our journey to populate the planet from the southernmost tip of Africa, almost two million years ago, and today have all been mostly subjugated to white man’s rule across the planet.