Mexico Indian remains returned from NY for burial
Johnny Asia
The burial Monday capped an unprecedented joint effort by U.S. and
Mexican Indian tribes to press both governments to bring justice and
closure to a 1902 massacre by Mexican federal troops that killed about
150 Yaqui men, women and children.
Perhaps best known for the mystical and visionary powers ascribed to
them by writer Carlos Castaneda, the Yaquis fought off repeated
attempts by the Mexican government to eliminate the tribe.
But they were largely defeated by 1900, and dictator Porfirio Diaz
began moving them off their fertile farmland to less valuable
territory or to virtual enslavement on haciendas as far away as
eastern Yucatan state.
In 1902, about 300 men, women and children escaped from forced exile
and started walking back to their lands in Sonora. They were stopped
in the mountains near the capital of Hermosillo by 600 heavily armed
soldiers, who attacked them from behind. What ensued, long known as
"the Battle of the Sierra Mazatan," is now considered one of the last
large-scale Indian massacres in North America.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091117/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_mexico_warriors_homecoming
Mexico Indian remains returned from NY for burial
By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press Writer � Tue Nov 17, 2:10 am ET
MEXICO CITY � Northern Mexico's Yaqui Indians buried their lost
warriors after a two-year effort to rescue the remains from New York's
American Museum of Natural History, where the victims of one of North
America's last Indian massacres lay in storage for more than a
century.
The burial Monday capped an unprecedented joint effort by U.S. and
Mexican Indian tribes to press both governments to bring justice and
closure to a 1902 massacre by Mexican federal troops that killed about
150 Yaqui men, women and children.
"They would not be at peace with their souls and conscience until they
got their people back to their land," said Jose Antonio Pompa of
Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History.
The 12 skulls and other blood-spattered remains interred in Vicam, a
traditional Yaqui town in western Sonora state, carried some of the
first forensic evidence of Mexico's brutal campaign to eliminate the
tribe.
As if the horror of the massacre weren't enough, U.S. anthropologist
Ales Hrdlicka came upon some of the bodies while they were still
decaying, hacked off the heads with a machete and boiled them to
remove the flesh for his study of Mexico's "races."
He sent the resulting collection to the New York museum. On Monday
afternoon, on the slope of a mountain near the Yaqui village of Vicam,
the 12 sets of remains were "baptized" to give them names that have
been lost to history.
They were given a warriors' honor guard, and amid drumming, chants and
traditional "deer" and "coyote" dances, each was laid to rest in the
ground they had been striving to return to when they were slaughtered.
Perhaps best known for the mystical and visionary powers ascribed to
them by writer Carlos Castaneda, the Yaquis fought off repeated
attempts by the Mexican government to eliminate the tribe.
But they were largely defeated by 1900, and dictator Porfirio Diaz
began moving them off their fertile farmland to less valuable
territory or to virtual enslavement on haciendas as far away as
eastern Yucatan state.
In 1902, about 300 men, women and children escaped from forced exile
and started walking back to their lands in Sonora. They were stopped
in the mountains near the capital of Hermosillo by 600 heavily armed
soldiers, who attacked them from behind. What ensued, long known as
"the Battle of the Sierra Mazatan," is now considered one of the last
large-scale Indian massacres in North America.
"What soldiers were doing was � instead of wasting ammunition �
turning the rifle around and hitting people in the head who were down,
to make sure they were dead," said anthropologist Ventura Perez, who
did a trauma investigation on the skulls for the American Yaqui
tribes.
Some bore execution-style gunshot wounds to the back of the head. Cut
marks on the bones indicated troops took ears as trophies, said Perez,
a professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
The bones were forgotten in museum storage until Perez and
anthropologist Andrew Darling, who works for the Gila River Indian
Community in Arizona, started to study them in 2007 and realized their
gruesome story.
The Pascua Yaqui tribe of Arizona took up the fight to have the bones
returned.
"The approach we use is that we are one people ... the border is just
an artificial concept," said Robert Valencia, vice chairman of the
Pascua Yaquis.
U.S. Indian remains are protected under the North American Indian
Graves Protection Act. But because the law doesn't cover Mexican
remains held in the U.S., the Arizona tribe contacted the Mexican
Yaquis and they in turn contacted the Mexican government, which also
decided to get involved.
The museum agreed the bones and other artifacts � including
blood-spattered blankets and a baby carrying-board from which Hrdlicka
dumped an infant's corpse � should go back, saying "cultural
sensitivities and values within the museum community have changed"
since Hrdlicka's era.
Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History decided the
real owners were the Yaquis and handed over the remains and artifacts
last month for burial. The tribe held a memorial ceremony in a
wood-paneled hall at the New York museum on Central Park with incense,
drums and chants.
"This is the first time that the (natural history museum) has turned
over cultural patrimony to a foreign government that immediately
returned it to the indigenous people," the museum said in a statement.
The remains were honored by Yaqui on both sides of the border,
spurring the tribes' hopes for recognition of their status as a single
people who have long lived in both countries � in Sonora and in
southern Arizona near Tucson.
The remains were packed into ceremonial wooden boxes and taken first
to Tucson, where they were given a hero's welcome by Pascua Yaquis,
including an honor guard of Indian veterans of the U.S. Army.
"That is why the warriors' role is important, because when we make
territorial claims, it is because Yaqui blood was spilled there," said
Mexican Yaqui elder Ernesto Arguelles, 59. "This is the first
opportunity we have had to stop and mourn."
+
Pucker your lips for the Apocalypse!
Johnny Asia, Guitarist from the Future
runningwolf
> The burial Monday capped an unprecedented joint effort by U.S. and
> Mexican Indian tribes to press both governments to bring justice and
> closure to a 1902 massacre by Mexican federal troops that killed about
> 150 Yaqui men, women and children.
>
> Perhaps best known for the mystical and visionary powers ascribed to
> them by writer Carlos Castaneda, the Yaquis fought off repeated
> attempts by the Mexican government to eliminate the tribe.
>
> But they were largely defeated by 1900, and dictator Porfirio Diaz
> began moving them off their fertile farmland to less valuable
> territory or to virtual enslavement on haciendas as far away as
> eastern Yucatan state.
>
> In 1902, about 300 men, women and children escaped from forced exile
> and started walking back to their lands in Sonora. They were stopped
> in the mountains near the capital of Hermosillo by 600 heavily armed
> soldiers, who attacked them from behind. What ensued, long known as
> "the Battle of the Sierra Mazatan," is now considered one of the last
> large-scale Indian massacres in North America.
>
Nice to see you back, Johnny Asia.
Now if only some of the other oldies would return.
Red Cloud
> The burial Monday capped an unprecedented joint effort by U.S. and
> Mexican Indian tribes to press both governments to bring justice and
> closure to a 1902 massacre by Mexican federal troops that killed about
> 150 Yaqui men, women and children.
>
> Perhaps best known for the mystical and visionary powers ascribed to
> them by writer Carlos Castaneda, the Yaquis fought off repeated
> attempts by the Mexican government to eliminate the tribe.
>
> But they were largely defeated by 1900, and dictator Porfirio Diaz
> began moving them off their fertile farmland to less valuable
> territory or to virtual enslavement on haciendas as far away as
> eastern Yucatan state.
>
> In 1902, about 300 men, women and children escaped from forced exile
> and started walking back to their lands in Sonora. They were stopped
> in the mountains near the capital of Hermosillo by 600 heavily armed
> soldiers, who attacked them from behind. What ensued, long known as
> "the Battle of the Sierra Mazatan," is now considered one of the last
> large-scale Indian massacres in North America.
>
Your music is perfect and good to play in bar ...
I'm not that fan of Latin music nor Jazz. Both type of music are sort
of boring and not my personal taste. Some Latin I've heard I like it
but not my favorite. Mexicano music is Truly SUCK. It is truly the
worst kind of music I've heard in my life. Mexican music is not based
on ethnocentric type nor it's based on ancient type.
Mexicans borrowed on basic Euro-Spanish type which is why Mexican
music has no strong root. Accordion and fiddle often heard in
Mexican music totally
destroyed the euphony sound. I guess Mexicans just do not know how
accordion
can create wonderful wave of sound as well as fiddle. Mexicans simply
do not
know how to utilize accordion and fiddle. I often get headache
listening to
Mexican dumb shitty crappy sound so horrendous, horrible and
horrifying!
Listen to the Pink Floyd's Mother: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZ2tluarzZs
This gig sound so much better with accordion.