Letter from the Founder My Dear Relatives Everywhere

Letter from the Founder

My Dear Relatives Everywhere,

Chinese elders remind us that with crisis there is opportunity. This planet faces a multitude of crises which taken together will guarantee the end of our species if not the end of life in general. If we don’t throw off our apathy, our despair, our depression, and positively direct our anger into a revolutionary process, which will not only not eat its own children but will result in the end of all empires and the want of domination which seems to infect males in particular who happen to be holding positions of power. (However ill-gotten those positions were). My relatives, we have the potential to fundamentally reinvent our species and thus our relationship with the rest of life on this planet. What we seem to lack is the will to think and act with a unity that is as vital for our survival as oxygen, water, and food.

A while back, thanks to two wonderful webmisters, who are also on our board of directors, our website came online, and we will forever thank David and Linda. On that occasion, I called upon the people of the world to consider the following possibility. If everybody on this planet who cares about peace, environmental health, and social justice would send one dollar to this project, Kalpulli Turtle Island Multiversity would be able to carry out its mandate concerning ecological and cultural restoration, education, and STRONG advocacy for a world community which would be the very antithesis of globalization. Dr. David Corton is right- we must reject the “myth of inevitability.” Globalization is not a done deal. In fact, the evidence mounts exponentially that this contrived form of recolonization is going to crash and burn sooner than we know. For example, in addition to being the #1 outlaw nation on the planet, the U.S. is the #1 debtor nation on the planet. Much of the debt is currently held by nations as divers as China and Spain. If they decide to pull the plug, the whole financial stack of blocks will come crashing down.

And yet this issue is nothing when compared and contrasted with our ecological crisis the attendant social unraveling which is in various stages of advancement from country to country. All of you already know that thanks to missionaries, oil companies, the Bush regime, and related forces, indigenous cultures are under assault everywhere. Thus, we are destroying what Prof. Linda Smith from the Mauri Nation calls “knowledges.” It is the mission of Kalpulli Turtle Island Multiversity to run interference for the world’s indigenous peoples everywhere. And this will include an indigenous bill of rights which will among other things put an end to all forms of proselytizing, particularly by North American fundamentalists. I take delight in saying that such an international effort is no more controversial than the approach of a cold front or thunderstorms on any of your landscapes. It needs to be done and our enterprise is going to start the process. We invite support from other NGOs, indigenous and otherwise.

Finally, in my capacity as founder and director of Kalpulli Turtle Island Multiversity I should like to respectfully call upon individuals and organizations to allow me to go all over the planet, giving talks on this double-edged imperative of ecological and cultural restoration. The other members of our board of directors have the same option if they choose to take it. But we must and we will change the agenda on this planet. What brothers John Trudell and Ward Churchill call “the predator” will be replaced by a united world including a revitalized U.N. which could actually work if governed by deep ecology and a reawakened loose medicine bundle of indigenous values which can be found everywhere on this planet. Some will invariable say that I’m being simplistic. Here’s my answer- the Harvard biologist George Wald has said “If ever there was a time for being simplistic, it is now.” Thus my answer- you’re damn right I’m being simplistic, and proud of it. Yes, things are complex. But let us not use complexity as a kind of escapist drug in order to avoid doing the restorative and revolutionary work that we must do.

When we have the means to do so, we’re going to start asking local authorities around the world for permission to take responsibility for pieces of land where environmental destruction has already happened. We’re going to test our hypothesis- which says that which has been destroyed can possibly restored. This goes against environmental orthodoxy but we must at least make the effort to disprove that orthodoxy. Some of us chose to refer to the source of our being in the feminine. We should assume that she, the creator, grieves over our misbehavior. Thus she is the most abused woman in creation. The second most abused woman is obviously this planet. We cannot say to her- you have wounds and all we’re going to do is prevent future wounds; we’ll do nothing to heal the ones that are already there. Please respond to these words with your thoughts, and if possible, your contributions. Quoting Duke Ellington: I love you madly, and thank you.

Ray Tricomo

Join our E-newsletter

Photography by an Siosalaich, 2005