#indigenous recognition

I was the blogger Triguenaista/Inaruri who was stalked and harrassed for 10+ years, while homeless, by Keyla Rivera and her anti-indigenous group “This-is-not-taino". Keyla Rivera, of Florida and Orocovis, PR, a white Puerto Rican, was mostly responsible for this racist behavior.

Since in the last ten years, I have CONTINUED to see my name thrown around as a "validated pretendian/fraud" because of the now-exposed Keyla's behavior- We're just going to need to address it. And since I was doxxed by them, and my full name has been shared with you all, I'm going to go ahead and show you some documents that that hate-group wasn't willing to show.

Let's start with a family tree- ya?

Avelino, was born into slavery in Puerto Rico, approximately 1865, in Arecibo Puerto Rico. To the best of my knowledge (and factoring in the DNA test), he was Afro-Taíno, with strong Nigerian/Western Bantu roots. As noted on the last published Registro Central de Esclavos of 1872 (page 3, 9th person recorded), he was a natural-born Puerto Rican (Natural de Oto Rico).

 After abolition in 1873, like many others, Avelino was forced to continue working for 3 to 5 more years. Do Barbara Balseiro (the indicated slave owner) had a working relationship with Felix Marengo y Poggi, and was known to send slaves to work at his plantations.

Through research (1910 census), I found that Maria Baerga y Rivera De Quiñones was a "Mulatto" housekeeper for the Felix Marengo y Poggi in the 1910’s. It is likely that this is where Avelino met her daughter Maria Quiñones Baerga and developed a relationship.

They had son Felix (recorded as negro on census documents, until adulthood/WW2, where he is then recorded as blanco/brown toned (on his Draft card), who married Carmen Martinez.

This is Carmen’s Acta de Nacimiento which indicates race as “Mestiza”, clearly indicating not only direct Taíno heritage/ancestry, but a connection to an existing community as that was the only circumstance in which this term was legally used in PR when they started to write Taínos out of the country. It was and is currently illegal to list someone's race/ethnicity in PR as indigenous. Mestiza and Trigeño is the ONLY exceptions for those with concrete connections.

A Close-up:

On the naciemnto form above her mother is cited as “Vincenta/Vincenda”, from/born in Jayuya. There is a note about her grandparents in part 3. “Ambos de raza mestiza”, Ajiubro Martinez and Juana Martinez from Morovis.

According to family oral history, Carmen Martinez came from a community/family that took care of the Caguana Indigenous Ceremonial site of Utuado before the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña took over with formal protections in 1955.

There may be a relationship between her and one of the 60 Puerto Rican indigenous children taken to the Carlisle Indian School in 1901. Three Martinez children were enrolled there, Provindentia, Levia, and Miguel. My best-informed guess is Provindentia Martinez may be my 2nd great-grandmother as “Vincenta” could be a derivative of the name. If it was Provendentia, she would have been the right age to have a child, settling down in PR after traveling to NY for a few years after her time at the Carlisle School, as recorded in their records. Until better clarification can be obtained, this is just speculation.

Carmen would make and maintain small bohio-like structures in the backyard of the family Utuado home (many were destroyed after Hurricane George, and the rest after Hurricane Maria), to house Semisakis and Opias.

My grandfather, Luis Alfonso Quiñones Sr. was extremely proud and vocal of our rich Taíno heritage and culture. He made sure that we knew our roots and how precious our indigenous ancestry is, and taught us all he could remember.

In terms of direct lineage, my direct Taíno lineage can be traced from my 2nd great-grandfather Avelino, my great-grandmother Carmen Martinez (whom I had the honor of knowing and having a relationship with as a child living in Puerto Rico), and my own grandfather Luis Alfonso Quiñones Sr (who I grew up with).

If "cultural connection"/"growing up in a continuously connected family" was your issue with my indigenous status- clearly I did and have the documentation to show my family's continuous connection.

If it's blood quantum/documented indigenous status- I'm between 3/8th and 7/16th according to my DNA. With the documents I have here, if Tainos were a federally recognized tribe in the US, by the BIA standards, I'd be eligible for enrollment.

And this is all without discussing how history and the laws affect lineage recording or the "Whitening of PR". My family's oral history should have been believed to start with, but now the documentation can be found online. You have your "proof" on the two points yall bring up the most.

So you see why the younger me couldn't figure out why everyone just believed the lies being told? How even now that this hate group was exposed, I don't get why I am the scapegoat for people trying to make a point. Like, I wasn't and am not an educator, nor was I trying to make money in any way (and I was homeless- I needed money and yet DID NOT ASK). I was literally just existing on this hell site and became a target. But yall handed over your cash really quick to this hate group, validated them, and were so shocked when they ended up being frauds and provided yall with NOTHING.

You all believed a white puertorrican that BIPOC's could not be trusted to be indigenous (look at the list, it is EXCLUSIVELY Black and Brown peoples and anyone who stood up for them. It wasn't a "frauds list" until after we all left the platform. That was added AFTERWARDS. And yes, some of us are STILL friends because we were here for the community, not cash or fame). You continue to keep that belief every time you defend it. In the end, ya'll are just being racist and need to stop hurting an already small af community.

Taínos exists. We are here. We are NOT recognized by the US gov't yet. To imply our self-determination takes away from indigenous people is to fundamentally not understand what it is to be indigenous. And, it implies you see the indigenous status as money and not actually living people with complex needs and issues.

I'm glad the rest of the internet has unlearned what this group put into the world about Taínos, but now I'mma need yall on here to minimally stop throwing my name around. Stop it. I am exactly who I have been telling you all I am, whether you accept that or not is NOT my problem. I have the documentation, which is more than can be said about anyone yall have believed in the past.

At least I know who my people are, grew up knowing, and can live happily knowing there are people who disagree in our community because we aren't a monolithic group. Yall just need to treat us as humans.

For those reading for the history of it all- I'm glad to help. If you're trying to figure out your family's documentation- I got great info on how to find the information and who to contact. If you're looking for cultural resources- tainolibrary is LITERALLY the best source and it's free (Note: I have no affiliation with them. I genuinely believe they are a healthy and safe resource for those seeking reconnection/validation).

   I’m a member of the Maryland State Arts Council, and I was interested to receive this information this morning:

   Since I had to attach it as a screenshot, I am also including the link from the “Materials Now Available” section.

https://www.msac.org/resources/land-acknowledgements

   This looks  like a promising development to me, but I certainly acknowledge I have no expertise in the matter. I’d welcome reblogs and commentary from any indigenous folks who are affected by this. I have tried to learn more about indigenous history in the western end of the state, but the resources I have found generally have info on all sides of Western MD, north/east/south/west, and nothing for right where I am. Some resources suggest it was Shawnee land, and others show Shawnee territory much further west. Again, I invite anyone with more info to share it.

In 2015, Canada committed to conserve at least 17% of its terrestrial lands and waters and 10% of coastal and marine areas by 2020. As the authors of the study make clear, Canada is unlikely to meet that or more ambitious conservation goals without the support and involvement of the Indigenous peoples whose territories overlap much of Canada’s existing protected areas and remaining intact ecosystems.

In addition, in recent decades the Canadian Government has taken steps towards reconciliation with Indigenous Nations for its history of assimilationist and exclusionary policies towards Indigenous people. Though the precise meaning of reconciliation can be hard to pin down, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada broadly defines it as “an ongoing process of establishing and maintaining respectful relationships” between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. Many Indigenous and non-Indigenous leaders in Canada see conservation as one realm where reconciliation, often criticized for being a buzzword with little tangible impact, might be made real.

“The conservation sector, which is land-based, is a good place to articulate what [reconciliation] means,” said Steven Nitah, an Indigenous thought leader and former Chief of the Lutsel K’e Dene First Nation. “It allows all parties… to take the best of both knowledge systems that we have and use that knowledge system to manage these spaces in the spirit of reconciliation.”

[...]

Indigenous people commonly hold rich knowledge about the territories in which they live and practice methods of stewardship developed through generations and defined by place-based laws and values. The authors cite evidence that Indigenous stewardship can be just as effective, if not more effective, than state-led efforts to conserve biodiversity or to resist deforestation, for example.

In addition to a long track record of successful stewardship over their territories, many Indigenous communities are located in remote areas and so may be better-positioned than the state to monitor and manage them. Around Canada, these systems of stewardship have taken the form of formal and informal guardian programs. Beyond the benefits for conservation management, these programs also support the transmission of cultural knowledge between generations, and can even reduce the load on the tax-base. For example, one study of guardian programs in the Northwest Territories found that there was $2.50 social return on investment for every $1 invested in the program.

Perhaps you remember the story of Brother Salman S. Sheika resigning from Freemasonry. We covered the story HERE.

Good news. Brother Sheika is returning to Freemasonry and here is his story:

Brother Salman S. Sheika and Grand Master of Pennsylvania Hon. S. Eugene Heritt. Why I Am Returning To The Masonic Brotherhood: Salman S. Sheikh

Disclaimer: This is of my own personal thoughts, opinions, and…

Indigenous people do not owe you anything related to our race

We do not owe you what tribe we come from, "what percentage" indigenous we are, knowledge on our culture, our opinions and beliefs on every single topic related to us, kindness or understanding about colonization we underwent, sympathy for people who contributed to our oppression, anything.

Hell we don't even owe ourselves that! An indigenous person does not have to know what tribe they come from, or what percentage indigenous they are, or knowledge of their culture, to still be indigenous. Especially when the entire reason so many indigenous people don't know these things is because of colonialism. Because of the oppression our people where put under for decades, even centuries in many places. Colonists did this to us on purpose.

They didn't want us to know our own heritage, our own culture, because they didn't want any remnants of cultures other than their own to exist. They wanted to erase us from history, from existence. They actively tried to forcibly integrate our people into theirs so the blood and heritage of indigenous people was spread as thin as they could get it. Which is why blood quantity will never matter or make someone no longer indigenous. Because taking away someone's indigenous heritage is exactly what colonists wanted.

They wanted indigenous people gone. They wanted our heritage to be spread so thin that they could decide we didn't exist. By telling someone they aren't indigenous enough, you are doing exactly what colonists wanted to happen to indigenous people. And we have been saying this for years.

It isn't just indigenous people who are "barely indigenous" by your standards saying it either. It is all of us, who are trying to hold on to what remnants of our people we have left, no matter how "small" it is in your eyes. And it will never be a non indigenous person's place to tell us not to. To tell us that some of us don't belong in our own community, that some of us should deny our heritage and say we are one of you.

Saying that any of us should do that is helping to prolong the effects of colonialism.

Holidays: Indigenous Heritage Month (November)

That hand is not the color of yours, but if I prick it, the blood will flow, and I shall feel pain. The blood is of the same color as yours. God made me, and I am a Man.