Grandma Aggie is the oldest living female member of the Rogue River Indians, Takelma tribe of Southern Oregon, Agnes is a a “Living Legend to her tribe, an ambassador of Mother Earth, a spiritual elder of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz and granddaughter of Chief George Harney, the first elected chief of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz. She is a world-renowned spiritual leader, elder mentor to the Native American Student Union of Southern Oregon University, and keeper of the Sacred Salmon Ceremony.

Grandma Aggie comes from an ancestory of Takelma leaders , Great-Great Grandfather “Tolt-nys,” or Jack Harney, was a chief born in the 1700s who had five sons who also became leaders: Lympe, Tyee George, Bill, Jim, and Jack, Aggie’s great-grandfather. Jack, or “Shulth-tah-sah” (Song in mid-air), lived from 1815-1895, and his wife, “Taowhywee” (Morningstar), or Margaret, lived from 1807 to 1893, and was a respected Takelma medicine person.

Grandma Aggie continues her line of leaders in many ways, one of which is through the International Council of the Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers, Aggie was one of the 13 women from indigenous cultures from around the world who gave breathe to the International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers in October, 2004.

 Below is the text of a resolution from The International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers, and following that, a letter recently written to a representative of the Vatican.

Resolution Calling Upon the Pope to Recognize Native People

WHEREAS all relations between Nation-States and tribal people in the Americas, in Africa and in Oceana is rooted in the “Doctrine of Discovery,”

WHEREAS the “Doctrine of Discovery” is based on a fallacy whereby land inhabited by millions of people can be “discovered” by European fortune seekers,

WHEREAS the Inter Caetera Bull issued by Pope Alexander VI in 1493 is the enabling document that created the “Doctrine of Discovery,”

WHEREAS the Inter Caetera Bull refers to native peoples as “barbarous nations” and commands that they “be subjugated and brought to the faith itself,”

WHEREAS the Roman Catholic Church has not revoked the Inter Caetera Bull,

WHEREAS tribal nations have suffered the brutal effects of this fallacious policy since their first contact with Europeans and continue to endure its lasting negative impacts,

WHEREAS the result of the Inter Caetera Bull is that many tribal peoples are still denied recognition of their fundamental right to exist as sovereign nations.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers calls upon the Pope, as the leader of the Catholic Church, to revoke the Inter Caetera Bull of 1493 and related edicts and to recognize that all People on the Earth have equal rights.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers calls upon all the People of the Earth to recognize that all People have equal rights.

For more, see From Grandma Aggie, an article from World Pulse Magazine.

Walter Cardinal Kasper The Vatican We are the International Council of the Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers.   Affirming our relations with traditional medicine peoples and communities throughout the world, we have been brought together by a common vision to form a global alliance of prayer, education and healing for our Mother Earth and all her children. We believe that our ancestral ways of prayer, peacemaking and healing are vitally needed today. We have come together to nurture and educate our children, and to protect the lands and cultures upon which our peoples depend. We believe that the teachings of our ancestors will light our way through an uncertain future. We honor you and Pope Benedict XVI as servants of the Creator, and respect your work and prayers for our children, for world peace, and for the healing of our Mother Earth and her people. We particularly acknowledge and honor your efforts to bring understanding between peoples of all faiths and to harmonize the values and beliefs among the religious traditions. It is because of your courageous work in these areas that we respectfully make our request known to you.  These papal edicts granted dominion to European nations over lands which had been occupied by tribal peoples for thousands of years. They also laid the basis for the European “Age of Discovery”, setting in motion a disastrous chain of events which ultimately resulted in the outright theft of entire continents from indigenous peoples worldwide. Were these acts of violence, both physical and cultural, confined to history, perhaps we would focus our collective efforts on other concerns. But unfortunately, this is not the case; they persist into the present. Our peoples must still live with the continuing legacy of this first denial of our right to be treated as equal participants in the community of nations. Our peoples are still struggling for the right to live on earth and practice our cultural and spiritual traditions as our ancestors did. By acknowledging the injustice at its source, it will also bring healing to those who inflicted these wounds and it will bring our peoples into harmonious and peaceful relations with the Roman Catholic Church.   This will begin to have an effect on the daily struggles of our peoples for sovereignty and cultural survival.  At this time the need for world unity is urgent, and we are committed to being a voice for unity and peace among all peoples.   It is in this spirit and with this common vision to safeguard the world and the future of humanity that we wish to embark upon new relations with the Roman Catholic Church.

We, the International Council of the Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers, call upon Pope Benedict XVI to retract the Dum Diversas Bull, the Romanus Pontifex Bull, and the Inter Caetera Bull, and all related papal doctrines, thereby reaffirming the Roman Catholic Church¹s recognition that all people on the Earth are equal before our Creator.