Under prevailing international law applicable to Guam as a non-selfgoverning territory, Guam has no case against the United States to stop the alienating processes of militarization. Because Guam is not a state, it cannot bring an action against the United States in any international forum, including the International Court of Justice, which only adjudicates disputes between states. One mental health counselor in Guam describes how, for many Chamorus, self-determination feels so far away: [A]lot of people feel defeated and feel like [self-determination will] never take place . . . what I hear is a sense of resignation that people have given up on the hope that [self-determination] will ever happen, so there’s kind of like a ‘learned helplessness.’ I hear a lot of pessimism . . . that it will never come to anything because the United States won’t give up that much to the [Chamorus] as a whole. So it won’t happen . . . ‘dream on, it’ll never happen.’”205
Enter the mass disinterment of ancient Chamoru graves for the sake of expanding hotels, swimming pools, and shopping malls. It appears that the profane has finally gained too much ground in Guam; her people pushed too far. That many of the ancients remain in the possession of outside researchers sits like a time bomb in the pit of Chamoru psyches. Without a single legal instrument with which to protect our ancestors’ remains, the Chamoru people have no legitimate claim to them . . . until now. Under the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Chamoru people have the right to stop the desecration of our ancestors’ final resting places. Article 8(1) of the Declaration provides that “[i]ndigenous peoples and individuals have the right not to be subjected to forced assimilation or destruction of their culture.”206 Article 8(2) provides that “[s]tates shall provide effective mechanisms for prevention of, and redress for . . . [a]ny action which has the aim or effect of depriving them of their integrity as distinct peoples, or of their cultural values or ethnic identities. . . .”207 Article 11 provides that indigenous peoples have the right to practice and revitalize their cultural traditions and customs, which includes the right to “maintain, protect and develop the past, present and future manifestations of their cultures, such as archaeological and historical sites . . . [and] ceremonies.”208 Article 11 then confers upon states the affirmative duty to provide redress through effective mechanisms, which may include restitution “developed in conjunction with indigenous peoples, with respect to their cultural, intellectual, religious and spiritual property taken without their free, prior and informed consent or in violation of their laws, traditions
205 206 207 208
Taimanglo, supra note 80, at 141 (quoting an anonymous study participant). Declaration, supra note 23, art. 8. Id. Id. art. 11.