A few years ago I enrolled in a required foreign language class for my second degree which I selected Spanish. I had a friend who was bilingual and from the United States who said she would help me but she had many children so she rarely had time. One day she met some Latinos who had nothing so she had me take them the mattresses a friend gave me for her children and said I have enough they have nothing. So I met them.

I had one class in Spanish where I knew how to say a little bit but had never really used it much so when I began speaking with these people the little children would interpret. Eventually when people gave me things for them because I realized the children had no shoes or coats when it was February which gets cold down here in the Pan Handle of Florida because of the humidity and winter winds that come down this way we became friends.

As time went by I realized as I learned more Spanish and they helped me learn it so I did fairly well in my class that part of what they were speaking was not Spanish. The sound was very different more like the sound of a bird in some distant forest, very melodical compared to Spanish. I kept trying to figure out what language they were speaking and one day I walked in to see my friend standing with a baby tied to her back with a length of material. It took me a few weeks but when I had figured out how to ask in Spanish and had enough nerve I asked them if they were from the Rain Forests and if they were Indians. They said yes to me in Spanish and that they had seen the temples in the mountains where they lived.

A few weeks later I asked them if they wore clothing down in Guatamala and they said yes. Then I asked if they knew any group who did not wear clothing. They said no. Then awhile later I asked if they wore clothing when they went swimming and they said yes but we did not have shoes or elastic on our clothing. In fact all of their clothing is very elaborately decorated with beautiful embroidery typical of every group of Indians.

They told me that there were 27 different tribes/groups of Rain Forest Indians in Guatamala. That the languages are so different that they have to use Spanish to communicate between each of them because the languages are so different.

I took my friend and her common law husband to my Spanish class to speak to the students and they enjoyed asking them quesitons. We learned things like they had rifles and killed small birds like grouse or partridges to eat along with ate many plants similar to lettuce. That they grew corn in fields that they cut down with machettes.

I finally asked my friends sister one day if she knew of any group who did not wear clothing and she said yes I know of one that the women if they have a baby nursing they will strap the baby to them without a shirt so it can nurse while she is cutting corn with a machette. (I thought I sure do not want to run into anyone that tough and anger them.)

One day when I was going through their papers trying to help them I read a paper they had done with family and services. It told of how they were attacked by Guerrillas and run off their lands. That when they went to Mexico they were sent back home when they discovered they were not Mexican citizens. When they returned they were attacked on their land again, men were abducted some never to return, women were violated and babies murdered. My friends baby survived because the baby was at another village with the grandmother. So they left Guatamala and now are refugees in the United States. They walked all the way here to the United States with whomever survived along with small children and left the babies with family until they were big enough to walk there on their own so they would not die. I asked what happened to their land and they said a big land owner has it now who is Spanish not a Rain Forest Indian.

Currently in the United there are many unrecognized or protected Rain Forest Indians who have no idea that for only one year when they enter the U.S. they are eligible for protective status. Because most never learned to read or write in Spanish and few attended schools as they are from the rainforest and many do not have birth certificates or any legitimate form of identification they fall through the cracks. All that we have done for the Rain Forest Indian is obtain a very simple but not protective right to stay on their lands. If someone can run them off they can claim it. Anyone can go on their lands hunt, poach, deforest the land because all they have is the right to stay on their lands and once they abadon the lands for any reason it is open for anyone to claim. Some Indian land has diamonds on it. There the Indians are just being murdered since they have been discovered. These are a wonderful caring fascinating group of people who smile even though they have suffered terribly at the hand of those who are only interested in their own gain.

Please contact your congress persons and ask that all Rain Forest Indians who have been displaced be given Protective Status in the U.S. when they learn they are eligible because they have no place to return to. Do not buy anything made from wood from the rainforests because the Indians recieved nothing in return for the lands they have inhabited since before the Spanish arrived.

Thank-you for reading the truth.