While there were no memorial services arranged for March 4, U’wa leaders from Colombia sent letters of gratitude and mourning to the U.S. on the 10th anniversary of the murder of Ingrid Washinawatok El-Issa, an important Native American leader who went to Colombia to help the community and to build a U’wa school.

Among other accomplishments, Ingrid was a wife and mother, and the chair of the NGO Committee on the United Nations International Decade of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, delegate for the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, NGO representative in consultative status to the UN for the International Indian Treaty Council and a member of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations.

Ingrid also served as the executive director of the Fund of the Four Directions, chair of Native Americans in Philanthropy, co-chair of the Indigenous Women’s Network, and as a board member of the American Indian Community House, the Sister Fund, the National Network of Grantmakers, and was on the selection committee for the Letelier Moffit Human Rights Award.

It was on March 4, 1999 that the blindfolded, bound and bullet-ridden bodies of Ingrid, Terence Freitas and Lahe’ena’e Gay were found in a pasture in a part of Venezuela not far from its border with Colombia. The three activists had been kidnapped by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC, in Colombia a week earlier. Initially, FARC spokesmen sent messages of condolence to the U.S. and the U’wa communities, with the assurance that those responsible would be punished. No evidence of that punishment ever surfaced.

In the meantime, the U’wa had to retrench, again, and 10 years later they want the world to remember Ingrid and her colleagues as heroes, and that the U’wa struggle for survival and justice continues to the present.

The U’wa women’s group and the Office of the U’wa Tribal Council sent statements to the Native People of the U.S. honoring Ingrid’s memory and the work that still needs to be done in the beleaguered community.

“Exactly 10 years have passed since the horrific kidnapping, disappearance and murder of our relatives, our companions and friends, Terry Freitas, Ingrid Washinawatok (O’Peqtaw-Metamoh) and Lahe’ena’e Gay. With hands covering our faces and with sadness, we also celebrate the lives of these three who were so special for us and remember the reasons they gave us so much – including the most valuable thing they had, their lives,” states the letter from Mujer Uwa, the U’wa women’s group whose motto is: “We women are the defenders of our culture.”

In the statement, the Mujer U’wa recalled the warm welcome the community gave the visiting activists. They also remembered how the visitors stayed with an U’wa family and they presented their hosts with gifts of shell necklaces, beads and “…other sacred gifts, touching the deepest part of our hearts as U’wa people.”

Ingrid and her colleagues met with medicine people and spiritual leaders to discuss the issues of legal ownership of U’wa land, health, education and other matters relevant to defending and preserving their indigenous culture. The Mujer U’wa noted that, “Our Medicine People admired the presence of these three important people in our land as they saw their willingness to take on responsibilities.

“The huge void the three left, which to this day we carry with heavy hearts, is hard to rise above. … What we had with our three friends was a survival plan, one with socio-cultural, territorial, environmental, economic and political components. … Today, our just and noble fight is in serious crisis. With the loss of these three lives we were robbed of the opportunity. … to build a different world, to be free.”

While the Mujer U’wa statement goes on to describe how they are “condemned” to live under the dominance and financial interests of the “government, augmented by the different armed actors. …” they ended the communication on a positive note.

“We still hope to be able to share [with U.S. families] certain sacred spaces and teachings that our ancestors have passed on to us.”

The statement from the U’wa Tribal Council echoed many of the same thoughts, noting how Ingrid and the others conducted workshops on legal rights, international outreach and many other topics. The council expressed gratitude and requests for forgiveness, even though the armed conflict is not their fault. The council’s communication recounted some of the positive memories of the visit as well.

“We remember their path, their words, their joy, their passion, their dance, their wails, their songs and their humor. U’wa children and elders remember them at every sunset. We will always carry with us the joy that we felt as we saw their enthusiasm, their songs and the way they expressed themselves to all of creation. … Everything they said in English made us laugh. Their shadows still walk with us, accompanying us along the path of resistance and. … what separates us now from you, from their families, is the physical distance, but our hearts and spirits are with you.”