It was decided that the Toledo Maya Cultural Council should join the World Council of Indigenous Peoples. This would provide wider perspectives for the Mayas. At the fourth General Assembly of the World Council of Indigenous Peoples, Toledo became a member and also joined the regional organization, CORPI (Coordinadora Regional del Pueblos Indios).  

The Toledo Maya Cultural Council was founded, April 15, 1978. The work is carried out on a voluntary basis. Relying almost entirely on volunteers, the Council arranged its conferences at which attendance ran into several hundreds. The Council's secretariat seeks small grants from the governments of the member countries *of the British Commonwealth* and these grants finance the activities of the Council. The most immediate problem facing the Council is to secure a sound financial base for the future, which means that a disproportionate amount of time will be spent in applying for assistance.  

In spite of the difficulties, the Toledo Maya Cultural Council is looking to the future with confidence. The growing feeling of unity and contacts with other indigenous peoples are encouraging signs.  

1) supervise and promote the Mayas' economic, social and cultural activities.  
2) support and strengthen inter-communications and solidarity among the Mayas  
3) work for the recognition of the Mayas as the country's indigenous people, and for realizing Maya right to their traditional lands.  

Existing private properties will be respected, but only the owners should begin to develop them. Failure to use the land they own will cause the *Land Trustee* to forfeit them and make them a part of the general property. Land speculation can then be abolished.  

The Village Land Committee will be responsible for the proper planning of the villages. All villages will have to be surveyed and parceled into lots so as to prepare for future development and to ensure that houses are not built too close together. One hundred acres around the village should be left to accommodate for future expansion, and for the poor, the crippled and the aged to get their firewood &endash; a basic necessity. Streams or creeks must be protected from erosion or drought with the preservation of high forest along their edges.  

Virgin forest cannot be cut for plantation [household farms] unless it is first cleared of good wood and converted into lumber for the construction of better houses for the villagers. Ruins and other important sites will be preserved and improved for tourist attractions controlled by an Indian committee.  

Community property should be tax free but any land *parceled out *for individual or group possession should be taxed and *payable to the government of Belize*. This would be a gesture of working in concurrence with the government of Belize for the development of our country. We are not making an autonomous body but rather the right to be consulted and be part and parcel to our future. It is a move to guarantee that every Maya has a right to a piece of land no matter what his financial status is. It is a move to bring about the communal growth of the Mayas through individual and co-operative effort where everybody will experience an equitable distribution of the wealth and fruits of their works.  

*Villages not within the demarcated area* can continue to live on their land and must be guaranteed the freedom of movement into the proposed homeland if they desire. Their desire and our desire will determine which is the better. It is in having alternatives, options and opportunities that we can achieve the best for our people and country.  

We are sure that the government and a considerable number of non-Mayas have in their minds a quite wrong idea of the claims which we make and the settlement which we desire. We do not want anything extravagant and we do not want anything hurtful to the real interests of the non-Mayas. We want that our actual landrights be determined and recognized. We want a settlement based on justice. We want a full opportunity of making a future for ourselves. We want all this done in such a way that in the future we shall be able to live and work with all the people as our brothers and sisters and fellow citizens.  

The conference, *held every year*, is the Toledo Maya Assembly. The conference is in some respects the highest organ for the Mayas' common activity. Anyone may attend the conference, but the right to vote is limited to the Mayas of Toledo. At the conference, official statements are approved, positions are set forth about Maya matters of current interest, decisions are made about the Maya Council's activities between conferences and council members are elected.  

-

The Mayas will undoubtedly remain a distinct ethnic group for many generations to come, living for the most part in separate communities with somewhat different ways of life stemming from their distinct racial background history and cultural heritage. There seems no reason why they should not attain equality in educational standards, occupations and social life, and gain complete control over their own affairs. Their lives have changed drastically during the past years and their lives will have to change more, but they should always retain the right to find their own identity and develop their own lives as they wish within the framework of the Belizean society.  

A few years ago, the Mayas of Toledo were declining in numbers, and it was expected that they would pass out of the picture as a distinct element of the population within a couple of generations. As we have seen, such assimilations did not occur and the Mayas are now rapidly increasing. Their languages are still spoken and in little immediate danger of being forgotten. But their ways of life have undergone profound changes and are still in an unsettled state of change. The Mayas have had to enter the white man's economy = The Free Enterprise (anything for a profit). The Mayas' entry into the money economy has changed the manner in which they distribute their wealth and has been accompanied by the decay of old social mechanisms and the growth of new ones. They have entered the larger economic system but have not yet fully adopted it; meanwhile the Maya system itself is becoming complex, making the problems doubly difficult.  

Under the frontal attack of missionaries or Belizean law or just rendered obsolete by changing times, the old forms of social and ceremonial life have all but disappeared. The old religious beliefs and rituals (with a few interesting exceptions) yielded quickly to Christianity, and now the Mayas are nominally Catholic, Nazarene, Baptist or Pentecostal. Now problems have forced them to adopt or create new forms of organization, both on the village and district levels. A sense of Maya identity is growing stronger and cultural forms which may be called "neo Maya" are appearing and in some cases thriving. The story is not over yet, but certainly for the foreseeable future at least, the Mayas are not going to be assimilated, but will remain as a distinct element of Belize's population and many cultures.  

It is with these in mind the Mayas seek to claim their right to their lands. In order to preserve peace, freedom and democracy in Belize, the Mayas of Toledo seek the right to a block of land shown on the Maya Land Use Map. The Mayas of Toledo want a "Freehold Title" to this land as a community property and not the present lease that the Mayas now have on small parts as a "reservation". The freehold title would guarantee the Maya their land and would safeguard them from being without land and from land-hungry settlers to come. The communal property will then be governed by a Maya Land Trustee. The Trustee can in turn parcel land within the homeland for economic development to individuals or groups. The title to the land is vested in the Trustee and can issue a usufruct [the right for an individual/family to use a piece of communal land] to individual or groups. Individual or group property can be mortgaged on the consent of the Trustee. Such a document must be signed by the Trustee, the borrower and the lender. Failure to repay the loan will cause the borrower to lose his usufruct and the land trustee to acquire such and become responsible for all transactions. This would be the Maya Land Trustee's *reversionary* interest.  

For the preservation, security and peaceful development of the Mayas the Toledo Maya Cultural Council will seek a source for a "revolving loan fund" from which the Mayas may borrow for suitable purposes and keeping the land intact, without fear of losing because of a failure not within their reach or control.  

With the existence of such a reserve land the Mayas can enter gradually into the field of a foreign economic system. Moreover, the land being claimed, some five hundred thousand acres, is suitable only to the way of life of the Mayas. The milpa system can best be utilized and the cultivation of permanent crops using non-mechanical methods can make this area productive and not left to waste in Belize. Within this locality the Mayas can continue to use the milpa system with a gradual move to more technical and scientific ways of farming.