The Growing Voice of Indigenous Peoples: Their Use of Storytelling and Rights Discourse to Transform Multilateral Development Bank Policies [Article]

Item Type Article; text

Authors Dallam, H. Elizabeth

Citation 8 Ariz. J. Int'l & Comp. L. 117 (1991)

Publisher The University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law (Tucson, AZ)

Journal Arizona Journal of International and Comparative Law

Download date 29/09/2021 05:10:20

Item License http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/659468 THE GROWING VOICE OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES: THEIR USE OF STORYTELLING AND RIGHTS DISCOURSE TO TRANSFORM MULTILATERAL DEVELOPMENT BANK POLICIES

H. Elizabeth Dallam

I. INTRODUCTION

In February, 1988, the leader of the Kayap6 Indians of Brazil, Paulinho Paiakan, spoke directly with World Bank officials. Paiakan voiced his concerns over World Bank plans to finance a massive hydro-electric dam- the Altamira-Xingu River Complex-that would flood 7.6 million hectares of land in the Central Amazon region.1 Eighty-five percent of the land is Indian land.2 Paiakan told officials the following story of the condition of the Amazonian tribes: I would like the people here to see what is happening in the Amazon. Many lands have been lost.., many rivers from which the Indian drinks are contaminated. I also speak about the forest: the forest is our salvation. The Amazon region is being destroyed... its lands and people are being lost. The forest-the very thing on which the Indian depends-is being lost. So that's why we're here. To tell you about the threats to the forest. We live in the forest.... So I speak for the Indian and the forest. We need to preserve our forest. We need to preserve our forest. Within our forests we need to preserve our cultures. Without our culture we cannot survive. Without our culture, there is no reason to live.... So these regions where the dam is planned, the Indians are unanimously against these dams because they have brought about the loss of fruit 3 trees, and fishing and hunting areas.

After listening to Paiakan's statements, the World Bank postponed ap- proval of Brazil's requested $500 million dollar loan.4 Later the World Bank

1. The Kayap6 Bring Their Case to the United States, 13 Cultural Survival Q. 18 (1989). 2. Id. 3. Id. at 19. 4. Brian Nicholson, Attempt to Help Indians Lands American in Jail, United Press Int'l, Sept. 12, 1988. Arizona Journalof International and ComparativeLaw [Vol. 8, No. 2

canceled the loans because the Kayap6 and environmentalist, pro-indigenous and human rights groups successfully continued to put international pressure 6 on the World Bank. The Kayap6's success is amazing given the historical lack of recognition of the rights of indigenous peoples 7 under international law. 8 However, over the last decade indigenous peoples have increasingly begun to organize and demand that their voices be heard in the international arena.9 Indigenous groups have gathered international support and participated in establishing indigenous rights to land title, cultural integrity and self-determination under international law. 10 As indigenous peoples participate in defining their own

5. Interview with Terry Turner, Professor of Cultural Anthropology at the University of Chicago, who has worked with the Kayap6 Indians of the Brazilian Amazon for 28 years (Oct. 15, 1991). 6. These groups include: Environmental Defense Fund ("EDF'), Friends of the Earth, World Wildlife Federation, Rainforest Alliance, Survival International and Cultural Survival. The Environmental Defense Fund and National Wildlife Federation ("NWF') sponsored the trip of Paiakan and Kube-1, another Kayap6 leader, to Washington, where the two spoke not only to the World Bank, but also with Congressional leaders and the State and Treasury Departments. The other advocacy groups helped organize and sponsor Paiakan's second tour of North America and Europe in November and December 1988. See The Kayap6 Bring Their Case to the United States, supra note 1, at 21-22. 7. Though the definition of indigenous peoples has not been clearly established, this note will use the following definition suggested by Robert Williams, Jr. He states: [I]ndigenous' peoples are those groups colonized by Western and other settler states and who have lost their sovereignty while maintaining a distinct cultural identity. Indigenous peoples usually seek to sustain their distinct cultural identity in intimate relation with their traditionally-occupied territories. The best evidence of this distinct cultural identity results from indigenous peoples identifying themselves as such. Robert A. Williams, Jr., Encounters on the Frontiers of International Human Rights law: Redefining the Terms of Indigenous Peoples' Survival in the World, 1990 Duke LJ. 660, 663 n.4 (summarizing the definition put forth by the leading United Nations Study on Indigenous Populations, Jos6 Martfnez Cobo, Study Of The Problem Of Discrimination Against Indigenous Populations, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/1986l7/Add.4, U.N. Sales No. E.86.XIV.3 (1986)). 8. See Williams, supra note 7, at 672-76 (discussing the historical, national and international denials of legal status to indigenous peoples). 9. See discussion infra part II.B. 10. See Williams, supra note 7 (documenting the successes of indigenous peoples in establishing key indigenous rights at the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Popu- lations); Russel Lawrence Barsh, CurrentDevelopment: Indigenous Peoples: An Emerging Object of InternationalLaw, 80 Am. J. Int'l L. 369 (1986) (discussing the historical record of the United Nations on indigenous issues and the contribution of indigenous peoples to the United Nations' first formal commitment to the development of new laws on indigenous rights at the fourth annual session of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations); Raidza Torres, The Rights of Indigenous Populations: The Emerging InternationalNorm, 16 Yale J. Int'l L. 127 (1991) (arguing that indigenous coficerns have contributed to the emergence of nonbinding international norms of indigenous rights); Lee Swepston, A New Step in the InternationalLaw on Indigenous and TribalPeoples: ILO Convention No. 169 of 1989, 15 Okla. City U. L. Rev. 677 (1990) (analyzing the advantages and drawbacks of the International Labour Organization's adoption of Convention No. 169). Fall, 1991] The Growing Voice of indigenousPeoples rights, a discourse of indigenous rights is emerging.1 That is, the concept of indigenous rights, which used to be absent from discussions about indigenous peoples, is becoming firmly established in international forums. The Kayap6's success is particularly astounding given that Paiakan's statements to the World Bank sought to persuade, not on the basis of legal, but rather narrative discourse. 12 However, some legal scholars, such as feminist and critical race theorists, 13 argue that the use of narrative discourse, particularly by marginalized groups, is a powerful tool for transforming legal thinking. They propose that as peoples who have been historically excluded tell their stories of oppression, the dominant consciousness is raised and thereby transformed. The victories of the Kayap6 and other indigenous groups who oppose multilateral development policies support this thesis. Within the storytelling movement, some legal scholars 14 argue that storytelling or the use of narrative discourse is not enough. They assert that the historically excluded must also translate their stories into terms that legal ears can hear. Some critical race scholars argue against critical legal theorists who deny the efficacy of the use of traditional rights discourse by oppressed peoples in seeking to transform social and legal realities.15 Robert Williams, Jr., in particular, asserts that indigenous peoples have used both storytelling

11. Williams documents the emergence of an international discourse on indigenous rights and defines rights discourse as "talk and thought about rights." See Williams, supra note 7, at 660. 12. Narrative discourse as used in this note includes stories from one's own experiences, oral histories, parables, and songs. 13. On feminist arguments for the use of narrative or storytelling, see, e.g., Kathryn Abrams, Hearing the Call of Stories, 79 Calif. L. Rev. 971 (1991) (answering critiques of feminist arguments for the use of narratives); Marie Ashe, Zigzag Stitching and the Seamless Web: Thoughts on "Reproduction" and the Law, 13 Nova L. Rev. 355, 361 (telling her own and other women's stories of violence under reproductive laws in order to raise questions about legal discourse and to call for new laws that will let women be women). On critical race scholarship advocating the use of narrative or storytelling, see, e.g., Richard Delgado, Storytellingfor Oppositionistsand Others: A Pleafor Narrative, 87 Mich. L. Rev. 2411 (1989) (arguing that the use of narrative by "outgroups" is transformative because it raises the consciousness of the dominant majority); Mar Matsuda, PublicResponse to Racist Speech: Considering the Victim's Story, 87 Mich. L. Rev. 2320 (1989) (arguing for storytelling in combination with legal proposals by racial minorities in order to achieve criminalization ofracist hate speech); Robert Williams, supra note 7 (recognizing the power of storytelling to transform international law). 14. See Abrams, supra note 13; Matsuda, supra note 13; Toni Massaro, Empathy, Legal Storytelling, and the Rule of Law: New Words, Old Wounds?, 87 Mich. L. Rev. 2099 (1989) (calling for concrete proposals of legal reform that would allow diverse voices to be heard). 15. See Williams, supra note 7 (rejecting the claims of some critical legal theorists). Williams points to other works that answer critical legal theorist claims: KimberlI Crenshaw, Race, Reform, andRetrenchment:Transformation andLegitimation inAntidiscrimination Law, Harv. L. Rev. 1331, 1350-56; Richard Delgado, The Ethereal Scholar: Does CriticalLegal Studies Have What Minorities Want?, 22 Harv. C.R.-C.L. L. Rev. 301 (1987); Robert A. Williams, Jr., Taking Rights Aggressively: The Perilsand Promise of CriticalLegal Theories for Peoples of Color,5 Law & Ineq. J. 103 (1987). Arizona Journalof Internationaland ComparativeLaw [Vol. 8, No. 2 and rights discourse to transform international law.16 This note illustrates the efficacy of both narrative and rights discourse in the context of indigenous struggles against large scale development projects that have seriously threatened the survival of indigenous groups. Indigenous peoples have used storytelling about the disastrous effects of multilateral lending projects to raise international consciousness. At the same time, indigenous peoples have used rights discourse to urge multinational lenders such as the World Bank to comply with and improve its policies toward development as they affect indigenous peoples. Lending institutions such as the World Bank play a significant role in defining global development policies. As a result, indigenous successes in opposing those policies serve as empirical proof of feminist and critical race theorists' arguments for the efficacy of the use of narrative and rights discourse in transforming legal and political thinking. As indigenous peoples assert their rights under the policies of institutions such as the World Bank, they also contribute to and enhance the emerging discourse of international indigenous rights. This note, however, argues that there may be a cost involved in the way in which indigenous groups have become international players. Many of their victories would be near to impossible without the support of environmentalist and conservation groups.17 Most of the indigenous groups that have been successful in bringing attention to their right to cultural survival are ones that inhabit areas that are environmentally important to the globe's survival.' 8 Therefore, this note explores the problems inherent in a discourse that is emerging alongside the discussion of indigenous rights vis-a-vis multilateral development policies. This discourse ties indigenous rights to survival with environmental preservation which is inherently dangerous. Indigenous peoples seek not only their own survival but their right to self-determination which may be compromised by a environmentalist agenda. Part I explores recent legal scholarship that demonstrates the power of both narrative and rights discourse to transform social and legal ways of thinking. It draws on the work of Robert Williams, Jr. 19 to illustrate the

16. Williams, supra note 7. 17. See discussion infra text accompanying notes 151-56. 18. See discussion infra Part VI. 19. Robert Williams, Jr. is a leading critical race scholar who has published extensively on the legacy of western legal thought as it informs federal Indian law and on indigenous rights under international law. See, e.g., Robert A. Williams, Jr., The American Indian In Western Legal Thought: The Discourses Of Conquest (1990); Robert A. Williams, Jr., The Algebra of Federal Indian Law: The Hard Trail of Decolonizing and Americanizing the White Man's Indian Jurisprudence, 1986 Wis. L. Rev 219; Robert A. Williams, Jr., The Medieval and Renaissance Origins of the Status of the American Indian in Western Legal Thought, 57 S. Cal. L. Rev. 1 (1983); Robert A. Williams, Jr.,IndianRights-HumanRights:Handbookforlndians on InternationalHuman Rights ComplaintProcedures, 81 Am. J. Int'L L. 490 (1987) (book review); see also Williams, supra note 7. Fall, 19911 The Growing Voice of Indigenous Peoples

emerging discourse of international indigenous rights and the role indigenous peoples play in defining those rights. Part II argues that the World Bank, as the most powerful international lending agency, offers a significant forum for debate about global policies of development. It then analyzes recent changes in World Bank policies regarding indigenous peoples affected by Bank projects. Part Im documents the increasingly successful efforts of some indigenous peoples to voice their concerns to World Bank officials through narrative and rights discourse. This section offers empirical proof that narrative and rights discourse do encourage indigenous community-building and grass-roots organizing. The section further illustrates that indigenous use of both discourses does raise and transform the consciousness of multilateral institutions. Part IV demonstrates that environmentalist groups have played a significant role in the advancement of indigenous rights vis-a-vis the World Bank and in raising United States congressional and international awareness of indigenous issues. Part V documents an emerging discourse that identifies indigenous people as stewards of fragile ecosystems that need to be protected. It argues that this discourse is empirically unfounded and inherently dangerous for the advancement of indigenous rights, particularly the right to self-determination. It then argues that indigenous peoples should bring their emerging international rights into the discussion in order to ensure that the discourse furthers not only indigenous survival but indigenous rights as well. H. THE POWER OF NARRATIVE AND RIGHTS DISCOURSE

TO EFFECT SOCIAL AND LEGAL CHANGE

A. Storytelling as a Recurring Theme in Recent Legal Scholarship The very telling of stories is an expression of power.20 Richard Delgado, a leading critical race theorist, argues that discourse and in particular narrative discourse shapes the way we think. He states, "My premise is that much of social reality is constructed. We decide what is, and, almost simultane- ously, what ought to be. Narrative habits, patterns of seeing, shape what we see and that to which we aspire." 21 Thus, ideologies rest on a set of stories or interpretations of reality.22 Delgado asserts that the way to transform 23 reality is to counter the dominant story or discourse. According to Delgado, those in power sleep well at night because they have their own story or mindset that makes their oppression of others seem

20. Gerald Torres & Kathryn Milun, Translating Yonnondio by Precedentand Evidence: The Mashpee Indian Case, 4 Duke L. 625,627 (1990). 21. Richard Delgado, Storytellingfor Oppositionistsand Others:A Pleafor Narrative,87 Mich. L. Rev. 2411,2416 (1987). 22. Id. at 2413. 23. Id. Arizona Journalof Internationaland Comparative Law [Vol. 8, No. 2 natural.24 He asserts that "[s]tories, parables, chronicles, and narratives are powerful means for destroying mindset-the bundle of presuppositions, received wisdoms, and shared understandings against a background of which legal and political discourse takes place." 5 He argues that the cure to oppressive systems is "counterstorytelling"--stories that "challenge the received wisdom."26 Counterstories by "outgroups" 27 work because they raise consciousness. Their graphic quality can stir imagination in ways in which more conventional discourse cannot.28 He states that counterstories "can open new windows into reality, showing us that there are possibilities for life other than the ones we live."29 However, to be effective, counterstories "must be or must appear to be noncoercive. They invite the reader to suspend judgment, listen for their point or message, and then decide what measure of truth they contain. They are insinuative, not frontal; they offer a respite from 30 linear, coercive discourse that characterizes much legal writing." the 31 Delgado asserts that storytelling is particularly attractive to outgroups. Outgroups include those groups "whose marginality defines the boundaries of the mainstream, whose voice and perspective-whose consciousness- has been suppressed, devalued, and abnormalized. 3 2 Stories are, therefore, attractive to these groups because stories "create their own bonds, represent cohesion, shared understandings, and meanings." 33 As an outgroup puts its experiences of oppression into stories, the stories "circulate within the group as a kind of counter-reality." 34 Thus, stories serve as an organizing and "community-building" 35 force for marginalized groups such as indigenous peoples. Though Delgado recognizes the power of counterstories to bring groups together and to raise consciousness, he attacks the process of litigation as unreceptive to counterstories. According to Delgado, stories must be put into the linguistic code of statutory and case law.36 Legal discourse sterilizes

24. Id. at 2413, 2414. 25. Id. at 2413. 26. Id. at 2414. 27. "Outgroups," according to Delgado, include "any group whose consciousness is other than that of the dominant one." Id. at 2412 n.8. See also infra notes 31-32 and accompanying text. 28. Delgado, supra note 21, at 2414-15. 29. Id. at 2414. 30. Id. at 2415. 31. Id. at2412. 32. Id. 33. Id. 34. Id. 35. Id. at 2414. 36. Delgado illustrates his theory by telling different stories about the same event. The event is the rejection of a minority candidate by a hiring committee at an anonymous law school. He relates the white male chairperson's viewpoint that the candidate just did not measure up to ..neutral" hiring standards. According to the black candidate, the faculty had already made their minds up before he interviewed. The candidate filed a lawsuit which he lost on summary Fall, 19911 The Growing Voice of Indigenous Peoples stories and divorces them from their context which takes away their "power to outrage." 37 He argues that most civil rights victories in this country are empty ones. He asserts that the process "demeans, humbles, and victimizes the victim, draining away outrage and converting him or her into a suppli- cant."38 According to Delgado, when blacks do win "rights," they "are quietly stolen away by narrow interpretation, foot dragging, delay, and 39 outright obstruction." Delgado's solution is to tell noncoercive stories that document the oppres- sions suffered by minorities and invite the reader to stand in the narrator's shoes. He does not, however, explain how such stories can be used effectively within legal forums. He asserts that the legal forum is unreceptive to counterstories. Other critical race and feminist theorists agree that storytelling is a powerful tool for raising consciousness but go beyond Delgado's thesis and argue for the concomitant use of legal discourse by outgroups in order to effect legal change.4 Mari Matsuda recognizes the role of both narrative and rights discourse in transforming legal thought. She argues that American courts have failed to criminalize racist speech because our legal system is blind to the serious violent nature of racist speech.41 She asserts that "[l]egal insiders cannot imagine a life disabled in a significant way by hate propaganda. ' 4 2 Despite first amendment protections, the courts have criminalized other forms of speech such as defamation because lawmakers and judges can imagine "what it feels like to hear lies spread about one's professional competency. '4 3 Thus Matsuda appears to share Delgado's thesis that courts are deaf to the stories of minority oppression. Matsuda, like Delgado, looks to storytelling by outsiders for the solution. She argues that the cure is the growing development of "outsider jurisprudence" among feminists and people of color. The new jurisprudence is judgment because the judge found no explicit racism. The law school could point to the candidate's lack of outstanding qualifications as its reason for not hiring him. According to Delgado, the candidate lost the lawsuit because "putting the facts in the linguistic code required by the court sterilized them." The complaint had to use the language and standards of statutory and case law that are concerned only with the interview itself and whether "neutral" standards were used. The interview was divorced from its context and "lost its power to outrage" Id. at 2418-29. 37. Id. at 2428. 38. Id. at 2429. 39. Id. 40. See Torres and Milun, supranote 20 (documenting the failure of the Mashpee to regain title to their land because the court was blind to the social realities of Mashpee life and the use of evidentiary rules to prohibit the Mashpee from establishing their continued use of the land through oral histories); Milner S. Ball, Storiesof Origin, 87 Mich. L. Rev. 2280 (1987) (arguing that the American story of our constitutional origins leaves out the voices of Native Americans and thereby excludes them from legal claims under the Constitution). 41. Matsuda, supra note 13. 42. Id. at 2375. 43. Id. Arizona Journal ofInternational and ComparativeLaw [Vol. 8, No. 2 characterized by a "methodology grounded in the particulars of [outsiders'] ...social reality and experience." 4 The method is:

consciously both historical and revisionist, attempting to know history from the bottom. From the fear and namelessness of the slave, from the broken treaties of the indigenous Americans, the desire to know history from the bottom has forced these scholars to sources often ignored: journals, poems, oral histories, and stories from their own experiences of life in a hierarchically arranged world.45

Matsuda, however, goes beyond Delgado's thesis. She argues that minority groups should not only tell stories to obtain "the knowledge we need to create just legal structure" 46 but search for "rachets"47-- "legal tools that have progressive effect, defying the habit of neutral principles to entrench existing power."48 While Delgado characterizes rights victories for blacks as perpetu- ating the existing order, Matsuda argues to the contrary. She asserts that struggles to fight oppression absent legal tools furthers oppression. She states that rachet-like measures "are best implemented through formal rules, formal procedures and formal concepts of rights, for informality and oppression are frequent fellow-travelers."49 Thus Matsuda proposes that people of color not only tell their stories of the cruel effects of racist hate speech but also challenge the failure of the legal system to criminalize racist hate speech. Indeed, some feminist scholars further assert that narratives should be elaborated by legal or normative concepts so that legal ears are more receptive to the stories.50 Moreover, some critical race theorists make the

44. Id. at 2324. 45. Id. (citations omitted). 46. Id. at 2325 n.32. 47. Matsuda borrows the term "rachet" from Anne Scales. See Section on Jurisprudence, Am.Assn. of L. Sch. Newsletter, Dec. 1987, at 5. 48. Matsuda, supra note 13, at 2325. 49. Id. 50. See, Abrams, supra note 13 (arguing that the feminist call to storytelling is effective only if combined with elaboration); Massaro, supra note 14 (calling for concrete proposals of legal reform that would allow the voices of the diverse to be heard). Kathryn Abrams speaks of the usefulness of normative elaboration of stories of sexist oppression in the following terms: Normative elaboration not only facilitates connection of a narrative with an author's substantive legal arguments (a move that may make the narrative accessible to a wider variety of readers), it facilitates conversation with scholars from diverse methodological backgrounds. Elaboration encourages these scholars to participate because it permits them to engage the narrative at more than one level of abstraction, in more than one form ofdiscourse. The author's effort to highlight elements of her narrative that connect it to more abstract or general formulations of the substantive issues raised, to extant legal problems, or to strategies for legal reform also signals her willingness to engage on a basis that is not exclusively experiential. Abrams, supra note 13, at 1047. Fall, 19911 The Growing Voice of Indigenous Peoples

point that marginalized peoples can and should use the tools of both narrative and legal discourse to effect social and legal change.51 The work of Robert Williams, Jr. is most relevant to a discussion on the use of both discourses 52 by indigenous peoples.

B. Indigenous Use of Storytelling and Rights Discoursein International Lawmaking Forums Historically, colonizing nations and international law have categorically denied indigenous peoples meaningful legal status. Robert Williams, Jr., a leading critical legal theorist, demonstrates that for five hundred years dominant Western legal discourse has refused indigenous peoples the right to self-determination. 53 International law has not recognized indigenous groups as having rights because they did not meet the definition of "civilized" nations.5 4 Thus, the discourse claimed that lands occupied by indigenous peoples could be "regarded as terra nullius-that is, as lands without a recognized owner and available for occupation by a civilized member of the 55 Western family of nations." Williams demonstrates how indigenous peoples have begun to change the discourse of international human rights law. He draws on the theories of legal scholars such as Delgado to point to the transformative nature of 56 storytelling by indigenous groups in international lawmaking forums. Williams argues that indigenous peoples also have the ability to engage in 57 legal discourse themselves and define their own rights in legal terms. Williams rejects the claim of some critical legal theorists that rights discourse is a source of oppression for marginalized peoples. 58 He documents the tremendous impact that indigenous peoples have already had in defining their own rights at the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations 59 ("Working Group"). Williams states that the consciousness-raising efforts of indigenous groups in international human rights forums are directly responsible for

51. See, e.g., Crenshaw,supra note 15 (demonstrating thatrights discourse was an effective tool for blacks in the civil rights movement); Williams, supra note 7. 52. Williams, supra note 7. 53. Id. at 672. 54. Id. at 673-75. 55. Id. at 675. 56. Id. at 682. 57. See id. at 701. 58. Id. 59. The Working Group, created in 1982 by the United Nations Economic and Social Council ("ECOSOC"), is the most important forum for voicing indigenous concerns because its specific mandate is to establish indigenous rights standards. Moreover, it is the only U.N. body that explicitly provides for indigenous representatives to attend its sessions. Presently, almost four hundred representatives of indigenous groups and indigenous observers attend the sessions of the Working Group. Id. at 676-77. Arizona Journalof Internationaland ComparativeLaw [Vol. 8, No. 2

"[t]he emergence of indigenous rights in contemporary international legal discourse."6° The Working Group has allowed these participants to tell their own stories of abuses of their human rights "in terms that are meaningful to their own experiences."6 1 The Working Group has not imposed evidentiary or standing requirements "to 'screen' information narrowly deemed 'relevant' to the Working Group's fact-finding and standard-setting tasks." 62 The legal barriers that often close the ears of lawmakers and courts to stories of oppressed peoples, therefore, are not present in this forum. The Working Group has used the information presented by indigenous organizations as part of the primary material for its draft text of a Universal Declaration on 63 Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Indigenous organizations have also submitted their own drafts of a Uni- versal Declaration on Indigenous Rights to the Working Group.64 Though the declaration has not yet been formally adopted, the process of working on several drafts of the declaration has firmly established for the first time key indigenous rights, such as rights to land and to self-determination, and it has granted indigenous peoples international status.65 Indigenous representatives to the Working Group have not had all of their proposals accepted, but the First Revised Draft addresses "many of the more serious concerns raised since 1982 by indigenous peoples during the course of their interven- tions to the Working Group.'6 6 As Williams asserts: [R]ights discourse has functioned effectively in generating a shared, empowering vocabulary and syntax for indigenous peoples. The discourse of international human rights has enabled indigenous peoples to understand and express their oppression in terms that are meaningful to them and their oppressors. Thinking in terms of rights has organized indigenous peoples on a global scale to combat their shared experiences of being excluded and oppressed by the dominant world order. The use of rights rhetoric in international human rights standard-setting bodies such as the Working Group illustrates the ways in which indigenous people can transform the dominant perception of their rights in the international context. 67

60. Id. at 665. 61. Id. at 679. 62. Id. 63. Once the Draft Declaration is finalized, it could be used as the basis for a covenant which would be binding on all signatories. Torres, supra note 10, at 171. As Williams has stated, "Eventual adoption by the General Assembly of the Working Group's Draft Declaration could provide a unique stimulus to the contemporary global movement for recognition, protection, and promotion of indigenous peoples' human rights." Williams, supra note 7, at 679. 64. Id. at 689. 65. Id. 66. Id. at 700. 67. Id. at 701. Fall,19911 The Growing Voice of IndigenousPeoples

Thus, Williams asserts that rights discourse as well as storytelling can bring oppressed groups together. Moreover, indigenous peoples have used both forms of discourse to contribute directly to a new international discourse of indigenous rights. Williams's theoretical approach to indigenous peoples' ability to transform international law through both storytelling and engaging in rights discourse with lawmaking bodies is further demonstrated by indigenous efforts at challenging the World Bank's approach to funding projects in developing countries. The World Bank is not an international lawmaking body per se; however, its policies both reflect and influence the dominant international discourse on indigenous rights.

Ill. THE WORLD BANK'S PROMINENT ROLE IN MULTILATERAL DEVELOPMENT POLICY MAKING

A. The World Bank as a Forum for Indigenous Peoples to Contribute Further to the Emerging InternationalDiscourse of Indigenous Rights The World Bank is in a unique position to set precedents for recognition of indigenous rights in the context of international lending policies of the dominant countries. It is a multilateral bank whose purpose is to loan money 68 to poorer nations in order to promote social and economic development. Multilateral banks, and in particular the World Bank, "have more influence on development financing and policy in the developing world" than any other international or bilateral institution.69 In 1988, the World Bank alone 70 disbursed $11,636 million in loans to 37 borrowing countries. The governing structure of the World Bank resembles that of a multinational corporation. 7' The Bank has a board of governors with each governor representing a member country. The governor's voting power correlates with the financial contributions of his/her country.72 The United States has historically been the largest contributing nation.7 3 Thus, the United States is in a powerful position to affect international development goals and policies. The World Bank lends money to developing nations for specific development projects or for "structural adjustment." 74 Structural adjustment loans

68. Bruce M. Rich, The MultilateralDevelopment Banks, Environmental Policy, and the United States, 12 Ecology L.Q. 681, 684 (1985). 69. Id. at 685. 70. The World Bank, The World Bank Annual Report 1988, at 8 (1988). 71. Rich, supra note 68, at 684. 72. The World Bank, supra note 70, at 11. 73. In 1988, the United States Executive Director had 18.93 percent of the voting power, with Japan's Executive Director having the second highest voting powerof 6.72 percent, d. at 199. 74. Rich, supra note 68, at 687. Arizona Journalof Internationaland Comparative Law [Vol. 8, No. 2 are long-term commitments to funding structural reform of national economies. 75 Through such sector loans, the Bank is in a position to significantly direct the development of whole economies. Moreover, loan conditions may demand of the borrowing country specific requirements that can go beyond the project itself. The Bank's research "to identify lending priorities often shape the planning discussions among the development banks, aid agencies, commercial banks, and the host countries, and thus profoundly affect the 76 development efforts of those countries." The World Bank therefore is in a position not only to significantly affect development programs of developing nations but to influence the policies of other international lending institutions regarding conditions of loans to developing nations.77 Any gains made in getting the World Bank to honor and improve its existing policies on indigenous peoples have enormous positive ramifications for the state of international lending policies to developing countries.

B. World Bank Policy Guidelines on ProtectingTribal Peoples and the Environment As early as 1982, the World Bank ("Bank") formally committed itself to honoring at least certain indigenous rights and preferences when Bank projects affected indigenous peoples.78 The policies were quite progressive on their face. For instance, 1982 policy guidelines required the Bank to 79 preserve the identity and individual and collective rights of "tribal" groups. The guidelines explicitly recognized tribal land rights and urged the Bank to require borrowing nations to uphold these rights.80 Regarding tribal rights to land, the policy afftm-ned the authority of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights ("UN Declaration") 8 1 by establishing the UN Declaration

75. Id. at 687 n.43. 76. Id. at 686-87. 77. As BruceRich states, "Policy changes at the World Bank are often harbingers ofchange at the regional banks and at other national and international development agencies." Rich, supra note 68, at 682 (citing J.Sanford, Multilateral Development Banks: Background Data and U.S. Policy 7, 8 (Congressional Research Service Report No. 80-112, 1980)). 78. World Bank, Tribal Peoples And Economic Development: Human Ecological Con- siderations 1 (1982). 79. The term "tribal" refers in the policy to groups that "typically have stable, low-energy, sustained-yield economic systems." The policy lists several characteristics that tribal people usually exhibit. The list included, inter alia,the following: geographical isolation; unaccultur- ated, nonliterate, nonmonetized, ethnic distinctiveness from the national society, linguistic difference, possessed of a common territory, and few if any political rights. The policy rejects other common terms for people with these characteristics such as "ethnic minority," "native," "indigenous," "aboriginal," and "autochihonous" because it sees the term "tribal" as a narrower term. Id., § 1.3 at 6. 80. Id. at 19. 81. G.A. Res. 217A, U.N. GAOR, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, U.N. Doe. a/810 (1948). Fall, 19911 The Growing Voice of IndigenousPeoples as a guideline on "tribal issues and land title." 2 This affirmation is signifi- debate surrounding indigenous rights is whether indigenous cant because one 8 3 groups have any rights under the UN Declaration. The Bank's policy further urged that indigenous groups be included in project decisionmaking. The policy provided that "[elventually, or as soon as they desire, tribal people should be as fully participatory in development as other parts of society."' 8 The Bank also stated that its policy is "to assist with development projects that do not involve unnecessary or avoidable encroachment onto territories used or occupied by tribal groups." 85 The Bank shall fund projects within these areas:

only if it is satisfied that best efforts have been made to obtain the voluntary, full, and conscionable agreement (i.e., under prevailing circumstances and customary laws) of the tribal people or that of their advocates, and that the project design and implementation strategy8 6are appropriate to meet the special needs and wishes of such peoples.

Unfortunately, the 1982 guidelines did not absolutely require indigenous consent and participation. They merely urged that such consent and participation be fostered. The 1982 policies required protection of indigenous rights, called for indigenous involvement in development projects and sought to avoid destruction of indigenous cultures and lands. The Bank, however, has not always followed its own guidelines, resulting in disastrous losses for 87 indigenous peoples. In February, 1991, the World Bank revised its policies toward indigenous peoples.88 The new guidelines are even more progressive than the 1982 policies on several issues. First, the policy uses the term "indigenous" rather than "tribal" to refer to "groups with a social and cultural identity distinct from the national majority."8 9 This linguistic change incorporates the term that indigenous rights activists use to refer to indigenous people. The term "indigenous" connotes the historical presence on a continent of its earliest inhabitants; whereas, the term "tribal" brings to mind groups that are "primi-

82. Id. 83. See Torres, supra note 10 at 150 (discussing how instruments such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights did not recognize indigenous peoples as distinct from other minorities); Andrle Lawrey, Contemporary Efforts to GuaranteeIndigenous Rights Under InternationalLaw, 23 Vand. J. Transnat'l L. 703,707-08 (1990) (stating that indigenous peoples have no group rights under current international law). 84. World Bank, supra note 78. 85. Id. 86. Id. at 1. 87. See discussion infra part III.C. 88. See World Bank, Operational Directive 4.40: Indigenous Peoples 1, Feb. 7, 1991 (on file with author). 89. Id. at 1. Arizona Journalof International and ComparativeLaw [Vol. 8, No. 2 five" with no special ties to a location. This linguistic change reflects the Bank's growing awareness of the international movement for recognition of indigenous rights. Second, the new directive appears to mandate the "informed participation" of indigenous peoples themselves. The directive recognizes past problems in dealing with local governmental organizations charged with overseeing indigenous issues 9° and states that where mechanisms for indigenous participation are already in place, the Bank should draw on those mechanisms. Moreover, the directive clearly states that development "[p]lans that draw upon indigenous knowledge are often more successful than those introducing entirely new principles and institutions."91 Thus the Bank policy goes further than its predecessor by urging not only that indigenous peoples have input into development plans but that development plans take account of existing indigenous social structures. Third, the 1991 policy states more strongly than its predecessor that the Bank will not finance any project when "adverse impacts are unavoidable and mitigation plans acceptable to local people cannot be developed. "' 2 This policy statement is significant because if enforced, the Bank is now prohibited from financing the types of disastrous projects it has financed in the past.93 The new directive, however, does not make significant advances in the area of recognition of international indigenous rights. The directive does state that "Bank policy is to assist with the legal recognition of customary or traditional land tenure systems where this is necessary." 94 The new policy goes further than the previous one by calling for Bank assistance in obtaining legal recognition of customary land title; however, the new policy does not affirm, as the 1982 policy did, the authority of United Nations' declarations as guidelines on indigenous rights to land title. The new directive makes significant advances in the area of indigenous participation in development plans, yet does not recognize the emerging discourse on international indigenous rights to self-determination or to cultural preservation. The real test for indigenous peoples will be whether the Bank improves its record for honoring its own policies.

C. World Bank's Failureto Adhere to its Own Guidelines The Bank's record of following its policies has been abysmal despite the fact that its policies appear to be sensitive to the rights and continuing survival

90. Id. para. 7, at 2. 91. Id. para. 11(d), at 5. 92. Id. para. 7, at 2. 93. See discussion infra part III.C. 94. World Bank, supra note 88, para. 10(c), at 3. Fall,19911 The Growing Voice of IndigenousPeoples of indigenous groups.95 World Bank funding for several hydroelectric dams has been the subject of environmentalist and pro-indigenous concerns because the large dams have disastrous effects on the area's environment and require resettlement of area peoples. The flooding frequently destroys valuable lands such as tropical forests and also breeds bacteria that cause the influx of disease.96 A 1988 report on hydroelectric dams noted that "[h]ydro- electric dams financed by the World Bank and other large international built at an alarming rate with little regard for their impact lenders, are being 97 on the indigenous peoples of the region." The Tucurui Dam on the Tocantins River in Brazil is one example of a Bank-funded dam that caused serious health problems. Chemical defoliants were used to clear the area's vegetation during the construction of the $4 billion dam.98 The defoliant, similar to Agent Orange, caused death among contaminated water supplies. 99 International envi- native populations and 1° ° ronmental protests to the World Bank eventually stopped the spraying. Recently, the Bank appears to be paying more attention to indigenous groups. It has adopted new policies toward indigenous peoples, but recent funding initiatives have serious implementation problems.101 Nevertheless,

95. David Maybury-Lewis, MultilateralDevelopment Banks and Indigenous Peoples, 10 Cultural Survival Q. 1 (1986). Lewis argues that "the World Bank in particular and the MDBs [multilateral development banks] in general ought to learn from past mistakes and seek in the future to promote development without ravaging the environment or trampling on the rights of native peoples." Id. at 2. In the early 1980's, for example, the World Bank financed a dam construction in the Narmad river basin in India despite warnings by Bank staff members and consultants that the project would uproot thousands of indigenous peoples and that India had a poor record in dealing effectively with such relocations. Id. 96. Pete S. Michaels & Steven F. Napolitano, The Hidden Costs of Hydroelectric Dams, 12 Cultural Survival Q. 2 (1988). The hydroelectric project at Balbina in the Brazilian Amazon is an example of the disastrous effects of a Bank-financed dam. The Babina project flooded approximately 311 km of indigenous lands including the lands of the Waimiri-Atroari peoples. In 1975 some 1,000 Waimiri-Atroari lived on the lands, but by 1988 fewer than 400 remained. The project forced their resettlement but no formal resettlement plans had been implemented by 1987. Many of the Waimiri-Atroari died as a result of diseases introduced by the flooding of their lands. See Janet M. Chemela, Potential Impacts of a Proposed Amazon Hydropower Project, 12 Cultural Survival Q. 20, 21 (1988). 97. Michaels & Napolitano, supra note 96. The World Bank as "the largest single international funding source for dam projects, has its financial hand behind some 25 percent of those biggest dams." Steve Turner & Todd Nachowitz, The Damming of Native Lands; Plans to Build Reservoirs on Lands of CanadianIndians, The Nation, Oct. 21, 1991, at 473. 98. Miechaels & Napolitano, supra note 96, at 4. 99. Id. 100. Id. 101. For instance, as recently as April, 1991, the World Bank planned to back a logging project in Indonesia "which would destroy an area of primal tropical forest the size of Cyprus and push 15,000 tribespeople off their land." The Bank planned to fund the project despite the fact that "the Indonesian government does not recognize tribal peoples' traditional land rights and operates a policy of forcibly assimilating them into modern culture." David Nicholson-Lord, New Threat to TropicalForest in Indonesia,The Independent, April 21, 1991, at Foreign News Page, 15. Arizona Journalof Internationaland ComparativeLaw [Vol. 8, No. 2 indigenous groups all over the world continue to assert their rights under international lending policies in order to hold institutions such as the World Bank to their own guidelines.

IV. THE USE OF STORYTELLING AND RIGHTS DISCOURSE BY INDIGENOUS PEOPLES TO URGE THE WORLD BANK TO HALT LOANS AND COMPLY WITH ITS OWN POLICIES

Legal scholars have argued that the use of both narrative and rights discourse by historically marginalized groups function as a "shared vocabulary" that helps empower groups to band together and organize against oppressive laws and policies. 10 2 In the last decade, indigenous groups have begun to tell their stories of cultural and physical annihilation under multilateral development projects. The groups have defied their traditional stereo- type of the ignorant savage by organizing to fight the destructive policies of international lending institutions and by making their experiences internationally visible. They have opposed development projects and policies through protests, letters, and trips to institutions such as the World Bank. Both storytelling and rights discourse figure prominently in their protests. These protests have played a key role in raising international and Bank consciousness and in redefining indigenous rights under World Bank policies. Thus, not only has indigenous use of narrative and rights discourse functioned to organize large groups of indigenous peoples, it has also played a part in bringing about significant transformations of multilateral lending policies and practices.

A. Indigenous Use of FirstWorld Techniques and Rights Discourse Indigenous peoples are becoming organized and powerful players in the international arena. The number of indigenous grass-roots organizations among the world's nearly 200 million indigenous peoples is growing. By 1984, indigenous peoples had formed thousands of organizations "representing single villages, regions or even indigenous peoples of the entire world"'10 3 to assert their rights. Many of these groups formed "after experi- encing the destructive effects of national and multinational development efforts.'U' °4 They are not merely primitive peoples ignorant of dominant ways of speaking and thinking. Rather, indigenous peoples are opposing the dominant order on its own terms. The Kayap6's successes in grass-roots organizing and in halting the construction of the Altanira-Xingu dam are an excellent illustration of this point.

102. See Delgado, supra note 21, at 2412; Williams, supra note 7, at 701. 103. Jason W. Clay, Organizingto Survive, 8 Cultural Survival Q. 2 (Dec. 1984). 104. Richard Reed, Federationsof Indian Communities: Strategiesfor GrassrootsDevel- opment, 11 Cultural Survival Q. 16 (1987). Fall,19911 The Growing Voice of Indigenous Peoples

The Kayap6 achieved an unprecedented feat of grass-roots indigenous organizing when they persuaded twenty-eight other indigenous groups to join them in constructing a "great intertribal village of 3,000 people in the path of the proposed Altamira hydroelectric dam complex." 10 5 Upon the comple- tion of the village, the Kayap6 staged a four-day gathering in order to "have a dialogue '10 6 with the government about the proposed dam. The Kayap6 invited more than 100 foreign correspondents to cover the gathering of over 800 Indians 0 7 from thirty-seven tribes. 10 8 According to Michael Kepp who has followed the efforts of the Kayap6 since 1989, "[tlhe Kayap6 knew they needed the press to publicize their plight to organizations like the World Bank.. . "9 Thus indigenous groups such as the Kayap6 realize the power of the press. In addition to successfully using the media as a political weapon, the Kayap6 have turned the video camera into an effective political tool. The Kayap6 discovered the power of video cameras in 1985 when a gold prospector taped a Kayap6 protest of the construction of a gold mine landing strip on Kayap6 land.110 Paiakan "realized that if he videotaped his tribe's constant negotiations with the government over mining and land rights, the resulting tapes would serve as evidence if the government ever broke its word, as has often been the case." ' The Kayap6 taped many such negotiations including a promise in January 1990 by Brazil's President Jos6 Samey that he would demarcate Kayap6 reservations.112 Other indigenous groups 113 have engaged in similar modem opposition techniques. Indigenous groups have also organized massive protests of projects funded by the World Bank and other international lending institutions. For instance, on September 27, 1989 "more than 100,000 people marched in

105. Terence Turner, Kayap6 Plan Meeting to DiscussDams, 13 Cultural Survival Q. 20 (1989). 106. Michael Kepp, Brazil Indians' Pow-wow Centered on Massive Dams, The Daily Telegraph, Feb. 21, 1989, at 14. 107. Id. 108. Michael Kepp, Amazon Indian Tribe Uses Video Camerasto FightPolitical Battles, The San Diego Union, April 8, 1989, at A22. 109. Id. 110. Id. I11. Id. 112. Michael Kepp, Trouble With the Techno Tribe: Are the Amazonian Kayap6sTurning Pro-development?,The S.F. Chron., May 12, 1991, Sunday Punch at 4. 113. The Crees and Inuit of Canada are one example of the increased use of western techniques to oppose large-scale development plans. They have formed an alliance to oppose the damming of the Great Whale/Little Whale river system. In order to make themselves visible, the indigenous activists have used videos, concerts, lobbying, appeals to corporate social responsibility and dramatic, sometimes aggressive displays of traditional culture." They have won a postponement of the contracts to build the government-backed dam by going to court, appealing to the United Nations and by making alliances with environmental organizations. Turner & Nachowitz, supra note 97. Arizona Journalof Internationaland ComparativeLaw [Vol. 8, No. 2

India's Narmada Valley in opposition to a bank-financed dam at Sardar Sarovar."1 14 The project proposes to create the world's largest man-made lake which would result in the displacement of at least 100,000 mostly indigenous people and the flooding of 130,000 hectares of forests.' 15 Ac- cording to the Inter Press Service, "In the face of a rising tide of controversy and protest among the tribal people, as well as Indian and northern environmental groups, the bank earlier this year agreed to appoint an independent commission to look into" the Narmada project in India." 6 This World Bank review of one of its major projects is unprecedented. 117 Other indigenous 8 groups have also engaged in mass protests against World Bank projects.," These protests help raise World Bank awareness and induce the Bank to remedy its disasters. Not only are indigenous groups using First World techniques to increase visibility and raise consciousness about their struggles against governments and multilateral lending institutions, they are also drawing together to assert their rights under international-lending policies. Thus, as Robert Williams has argued, rights discourse functions to empower indigenous peoples by giving them a "shared, empowering vocabulary." ' 19 Moreover, the discourse forces institutions such as the World Bank to pay attention to the assertions of indigenous peoples. Evaristo Nugkuag of Peru, president of Coordinating Body for the Indige- nous Peoples' Organizations of the Amazon Basin ("COICA"), 120 reflects the emerging voice of indigenous peoples arguing for policy changes and for recognition of indigenous rights at international institutions such as the World Bank. Nugkuag has gained a reputation in the World Bank "as the spokesman for a 'forgotten people'-the tribal Indians."'12' He has demanded that environmental groups and international funding agencies in-

114. Information as Power: World Bank Under Pressureto Come Clean About Projects, Legal Times, Oct. 2, 1989, at 2. 115. India: NGOs Urge ThoroughReview of WorldBankProject,Inter Press Service, June 24, 1991. 116. Id. 117. Id. 118. In mid 1991, 12,000 villagers of Thailand sent a petition opposing the Pak Mun Dam project to the World Bank. Environmentalists were opposed to the loan because the project would have adverse environmental consequences and did not comply with the Bank's rules on involuntary resettlement of people living in the dam area. Environmental groups had lobbied intensely against the dam, which contributed to the Bank's decision to postpone it. Thai Dam Loan Assailed, The World Bank Watch, June 10, 1991, at 3. The Bank postponed the dam indefinitely in September, 1991 as a result of environmentalist opposition. Thai Loan Post- poned,The World Bank Watch, Sept. 16, 1991, at 1. 119. Williams, supra note 7, at 701. 120. COICA represents over 1,200 indigenous people of the Amazon. Damien Lewis, Conflict ofInterests, Geographical Magazine, December 1990 at 18, 21. 121. Tim Burt, Unlikely Championfor the Amazon's Forgotten People, Financial Times, Aug. 22, 1990, Sect. I (American News), at 6. Fall, 19911 The Growing Voice of Indigenous Peoples elude indigenous peoples in conservation and development plans that affect 122 their homelands. In October, 1990, Nugkuag traveled to Europe and the United States to campaign for recognition of Amazonian indigenous rights. He told an environmental conference in West Germany that "the rain forest was being destroyed because indigenous rights were considered less important than exploitation of the region's natural resources."' 3 He has also publicly demanded that the World Bank change its policies:

We do not want money or gifts. We want the World Bank to alter their policies with the governments with which we work .... We are looking for allies. We have suffered human rights violations for 500 years. Now we want our rights respected and we want to preserve our 124 existence.

At that time, according to the press, the World Bank only promised "to be sensitive to Indian needs."125 However, the fact that the World Bank has recently altered its policies is evidence of the role indigenous peoples are playing in putting pressure on international institutions to take indigenous rights seriously. Other indigenous groups may lack the resources of groups such as the Kayap6 and COICA, but there is evidence that less-advantaged groups recognize their rights under multilateral policies and are speaking of those rights in letters to Bank officials. In these letters, the groups do not speak about their broader rights under international law, but they identify their rights under World Bank policies and urge the Bank to comply. For example, Ailton Krenak, National Coordinator of the Union of Indigenous Nations, and Osmarino Amancio Rogdriguez, Secretary of the National Council of Rubber Tappers in Brazil, wrote a letter to the Bank on December 11, 1989, requesting that Brazil be held to its Polonoroeste II loan requirement to demarcate indigenous areas and create new areas for displaced groups in 26 Rondonia.1 The rubber tappers and other groups also wrote letters to the World Bank documenting the fact that local indigenous groups were not being consulted as mandated by Bank conditions of the Polonoroeste II loan to Brazil. 2 7 In

122. Amazon IndiansProtest Exclusion From Decisions, Financial Report, Oct. 19, 1989, (Domestic Money: Money Report). 123. Burt, supra note 121. 124. Id. 125. Id. 126. Letter from Ailton Krenak, National Coordinator, Union of Indigenous Nations, to Shahid Husain, Vice President, Latin America, & Armeane Choksi, Director, Brazil, WorldBank (Dec. 11, 1989) (copy provided by Environmental Defense Fund). 127. See, e.g., Letter from nineteen Brazilian citizen organizations to Barber Conable, President, The World Bank (Feb. 22, 1990) (copy provided by Environmental Defense Fund). Arizona Journalof Internationaland ComparativeLaiv [Vol. 8, No. 2 fact, the Environmental Defense Fund sent translations of sixteen such letters to the World Bank on May 14, 1990.l Two of the letters were from two umbrella organizations representing thirty Rondonia indigenous non-governmental organizations ("NGOs"). 29 These letters are evidence that indigenous groups recognize their rights under multilateral lending policies and are increasingly demanding that institutions such as the World Bank honor those rights.

B. Indigenous Use of NarrativeDiscourse Indigenous groups are also using stories of their experiences, told in their own terms, to raise the consciousness of lending officials. The Kayap6 trip to the World Bank is a key illustration of this point. The Kayap6 leaders spoke of the destruction of their forests and their people. In response to the leaders' statements, not only did the World Bank postpone the loans to Brazil for the Altamira-Xingu dam project, but the Brazilian Government considered the statements to be a "threat to national security.' '130 In fact, upon their return to Brazil, Paiakan, Kube-i and the anthropologist who accompanied them were threatened with criminal action for criticizing Brazilian Indian policy and "denigrating the country's image abroad.",131 Clearly the story told by Paiakan and Kube-i had tremendous power to raise awareness and provoke specific action. A spokesperson for the Amazonian Yanomami also succeeded in obtaining specific action from the World Bank after telling Bank officials the story of his peoples' impending decimation. A Yanomami man named Davi Kopenawa Yanomami traveled to the World Bank in April, 1991. His people are suffering from an influx of miners who have brought malaria, flu and other diseases to Yanomami lands. Studies at the time indicated that the 132 Yanomami would be decimated within ten years unless action was taken. The Yanomami appealed to the World Bank for assistance because they have 133 no access to the Brazilian health care system. Davi told Bank officials, "If the garimpeiros [miners] don't all go away, we will all die. There aren't enough doctors. ' 134 After hearing Davi's impassioned plea, the Bank agreed to offer relief funds. Clearly, Davi's tragic story aroused the sympathy of Bank officials. As one official said,

128. See letter from Environmental Defense Fund to Shahid Husain, Vice President, Latin American and Caribbean Region, WorldBank (May 14, 1990) (copy provided by Environmental Defense Fund). 129. Id. at 2. 130. The Kayap6 Bring Their Caseto the United States, supra note 1, at 18. 131. Id. at 18. 132. EndangeredAmazon Tribe to Get Bank HealthFunds, The World Bank Watch, April 29, 1991, at 1. 133. Id. 134. Id. Fall, 19911 The Growing Voice of Indigenous Peoples

"It's really sad. One thing is really clear-Davi is very special. He is a very gifted communicator. The situation for the Yanomami is bleak and the future is going to be far worse than the present if it doesn't improve fast." 135 Based on these comments, it appears that the official was able to stand in the shoes of the Yanomami people and act according to a new consciousness. Thus, Delgado's assertion that the graphic quality of storytelling opens up new 136 windows into reality is well-grounded. Indigenous peoples recognize the power of storytelling to draw indigenous people together and to raise consciousness. For instance, the American Anthropological Association recently interviewed Davi about the Yanomami struggles, and Davi hoped the interview would reach as many people around the world as possible. 137 He told anthropologist Terry Turner about the persistent diseases afflicting the Yanomami and his own struggle to help his people. Davi stated that the Yanomami "see what is happening to our community," and that he is traveling among his people to tell them of his fight.138 Davi further commented that the Yanomami need to know "what the whites are doing, of what the government is saying, of what foreign governments, European governments are saying." 39 Thus, Davi wants to know the truth of his own story. He needs to know how the world is reacting to the Yanomami crisis, so that he can spread the news of how to fight among his people. Davi also wants the world to know what the Yanomami shamans know: We have two struggles: the fight to defend the earth, the environment, the sky, the wind, the trees, and the earth; and the fight to defend our land, our territory. The shabori know how to do this; it is their work, because they understand Omame [God, the Creator] and his ways. Omame is like a government, like the president of the world, more powerful than any human government. The governments of the whites, like that of Brazil, do not know Omame, they don't listen to him, or the shamans. They are ruining the world...

I am working with Bruce [Albert] for him to write down the shamans' knowledge of Omame and to make it into a book so that the whole world can know it. People all over the world, whites, Indians, are falling ill with the sickness caused by this pollution.... There are, however, places in this world that are not dirty, where nature is still

135. Id. 136. Delgado, supra note 21, at 2414-15. 137. Terence Turner & Davi Kopenawa Yanomarni, I Fight Because I Am Alive, 15 Cultural Survival Q. 46, 59 (1991). 138. Id. 139. Id. at 60. Arizona Journalof Internationaland ComparativeLaw [Vol. 8, No. 2

clean, as Omame directed. The shamans know these places, they understand this cleanness, they can teach it to others. 140 Davi realizes that his cultural history has relevance for the world and that his peoples' stories can teach others. Legal scholars have argued that storytelling functions to bring groups together, to create "shared understandings and meanings."' 14 1 Davi's efforts to inform his people of world happenings illustrates this point. The Chipko movement in India further demonstrates the argument. The Chipko, or 142 "Embrace the Tree" movement began in the 1970's in the Himalayas. Sarvodaya workers started the movement by hugging trees in opposition to contractors who attempted to cut them down. 143 The workers educated and 144 organized masses of people through folk songs and stories. The Sarvodaya marched by foot from village to village and the songs became so popular "that all the hills and dales echoed with the Chipko tunes." 145 A stanza from one such popular tune rang out: To drive away the ruthless cutters, Come one, come all, and get together. Now it has become our religion, 146 To save the forests from destruction.

The Chipko movement has spread across the nation and has saved many trees through marches, fasts and actual hugging. 147 Clearly this national movement embraced narrative discourse as an empowering force. Through narrative and rights discourse indigenous peoples are not only drawing together into regional, national and international organizations, but they are raising regional, national and international consciousness. The Bank is making efforts to open up its doors to include NGOs and indigenous groups in its decisionmaking by allowing NGO's observer status at annual Bank meetings with the International Monetary Fund ("IMF"). 148 Furthermore,

140. Id. at 61, 62. 141.Delgado, supra note 21, at 2412. 142. Sunderlal Bahuguna, Chipko-The Peoples' Movement to Protect Forests, 10 Cul- tural Survival Q. 27 (1986). 143. Id. 144. Id. at 28. 145. Id. 146. Id. at 29. 147. Id. at 30. 148. At the World Bank's 1987 annual meeting with the International Monetary Fund, NGOs were allowed to attend for the first time as observers. The NGOs made a request for reforms which included, inter alia, "greater access to information for and consultation with indigenous people affected by projects, NGOs, and the general public in both borrower and donor nations; ... [i]mplementation of present bank policies on wildlands and indigenous peoples; .... [slystematic involvement of local people in planning of projects;... " NGOs Request Environmental Reforms at World Bank, IMF Annual Meeting, BNA, Int'l Env't Rep., Current Report, Oct. 14, 1987, vol. 10, no. 10, p. 5 17 . Fall, 1991] The Growing Voice of IndigenousPeoples

World Bank officials will interview indigenous peoples from Amazonia for a section on indigenous people's concerns about World Bank projects in the Bank's 1992 World Development Report on the Environment.1 49 Indige- nous efforts are playing a key role in forcing institutions such as the World Bank to confront the failures of past development projects and the inade- quacies of multilateral policies toward the environment and indigenous peoples.

V. THE ROLE OF ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS IN THE BATTLE TO GET THE WORLD BANK TO COMPLY WITH AND IMPROVE ITS POLICIES TOWARD THE ENVIRONMENT AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

Environmentalist groups have been particularly instrumental in aiding indigenous struggles against World Bank practices. Jason Clay as Research Director of Cultural Survival works to address issues of concern to indigenous peoples. He has stated:

A number of international organizations ... have assisted indigenous peoples in the past. International health organizations, professional associations, church groups, labor organizations, and human rights groups have been involved in a number of campaigns undertaken jointly with indigenous peoples. It is perhaps the coalitions with environmentalists that have proven most effective. 150

Environmentalist organizations have the resources necessary to raise international awareness of indigenous concerns. As Stephen Schwartzman, an anthropologist working with indigenous organizations in the Amazon, has indicated, "Clearly, environmental organizations, with their large national memberships, extensive legal expertise and electoral weight have much to offer indigenist' s ' groups.' 5 2 The Environmental Defense Fund ("EDF"), for example, helped fund Paiakan and Kube-i's trip to speak with Bank officials. 153 EDF has also sent many letters from indigenous peoples to the World Bank.'5 4 Thus, indigenous groups would probably not be successful

149. Rainforest SupportersWin Influence At World Bank, American Banker-Bond Buyer, LDC Debt Report4Latin American Markets, Apr. 29, 1991 at 10. 150. Jason NV.Clay, Organizingto Survive, 8 Cultural Survival Q. 2,5 (1984). 151. Indigenist groups are groups consisting of indigenous peoples. 152. Stephen Schwartzman, Indigenists, Environmentalistsand the MultilateralDevelop- ment Banks, 8 Cultural Survival Q., Dec. 1984, at 74, 75. 153. See The Kayap; Bring Their Case to the United States, supra note 1, at 21-22. 154. See supra notes 126-29 and accompanying text. Arizona Journalof Internationaland ComparativeLaw [Vol. 8, No. 2 in getting the World Bank to halt loans if environmentalist and pro-indige- 155 nous groups such as Cultural Survival and EDF were not so involved. The power of environmentalist groups is further reflected by their successes in raising U.S. congressional awareness of the need for reform of multilateral lending policies. Since 1983, groups such as the EDF have become regular witnesses at congressional hearings before the Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives. 5 6 As a result of those hearings, the Chairman of the Subcommittee introduced and shepherded through Congress two pieces of legislation. 157 Congress enacted both bills which require United States Directors of multilateral development banks to promote reform of bank environmental policies as well as insist on changes in or oppose funding of projects that threaten the land or resource 158 base of indigenous peoples. The environmentalists' testimony included extensive documentation 5 9 of the disastrous effects of World Bank loans on indigenous peoples. Thus, although indigenous peoples affected by Bank-financed projects did not take part in the congressional hearings, 16° their stories were told. These stories helped raise the consciousness of some of the influential members of the United States Congress. Representatives present at the hearings wrote then

155. Jason Clay, Research Director of Cultural Survival supports this opinion. Telephone Interview with Jason Clay (Nov. 1991). 156. By April 10, 1986, U.S. Congress had held 19 hearings for the ecological record of Multilateral Development Banks. See ForeignAssistance andRelatedProgramsAppropriation for 1987: HearingsBefore House Subcomm. on Appropriationsof the Comm. on Appropria- tions, 100th Cong., 2d Sess.,part 5, 154 (1987) (statement of BruceRich, Environmental Defense Fund). 157. ForeignAssistance andRelated Programs Appropriationsfor 1988, HearingsBefore Subcomm. on Appropriationsof the House Comm. on Appropriations,100th Cong., 1st Sess., part 6,490 (1988) (statement of Bruce Rich, Environmental Defense Fund, thanking Chairman Obey for introducing the legislation). 158. The laws referred to are codified at: 22 U.S.C. § 2621 (requiring Directors to promote environmental reform and requiring conversations between U.S. government officials and multilateral development banks on carrying out assistance programs in consultation with affected local communities.); and 22 U.S.C. § 262m (fining that U.S. assistance to multilateral development banks should promote the status of indigenous peoples). 159. See, e.g., Foreign Assistance and Related Programs: Appropriationsfor 1986, HearingsBefore a Subcomm. of the House Comm. on Appropriations,99th Cong., 1st Sess., 1, 750-815 (1987) (statements of Bruce M. Rich, Natural Resources Defense Council and Brent Blackwelder, Environmental Policy Institute). 160. The National Congress of American Indians did testify in 1983 before the Subcom- mittee on International Development Institutions & Finance and spoke in terms of the right of indigenous peoples to land use and political sovereignty. The organization called for strenuous reforms of multilateral development bank ("MDB") policies. Its recommendations included: indigenous consent before MDB projects could be approved and that any projects officially opposed by an indigenous group be prohibited. EnvironmentalImpact ofMultilateral Develop- ment Bank-funded Projects, Hearings Before the Subcomm. on InternationalDevelopment Institutions and Finance of the House Comm. on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs, 98th Cong., Ist Sess., 1,500-21 (1986). Fall, 19911 The Growing Voice of Indigenous Peoples

Treasury Secretary, James Baker, to direct the United States Director at the WorldBankto opposeloans to Brazil. t61 The representatives stated concerns about the environmental impact of the loans as well as the impact on 62 indigenous peoples.1 A further demonstration of consciousness-raising of Congressional leaders is a proposal initiated by representative Benjamin Gilman of New York. The proposed bill is entitled the International Cultural Survival Act of 1991, which was reintroduced in the House of Representatives on March 22, 1991.163 This act makes specific findings regarding: (1) the deteriorating situation of indigenous and tribal peoples in developing countries, (2) the destructive effects of unsound development policy and (3) the severe discrimination against and denial of human rights of indigenous peoples. 164 The Act calls upon the Secretary of State and Administrator of the Agency for International Development ("AID") 165 to ensure-

(1) that United States foreign policy and foreign assistance vigorously promote the rights of indigenous and tribal peoples throughout the world; and (2) that United States foreign assistance is not provided for any project or program detrimental to the rights of indigenous or tribal peoples or to their livelihood. The rights of indigenous and tribal peoples to be promoted and protected pursuant to this section include the right to maintain their cultural, religious, and other traditions, 166 customs, and institutions.

The Act also would require AID to collect information regarding indigenous and tribal peoples on a regular basis, to use the expertise of NGOs in collecting such information and to report annually to Congress the findings of this research. 167 AID must annually report to Congress descriptions of "each country's practices regarding the observation of and respect for the internationally recognized human rights of indigenous and tribal peoples in ' 68 that country.' 1 This Act has not been enacted by Congress, but it is clearly a move toward requiring international lenders to recognize indigenous rights. The years of

161. See letter from David R. Obey, Chairman, HearingsBefore the Subcomm. on Foreign Operationsof the House Comm. on Appropriations,to Secretary James Baker III, Secretary of the Treasury Dept. (June 17, 1986) (letter provided by Environmental Defense Fund). See also, letter from Robert W. Kasten, Jr., Senate Committee on Appropriations,to James A. Baker III, Secretary of the Treasury Dept. (June 17, 1986) (letter provided by Environmental Defense Fund). 162. Id. 163. H.R. Rep. No. 1596, 102d Cong., 1st Sess. (1991). 164. Id. at § 2. 165. AID is the largest bilateral aid agency. Rich, supra note 68, at 685. 166. H.R. Rep. No. 1596, supra note 163, at § 3(a)(l)-(2). 167. Id. at §§ 4(b), 5. 168. Id. at § 6. Arizona Journalof Internationaland ComparativeLaw [Vol. 8, No. 2 testimony by environmentalist groups documenting the tragic effects of development projects funded by multilateral development banks have raised congressional awareness of the international concerns and rights of indigenous peoples.

VI. CRITIQUE OF THE EMERGING DISCOURSE WHICH PROCLAIMS INDIGENOUS PEOPLES TO BE GUARDIANS OF FRAGILE ECOSYSTEMS

The successes won by environmentalist groups acting in connection with pro-indigenous groups and indigenous peoples deserve enormous praise. However, pro-indigenous activists, scholars and indigenous peoples themselves have begun to question the discourse emerging out of this coalition. In their struggles against World Bank policies, indigenous peoples and environmentalist groups have been natural allies. Environmentalists have vast resources, and "[t]he indigenous in return have networks and information of great value for international projects."' 69 According to the emerging discourse, "native populations and national resource managers are appropriate allies.... Given... the close union of the goals of native people to preserve the environment in perpetuity with the 170 goals of the advocates of protected areas, alliance is a logical step."' According to James Clad, who has reported on the subject of conservation and indigenous peoples for the World Conservation Union ("IUCN"), "The argument that indigenous peoples and conservationists are 'natural allies' is made with particular force when strategies to preserve tropical forests.., are discussed.' 171 His point is well-taken given the amazing successes of indigenous groups of the Amazon rainforest. Recent press and magazine coverage of the struggle to save the rainforest demonstrate Clad's point. For instance, a recent article states:

Beyond simple justice, there are compelling environmental reasons for promoting the rights of indigenous peoples to maintain their unique cultural identities and to exercise meaningful legal authority over their traditional lands. The 15,000 distinct groups of the world's 500 million indigenous people offer the best, and often the72 only, protection for many of the world's endangered ecosystems. 1

169. Schwartzman, supra note 152, at 75. 170. James Clad, Conservation andIndigenous Peoples: A Study of ConvergentInterests, 8 Cultural Survival Q. 68 (1984) (quoting L. Brownrigg, Native Cultures and Protected Areas: Management Options, Amaru IV Cooperative/World Wildlife Fund, USA, (n.d.)). 171. Id. 172. Vawter Parker, Saving Cultures CanAlso Save Ecosystems, The Envtl. F., Sept.- Oct. 1990, at 28. Fall, 19911 The Growing Voice of lndigenous Peoples

The article's author draws on events in the Amazon Basin to prove his point that indigenous peoples can and should play an important role in protecting the environment. He lists three primary reasons to support his argument:

First, damage to an indigenous population's land by outside development often leaves the people with no alternative but to further that devastation[;] .... once self-sufficient peoples are forced to exploit their own natural resources to obtain the money they now need to survive.

Second, indigenous peoples have much to teach the world about living in tropical rain forests without destroying them, drawing on centuries of experience.

Third, and perhaps most important, there is no one else in the Ama- zon-or in many of the most endangered parts of the world-who has the same degree of interest in protecting ecosystems as indigenous peoples because of their dependence on so many of the places that are 17 threatened.

These comments are indicative of the discourse emerging over the past decade that proclaims that indigenous peoples must survive because they are guardians of the rainforest. 174 The discourse proclaims that indigenous people know how to live in harmony with the forest and will protect it, thereby, protecting the rest of the world from the damaging effects of global warming. Indeed, several of the

173. Id. at 28-29. 174. Other recent articles illustrate the discourse: In a book review of Susanna Hecht & Alexander Cockburn, The Fate Of The Forest, the reviewer ties indigenous land rights to protecting the rainforest: "It is the forest people whom Hecht and Cockburn see as the best guardians of the forest. Indians, after all, have managed it for millennia. They should have a say in plans for the Amazon, and their land rights should be protected." The Amazon, In Eden, The Economist, Dec. 16, 1989, at 86 (book review). Note that the reviewer ties the concept of indigenous land rights to preserving the rainforest. Another article in The Economist whose comments on the need to protect the rainforest included: "...the people of the forest are precisely those that can be relied upon to protect it. Let the delegations of foreign experts come as their servants, not masters, and let them join the fight for justice without which the Amazon will never be saved." Oliver Tickell, Costing the Earth, The Economist, Oct. 21, 1989, at 6. In Newsweek, an author who discussed the role of tribal advocacy groups, suggested: Beyond the moral and legal questions, defenders of tribal peoples insist these societies have much to offer the modem world-from insights into the origin of the species to knowledge of local wildlife, ecology and medicinal plants. The demise of an Indian tribe, says Bentley [of Survival International], is like destroying a library of information. A range of cultures enriches us all. If we get rid of these people we are effectively destroying a part of ourselves. Leonard Glynn, et al., The Vanishing Tribes, Newsweek, Oct. 12, 1981 at 97. Arizona Journalof Internationaland ComparativeLaw [Vol. 8, No. 2 indigenous groups themselves adopt this language. Recall Davi Kopenawa Yanomami's interview with Terence Turner. Davi stated:

The whites have dirty spirits; the Indians, too. There are, however, places in this world that are not dirty, where nature is still clean, as Omame directed. The shamans know these175 places, they understand this cleanness, they can teach it to others.

The Moxo Indians of the Chimane Forest Reserve in Amazonian Bolivia who are protesting commercial lumbering activities have stated, "We have learned to take care and maintain the ecology because we know that it guarantees our existence." 176 Thus, some indigenous groups are binding themselves to fragile ecosystems, and those indigenous groups that do not inhabit such areas cannot access the discourse or environmentalist support. The nature of this discourse is troubling. Though the coalition between environmentalist and indigenous groups has been very successful in the past decade, it may be inadvertently closing doors for the future. Moreover, the discourse primitivizes indigenous peoples. Clad illustrates this point with the following quote from a 1981 International NGO Conference on Indige- nous Peoples and the Land, held in Geneva,

In the world of today there are two systems, two different irreconcilable "ways of life." The Indian world--collective, communal, human, respectful of nature and wise-and the western world-greedy, 177 destructive, individualist and enemy of mother nature.

The truth of these statements is questionable. 178 As Clad asserts, "Such statements not only ignore past adoption of biologically disruptive technol- ogy by aboriginal peoples, but also in a curious way buttress the fallacy of the 'noble savage,' a uniquely European concept." 179 For instance, thirteen out of fourteen Kayap6 tribes, who worked so hard at blocking the Altamira- Xingu dam, wefe reported in May of this year to be allowing logging and gold mining on their land. 180 Paiakan, the leader who traveled seven countries to ask for international support to stop the destruction of the rainforest, has been marginalized from the tribe because he does not support its exploi- 8 tation of the land.1 1

175. Turner & Yanomarni, supra note 137, at 62. 176. Quoted in Kent H. Redford, The Ecologically Noble Savage, 15 Cultural Survival Q. 46,47 (1991). 177. Clad, supra note 170, at 69. 178. Id. 179. Id. 180. Michael Kepp, Trouble With the Techno Tribe: Are the Amazonian Kayap;s Turning Pro-development?, The S.F. Chron., May 12, 1991 at4. 181. Id. Fall, 1991] The Growing Voice of IndigenousPeoples

This writer was present at one of Paiakan's speeches during his 1989 tour and distinctly remembers that Paiakan asked the audience to support his cause not merely to save his tribe, but to save the world from the disastrous effects of rainforest destruction. If members of his tribe are now exploiting the rainforest themselves, they are destroying the impetus for the rest of the world to recognize the tribe's rights to those lands and to its cultural survival. This danger is further reflected by the stance of ecologists toward indigenous peoples who no longer practice environmentally sound use of their lands. Ecologists in Botswana want to see the San peoples moved out of reserves set aside for them. They argue that "San and other groups in the area should be removed ...since in their opinion they are no longer traditional and engage in activities supposedly harmful to the area's ecology." 182 San peoples differ among themselves as to their feelings about the reserve. The majority "wish to have all the benefits of development, including schools, health facilities, water, roads, livestock land for agriculture and extension advice." 183 Thus, it appears that once indigenous peoples step out of their romanticized world and desire the benefits of western development, they are no longer candidates for environmentalist support. Animal conservationists have also expressed concerns about recognizing indigenous rights to hunting. One conservationist study of indigenous hunting practices in a number of countries found that "indigenous people hunting just for subsistence are capable of hunting at non-sustainable rates. Within 184 their own hunting methods lie the seeds of eventual resource extinction."' Though the study's authors state that they do not want to compromise indigenous peoples' rights to harvest their resources, they point out the 185 frequent incompatibility of indigenous and animal conservationist goals. Moreover, indigenous peoples may oppose the initiatives of environmentalists. For instance, Evaristo Nugkuag of COICA has stated that he opposes debt-for-nature swaps proposed by environmentalists. 186 The swaps involve "purchase of debt by a non-profit environmental organization in return for environmental concessions by the debtor country."'187 Conservationists have heralded the swaps as an innovative way to save "what remains of the rich flora and fauna and natural systems of debt-burdened countries."'188 Under

182. R.K. Hitchcock, Foragerson the Move: San Survival Strategies in Botswana Parks and Reserves, 9 Cultural Survival Q. 31, 35 (1985). 183. Id. at 34. 184. Kent H. Redford & J.G. Robinson, Hunting By IndigenousPeoples and Conservation of Game Species: The Goals of Animal Conservation and the Goals of Indigenous Peoples Wishing to HuntAre Not Compatible in All Cases, 9 Cultural Survival Q., Feb. 1985, 41, 43. 185. Id. at 44. 186. Amazon Indians ProtestExclusion From Decisions, supra note 122. 187. Henry w. McGee, Jr. & Kurt Zimmerman, The Deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon: Law, Politics,and InternationalCooperation, 21 Inter-Am. L. Rev. 513, 547 (1990). 188. William Reilly, Debt-for-Nature Swaps: The Time Has Come, Int'l Envtl. Affairs, Spring 1990, at 135. Arizona Journalof Internationaland ComparativeLaw [Vol. 8, No. 2 these plans, conservation groups such as the Worldwide Fund for Nature ("WWF") and Conservation International ("CI") define and participate in the management of environmental programs for debtor countries. 8 9 The conservationists' plans may include setting up reserves or initiating better maintenance of existing reserves. By November, 1989, groups such as WWF and CI had undertaken debt-for-nature swaps in five countries, relieving $20 million of third world debt.190 Nukuag of COICA, however, opposes the swaps because of the disastrous effects of a forest preservation plan that CI arranged in Bolivia.191 The Chimanes Indians who inhabit the Bolivian forest to be preserved offered their own conservation proposal, yet CI simply ignored it.192 Instead CI designated a "Permanent Production Zone" for logging of the forest. The logging practices have "wreaked havoc across the land," and "[1l]ogging roads have opened up the forest to colonization, with disastrous consequences for the forest wildlife on which the Indians depend." 193 Moreover, the Chimanes do not even have title under Brazilian law to their lands. 194 In August, 1990, 2,000 Indians marched for one month across Bolivia in opposition to the destruction of their lands under the debt-for-nature swap.195 Thus, debt-for- nature swaps are a good idea in theory, yet may ignore indigenous rights to gain title to their ancestral homelands and to exercise their own development plans. The United States Congress has established its support for debt-for-nature swaps. Recently enacted legislation asks that the World bank annually report 196 its progress in implementing recommendations for debt-for-nature swaps. Unfortunately, the legislation does not demand that affected indigenous groups be consulted before conservation plans are designed or implemented. Some indigenous groups have taken steps to improve the discourse. COICA has opened up a dialogue with conservationists to improve conservationist-supported development plans. In May 1990, COICA invited fifteen representatives of twelve environmental organizations to a "First Summit97 Between Indigenous Peoples and Environmentalists" held in Iquitos, Peru. 1

189. For a discussion of the level of involvement of conservationist organizations in specific projects, see Diana Page, Debt-for-Nature Swaps: Experience Gained, Lessons Learned, Int'l Envtl. Affairs, Fall 1989, at 275; Peter Borrelli, Debt or Equity?, The Amicus J., Fall 1988, at 42; Jean Rosebrock & Harold Sondhof, Debt-for-NatureSwaps: A Review of the FirstExperiences, Intereconomics, March/April 1991, at 82. 190. Henner Ehringhaus, European Conference on Debt and Conservation: November 2-3,1989, Int'l Envtl. Affairs, Spring 1990, at 130, 131. 191. Lewis, supra note 120, at 121. 192. Id. 193. Id. 194. Id. 195. Id. 196. Act of Nov. 5, 1990, Pub. L. No. 101-513, tit. V, § 533, 104 Stat. 2013 (codified as amended at 22 U.S.C. § 2621 (Supp. 1990)). 197. The Iquitos Declaration,14 Cultural Survival Q. 82 (1990). Fall, 19911 The Growing Voice of Indigenous Peoples

COICA sought to develop joint alternatives to present environmentalist schemes. The indigenous and environmentalist groups agreed on several declarations. Environmentalist groups present at the meeting recognized indigenous development programs as viable alternatives and declared the need for "studies or projects to advance the territorial and societal rights of the indigenous peoples and the value of their culture."19 8 The groups formed an Indigenous and Environmentalist Alliance for an Amazon for Humanity and agreed to continue meeting and analyzing alternatives for the preserva- 199 tion of the Amazon. COICA, therefore, has taken steps toward ensuring that indigenous rights to land and cultural preservation are honored by environmentalists. COICA's continuing success with environmentalists, however, may depend on whether groups in the Amazon use their lands in ways preferred by environmentalists. In fact, Nugkuag himself has used the alliance discourse to further his organization's causes.2 ° Other groups not privy to the discourse likely cannot expect the same support from environmentalist organizations. In situations where indigenous peoples have not already been forced off their traditional lands and are using their lands in an environmentally sound manner, the alliance between indigenous activists and environmentalists makes sense in the short run. Indigenous peoples may need to draw on the resources of environmentalist groups and the power of environmental fears in order to gather international attention. Indeed, indigenous groups of the Amazon rainforest have been the most successful in getting World Bank loans halted probably due to growing awareness of the importance of preserving the rainforest in order to slow global warming. Other indigenous peoples living in less precious environments may be ignored by environmentalists because while groups such as the Kayap6 are marshalling international attention, "less-flashy" indigenous peoples are losing their lands and cultures to World Bank projects.201 The danger in the emerging discourse that credits indigenous groups as being the best keepers of areas, such as rainforests, that are environmentally valuable, is that indigenous peoples without such lands may be excluded from the discussion. An important addition to the discourse is Nugkuag's notion that indigenous peoples should not merely be consulted about development plans but should be participants in the planning process. Moreover, indigenous peoples should explicitly bring their rights to cultural survival and

198. Id. 199. Id. 200. Evaristo Nugkuag has said, "Weare part of the ecosystem, and our ancestors are the ones who protect its resources. And if we're thrown out, who is going to defend the Amazon?" Debtfor Nature:Dirty Deals?, Mother Jones, July/August 1990, at 44. 201. Telephone Interview with Jason Clay, Research Director of Cultural Survival (Nov. 1991). Arizona Journalof fnternational and ComparativeLaw [Vol. 8, No. 2 self-determination established at the Working Group to discussions about development plans. The right to self-determination includes the right to develop or to have control over one's resources. In particular, those indigenous groups who cannot claim to be "stewards" of their lands should enter into these conversations.

VII. CONCLUSION

Indigenous peoples have demonstrated that through storytelling and rights discourse they can and have raised international and World Bank consciousness. Moreover, by invoking the power of both discourses, indigenous groups have formed sophisticated organizations and have succeeded in getting the Bank to take specific actions. This note has raised some concerns about the long term effects of the "alliance" discourse used by environmentalists and indigenous peoples. However, as indigenous peoples increasingly participate in the definition of their rights under international law, they have begun to assert those rights against environmentalists when their rights become endangered. Indeed, indigenous peoples have initiated a conversation that promises to develop and endure. S