SEPT. 20, 2011 VOLUME 5, NUMBER 18 PAGES 447-472 WWW.GLOBALRESEARCHER.COM Saving Indigenous Peoples CAN NATIVE CULTURES SURVIVE IN THE MODERN WORLD?

ndigenous peoples in lands conquered by white Europeans — the Americas, Australasia and the Arctic —

face a wide range of environmental, cultural and social problems. The world’s native populations have re -

bounded numerically since the early 1900s, when many had been decimated, often by harmful assimilation I policies. Australia and Canada have formally apologized for their earlier assimilation policies, and many in - digenous groups today are seeking — and being granted — legal recognition of their political, economic and cultural

rights. But uncertainty hangs over the survival of native cultures. Fewer young people speak their mother tongues and

traditional customs are dying out. Moreover, native peoples often face daunting social problems, including dramati -

cally lower life expectancies and significantly higher rates of poverty, suicide, alcoholism and domestic violence than

among nonindigenous populations. Now,

native groups face perhaps one of their

biggest challenges: governments and pri -

vate developers encroaching on their an -

cestral lands to exploit energy and other

natural resources.

Indigenous Brazilians and environmental activists in São Paulo protest on Aug. 20, 2011, the proposed construction of the Belo Monte Dam on a tributary of the Amazon River, which would create the third-largest hydroelectric plant in the world. Indigenous lands around the globe are under attack by governments and private investors seeking to develop energy and other resources.

PUBLISHED BY CQ PRESS, A DIVISION OF SAGE WWW.CQPRESS.COM SAVING INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

THE ISSUES SIDEBARS AND GRAPHICS • Should indigenous peo - 450 Indigenous Peoples Are Sept. 20, 2011 449 ples control their natural Sliver of Most Populations Volume 5, Number 18 resources? They are the majority in Bo - livia, Guatemala and Greenland. • Should indigenous peo - MANAGING EDITOR: Kathy Koch [email protected] ples have more autonomy? Many Indigenous People • Should indigenous 451 Live in Cities CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: Thomas J. Billitteri peoples be integrated into [email protected]; Thomas J. Colin Percentages living on reserva - [email protected] mainstream society? tions vary. CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Brian Beary, BACKGROUND Latin America’s First Roland Flamini, Sarah Glazer, Reed Karaim, 452 Indigenous Leader Makes Rob ert Kiener, Jina Moore, Jennifer Weeks Conquest and Settlement Waves DESIGN /P RODUCTION EDITOR: Olu B. Davis 457 Native cultures existed long Bolivia’s popular Evo Morales before Europeans arrived. is polarizing. ASSISTANT EDITOR: Darrell Dela Rosa FACT CHECKER: Michelle Harris Post-Colonial Assimilation Social Problems Proliferate 458 454 Native societies face daunting Indigenous peoples were problems. forcibly integrated.

Chronology \ Self-Determination 459 Key events since 60,000 B.C. 460 The Civil Rights movement spurred indigenous demands . Aboriginals and Maori 460 Took Different Paths International Forums The Maoris demanded political A Division of SAGE 462 Multinational groups are representation. VICE PRESIDENT AND EDITORIAL DIRECTOR: recognizing indigenous rights. Jayne Marks Political Autonomy Varies 462 Many native groups want DIRECTOR, ONLINE PUBLISHING: CURRENT SITUATION self-government. Todd Baldwin At Issue Development Dilemma 465 Should indigenous peoples Copyright © 2011 CQ Press, A Division of 463 Governments are eyeing be educated in their own SAGE. SAGE reserves all copyright and other resources on native lands. languages? rights herein, unless pre vi ous ly spec i fied in writing. No part of this publication may be Going to Court Voices from Abroad reproduced electronically or otherwise, with - 464 Indigenous peoples are 472 Headlines and editorials from out prior written permission. Un au tho rized suing for recognition of around the world. re pro duc tion or trans mis sion of SAGE copy - their legal rights. right ed material is a violation of federal law FOR FURTHER RESEARCH car ry ing civil fines of up to $100,000. 466 Social Problems CQ Press is a registered trademark of Con - Native communities have For More Information gressional Quarterly Inc. high rates of poverty, 469 Organizations to contact. CQ Global Researcher is pub lished twice suicide and alcoholism. monthly online in PDF and HTML format by 470 Bibliography CQ Press, a division of SAGE Publications . Selected sources used. Annual full-service electronic subscriptions OUTLOOK start at $500. For pricing, call 1-800-834-9020, 471 The Next Step ext. 1906. To purchase CQ Global Researcher Preserving Nationhood Additional articles. electronic rights, visit www.cqpress.com or 466 Indigenous groups are “mov - call 866-427-7737. ing in the right direction.” Citing CQ Global Researcher 471 Sample bibliography formats.

Cover: AFP/Getty Images/Yasuyoshi Chiba

448 CQ Global Researcher Saving Indigenous Peoples BY BRIAN BEARY

“The [Spanish] Conquista - THE ISSUES dores intermarried more than other colonialists did with the his is what Jenny native peoples, so it is hard - Macklin, Australia’s er to say who is an Indian T minister for indige - and who is white,” says Ed - nous affairs, saw on a recent uardo Gonzalez, a Peruvian visit to an Aboriginal com - who monitors indigenous munity in the Outback town rights issues for the Interna - of Alice Springs: tional Center for Transitional “Women and children slept Justice (ICTJ). The New York- on mattresses in the open based group helps countries air, exposed to the elements. recovering from mass atroci - Children roamed the streets ties and repression to estab - at all hours of the day and lish institutions to help pro - night, with no regard to going vide accountability and to school or getting home redress for past abuses. safely at night. Alcohol visi - In his native Peru, Gon - bly ravaged the communi - zalez notes, the 40 native i t

ties, resulting in terrible health, t Amazonian groups who make e n terrible violence and terrible r up less than 5 percent of the e

1 B tragedy.” population self-identify as in - n i t

Few in indigenous soci - r digenous, while Quechua- a M eties — native peoples who / speaking descendants of the s e g

were conquered and are still a Incas do not. By contrast, he m I dominated by white Euro - says, the Mayans in Mexico y t t

peans — face such dire liv - e and Guatemala call them - G /

ing conditions, but the situa - P selves “Indians.” Meanwhile, F tion is nevertheless alarming. A in Hawaii, where most resi - In the Americas, Australia, A Mapuche girl sports traditional garb and plays with the group’s dents have mixed ancestry, national flag during festivities in Temucuicui, Chile, on New Zealand and the Arctic, Nov. 13, 2009. Argentina and Chile have deprived the some native Hawaiians want indigenous peoples have indigenous Mapuche of control over their ancestral lands, to create an electoral roll of chronically high poverty according to the forest-dwelling group, in violation of so-called purebloods who rates, disproportionate shares international conventions. Mapuche activists have used would be granted a special of the prison population violence and hunger strikes to press their case. form of autonomy. and life expectancies 10 years shorter digenous lands in Latin America, notes Indigenous peoples in Latin America than the general population. 2 the IWGIA, while the residents typ - fare differently compared to those in In recent years, however, some in - ically share little in the profits and the Anglophone New World countries digenous groups have made progress see few improvements in their eco - of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and in bolstering their legal and political nomic status. the United States. For example, while rights. Several Latin American nations, In Europe, the term “indigenous indigenous peoples usually comprise a for example, now recognize the rights peoples” generally applies to the Sami minority of the overall population (with of indigenous peoples, according to of northern Scandinavia (formerly the notable exceptions of Bolivia, the Copenhagen-based International known as Laplanders), the Inuit of Guatemala and Greenland), they form Work Group for Indigenous Affairs Greenland and dozens of tiny enclaves even smaller percentages of the pop - (IWGIA). But a huge gap remains in northern Russia. The Inuit — or ulation in populous English-speaking between those legal rights and how Eskimos — also live in Canada, Russia countries, such as the United States, they are implemented in practice. 3 and Alaska. In the United States the Australia and Canada. And while many For instance, states and multinational term applies to Native Americans. In in digenous groups live in remote settle - corporations are exploiting many of Latin America, determining who is ments or reservations, in the United States the natural resources found on in - “indigenous” is more difficult. fewer than half live on reservations,

www.globalresearcher.com Sept. 20, 2011 449 SAVING INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

and in New Zealand, a majority of the tional governments over how those right to devise your own education Maori live in cities. 4 terms are defined. Shayna Plaut, who system, to running your own police Indigenous peoples share common is studying Sami self-determination at force or having media in your native political goals. Since the late 1960s, Sami University College in Norway, says language.” most have been demanding some form “self-determination can mean so many Historically, governments often of autonomy or self-determination but things — from control over cigarette have applied a double standard to the have been struggling with their na - taxes on Indian reservations to the issue of self-determination, according

450 CQ Global Researcher to an article in Human Rights Quar - terly. “In the process of decolonization, Many Indigenous Groups Live in Cities the right of self-determination was ex - Many indigenous groups enjoy sovereignty and live on remote, rural reserva - tended or forcibly exercised (through ‘wars of independence’) by the ‘settlers’ tions — such as in Guyana and Canada. In other countries, such as the United from the colonizing group, while the States and New Zealand, more than half of indigenous groups live in cities, indigenous population remained sub - including the Maori in Auckland and the Lakota Indians in Rapid City, S.D. jugated, excluded and marginalized,” two academics wrote. Modern states Where Select Indigenous Groups Live have “vociferously resisted” extending the right to self-determination to in - • United States — More than 50 percent live off-reservation, mostly in digenous peoples, they added, be - large cities. cause they feared it would be tanta - • Colombia — Reservations for indigenous peoples occupy one-third of mount to admitting an “effective right the territory. of secession.” 5 Governments usually firmly oppose • Chile — Up to half of the Mapuche, the country’s most populous secession rights and are keen to con - indigenous group, live in urban areas. Most of the rest live on reservations. trol how natural resources in indige - • New Zealand — 80 percent of the Maori live in cities, 25 percent of nous homelands are exploited, espe - them in the greater Auckland area. cially in fast-developing Latin America. According to Maria Railaf Zuniga, an • Guyana — 90 percent of the Amerindians live in vast, remote savan - activist with the Mapuche Foundation nah or rainforest areas. Folil, a human rights advocacy group • Australia — 32 percent of the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders founded in the Netherlands by Ma - live in major cities, 43 percent in regional areas, 25 percent in remote areas. puche Indians for their countrymen who remained in Chile, “Chile and • Canada — 56 percent of indigenous Canadians live in urban areas. Argentina nowadays can be called ultra-liberal economies — economies Source: The International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, www.iwgia.org/iwgia_Þles_ where literally everything is for sale.” publications_Þles/0454_THE_INDIGENOUS_ORLD-2011_eb.pdf; Minority Rights Group Ancestral lands have been sold to International, www.minorityrights.org/10848/state-of-the-worlds-minorities/state-of-the-worlds- forestry companies to plant environ - minorities-and-indigenous-peoples-2011.html; U.S. Census Bureau, www.census.gov/population/ mentally damaging eucalyptus trees, www/socdemo/race/censr-28.pdf she notes, and multinational corpora - tions like Benetton have bought lands years for Indians,” largely due to al - icant numbers of indigenous peoples in southern Argentina’s Patagonia to cohol abuse. and/or African-descendant popula - raise sheep. “There are so many vicious-cycle tions,” according to the London-based Regardless of where they live, near - issues” involving violence, suicide, sex - Minority Rights Group International, ly all indigenous groups struggle with ual abuse and drug and alcohol abuse which supports indigenous peoples many of the same social problems, among Native Americans, U.S. Sen. Al in 60 countries worldwide. 10 In including serious domestic violence. Franken, D-Minn., a member of the Canada, “the living conditions of First Indigenous women in Australia are Senate Indian Affairs Committee, said Nations are still shocking,” * says 35 times as likely to be hospitalized in July. “We owe Indians a special debt Shawn Atleo, national chief of the as a result of family violence-related for our own negligence in not fully Assembly for First Nations, which assaults as nonindigenous females. 6 funding Indian health care, education represents Canada’s Indians. “Some in In the United States, two of every five and law enforcement, which we are my community have no running water. Native American women will suffer supposed to do by treaty.” 8 The gap is widening, and we need domestic violence during her lifetime, In New Zealand, the Maori com - to close it.” and one in three will be sexually prise only 14 percent of the general 7 abused. Donald Rodgers, chief of population but 51 percent of prison * First Nations refers to the Canada’s more 9 South Carolina’s Catawba Indian Na - inmates. The insecurity and violence than 600 indigenous peoples, except for the tion, said violence against women prevalent in Mexico today are “par - Inuit and those of mixed European-First Nations “has been an issue for hundreds of ticularly notable in states with signif - ancestry, who are called Métis.

www.globalresearcher.com Sept. 20, 2011 451 SAVING INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

Some governments have acknowl - forced relocation of Inuit families to the gambling has helped tribes provide edged that their past actions toward in - High Arctic in 1953. better education and health care, but digenous groups have caused or con - While the overall picture seems bleak critics say the revenues are concen - tributed to these problems. In February for indigenous peoples, some pockets trated in a small number of tribes and 2008 Australian Prime Minister Kevin of home-grown economic development aren’t always used to promote Indians’ Rudd delivered a heartfelt apology for provide some grounds for optimism. social and economic development. government policies from 1900 to 1970 Since 1988, when the U.S. Congress As indigenous societies struggle to that led to some 50,000 Aboriginal chil - gave Native Americans special rights make progress, here are some of the dren being forcibly taken from their to establish gaming casinos on their key questions being raised: parents and placed in white foster homes, reservations, Indians have developed a creating the so-called Stolen Genera - lucrative gaming industry, with $26 bil - Should indigenous peoples control tion. 11 Later that year, the Canadian lion in revenue in 2010. 12 their natural resources? government apologized for its treatment Donald Laverdure, U.S. deputy as - Most governments resist the idea of indigenous Canadians, notably the sistant secretary for Indian Affairs, says of ceding control over natural re - Latin America’s First Indigenous Leader Makes Waves Bolivia’s Evo Morales remains a popular yet polarizing leader.

hewing on an illicit coca leaf he brought in to a U.N. and formally recognizes that Bolivia’s “36 indigenous communi - meeting on drug policy in Vienna, Bolivia’s President ties and groups have the right to territory, language and their own CEvo Morales, made the case for legalization of coca to communitarian justice.” a somewhat bemused audience: “This is a coca leaf. This is Bolivia’s wealthy class opposes the new constitution, largely not cocaine. This represents the culture of indigenous people because it bans private ownership of more than 5,000 hectares of the Andean region,” he said. 1 (12,400 acres) of land. Morales, a former coca farmer, may be best known in the About 60 percent of Bolivia’s 10 million people are indigenous, United States for his publicity stunts, colorful native clothing but until Morales’ victory they had never reached the highest and close alliance with outspoken anti-American Venezuelan echelons of power. Previous Bolivian leaders came from among leader Hugo Chávez. But as an Aymara Indian who was elected the country’s “mestizo,” or people of mixed European-indigenous president in December 2005, Morales is also widely recognized descent, who today live mostly in the eastern lowlands. as Latin America’s first indigenous leader. The languages used by the two largest indigenous groups, Although he was re-elected four years later with an im - the Aymara and Quechua, were not officially recognized until pressive 64.2 percent of the vote, many Bolivians have mixed 1977. The two groups live mostly in the western highlands, feelings about him. Critics say his socialist government has while smaller indigenous groups, such as the Guarani, Arawak pushed through constitutional amendments that have danger - and Chiquitano live in the eastern lowlands. ously centralized power, particularly a provision allowing the Calzadilla says the situation for indigenous peoples in Bolivia government to seize lands and re-designate them as native com - has greatly improved since the 1950s, when the elite popula - munity lands. tions of largely European ancestry viewed the natives as slaves, “The government is trying to control all the branches of or “pongos,” and did not allow them to enter the main square government,” said Javier Comboni, who was Bolivian finance of the capital, La Paz. Today, he says, indigenous people are minister under the previous administration and is now a pro - represented in the executive and legislative branches of govern - fessor of political economy at Wheaton College in Wheaton, ment and at all levels of the army. The Morales government also Ill. “They have been successful but with absolute power comes has adopted anti-racism laws, and many indigenous Bolivians absolute corruption,” he continued, citing harassment of the ju - credit Morales’ policies with helping them to finally reach equality diciary and the takeover of private property in the natural gas- after centuries of discrimination. rich eastern lowlands as evidence. 2 But the 40 percent of the population with European or Bolivia’s ambassador to the Netherlands, Roberto Calzadilla, mestizo ancestry who still control most of Bolivia’s mineral who is of mixed ethnic background, firmly rejects such criti - and petroleum resources fear Morales will redistribute their cisms. The 2009 constitution, approved in a referendum, “rec - wealth to poorer regions. The lowlands’ economic dominance ognizes the rights of indigenous peoples, which previously were has emerged only in the past few decades. During colonial denied and repressed for so long,” he says. It establishes an times, Bolivia’s wealth was concentrated in the silver- and tin- “equal rank and hierarchy” among various tiers of government rich highlands.

452 CQ Global Researcher Eduardo Gamarra — a comparative politics professor at Florida International University in Miami and a Bolivian national — notes that lowlanders are worried because the Morales gov - ernment “has been sending waves of indigenous people into the lowlands of Santa Cruz.” That could erode the political power of the mestizo elite and make them more intolerant of indige - nous groups. He adds that “Venezuela is financing Morales,” and points out that Morales and Chavez “are both anti-U.S. and view the white elites as racist.” Calzadilla admits that in the early years of Morales’ rule “strong resistance came from the nonindigenous population, mostly descendents of the Spanish colonizers” who live in the lowlands, some of whom in 2007 and 2008 even threatened

to organize a secessionist movement. Such talk seems to have s e d quieted down in the past couple of years. 3 l a R

Although most indigenous Bolivians support Morales, some r a z also criticize him. For example, the indigenous communities living i A / in sprawling Madidi National Park worry about government plans s e g

to authorize oil and gas drilling and construction of a hydro- a m I

electric dam and highway in the park. y t t

Mirna Fernández, coordinator of the Save The Madidi Campaign, e G /

says President Morales is guilty of “reprehensible incoherence” P F

by invoking Pachamama — or Mother Earth, the Andean deity A of indigenous peoples — while moving to exploit nonrenewable Bolivian President Evo Morales — Latin America’s first indigenous resources in protected areas . 4 leader — greets Andean natives during a collective marriage Calzadilla says the government’s relations with indigenous ceremony for 355 couples in a coliseum in La Paz, on May 7, 2011. The ceremony was designed to groups in the lowlands are “very good” but admits that native honor ancient Andean rituals. communities take a more “ecological” view of government infra - structure projects in the area. 2 Comments made during conference entitled, “Bolivia: A Country Divided,” — Brian Beary at the Hudson Institute, Washington, D.C., April 1, 2009. 3 For background, see Roland Flamini, “The New Latin America,” CQ Global 1 “Bolivian President Chews Coca During Speech At UN,” The Huffington Post , Researcher , March 1, 2008, pp. 57-84. March 11, 2009, www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/11/bolivian-president- 4 Frank Chavez, “Madidi National Park and the Curse of Petroleum in Bolivia,” chews_n_174075.html. IPS, Dec. 13, 2010, www.galdu.org/web/index.php?odas=5001&giella1=eng. sources to indigenous peoples, notes Governments often claim to con - there and construction of a hydro - Sheryl Lightfoot, a Canadian Anishin - sult systematically with indigenous electric dam and highway. abe Indian and assistant professor in peoples over the use of natural re - In Argentina and Chile, according First Nations studies and political sources, but skeptics say they only to Chilean human rights activist Zuniga, science at the University of British give the semblance of doing so. Even “The main problem of the Mapuche Columbia. in Bolivia — which has an indige - can be put in one word: land, more “Many countries accept that in - nous president and claims to protect specific, ancestral land. . . . Not for digenous peoples should have their indigenous rights — large-scale gov - nothing the word Mapuche means: rights to language, culture and religion ernment development projects have ‘People of the Earth.’ ” 13 recognized and respected,” she says. faced resistance from some indige - Zuniga lambasted Argentina and “What most countries in the world ob - nous groups. For example, groups Chile for policies that effectively de - ject to — whether they admit it or not from the Madidi National Park area prive indigenous communities of con - — are indigenous rights to land and are protesting plans by President Evo trol over their lands, in violation of the resources, as well as self-determination.” Morales to allow oil and gas drilling two countries’ legal obligations under

www.globalresearcher.com Sept. 20, 2011 453 SAVING INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

and other natural resources, which are Problems Proliferate Among Indigenous Groups becoming more accessible as the polar ice caps melt. The socioeconomic situation for indigenous societies around the globe is often “We have lived here for thousands signiÞcantly disparate from the general populations in their home countries. and thousands of years,” said Patricia Life expectancy, for example, is much lower for indigenous individuals in Cochran, former chairperson of the Canada, Australia and New Zealand than for the overall population. Suicide Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) and rates among Native Americans and the Canadian Inuit are higher than in the an Alaskan Inuit. “You must talk to us nonindigenous populations, and Guatemala’s indigenous peoples are less and respect our rights.” 16 educated and poorer than other Guatemalans. Cochran’s ICC colleague, Aqqaluk Lynge, is equally forceful. “This is Inuit Socioeconomic Indicators for Select Indigenous Groups territory. While we are very loyal to our respective governments, they must as - • Life expectancy: Canadian Inuit die 15 years younger than other sist us in helping to build Inuit unity Canadians. New Zealand Maori die more than eight years earlier than and helping Inuit use the resources in non-Maori. Aboriginal Australian men die 12 years younger than a sustainable manner,” says Lynge, chair - non-Aboriginal men and Aboriginal women 10 years earlier than person of the ICC, who is Greenlandic non-Aboriginal women. Inuit. Indigenous peoples historically have managed resources more sustainably • Alcoholism: Liver disease among Native Americans is four times than foreigners, he said, citing the greater than the U.S. national average. 1600s, “when the first foreign whaling • Obesity: Maori have nearly twice the national rate of obesity ship came to hunt our big whales and compared to the rest of New Zealand. decimated our stocks, from which they • Suicide: The suicide rate among Native Americans is 70 percent have never recovered.” 17 higher than among the general population. Canadian Inuit are 11 Canada — with an abundance of times more likely to commit suicide than the general population. oil sands, much of it on indigenous • Poverty: 80 percent of the indigenous population in Guatemala is homelands — has adopted the First poor, compared to 40 percent of the nonindigenous population. Nations Land Management Act, under • Crime: 51 percent of the prison population in New Zealand is Maori which 30 participating nations man - despite being only 14 percent of the overall population. 34 percent of age their lands and resources. In 2009, First Nation companies performed $810 Canadian male and 41 percent of female young offenders are mem - million in contract work for oil sands bers of the First Nations, despite being only 4 percent of the companies, and more than 1,600 na - country’s total population. tive peoples were directly employed • Education: Only 5 percent of university students in Guatemala are in oil sands operations. 18 According indigenous, despite comprising more than half of the population. to Chief Atleo of the Assembly of First • Domestic violence: Aboriginal Australian women are 35 times Nations, “more and more industries re - more likely to be hospitalized as a result of family violence-related alize they need to consult indigenous assaults than nonindigenous females. peoples — it makes commercial sense.” But he admits there remains some dis - Sources: Peter Katel, “American Indians,” CQ Researcher , April 28, 2006 (updated July 2010); agreement with the Canadian govern - Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami; Joanna Hoare, “State of World’s Minorities and Indigenous People 2011,” ment over the precise meaning of Minority Rights Group International, July 6 2011, pp. 113, 174 “consultation” and “consent.” In New Zealand, the Maori’s right the International Labour Organization’s puche, who argued a major land pur - to control their natural resources is en - Convention 169. 14 The treaty gives in - chase by the Piedra del Aguila oil com - shrined in the 1840 Treaty of Waitan - digenous peoples “certain collective pany would have pushed the Mapuche gi. Article 2 of the treaty guarantees rights,” she says, “especially regarding off their land. 15 the Maori would have “full and ex - foreigners entering the area for eco - The Arctic’s Inuit also are keen to clusive possession of their fisheries,” nomic exploration and exploitation.” avoid a resource grab by outsiders. In - notes Valmaine Toki, a member of Zuniga welcomed a recent court rul - ternational interest in their region is the U.N. Permanent Forum on In - ing in Argentina that supported the Ma - growing due to the abundance of oil digenous I ssues and a law lecturer at

454 CQ Global Researcher the University of Auckland. When the guage activist. The Mapuche want to Hawaiians “favor autonomy only for government introduced a private reconstruct their territory, which the the pure-bloods.” property -based quota system for fish Chilean government confiscated in the In some cases, granting autonomy catches, t he Maori sued to get their 1880s and exploited, leaving them im - to a regional indigenous community traditional community fishing rights rec - poverished and marginalized, he says. can create resentment among the ognized, and won. “This is an exam - “Our government has programs group it was intended to satisfy. For ple of Maori exercising a form of self- today promoting bilingual education example, in Nicaragua the indigenous determination,” says Toki. and better health services,” Millahueique Miskito, who live on the Atlantic Coast, Brazil, however, lacks “an effective says. “But these are not enough. The were granted regional autonomy in the mechanism for consultation with in - Mapuche want political autonomy.” 1980s, but that apparently did not sat - digenous peoples on the planning of Some indigenous communities are isfy all group members. According to major development projects, such as split over what form their autonomy Danish conservationist Claus Kjaerby at large-scale mining, and highway and should take. For instance, a debate is the International Work Group for In - dam construction,” laments James Anaya, raging among Hawaiians over whether digenous Affairs, high abstention rates U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. 19 In Guyana, a 2006 law earmarked 20 percent of the royalties from mining activities for Amerindians. But indigenous leaders have complained about not being consulted in the country’s anti-deforestation cam - paign, including how to spend $250 mil - lion that Norway has donated to fight climate change . 20

Should indigenous peoples have t o o

more autonomy? r G

The degree of autonomy enjoyed e d

by indigenous peoples varies signifi - k e o cantly from region to region. n A /

In the Arctic, for instance, Sami par - s e g liaments exist in Norway, Finland and a m I

even Sweden, which traditionally has y t t been among the most conservative e G /

Nordic states in recognizing Sami rights, P F A according to Lars-Anders Baer, chair - Aboriginal elder Dick Brown, 58, partially paralyzed from a stroke, lives in a rough camp in man of the Sami cultural organization the Australian Outback town of Alice Springs. Aboriginals are one of the world’s poorest Gáldu. In the last five to six years, he indigenous communities. While many countries have bolstered indigenous groups’ said, there has been “a dramatic shift legal and political rights in recent years, they continue to have chronically high in the Swedish position in favor of [the] poverty rates, disproportionate shares of the prison population and life expectancies 10 years shorter than the general population. Sami right to self-determination.” 21 In New Zealand, according to Mar - garet Mutu, head of the Maori Stud - everyone should have a special au - in recent regional elections in dicate that ies Department at the University of tonomous status or only those desig - the Miskito reject the political party Auckland, “the Maori don’t accept that nated as “pure-blood” Hawaiians. About model of regional autonomy that has the Pakeha [white settlers] are the le - 400,000 of Hawaii’s 1.3 million resi - been imposed on them, saying it has gitimate colonizers, but rather are im - dents claim Hawaiian ancestry. 22 not met their political aspirations. 23 migrant settlers invited by the Maori Mililani Trask, a pro-autonomy activist, Elsewhere, the level of autonomy to stay there.” In Chile, the Mapuche supports extending self-government granted to a group can end up being see themselves as a separate nation to all Hawaiians but acknowledges insufficient in practice. For example, culturally and ethnically, says César Mil - that the state government, two U.S. Native Americans are responsible for lahueique, a Mapuche poet and lan - senators and the Council for Native their own policing and judiciary, but

www.globalresearcher.com Sept. 20, 2011 455 SAVING INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

their judicial system faces major ob - But researchers and sociologists Specifically, only 16 percent of tribal stacles because they cannot prosecute countered that communal justice, such members are fluent in Meskwaki, while non-Indians, according to U.S. Assis - as a public flogging or a dousing in 63 percent understand only a few or tant Attorney General Tom Perrelli. Yet cold water, “are more effective than no words. He attributes the decline, four out of five people who commit sending a young man away for a four- which has accelerated since the 1960s, sex crimes or battery against Indians year prison sentence that is devoid of to the need to learn English to deal are non-Indians, he said. 24 social context and lacks rehabilitation with local authorities to gain water, To fix the problem, Aaron Running measures,” noted Maurice Bryan, in - food, sanitation and housing. 29 Hawk, a member of the Black Hill Sioux formation officer for the Minority Rights In Canada, Chief Atleo of the As - Treaty Council, a pro-independence Group International. 27 Similarly, in sembly of First Nations says only Lakota Indian group, says the council Guatemala the Mayans seem more in - three of the assembly’s 52 indigenous wants “to set up a traditional form of terested in judicial and cultural au - languages are expected to survive: government based on treaties from 1851 tonomy, according to Arturo Arias, the Inuit, Cree and Ojibwe. His own Nuu- and 1868, which the U.S. Supreme Court Guatemalan novelist and critic. “They chah-nulth language has only 24 flu - ruled in 1978 were still valid.” U.S. want to be judged under Mayan law. ent speakers left, most in their 60s Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Inte - This was written into the 1996 peace or older, he notes. rior Laverdure says the Obama ad - treaty that ended the civil war, but Plaut, the researcher studying Sami ministration would be amenable to implementation has been slow.” culture in Norway, regrets that a corollary reviewing the current model of auton - question — Should mainstream society omy. “If they want to re-do their frame - Should indigenous peoples be inte - become more fluent in indigenous lan - work, that is okay with us,” he says. grated into mainstream society? guages? — is never asked. “This is a more “Some of them are thinking about this, When indigenous peoples become interesting question,” she says. “I have and we want to assist them.” more socially integrated with the gen - never met a mono-lingual Sami person Autonomy discussions are not as far eral population — for example through in my time here.” advanced in some other countries. In - intermarriage or by living in closer Plaut likes the Sami model of self- digenous peoples in Colombia have been proximity — it sometimes leads to a determination. They have preserved caught in the crossfire of a vicious, dilution or loss of indigenous culture. their language and culture, but they decades-long civil war. The Regional However, the recent experience of na - still function in their home country Indigenous Council of Cauca, an ad - tive Hawaiians shows how an indige - societies. They also benefit from var - vocacy group founded in 1971 in south - nous people can integrate and func - ious privileges. For example, reindeer western Colombia’s Cauca Department, tion in mainstream society while husbandry is reserved for the Sami, all has launched a protest movement to keeping one of their main cultural car - laws in Norway must be translated into try to get the Colombian army and riers, their native language. Sami and the Sami language can be the rebel militia to dismantle the bases In the 1970s, incredibly, fewer than used in communicating with public and camps they operate in Cauca 50 children under age 18 were fluent officials and the judiciary. 30 homelands. “We don’t want to give in the Hawaiian language. Since then, Governments have learned that co - either side a military advantage,” the the number of fluent children has sky - ercive integration policies can damage group has said. “What we want is to rocketed, according to language activist indigenous societies, as occurred among defend the lives and the autonomy Namaka Rawlins. 28 The Hawaiian Lan - Aboriginal Australians in the 1900s. In of our communities.” 25 guage College, where she teaches, offers an effort to integrate indigenous chil - Some Latin American indigenous 57 undergraduate- through doctorate -level dren — primarily those with lighter skin groups have focused on the judicial di - courses in Hawaiian and operates a color — into mainstream society, the mension of autonomy. In Ecuador, school for pre-K through grade 12. Australian government forcibly took groups increasingly use communal jus - The graduating students are fluent in many of them from their parents and tice to combat violent crime, triggering English as well as Hawaiian. placed them in institutions or with white a nationwide debate. 26 For example, But Hawaii’s positive experience foster families. some nonindigenous critics demanded hasn’t been replicated in many other The program was a dismal failure. limits on the practice of indigenous jus - native U.S. communities. For instance, a The Aboriginals remained marginalized tice after a man who confessed to mur - settlement of Meskwaki Indians in and suffered from discrimination. A der was sentenced to receive corporal Iowa has only a “dwindling number 1997 report cataloged the pain inflict - punishment and make financial pay - of fluent Meskwaki speakers,” ac - ed on Aboriginal society by the coer - ments to the victim’s mother. cording to resident Larry C. Lasley, Sr. cive practices, spurring the Australian

456 CQ Global Researcher government, 11 years later, to issue its “For indigenous peoples, intermarriage ica, roughly from 1000 B.C. to A.D. 900. 2008 apology. 31 is often read as a forfeiture of nation - The Maori first arrived in New Zealand Yet, others contest the notion that hood,” she adds, calling the concept a around A.D. 800. 33 Aboriginals are better off being sepa - “strangely colonial and racial ized way European conquest began with the rated from the rest of society. Helen of thinking.” arrival of Viking leader Erik the Red, Hughes, a senior fellow at the libertar - ian Centre for Independent Studies, a think tank with offices in Australia and New Zealand, argues that “communal property rights have prevented devel - opment” among the 80,000 Aboriginals living on remote reservations, charac - terized by “dismal shops and public housing . . . reminiscent of communist Russia.” Furthermore, Hughes writes with her son Mark, an independent researcher,

“Aboriginal curriculums and poor teach - n o s c ing have denied indigenous children i r E

l basic schooling, [and] so-called bilingual i t r education has been an excuse for no e B /

32 x education at all.” i p n

Integration often occurs when in - a c S / digenous and nonindigenous people s r e intermarry, but the frequency of inter - t u e

marriage differs from country to coun - R try — and sometimes from region to Leading one of their iconic reindeer, Sami people march through Stockholm on Nov. 23, 2007, region inside a country. For example, to demand protection of their herding rights. Formerly called Laplanders, the Sami live above the Arctic Circle and enjoy a relatively high degree of autonomy, Nicaragua’s three main ethnic groups with their own parliaments in Norway, Finland and Sweden. are the indigenous Miskito, the Ladinos (people of mixed Spanish -indigenous ancestry) and the Afro-Caribbean com - who set up a Norse colony in Green - munity. According to the Rev. Norman land in A.D. 986. The Europeans left Bent, a minister of the Moravian BACKGROUND in 1450, but a permanent Scandinavian Church who is of mixed Miskito /Afro- presence was re-established by Danish- Caribbean ancestry, although “there is a Norwegian priest Hans Egede in 1721. lot of intermarriage and not much con - After Christopher Columbus landed flict between the Miskito and Afro- Conquest and Settlement in the Caribbean in 1492 on behalf of Caribbean peoples, . . . there is more Spain’s King Ferdinand and Queen Is - of a cultural conflict with the Ladinos.” ndigenous peoples lived in the Amer - abella, the Spanish went on to con - The University of British Colum - Iicas, Australasia and the Arctic for quer and colonize much of Central bia’s Lightfoot says intermarriage be - millennia before European settlers and South America in the 1500s. tween indigenous and nonindigenous showed up. Over the next three centuries the people, which has always been com - Aboriginal Australians are thought to French, English, Portuguese and Dutch mon, should not be used to deny in - have arrived on the continent up to competed with the Spanish to control digenous peoples their right to na - 60,000 years ago. The earliest residents the Americas, and their policies to - tionhood. “No other group or nation of the North American Arctic probably ward the indigenous peoples differed faces this very unreasonable expec - arrived about 14,000 years ago. Scan - considerably. The Northern Europeans tation that they should somehow re - dinavia’s Sami culture is around 5,000 — the French, British and Dutch — tain ‘purity of the blood’ in order to years old, while the Inuit first arrived tended to negotiate treaties with abo - be entitled to the same rights that all in Greenland from modern-day Cana - riginal peoples rather than conquering other peoples on Earth already pos - da some 4,500 years ago. The Mayan them militarily. 34 The Southern Euro - sess,” she says. civilization flourished in Central Amer - peans — the Spanish and Portuguese

www.globalresearcher.com Sept. 20, 2011 457 SAVING INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

— relied more on papal bulls (orders Meanwhile, the United States con - couraging — or coercing — indigenous from the Roman Catholic pope) to tinued to expand its dominion over peoples into shedding their distinct iden - claim indigenous lands and forcibly indigenous peoples, notably by buying tity. In Australia, for instance, between convert natives to Christianity. 35 Alaska from Russia in 1867 and invad - 10 and 30 percent of Aboriginal chil - European whalers began exploring ing and occupying Hawaii in 1893, when dren were removed from their families the Inuit’s Arctic homelands in the U.S. forces and business interests forced and placed in institutional or foster care, 1700s, while Russians explored the Queen Lili’uokalani to abdicate. a policy that lasted until 1970. More - western Arctic around Alaska, con - From 1871 to 1921, Canada signed over, the movement of Aboriginals who verting some of the Aleut and Inuit 11 treaties with its aboriginal nations were not removed and assimilated was peoples to Orthodox Christianity. Aus - — the Inuit, Cree, Métis and others. A tightly circumscribed. tralia and New Zealand came under key piece of Canadian legislation was “In the name of protection, In - European influence starting in the late the 1876 Indian Act, whose ultimate goal digenous peoples were subject to 1760s, after the discoveries of English was to assimilate Canada’s indigenous near-total control,” a 1997 government explorer Capt. James Cook. Many of community. 37 In Latin America, in - investigation said. “Their entry and exit Australia’s earliest immigrants were con - digenous peoples saw ever-increasing from reserves was regulated, as was victed criminals, sent over to do hard incursions onto their homelands — such their everyday life on the reserves, labor in penal colonies. as the Chilean government’s seizure of their right to marry and their em - Mapuche lands in the 1880s. ployment.” Partly to convert them to Meanwhile, the conversion of in - Christianity, “children were housed in Post-Colonial Assimilation digenous peoples to Christianity was dormitories and contact with their fam - proceeding apace. The Roman Catholic ilies strictly limited.” 39 rom the late 1700s, indigenous Church sent many missionaries to The United States also embraced an Fpeoples increasingly found them - Central and South America in the 1500s. assimilation policy. In 1906, for ex - selves living in newly independent In the mid-1800s, Moravians from Ger - ample, Congress ordered food rations countries established by descendents many, England and Sweden converted withheld from Indians unless they of European settlers. One of the first many of Nicaragua’s indigenous Miskito. agreed to cut their hair, traditionally was the United States, which won its Christians also converted a large share worn long. Indian children in the independence from Britain after the of North America’s Inuit. West were taken into towns and forced eight-year Revolutionary War. As the A pivotal moment in Maori history to attend schools where they were new nation expanded westward in the occurred in 1840, when tribal leaders prohibited from speaking their native 1800s, whites began hunting and settling established their future political rela - languages . 40 on Indian lands, fomenting bitter and tionship with the English settlers by In 1953, Congress passed Concurrent bloody conflict. signing the Treaty of Waitangi. In 1867, Resolution 108, marking the beginning In 1830, Congress adopted the Indi - four seats in the New Zealand parlia - of the so-called termination policy, which an Removal Act, which led five large ment were designated for the Maori. revoked the recognition and support the Southern Indian tribes — the Cherokee, The introduction of guns into Maori government had given to many Indian Chickasaw, Creek, Seminole and Chock - society, acquired from British settlers, nations via the reservations system. 41 taw — to be forcibly moved to Indian exacerbated intertribal warfare. The The change led to the displacement of Territory west of the Mississippi River. Maori also lost much of their best land more than 10,000 Indians, many of whom Forty years later, the U.S. govern - to white settlers in a war that lasted moved from their reservations into large ment essentially replaced its policy of from 1860 to 1872. The Maori popu - cities; the San Francisco Bay area was treaty-making with Indian nations with lation declined dramatically, hitting a a popular destination. a policy of assimilation. The process low of around 45,000 in 1901. (It is Also in 1953, Denmark made large - was accelerated by the Dawes Act of 575,000 today.) 38 ly Inuit Greenland an integral part of 1887, which led to parcels of Indian At the same time, in Scandinavia, the country. Similarly, six years later, land being sold off to private indi - the Sami also faced challenges: As Alaska and Hawaii became U.S. states. viduals, badly fragmenting the Indian Sweden, Finland, Norway and Russia In Norway, the government tried tribes. 36 By 1900, the Indians had lost consolidated their borders, they cut from 1905, when Norway became in - 95 percent of the land they had held in through Sami homelands, making trav - dependent from Sweden, until the 1800, when they controlled 80 percent el and reindeer herding more difficult. 1960s to assimilate the Sami. As part of the land in today’s continental Unit - In the early 1900s, some govern - of the new nation’s “Norwegianization” ed States west of the Eastern Seaboard. ments adopted assimilation policies, en - Continued on p. 460

458 CQ Global Researcher Chronology

1830 1969 60,000 B.C.- U.S. Congress passes Indian Re - American Indians occupy Alcatraz Is - A.D. 900 Indige - moval Act, which forcibly relocates land in San Francisco Bay in effort to nous peoples populate Australa - five large Indian tribes from the force U.S. government to give greater sia, America and the Arctic. South to territory west of the autonomy to Native Americans. Mississippi River. 60,000 B.C.-800 A.D. 1979 Aboriginal Australians migrate to 1840 Inter-American Court for Human Australia from Micronesia. . . . Maori tribal leaders sign Treaty of Rights is established in Costa Rica, Inuit ancestors begin to populate Waitangi with English settlers, es - eventually ruling on indigenous-rights North American Arctic . . . . Sami tablishing the terms for white settle - cases from Paraguay, Suriname, culture emerges in Scandinavia in ment of the territory. Guatemala and Brazil. 5,000 B.C. . . . Mayan civilization flourishes in Central America. . . . 1887 1987 Maori migrate from Polynesia to Congress passes Dawes Act per - Norway establishes Sami parliament. New Zealand. mitting the sale of Indian lands to Sweden and Finland later follow suit. non-Indians, further fragmenting Indian territories. 1988 • Congress passes Indian Gaming 1880s Regulatory Act, paving the way for 986-1768 Euro - Chilean authorities seize lands from Indians to set up casinos and foster - peans conquer and colonize the indigenous Mapuche in a so- ing rapid growth in the casino in - indigenous lands. called pacification campaign. dustry and much-needed revenues for Indian communities. 986 1901 Norse explorer Erik the Red estab - Australia gains independence from 1992 lishes first European settlement on Britain and institutes aggressive as - “Mabo” ruling by Australia’s high Greenland. similation policy toward Aboriginals, court says Aboriginals have the right including forcibly removing children to claim title over traditional lands, 1492 from their parents and putting them triggering passage of the 1993 Na - Italian explorer Christopher Columbus into institutions or foster homes. tive Title Act establishing tribunals to leads a voyage to the Americas on examine indigenous land claims. behalf of the Spanish government, 1953 marking the beginning of European Denmark annexes its largely Inuit 2007 colonization in the Americas. colony, Greenland. U.N. General Assembly approves Declaration on the Rights of Indige - 1700s 1959 nous Peoples. Australia, Canada, European whalers hunt and explore Alaska and Hawaii, both with large New Zealand and the United States, in the Arctic. . . . Russian fur traders indigenous populations, become which initially opposed it, later en - and missionaries settle Alaska. states and are fully integrated into dorse the measure. the United States. 1760s 2008 British and Irish settlement begins • Passage of a referendum grants en - in Australia and New Zealand. hanced autonomy to Greenlanders. 2011 • 1960s-2011 Indigenous peoples worldwide Energy and tourism development mobilize politically. Many gov - plans on indigenous lands cause 1800s-1950s ernments replace assimilation mounting tension between indige - Settlers of European descent policies with greater recognition nous and nonindigenous popula - assimilate indigenous peoples and autonomy for indigenous tions in Brazil, Peru, Russia, Canada in the New World. peoples. and Chile.

www.globalresearcher.com Sept. 20, 2011 459 SAVING INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

Continued from p. 458 their political voice and to win some several dozen Indians occupied Alca - policy, citizens wanting to buy land recognition and concessions from the traz Island in San Francisco Bay, site of had to be able to read and write in governments ruling their homelands. an abandoned maximum-security prison. Norwegian. The policy triggered a de - In the United States, for instance, the The Alcatraz occupation, which lasted cline in the use of the Sami language government’s initial move toward until 1971, attracted public attention — until the government ended the pol - self-government for Native Americans and some sympathy — to Indian de - icy in 1959. 42 was the Indian Reorganization Act of mands for genuine autonomy. In the 1934, which created a system of trib - end, the government in the 1970s al government on certain Indian adopted a policy of self-determination Self-Determination reservations. for Indians and a raft of legislation aimed In the 1960s, however, the Civil Rights at promoting their autonomy, land rights, s the 1900s progressed, indige - movement provoked a political awak - economic development and cultural Anous peoples slowly began to find ening among American Indians. In 1969 preservation. 43 Aboriginals and Maori Took Different Paths Political, cultural and social progress has been uneven.

ew Zealand’s Maori and Australia’s Aboriginals are a the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples “continue to study in contrasts. The two neighboring groups have rank as the most disadvantaged peoples in Australia,” particu - Nasserted themselves differently — and been treated dif - larly with regard to education, employment, health, life ex - ferently by their European colonizers — with varying degrees pectancy, domestic violence and child abuse, according to Jacqui of political, cultural and sociological success. Zalcberg, author of a paper on indigenous peoples in Oceania For instance, only three Aboriginals have served in the na - for the U.K.-based advocacy organization, Minority Rights Group tional parliament during Australia’s 110-year history. Two na - International. 3 tional Aboriginal representative bodies created in the 1970s and As for securing land rights and control of natural resources, ’80s were ultimately disbanded amid claims they did not truly the Maori have had a head start, but the Aboriginals are catch - represent the Aboriginals. The Maori, by contrast, have had spe - ing up. In 1975, the New Zealand government set up the cially designated seats in the New Zealand parliament for more Waitangi Tribunal, which gave the Maori a legal forum to pur - than a century, and today their 15 percent representation in sue land claims. By mid-2010, the tribunal was wading through parliament corresponds to their population share. Aboriginals 3,490 claims. “Overall, the Waitangi Tribunal has provided enor - constitute just 2 percent of Australia’s population. mous benefits for all of New Zealand by helping to provide Many of the 80 Aboriginal languages are on the verge of redress for Maori grievances,” reported Anaya. extinction, and only 30,000 Australian students are learning an Australia’s government created a similar legal forum for Abo - indigenous language. 1 In New Zealand, the Maori language is riginals in 1993, spurred on by a landmark 1992 court ruling also at crisis point, according to Valmaine Toki, a member of in the “Mabo” case, which overturned previous case-law by in - the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples and a law sisting that Aboriginals had the right to claim title to their tra - lecturer at the University of Auckland, who is of Maori descent. ditional lands. So far, Aboriginals have succeeding in reclaim - “At school, the proportion of Maori children participating in ing some of their lands in the 145 tribunal rulings. 4 Maori-medium education [schools where Maori is the language There have been bumps along the road for both peo - of instruction] has dropped from a high point of 18.6 per cent ples, such as the 2004 Foreshore and Seabed Act in New in 1999 to 15.2 per cent in 2009,” she says. Fewer young peo - Zealand, which limited the Maori’s ability to claim shoreline ple speak Maori, she notes, so older native speakers are not areas. The government in 2009 agreed to repeal the act after replaced as they die. fierce Maori opposition, but Parliament has yet to repeal the The gap between the two groups is also less obvious with measure. regard to social indicators. Social and economic conditions Aboriginals — Australia’s original inhabitants — have lived among the Maori put them at an “extreme disadvantage . . . on their homelands for more than 50,000 years, having mi - across a range of indicators, including education, health and grated there from Micronesia, while the Maori are believed to income,” according to James Anaya, a Native American, who have arrived a little over 1,000 years ago from Polynesia. But is the U.N. special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peo - after the British and Irish began to arrive in New Zealand and ples. After leaving secondary school, for example, only one in Australia in the 1800s, both populations plummeted — almost five Maori students is qualified to attend university. 2 Similarly, to the point of extinction by 1900. Both native populations

460 CQ Global Researcher have rebounded in recent decades, as the governments replaced assimilation policies with an acknowledgement of their right of self-determination. Australia has recently shown itself a leader in making amends for historical injustices. In February 2008, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivered a lengthy and heartfelt apol - ogy to Aboriginal peoples for previous governments’ poli - cies of removing Aboriginal children from their parents. The forcible placement of Aboriginal children in state-run institu - tions or with non-Aboriginal foster parents was part of a pol - icy aimed at assimilating Aboriginals into white Australian so - ciety. Rudd then instituted severa l policies aimed at improving the Aboriginals’ lives. The Closing the Gap program, for example, requires the n

government to make detailed yearly status reports on Aborig - o s k c

inals’ status and establish concrete targets in areas such as I

5 D health services, school attendance and employment training. y n

The targets include closing the 10-year gap in life expectancy o t n

between indigenous and nonindigenous populations within a A / 6 s generation and halving child mortality rates by 2018. e g a m I

— Brian Beary y t t e G /

1 “Indigenous Language Programmes in Australian Schools — A Way Forward,” P F

Australia Department of Education, November 2008, pp. x-xii, www.dest.gov. A au/NR/rdonlyres/FBEAC65B-3A11-41F0-B836-1A480FDD82F9/25487/LPfinal A Maori dancer performs during a traditional welcoming ceremony 130109NP.pdf. for the Australian rugby team in Auckland, New Zealand, 2 James Anaya, “Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indige - on Sept. 6, 2011. The Maoris have achieved greater nous Peoples, Addendum, The situation of Máori People in New Zealand,” United Nations, Feb. 17, 2011, http://unsr.jamesanaya.org/docs/countries/ political representation than Australia’s Aboriginals. 2011_report_new_zealand_advanced_version.pdf. 3 Joanna Hoare, ed., “State of World’s Minorities and Indigenous People 2011 (Events of 2010),” Minority Rights Group International, July 6, 2011, p. 174, at Adelaide Town Hall, July 26, 2011, www.foreignminister.gov.au/speeches/ www.minorityrights.org/10848/state-of-the-worlds-minorities/state-of-the-worlds- 2011/kr_sp_110726.html. minorities-and-indigenous-peoples-2011.html. 6 4 “Closing the Gap — Prime Minister’s Report 2011,” Government of Aus - “National Perspective,” Native Title Tribunal, www.nntt.gov.au/Native-Title- tralia, February 2011, www.fahcsia.gov.au/sa/indigenous/pubs/closing_the_gap/ In-Australia/Pages/National-Perspective.aspx. 2011_ctg_pm_report/Pages/part_a.aspx. 5 Kevin Rudd, “Tjurkurpa: For the Indigenous People of the World,” speech

In New Zealand, Maori sovereignty Court rejected a notion espoused by suc - ment took back some of the autonomy claims over their land and natural re - cessive Australian governments, known it had granted Aboriginal communities sources got a boost in 1975 when the as “terra nullius,” which held that no one in the Northern Territory after the gov - Waitangi Tribunal was established to ex - owned the land until white Australians ernment found widespread child abuse amine such claims. But the Maori suf - settled it. The case had been filed by at indigenous settlements. Specifically, fered a setback in 2004 when the par - Eddie Mabo, an Aboriginal from the Tor - the government seized control of alco - liament passed the Foreshore and Seabed res Strait Islands, which separate Aus - hol and welfare-payment distribution, as Act denying Maoris sovereignty over coastal tralia from Papua New Guinea. The rul - alcohol abuse was considered a major areas. Maori anger over the edict forged ing led to the 1993 passage of the Native contributing factor to the abuse. 44 a new sense of political unity and sparked Title Act, which increased Aboriginal In Latin America between the 1960s the creation of the Maori Party in 2008. land rights and set up tribunals to look and 1980s, indigenous peoples were Aboriginal Australians’ scored a major into Aboriginal land claims. buffeted by a power struggle between legal victory in 1992 when the High But in 2007 the Australian govern - militant leftist groups and autocratic,

www.globalresearcher.com Sept. 20, 2011 461 SAVING INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

Levels of Autonomy Vary International Forums Indigenous peoples around the world have achieved varying degrees of hile indigenous peoples histori - autonomy or self-government, some only recently. For instance, the Greenlandic Wcally tended to negotiate with Inuit have enjoyed an increasing degree of autonomy since 2008, when its colonial and later national governments, home-rule government was allowed to operate independently from Denmark the emergence of international justice in nearly all matters except defense. Many of Canada’s Inuit, meanwhile, live in and similar concepts has prompted na - a special Inuit-majority province called Nunavut, created in 1999 under its tive peoples to advocate for their rights “provincial autonomy” style of government. in international forums. In the 1920s, for instance, an indigenous Canadian Selected Examples of Indigenous Self-Government group made its case for self-government to the League of Nations, only to see • Tribal government on government-approved reservations (American Indians) Britain take the issue off the agenda by • Provincial or territorial autonomy (Canadian Inuit, Nicaraguan Miskito) declaring it an internal matter. • Self-declared autonomous municipalities (Zapatista rebels in southern Mexico) When the League of Nations was • Enhanced autonomy (Greenlandic Inuit) succeeded after World War II by the United Nations, Bolivia tried unsuc - • Indigenous parliaments (Sami in Norway, Sweden and Finland) cessfully to create a panel to study the • Designated seats in national parliament (Maori in New Zealand) social problems of aboriginal popula - 47 Source: Brian Beary tions. In 1982, the United Nations formed a Working Group on Indige - often military-backed, right-wing gov - ated about 30 autonomous municipali - nous Populations. 48 The International ernments. Peru’s indigenous Amazon - ties in the southern state of Chiapas as Labour Organization, another U.N. ian communities greatly suffered at the part of the so-called Zapatista insurgency. agency, adopted a landmark treaty in hands of the Shining Path, a rebel Ancestral government policies — in - 1989 recognizing indigenous peoples’ Maoist group that controlled large cluding communal land ownership, in - right to control their cultures, economic parts of the country in the 1980s. Three- digenous education and the practice of development, language and religion. 49 quarters of the 70,000 people killed traditional medicine — were restored. In 2000, the U.N. established the Per - during Peru’s conflict with the Shining Although the Mexican government did manent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Path were Quechua-speakers. not recognize the autonomy of the new which held its first meeting in 2002. In Paraguay, the country’s 20 dif - municipalities, it did not use military A major breakthrough on the in - ferent indigenous peoples were near - force to suppress them. ternational stage occurred on Sept. 13, ly wiped out during the long dicta - In Norway, the Sami sought to mo - 2007, when — after more than 20 torship of Gen. Alfredo Strossner bilize politically in the 1970s after plans years of negotiations — the U.N. Gen - (1954-89), when their lands were ag - were announced for a hydropower pro - eral Assembly passed the Declaration gressively confiscated for agricultural ject on the Alta River, which would have on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, use and workers were brutally ex - interfered with their fishing and reindeer approved by 144 countries. * 50 ploited. 45 In Guatemala, Mayans were herding. Although they failed to halt the In April 2009 Australia reversed its associated with an anti-government in - power project, the Sami campaign — in - earlier opposition and endorsed the surgency in the 1970s, which prompt - cluding hunger strikes outside parliament declaration, with New Zealand, Cana - ed the government to conduct wide - — ultimately persuaded the government da and the United States following suit spread massacres in Mayan villages. to establish a Sami parliament in 1987. in 2010. They carefully qualified their A new, somewhat brighter era began Sweden and Finland, with smaller support by declaring that they would in the late 1980s, when Latin American numbers of Sami, followed suit, and in apply the declaration only within the countries began transitioning from au - 2000 the three Sami parliaments formed limits of existing legal and constitu - tocracies into pluralist democracies. In the joint Sami Parliamentary Council. tional frameworks. Chile, for example, after Gen. Augusto Further west, Greenland was granted its Pinochet’s dictatorship ended in 1990, own parliament in 1979; and in 2008 a * Eleven countries abstained, and four nations the new government recognized the dis - referendum to grant Greenlanders fur - — Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the Unit - tinctness of Chile’s indigenous commu - ther autonomy was approved by 76 per - ed States — opposed it, mostly because they nities. In the 1990s Mexico’s Mayans cre - cent of voters. 46 feared its impact on control of natural resources.

462 CQ Global Researcher According to Lightfoot at the Uni - of national governments to give in - made regarding their resources. “There versity of British Columbia, the decla - digenous groups a veto over local is no federal framework for getting ration has had “very limited” impact so development projects. prior consent,” says Chief Atleo, from far, as is generally the case with human In Danish-owned Greenland, explo - the Assembly of First Nations in Cana - rights declarations. However, “it will ration of subsurface resources is inten - da. “There is no national plan for en - hopefully grow over time,” she says. sifying, with the Scottish oil-drilling ergy. Instead, we have a patchwork Bolivia, a leading advocate of the company Cairn Energy moving 600 for - of jurisdictions.” declaration, and Ecuador have since eign workers each month to the town Indigenous groups are not univer - enshrined the declaration in their con - of Aasiaat in Disko Bay. 51 In Russia, sally opposed to resource develop - stitutions, while Belize’s high court has the state-owned gas company Gazprom ment. For example: cited it in a case. The World Confer - is building pipelines that would cut • The Inuit of Greenland are keen ence on Indigenous Peoples in 2014 through ancestral lands of the Evenks, to allow the extraction of oil and will examine how to meet the goals a small indigenous nation. In Cana - gas on their territory, which they set out in the declaration. da, oil sands operations threaten to see as crucial to their becoming On a regional level, the Inter- pollute the Athabasca River, which more self-sufficient. American Court for Human Rights — runs through lands occupied by the • Canada’s Inuit, who are zealous - established in 1979 in Costa Rica — Athabasca Chipewyan and Mikisew ly trying to safeguard their right has heard indigenous-related cases from Cree peoples. 52 In Mexico, a Spanish to trade in sealskins, have sued many countries, including Paraguay, company is installing 410 wind tur - the European Union over its de - Suriname, Guatemala and Brazil. It has bines that encroach on the homelands cision to ban sealskin imports. 57 moral and political authority over such of the Binniza and Huaves peoples • Argentina’s Guaraní Mbyá indige - cases because regional governments in the Tehuantepec Isthmus. 53 nous community, near the city of have signed the American Convention In South America, both Peru and Puerto Iguazu and its spectacular on Human Rights, the core document Brazil are proceeding with plans to Iguazu waterfalls, is developing interpreted by the court. build hydropower stations that could — with funds from both Ar - “Indigenous peoples are using the flood indigenous communities and de - gentina and Canada — a tourism courts effectively,” says the Interna - stroy tropical rainforests. 54 The Peru - industry centered around its tra - tional Center for Transitional Justice’s vian government also plans to give oil ditional culture. 58 Gonzalez. In fact, some Mayans re - and gas companies access to lands oc - •In Brazil, the Suruí, a 1,300-member cently pursued claims in Spanish courts, cupied by a remote Indian nation in Amazon people, have forged a he notes, because Spain applies the the Kugapakori Nahua Nanti nature re - partnership with the government principle of universal jurisdiction, mean - serve, which lies about 60 miles from and the U.N. that will help them ing it hears cases involving human rights the 15th-century Inca settlement of preserve some 925 square miles violations that allegedly occurred out - Machu Picchu. 55 Machu Picchu, Peru’s of rainforest and conduct carbon- side of its territory. biggest tourist attraction, attracted friendly agriculture. 59 800,000 visitors in 2010 and provides Meanwhile, Native Americans’ suc - 70 percent of Peru’s tourism revenue. cessful development of casinos on their In Chile, the government is trying to reservations has produced remarkable CURRENT convert its Easter Island territory, locat - results. Revenues from the still relative - ed in the Pacific Ocean 2,000 miles west ly young industry have grown rapidly. of the Chilean mainland, into a tourist “There has not been much down - SITUATION attraction centered around the island’s side” to the industry’s growth, says As - 887 giant carved stone heads, known as sistant Secretary Laverdure, “apart from Moais. Although the island was annexed the social ills associated with gambling.” by Chile in 1888, the Rapa Nui natives’ But some U.S. lawmakers want Development Dilemma opposition to Chile’s occupation of their tighter controls over how the casino lands has resulted in regular and some - revenues are used. After a 2006 U.S. he rising demand for natural re - times violent clashes, as well as a law - District Appeals Court ruling limited Tsources found in their homelands suit filed with the Inter-American Com - the U.S. government’s oversight pow - is a significant challenge facing in - mission on Human Rights. 56 ers on Indian-run casinos, Arizona Re - digenous peoples today. Tensions Most indigenous peoples want to publican Sen. John McCain called for are inevitable, given the reluctance be consulted before decisions are new legislation allowing the federal

www.globalresearcher.com Sept. 20, 2011 463 SAVING INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

their ancestors had grazed reindeer on the land since time immemorial. 62 In Australia, more than 400 legal claims by Aboriginals to secure native title to their traditional lands are being processed. Although the government is trying to settle the claims through negotiation, many of the cases are being referred to the National Native Title Tribunal. 63 Efforts continue in the U.S. Congress to grant native Hawaiians some form of political autonomy. Sen. Daniel Akaka, a Democrat from Hawaii, introduced a bill in March that he says “would sim - ply put native Hawaiians on equal foot - ing with American Indians and Alaska Natives.” The bill would create a gov - ernment specifically for those people registered on a still-to-be-compiled Na - tive Hawaiian roll. 64 Meanwhile, in Canada about 70 land claims and self-government negotiations are ongoing between the government and indigenous peoples, while 17 agree -

a ments have been concluded with 27 d n

o communities. A typical agreement takes H

65

n up to 25 years to conclude. a t S

/ In Latin America, at least 10 coun - s e

g tries have set up Truth Commissions a m I

to explore human rights violations com - y t t mitted by previous regimes, often e

G 66 / against indigenous peoples. * P F

A “The trend has received a mixed Keith Anderson celebrates his Cherokee and Catawba heritage by competing in the men’s reception, both among transitional jus - traditional dance category at a Native American Pow-Wow in King William, Va. The Cherokee tice practitioners and Indigenous rights were among five Southern tribes forcibly moved to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River after Congress passed the Indian Removal Act of 1830. activists,” according to Joanna Rice, as - Many Indians died on the journey, known as the “trail of tears.” sociate of the Truth and Memory Pro - gram at the International Center for government to more closely scrutinize Transitional Justice. 67 gaming operations. 60 But Indian rep - Going to Court Critics say the commissions merely resentatives are generally opposed to give guilty parties a chance to say that changing the status quo. ndigenous peoples continue to as - the past is over and that any demands Jamie Hummingbird, chairperson Isert their identities and achieve their for legal redress should be dropped. of the National Tribal Gaming Com - political goals through legal avenues. On the other hand, the commissions missioners/Regulators, says a 1988 For example, in April 2011 Sweden’s can provide a forum to raise critical law that gives tribal governments the Supreme Court ruled that Sami rein - exclusive right to regulate their gam - deer herders could continue to allow * Latin American countries with Truth Com - ing industries provides a “stable their animals to graze in the forests of missions include Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, framework.” northern Sweden, despite objections El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, Peru Further, he concludes, “If it ain’t from more than 100 landowners. The and Uruguay. broke, don’t fix it.” 61 Sami won because they proved that Continued on p. 466

464 CQ Global Researcher At Issue:

Shoyes uld indigenous peoples be educated in their own languages?

JON TODAL HELEN HUGHES PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS EMERITUS PROFESSOR AND FELLOW SAMI UNIVERSITY COLLEGE RESEARCH SCHOOL OF ASIA AND THE PA- GUOVDAGEAIDNU , N ORWAY CIFIC , A USTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY , CANBERRA , AND SENIOR FELLOW , C ENTRE WRITTEN FOR CQ GLOBAL RESEARCHER , FOR INDEPENDENT STUDIES SEPTEMBER 2011 SYDNEY , A USTRALIA WRITTEN FOR CQ GLOBAL RESEARCHER , SEPTEMBER 2011 he living conditions of indigenous peoples vary across the world. In some countries they are integrated into society, pen ended, this is a nonsensical question. However de - while in others they are marginalized. Despite these differ - t sirable for children to learn to read and write in their ences, indigenous peoples share many experiences, including the mother tongues, in many situations it is impractical. In attempt by nation-states to eradicate indigenous languages. o Papua New Guinea, for example, a developing country with just Since the 19th century countries have used schools to achieve under 7 million people, it has not been possible to train teachers monolingualism, or “one state — one language,” and all teaching and develop reading materials in the more than 800 indigenous in compulsory education was in the majority language. languages spoken there. As a result, indigenous children struggle more at school than Pretending to do so has contributed significantly to the children from the majority population, because they must learn country’s failure of education. After nearly 40 years of inde - not only their subjects but also a new language. The policy has pendence, education is in crisis, with only about 20 percent of signaled that indigenous languages are not valued, and such the population literate. negative school experiences account in part for why indigenous Some languages are dying out — not only in Oceania, but peoples havey a lower level eof educations than majority peoples. no also in the Americas, India, China and many other parts of One response among indigenous peoples has been to re - Asia and Africa — while new ones, such as Bahasa Indonesia, ject schooling as irrelevant, leading to low levels of education. have been evolving. Countries must decide on language teach - Another strategy has been to adjust to the schools’ values. For ing that is best for their inhabitants, and this usually means example, parents may stop speaking the indigenous language compromises between resources and ideals. with their children at home so that by the time the children Children must become articulate and literate in the prin - start school they are more on a par with majority children. cipal language or languages of their country so they can But this strategy halts the intergenerational transmission of in - function in its economy and society. They have to be able digenous languages, and the languages become endangered. to qualify for jobs, participate in democratic decision-mak - In other words, both these strategies (rejection and adjustment) ing and contribute to civil society. In countries made up of have a negative impact on indigenous societies. disparate groups, a national language or languages can A third strategy — to make schools in indigenous areas make a contribution to stability, equity and economic and adjust to the children’s language and culture — has produced social development. good results. It is now supported in Scandinavia, for example, Fortunately, research on the human brain has demonstrated where the indigenous Sámi people can receive primary educa - that children can absorb new languages at very early ages tion in Sámi as a separate subject, and they may choose to and can absorb several languages simultaneously when very have Sámi as the language of instruction in other subjects. young. Research also shows that linguistic development makes The level of education among the Sámi is no longer lower a special contribution to the development of children’s brains. than among the majority peoples in Scandinavia, and the Sami Teaching several languages simultaneously in pre-schools that language has been strengthened. take in children at 3 years of age and (even earlier) has made Those advocating indigenous peoples receiving education in a multilingual approach to teaching languages possible. their own language can find support for their view in interna - Equality of opportunity demands quality education from tional conventions. However, these formal rights are not the very early years so that children are fully articulate and literate main issue. They key points are that education in indigenous by the end of their primary education in a country’s principal languages gives children a positive experience of their own language or languages. The extent to which it is sensible to culture and also strengthens the traditional indigenous lan - teach mother or traditional tongues in practice depends on a guages. In this way children are better prepared for life both range of factors, including the extent to which such languages in the wider society and in the indigenous society. are developed and used, a country’s resources and parents’ For this reason education in their own language must be wishes. There is no one-size-fits-all model. an impno ortant right for all indigenous peoples.

www.globalresearcher.com Sept. 20, 2011 465 SAVING INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

Continued from p. 464 likely to report family violence or to 3,000 Indian police officers patrol indigenous issues, such as land re - access existing services,” says Valmaine 56 million acres of Indian land, which form, economic rights and cultural Toki from the U.N. Permanent Forum is 48 percent fewer than the average preservation, Rice notes. on Indigenous Issues. for the rest of the country. The new The Australian government recently law aims to address this shortfall by, reported that “progress is being made” among other things, expanding police Social Problems in closing the gaps between indige - training opportunities and extending nous and nonindigenous populations the hiring age of police officers from hile indigenous groups are mak - on several key measurements, with sig - 37 to 47 in hopes of encouraging more W ing progress on the political nificant improvements in child mortal - retired Native American military offi - front, the social situation continues ity in recent years. 69 The government’s cers to join. 71 to be dire. 2007 takeover of the management of Those understaffed tribal police forces face a growing gang presence. Some 225 youth gangs — many involved in drug trafficking — operate in the Navajo Nation alone, which has a population of 250,000. On Pine Ridge, a Lakota In - dian reservation in South Dakota, 39 gangs and 5,000 gang members have been identified in a population of 50,000. And Hispanic gangs have established a foothold on the Colville reservation in Washington State. 72 s n i b o R

f f o

e OUTLOOK G / s e g a m I

y t

t Preserving Nationhood e G / P F A Inuit hunter Pitseolak Alainga (left) explains native seal hunting techniques to Canadian he future of many indigenous lan - Finance Minister Jim Flaherty in Iqaluit, Canada, on Feb. 6, 2010. The Arctic’s Inuit worry Tguages is in doubt, although there about a resource grab by outsiders as the polar ice caps melt, making their region more is cause for cautious optimism in some accessible to international interests keen to develop the area’s abundant oil and minerals. places. In Bolivia, President Morales has set In Latin America, poverty rates re - Aboriginal communities in the North - up three indigenous language universi - main significantly higher among in - ern Territory has been loosened some - ties for Guaraní, Quechua and Aymara- digenous populations than nonindige - what under a new law that took ef - speakers and is requiring gov ernment nous. In a report on malnutrition in fect on July 1, 2010. Although the core officials to learn one of the nation’s Peru, UNICEF health officer Mario 2007 framework has been kept in 36 indigenous languages. In Suriname, Tavera noted that “the gaps are large place, Aboriginal communities now have where the indigenous represent 4 per - and have widened . . . one out of two more flexibility in applying alcohol re - cent of the population, there are plans [indigenous] children has chronic mal - strictions. to teach children from the Konomerume nutrition,” compared to the national In the United States, the Tribal Law community some subjects in their na - rate of 18 percent for children under and Order Act of 2010 aimed to boost tive language rather than the official the age of 5. 68 (See box, p. 454. ) tribal governments’ policing resources Dutch language. 73 In New Zealand, “Maori are over- in order to address the inadequate In Greenland, Inuit is now being represented as victims and perpetra - state of law enforcement services on spoken in schools, homes, the media tors of family violence and are less Indian reservations. 70 Currently, only and churches, with Danish prevailing

466 CQ Global Researcher only within the government adminis - similate. For example, First Nation peo - As Atleo of the Assembly of First tration. In Norway, the government has ples are beginning to identify who be - Nations puts it, “We are moving in the said, “it may . . . be necessary to take longs to their community. Presently, the right direction — we are being con - active steps to repair the damage in - Canadian government makes those de - sulted more — but a lot more needs flicted on indigenous cultures and lan - terminations. “We would like to change to be done.” guages, and to lay the foundation for this system,” says Chief Atleo, of the linguistic and cultural revitalization.” 74 Ahousaht Nation near Vancouver Island But in the United States, there is in Canada. a general concern that indigenous While there is near-universal sup - Notes languages are dying out. “There seems port among indigenous peoples for to be less and less of them spoken,” self-determination, few actually want 1 Jenny Macklin MP, Australian Minister for says Laverdure from the Indian Af - to secede and form an independent Families, Housing, Community Services and fairs Department. While a majority of country. When a group of disaffected Indigenous Affairs, “Building the foundations for change,” address to the Sydney Institute, his own nation, the Crow, speaks the Lakota American Indians, led by vet - Aug. 9, 2011, www.jennymacklin.fahcsia.gov. native language every day, that is eran activist Russell Means, declared au/speeches/2011/Pages/building_fundation_ more the exception than the rule for an independent Lakota Republic in change_address_sydney_09082011.aspx . Indian nations, he says. Generally, December 2007, the reaction from other 2 Joanna Hoare, ed., “State of World’s Minori - only the older people speak the na - Indians was decidedly muted. 76 ties and Indigenous People 2011 (Events of tive languages. In Nicaragua, a small group of Miski - 2010),” Minority Rights Group International, Canada’s Chief Atleo says his top to have been calling for independence, July 6 2011, p. 113, www.minorityrights.org/ priority is including the 52 indigenous says Rev. Bent, who has been a Mora - 10848/state-of-the-worlds-minorities/state-of- Canadian languages into the country’s vian preacher on the Atlantic coast for the-worlds-minorities-and-indigenous-peoples- education system. However, with little 25 years. “But they are not taken se - 2011.html ; Peter Katel, “American Indians,” CQ funding and a patchwork policy riously,” he says. “Really, they are just Researcher , April 28, 2006, updated July 2010; Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK), “Health Indicators framework, he concedes it will be an frustrated because autonomy has not of the Inuit Nunangat within the Canadian Con - uphill battle. come fast enough.” text 1994-1998 and 1999-2003,” www.itk.ca/ In New Zealand, the Maori television Greenland’s Inuit are a possible ex - sites/default/files/20100706Health-Indicators- channel now has an average monthly ception: They may try to expand upon Inuit-Nunangat-EN.pdf . audience of more than 1.6 million the enhanced autonomy they won in 3 Kathrin Wessendorf, (ed.), “The Indigenous viewers, yet only 23 percent of Maori 2008 by moving toward full indepen - World 2011,” The International Work Group and 4 percent of New Zealanders can dence. But some other indigenous for Indigenous Affairs, May 2011, p. 10, www. speak conversational Maori. 75 The peoples want to emulate what Green - iwgia.org/iwgia_files_publications_files/0454_ government is not doing enough to landers already have accomplished. THE_INDIGENOUS_ORLD-2011_eb.pdf . 4 provide for the use of Maori in courts “We are not looking for indepen - Ibid. 5 and government departments nor has dence,” says Victoria Hykes-Steere, an Jeff J. Corntassel and Tomas Hopkins, “Indige - nous ‘Sovereignty’ and International Law: Revised it trained enough teachers in Maori- Alaska Native and autonomy advocate. Strategies for Pursuing ‘Self-Determination,’ ” medium education, says Toki, of the “We would like to follow the Green - Human Rights Quarterly , May, 1995, pp. 343- U.N. Permanent Forum on Indige - land model, where they still have ties 365. Corntassel teaches indigenous governance nous Issues. to Denmark.” She believes indigenous at the University of Victoria in Canada and Intermarriage between indigenous peoples should have more autonomy Primeau teaches international relations at the and nonindigenous populations is ex - over such things as the right to hunt Tecnologico de Monterrey in Mexico. pected to continue. In some countries, and trade in marine mammals like wal - 6 Hoare, op. cit. , p. 176 . such as the United States and Aus - ruses and seals. 7 U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, opening remarks tralia, the rise in census figures for the Thus, while the self-determination at hearing entitled “Native Women: Protect - indigenous population is seen as a argument has, to some extent, been ing, Shielding, and Safeguarding Our Sisters, sign that a growing number of peo - legally won by indigenous peoples, Mothers, and Daughters,” U.S. Senate Com - mittee on Indian Affairs, July 14, 2011. ple of predominantly European an - this may turn out to be a hollow vic - 8 Remarks made at hearing entitled “Native cestry are now acknowledging their tory if it doesn’t translate into secur - Women: Protecting, Shielding, and Safeguarding aboriginal roots. ing control over their natural re - Our Sisters, Mothers, and Daughters,” U.S. Sen - However, that does not necessarily sources, ensuring the survival of their ate Committee on Indian Affairs, July 14, 2011. mean that indigenous peoples are like - culture and improving the economic 9 James Anaya, “Report of the Special Rappor - ly to shed their distinct identity and as - conditions of their societies. teur on the rights of indigenous peoples, Ad -

www.globalresearcher.com Sept. 20, 2011 467 SAVING INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

dendum, The situation of Maori People in New ticSovereignty.pdf . and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Zealand,” United Nations, Feb. 17, 2011, http://unsr. 17 See Brian Beary, “Race for the Arctic,” CQ Families, April 1997,” Australian Human Rights jamesanaya.org/docs/countries/2011_report_new_ Global Researcher , Aug. 1, 2008, pp. 213-242. Commission, www.hreoc.gov.au/social_justice/ zealand_advanced_version.pdf . 18 “First Nations Land Management (FNLM) Act bth_report/report/index.html . 10 Hoare, op. cit. Background,” Aboriginal Affairs and Northern 32 Helen Hughes and Mark Hughes, “Gap 11 Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia, Development Canada, Factsheet, April 2011. worse for remote indigenous,” The Australian , “Apology to Australia’s Indigenous Peoples,” 19 Hoare, op. cit. , p. 101. Sept. 3, 2008, www.theaustralian.com.au/politics/ Feb. 13, 2008, www.aph.gov.au/house/rudd_ 20 Ibid. opinion/gap-worse-for-remote-indigenous/story- speech.pdf . 21 Lars-Anders Baer, “The Autonomy of the Sami e6frgd0x-1111117374575 . 12 Sen. Daniel Akaka, opening remarks at over - Parliaments,” Gáldu , May 25, 2011, www.galdu. 33 For more information, see “World Directory sight hearing on “Enforcing the Indian Gaming org/web/index.php?odas=5248&giella1=eng . of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples,” Minority Regulatory Act — The Role of the National In - 22 Brian Beary, Separatist Movements — A Rights Group International, www.minorityrights. dian Gaming Commission and Tribes as Reg - Global Reference , CQ Press, 2011. org/directory . ulators,” U.S. Senate Indian Affairs Committee, 23 Wessendorf, op. cit. 34 Corntassel and Hopkins, op. cit. , pp. 343-365. July 28, 2011. For background, see Patrick 24 Akaka, “Native Women: Protecting, Shielding, 35 Ibid. , pp. 344-345. Marshall, “Indian Casinos Rake in Billions,” in and Safeguarding Our Sisters, Mothers, and 36 Sheryl Lightfoot, “Ojibwa,” in Richard T. “Gambling in America,” CQ Researcher , March 7, Daughters,” op. cit. Schaefer, ed., Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, 2003, pp. 214-215. 25 Constanza Vieira, “Colombia: Native and Society , DePaul University, SAGE Publica - 13 Maria Railaf Zuniga, speech given at a Eu - Groups Mobilise Against Escalation of War,” tions, 2008, pp. 995-998. ropean Parliament conference entitled, “The IPS, July 22, 2011, www.galdu.org/web/index. 37 Mary C. Hurley, “The Indian Act,” Library Mapuche in Chile: Indigenous Communities php?odas=5326&giella1=eng . of Parliament (Canada), Oct. 4, 1999, http://dsp- in Modern Latin American States,” March 25, 26 Hoare, op. cit. psd.pwgsc.gc.ca/Collection-R/LoPBdP/EB/prb 2011, www.unpo.org/downloads/187.pdf . 27 Ibid. 9923-e.htm . 14 “Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, Convention 28 Namaka Rawlins, testimony, “In Our Way: 38 Anaya, op. cit. No. 169,” International Labour Organization, Expanding the Success of Native Language & 39 “Bringing them Home,” op. cit. www.ilo.org/indigenous/Conventions/no169/lang Culture-Based Education,” U.S. Senate Com - 40 Troy R. Johnson, We Hold The Rock: The In - --en/index.htm . mittee on Indian Affairs, May 26, 2011, http:// dian Occupation of Alcatraz, 1969 to 1971 (1991). 15 Alexandra Garretón, “Nequén Courts Rule in indian.senate.gov/hearings/hearing.cfm?hearingid 41 For text of the resolution, see www.digital Favor of Mapuche,” The Argentina Independent , =e655f9e2809e5476862f735da16d6c3a&witness history.uh.edu/native_voices/voices_display.cfm? March 9, 2011, www.argentinaindependent. Id=e655f9e2809e5476862f735da16d6c3a-1-0 . id=96 . com/currentaffairs/newsfromargentina/neuquen- 29 Larry Lasley, testimony, ibid. 42 See Oystein Steinlien, “The Sami Law: A Change courts-rule-in-favor-of-mapuche -/. 30 Rainer Grote, “On the Fringes of Europe: of Norwegian Government Policy Toward the 16 “Circumpolar Inuit Launch Declaration on Europe’s Largely Forgotten Indigenous Peoples,” Sami Minority?” The Canadian Journal of Native Arctic Sovereignty,” press release, Inuit Circum - American Indian Law Review , Vol. 31, No. 2, Studies , 9(1), pp. 1-14, www2.brandonu.ca/ polar Council, April 29, 2009, www.inuitcircum (2006/2007), pp. 425-443. library/cjns/9.1/Steinlien.pdf . polar.com/files/uploads/icc-files/PR-2009-04- 31 “Bringing them Home: Report of the Na - 43 Johnson, op. cit. 28-CircumpolarInuitLaunchDeclarationonArc tional Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal 44 “Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER) Redesign,” factsheet, Government of Aus - tralia, www.fahcsia.gov.au/sa/indigenous/prog About the Author serv/ctgnt/ctg_nter_redesign/Pages/default.aspx . 45 Interview with Eduardo Gonzalez, Interna - Brian Beary , a freelance Irish journalist based in Washing - tional Center for Transitional Justice, Aug. 1, 2011. 46 ton, D.C., specializes in European Union (EU) affairs and “Greenland Vote Favors Independence,” Agence France-Presse, The New York Times , is the U.S. correspondent for the daily newspaper, Euro- Nov. 26, 2008 www.nytimes.com/2008/11/26/ politics . Originally from Dublin, he worked in the European world/europe/26greenland.html . Parliament for Irish MEP Pat “The Cope” Gallagher in 2000 47 E. Lutz and N. Ledema, “Addressing indige - and at the EU Commission’s Euro barometer unit on pub - nous rights at the United Nations,” Cultural lic opinion analysis. Beary also writes for the Brussels- Survival , Fall 2004, www.culturalsurvival.org/ based Parliament Magazine and The Globalist . His last publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/united- report for CQ Global Researcher was “Brazil on the Rise.” states/addressing-indigenous-rights-united-nations . He also wrote CQ Press’ recent book, Separatist Move - 48 Corntassel and Hopkins, op. cit. , pp. 343-365. ments, A Global Reference. 49 Lutz and Ledema, op. cit. 50 “United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,” Sept. 13, 2007, www.un.

468 CQ Global Researcher org/esa/socdev/unpfii/en/declaration.html . 51 Wessendorf, op. cit. , p. 64, 52 Ibid. , p. 63. FOR MORE INFORMATION 53 Ibid. Bureau of Indian Affairs , Office of Public Affairs, Department of the Interior, 54 Ibid. 55 MS-3658-MIB, 1849 C St., N.W., Washington, DC 20240 ; (202) 208-3710 ; www.bia.gov . “Machu Picchu celebrations just 100km from The main U.S. government department responsible for matters concerning Ameri - uncontacted tribes,” Survival International , July can Indians and Alaska Natives, established in 1824. 20, 2011, www.survivalinternational.org/news/7496 . 56 Haider Rizvi, “Easter Islanders Seek U.N. In - Center for World Indigenous Studies , PMB 214, 1001 Cooper Point Rd., S.W., tervention in Dispute with Chile,” IPS, Jan. 22, #140, Olympia, WA 98502-1107 ; (360) 450-5183 ; www.cwis.org . An independent re - 2011, www.galdu.org/web/index.php?odas=5085 search and education organization that studies social, economic and political issues. &giella1=eng . 57 Wessendorf, op. cit. Cultural Survival , 215 Prospect St., Cambridge, MA 02139 ; (617) 441-5400 ; 58 Clarinha Glock, “Guarani Effort to Strength - www.culturalsurvival.org . Nongovernmental organization that helps to raise public en Culture Through Tourism,” IPS/Tierramérica, awareness of indigenous issues. Jan. 25, 2011, www.galdu.org/web/index.php? odas=5093&giella1=eng . Gáldu Resource Center for Indigenous Peoples , Hánnoluohkká 45, N-9520 59 Steve Zwick, “Brazil’s Indigenous Surui Es - Guovdageaidnu-Kautokeino, Norway ; 47 78 44 84 00 ; www.galdu.org . Funded by tablish First Indigenous Carbon Fund,” Ecosytem the Norwegian government, the center maintains a comprehensive database of Marketplace , Dec. 3, 2010, www.ecosystem news articles on indigenous peoples around the world. marketplace.com/pages/dynamic/article.page.php? page_id=7871§ion=news_articles&eod=1 . International Center for Transitional Justice , 5 Hanover Square, Floor 24, New York, NY 10004 ; (917) 637-3800 ; http://ictj.org . A nonprofit organization that 60 The case was Colorado River Indian Tribes aims to address legacies of massive human rights violations and build civic trust v. National Indian Gaming Commission , 05- in state institutions as protectors of human rights. 5402 (D.C. Cir. 2006). 61 “Enforcing the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs , Classensgade 11 E, DK 2100, — The Role of the National Indian Gaming Copenhagen, Denmark ; 45 35 27 05 00 ; http://iwgia.org . A human rights organization Commission and Tribes as Regulators,” op. cit. that supports indigenous peoples’ self determination, right to territory, control of 62 Peter Vinthagen Simpson, “Sami win long land and resources, cultural integrity and right to develop. fight for reindeer grazing rights,” The Local (Sweden’s news in English), April 27, 2011, www. United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues , United Nations, 2 U.N. allvoices.com/s/event-8906845/aHR0cDovL3J Plaza, Room DC2-1454, New York, NY 10017 ; (917) 367-5100 ; www.un.org/esa/soc zcy50aGVsb2NhbC5zZS9jLzY1Ni9mLzgzNTkv dev/unpfii . Studies indigenous issues related to economic and social development, cy8xNDc0MDM1MC9sLzBMMFN0aGVsb2Nhb culture, the environment, education, health and human rights. DBCc2UwQzMzNDMwQTBDMjBBMTEwQTQ yNzBDL3N0b3J5MDEuaHRt . Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation , Laan van Meerdervoort 70, 63 “Information on Native Title,” Attorney Gen - 2517 AN The Hague, The Netherlands ; 31 (0)70 36 46 504 ; www.unpo.org . A eral’s Office, Government of Australia, www.ag. nongovernmental umbrella group that promotes the rights of indigenous peoples, minorities and unrecognised or occupied territories. gov.au/www/agd/agd.nsf/Page/Indigenous_law_ and_native_titleNative_title . 64 “Akaka, Hawaii Delegation reintroduce Na - 67 Joanna Rice, “Indigenous Rights and Truth 71 “Summary and Explanation of Provisions in tive Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act,” Commissions,” Cultural Survival , Spring 2011, the Tribal Law and Order Act of 2010,” Mapetsi Office of U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, March 30, 2011, www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural - Policy Group, www.narf.org/nill/resources/TLOA/ http://akaka.senate.gov/press-releases.cfm? survival-quarterly/none/indigenous-rights-and- tloamapetsi.pdf . method=releases.view&id=66dc8f8c-9f3a-4ddb- truth-commissions . 72 “Hearing on the Crime and Law Enforcement b89d-7e7329758c44 . 68 Ángel Páez, “Malnutrition Has an Indigenous Situation in Indian Country,” U.S. Senate Com - 65 “Fact Sheet: Comprehensive Land Claims,” Face in Peru,” IPC, Jan. 19, 2011, www.galdu. org/ mittee on Indian Affairs, July 30, 2009. Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development web/index.php?odas=5080&giella1=eng . 73 Wessendorf, op. cit. Canada, Government of Canada, February 2010, 69 “Closing the Gap — Prime Ministers Report 74 “The Foundation for Sami policy,” Ministry of www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/eng/1100100016296 . 2011,” Government of Australia, February 2011, Government Administration, Reform and Church 66 “Truth Commission Digital Collection,” www.fahcsia.gov.au/sa/indigenous/pubs/clos Affairs (Norway), www.regjeringen.no/en/dep/ United States Institute of Peace, www.usip.org/ ing_the_gap/2011_ctg_pm_report/Pages/part_a. fad/Selected-topics/Sami-policy/midtspalte/the- publications/truth-commission-digital-collection . aspx . foundation-for-sami-policy.html?id=87039 . For background, see Jina Moore, “Truth Com - 70 Full text of act is found at www.justice.gov/ 75 Anaya, op. cit. missions,” CQ Global Researcher , Jan. 1, 2010, usao/az/IndianCountry/Tribal%20Law%20%20 76 Beary, op. cit. pp. 1-24. Order%20Act%202010.pdf .

www.globalresearcher.com Sept. 20, 2011 469 Bibliography Selected Sources

Books Grote looks at how indigenous groups in Europe, such as the Sami, are asserting their autonomy. Beary , Brian , Separatist Movements — A Global Refer - ence , CQ Press , 2011 . Rice , Joanna , “Indigenous Rights and Truth Commissions,” The world’s most significant autonomy movements, which Cultural Survival , Spring 2011 , www.culturalsurvival. are often led by indigenous peoples — including the org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/none/indige Inuit, Maori, Mapuche, Mayans and Sami — are covered nous-rights-and-truth-commissions . in this handbook by the author of this CQ Global Re - An associate at the International Center for Transitional Justice searcher report. explores whether so-called truth commissions, set up to look into dark chapters in a country’s past, truly help indigenous peoples. Hemming , John , The Conquest of the Incas , Mariner Books , 2003 . Reports and Studies A Canadian explorer and expert on indigenous peoples of the Amazon recounts the brutal history of the Spanish con - “Bringing them Home,” Government of Australia , April quest of Peru’s Incas in the 16th century. 1997 , www.hreoc.gov.au/social_justice/bth_report/report/ index.html . Mackey , Eva , The House of Difference: Cultural Politics This sensational and groundbreaking Australian government and National Identity in Canada , University of Toronto report, issued after a national inquiry into an earlier gov - Press , 2002 . ernment policy that separated Aboriginal children from their A professor of anthropology at Carleton University in Cana - families, prompted the government to issue an official apology da examines Canada’s relationship with its indigenous peoples, to the Aboriginals. arguing that — despite its reputation for multiculturalism — the government has not promoted genuine autonomy for in - Anaya , James , “The situation of the Maori People in digenous nations. New Zealand,” United Nations , Feb. 17, 2011 , http://unsr. jamesanaya.org/docs/countries/2011_report_new_zealand_ Maddison , Sarah , Black Politics: Inside the Complexity advanced_version.pdf . of Aboriginal Culture , Allen & Unwin , 2009 . Following a 2010 visit, the United Nations Special Rap - A fellow at the University of New South Wales critically porteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples assesses the explores Australian Aboriginal politics, highlighting tensions progress made by New Zealand’s Maori. within the community’s leadership over the past 25 years. Hoare , Joanna , ed., “State of World’s Minorities and In - Mutu , Margaret , The State of Maori Rights , Huia Pub - digenous People 2011,” Minority Rights Group Interna - lishers , 2011 . tional , July 6, 2011 , www.minorityrights.org/10848/state- These articles, written between 1994 and 2009 by the head of-the-worlds-minorities/state-of-the-worlds-minorities-and- of the Department of Maori Studies at the University of Auck - indigenous-peoples-2011.html . land, provide the Maori perspective on hot-button issues such A comprehensive report from a British-based nongovern - as land rights. mental organization charts the main events in 2010 that af - fected minorities and indigenous peoples. Articles Hurley , Mary C. , “The Indian Act,” Library of Parliament Corntassel , Jeff J. , and Tomas Hopkins , “Indigenous ‘Sov - (Canada) , Oct. 4, 2009 , http://dsp-psd.pwgsc.gc.ca/ ereignty’ and International Law: Revised Strategies for Collection-R/LoPBdP/EB/prb9923-e.htm . Pursuing ‘Self- Determination,’ ” Human Rights Quarterly , The Canadian government’s parliamentary research unit as - Vol. 17, No. 2, May 1995 , pp. 343-365 . sesses the legacy of the 1876 Indian Act, the key legislation The authors contend that modern state governments create a regulating Canada’s relationship with its First Nation peoples. double standard when they claim the right of self-determination for themselves while denying it to their indigenous communities. Wessendorf , Kathrin , ed., “The Indigenous World 2011,” The International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs , Grote , Rainer , “On the Fringes of Europe: Europe’s May 2011 , www.iwgia.org/iwgia_files_publications_files/ Largely Forgotten Indigenous Peoples,” American Indian 0454_THE_INDIGENOUS_ORLD-2011_eb.pdf . Law Review , Vol. 31, No. 2, 2006/2007 , pp. 425-443 . A Copenhagen-based advocacy group gives a comprehen - Instead of discussing the Americas and Australasia, which sive, country-by-country status report on indigenous peoples typically receive attention in discussions of indigenous rights, around the world.

470 CQ Global Researcher The Next Step: Additional Articles from Current Periodicals

Autonomy Barnes , Taylor , “Brazilian Soap Operas Get Their First Black Lead Actor,” The Christian Science Monitor , June 9, 2011 , “Indigenous Townships Call for Autonomy,” China Post , www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/2011/0609/Brazilian- Dec. 19, 2010 , www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/national/na soap-operas-get-their-first-black-lead-actor . tional-news/2010/12/19/284236/Indigenous-townships.htm . The introduction of a black Brazilian into one of the coun - The Indigenous Peoples Action Coalition of Taiwan has try’s soap operas is indicative of the growing influence of the called for the government to safeguard the interest of in - country’s black population. digenous groups in five townships by granting them more autonomy. Samarina , Aleksandra , “Trap of Multiculturalism,” Neza - visimaya Gazeta (Russia), Feb. 14, 2011 . Marszalek , Jessica , “Torres Strait Push for More Autonomy,” Corrupt Russian officials are more unlikely to socially accept Australian Associated Press , Aug. 28, 2011 . the country’s indigenous groups into mainstream culture. The Queensland government in Australia says it won’t stand in the way if the Torres Strait wants to become a self-governing Natural Resources territory. “Colombian Indians Sign Own Version of Kyoto Protocol,” Tebay , Neles , “Papua Needs a Negotiated Affirmative EFE news service (Spain) , Oct. 9, 2010 , laht.com/article.asp? Policy,” Jakarta (Indonesia) Post , Dec. 20, 2010 , www.the ArticleId=370486&CategoryId=12393 . jakartapost.com/news/2010/12/20/papua-needs-a-nego Several Colombian indigenous groups have signed their tiated-affirmative-policy.html . own measure to control greenhouse gases. Native Papuans say gaining autonomy 10 years ago has failed to bring them prosperity. Macalister , Terry , “Natural Resources Exploration in the Arctic,” Guardian Unlimited (England), July 4, 2011 , www. Bolivia guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jul/04/natural-resources- arctic-q-and-a . “Bolivian Congress Puts Limits on Indian Traditional Human rights advocates say indigenous groups should be Courts,” EFE news service (Spain) , Dec. 17, 2010 , www.laht. consulted in any projects to develop natural resources in com/article.asp?ArticleId=381820&CategoryId=14919 . the Arctic. Bolivian lawmakers have approved a bill restricting in - digenous traditional justice, after an outcry over the lynchings Morrison , Joe , “Indigenous Fire Skills Blaze an Eco-Friendly of allegedly corrupt Indian police. Trail,” Canberra (Australia) Times , July 28, 2011 . Science suggests that the fire practices of indigenous Aus - “ ‘Indigenous Thinking Can Solve Climate Crises,’ Says tralians could help preserve the tropical savannahs in the Bolivia’s Foreign Minister,” Guardian Unlimited (England), northern part of the country. April 13, 2011 , www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/ poverty-matters/2011/apr/13/bolivia-foreign-minister-solving - CITING CQ G LOBAL RESEARCHER climate-crises . Sample formats for citing these reports in a bibliography Bolivia’s foreign minister says indigenous Andean attitudes about preservation could better inform the world about con - include the ones listed below. Preferred styles and formats serving nature and natural resources. vary, so please check with your instructor or professor.

Paredes , Ivan , “Quintana Accuses CIDOB,” La Razon MLA STYLE (Bolivia), Aug. 25, 2011 . Flamini, Roland. “Nuclear Proliferation.” CQ Global Re - The former Bolivian minister of the presidency has ac - searcher 1 Apr. 2007: 1-24. cused the U.S. Agency for International Development of using indigenous governments to destabilize the Morales APA S TYLE administration. Flamini, R. (2007, April 1). Nuclear proliferation. CQ Global Integration Researcher , 1, 1-24. CHICAGO STYLE Arellano , Gustavo , “Ask a Mexican on Native Tongues and Ancestry,” Phoenix New Times , Sept. 16, 2010 . Flamini, Roland. “Nuclear Proliferation.” CQ Global Researcher , Many indigenous Mexicans are taking a hesitant approach April 1, 2007, 1-24. when it comes to socially integrating with the ruling classes.

www.globalresearcher.com Sept. 20, 2011 471 Voices From Abroad:

CATHY FREEMAN TEDDY BRAWNER “We want to live in peace, move for the current gov - with development that re - ernment to move to remedy Aboriginal athlete and BAGUILAT spects our lands. Your shov - this. Constitutional acknowl - 2000 Olympic gold Chairman, House Commit - els will crash into our chil - edgement of indigenous peo - medalist, Australia tee on Natural Cultural dren. That is why you do not ple is long overdue.” want a binding consultation. Australian Associated Press Communities, Philippines So our spears and arrows will The difficult past October 2010 “There’s still an aura of be ready for the mechanical Slow progress diggers [that] want to destroy racism and hatred and “There is today intense de - ENNETH EER loathing. It’s hard because it our virgin territory.” K D mand by indigenous commu - Mohawk Indian, Canada does bring up the past. Every - nities to evaluate and review The Independent (England) one’s country has got a past the implementation of IPRA August 2011 ‘It’s up to us’ they don’t feel good about.” (Indigenous Peoples Rights “As indigenous peoples Act). Our indigenous peoples The Boston Globe, September MARIA TOMASIC it’s up to us to hold Cana - have reported persistent viola - 2010 President, Royal Australian da’s feet to the fire on this tions of their Free and Prior Declaration. I’m cautiously Informed Consent requirement, and New Zealand College optimistic. I’m not doing cart - BAN KI-MOON the hasty manner in the ap - of Psychiatrists Australia wheels, but we have to use Secretary-General proval of mining explorations, it in the most positive way deployment of the military as United Nations Long overdue to advance the rights of in - a security force to mining and “The fact that our consti - digenous peoples.” A benefit to all the unacceptably slow titling tution does not recognise in - “The United Nations Dec - of their ancestral domains.” digenous Australians is inex - Indian Country Today (United States), November 2010 laration on the Rights of In - Philippine News agency cusable, and it is an admirable digenous Peoples finally has August 2011 the consensus it deserves. Now we need to make the declara - tion’s principles a reality. . . . BEDE HARRIS We must end the oppres - Senior Law Lecturer sion, and we must ensure Charles Sturt University that indigenous peoples are always heard.” Australia

Speech before Permanent Stating the obvious Forum on Indigenous Issues “A statement ‘recognising’ May 2011 the existence of indigenous people would be simply to SANJEEB DRONG state the obvious, and would General Secretary be no more useful than adding to the constitution a Bangladesh Indigenous statement that Australia is in Peoples Forum, Bangladesh the Southern Hemisphere or that the sky is blue.”

Self-identification is key Canberra (Australia) Times s o j

“No state can impose any e l

November 2010 l i t identity on any people or s a C community. This is a viola - o ADOLFO CHAVEZ i tion of human rights. Self- r a D identification is considered Leader, Indigenous / s i s as a fundamental criterion i Peoples’ Confederation r C for the identification of in - a L digenous and tribal peoples.” Bolivia o i r a

Daily Star (Bangladesh) Ready for battle D June 2011