8-4 Organizing to Survive

The Yekuana of Southern Venezuela

Political and Economic Self-Determination Publicity surrounding the situation of indigenous tribal groups in Amazonia in the face of development and colonization has led to, and centers upon, efforts to help the Amerindians obtain legal title to their lands and the basic right to cultural survival. These goals are certainly admirable and well worth pursuing. However, given the current political…

The Minority Rights Group

In delivering the 12th Annual Minority Rights Group Lecture on "1984 and Human Rights" on February 23, 1984, the former Director of Human Rights for the United Nations, Dr. Theo Van Boven noted: The struggle for human rights constitutes an appeal and a challenge to those who are in power positions, such as governments, international organizations, transnational corporations and all other forces…

The Indigenous Peoples' Network

In the past ten years communication between native peoples has exploded. The increasingly unstable world economy and rapid information dissemination systems have contributed to a common understanding of the economic, political and social forces affecting native peoples on six continents. Isolation from regional and world events is a thing of the past for even the most remote indigenous…

The Failure to Protect Tribal Peoples

The Polonoroeste Case in Brazil The Polonoroeste project consists of highway resurfacing, the building of feeder roads, the construction of storage facilities, the titling of land, and other "development" measures in western Brazil. The World Bank contributed $412 million to the project. Serious doubts about the wisdom of this expensive project were voiced before loan arrangements were signed.…

Model Villages in the Ixil Region

Phase Two of Counterinsurgency in Guatemala has begun In July and August of 1984, Vincent Flynn visited a number of highland Guatemalan communities. The following account describes new model villages located to the west of the Ixil center of Nebaj in the department of Quiché. Two model villages, Acul and Tzalbal, are already constructed, while a third, Salquil, is in the early stages of formation…

The Anthropology Resource Center

The Anthropology Resource Center (ARC, Inc.) is a small, non-profit, public-interest research organization dedicated to making anthropological ideas and knowledge" relevant to some of the pressing social problems of the modern world. Founded by Dr. Shelton H. Davis in 1975, much of ARC's work focuses on promoting the human rights of indigenous peoples in the Western Hemisphere. Committed to the…

Organizing to Survive

Throughout the world, indigenous peoples have begun to form organizations and to establish links with other national and international organizations to assert their rights. Thousands of organizations representing single villages, regions or even indigenous peoples of the entire world are asserting the rights of indigenous peoples. They are focusing on such diverse issues as local cultural and…

Misurasata Goes Home

Miskito leader Brooklyn Rivera was invited to return to Nicaragua to negotiate the return of some 20,000 Nicaraguan Indians now living in exile. After Nicaragua's Miskito Indians stepped onto the front pages of newspapers throughout the world in early 1981, their representative body, Misurasata, gradually became the most well-known Indian organization in the Americas. But it acquired much of its…

Martial Law and the Tausug

Moslem ethnic groups in the southern Philippines have been pushing for regional political autonomy since World War II. This struggle, which at times has included open warfare, has caused considerable displacement. Since the 1972 declaration of martial law in the Philippines, the various Moslem ethnic groups in the southern Philippines have waged an ongoing armed struggle against the central…

International Strategies For the Protection of the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples

The past decade has witnessed a great expansion in the activities of organizations dedicated to promoting the international protection of the human rights of indigenous populations. Today, a worldwide network of support organizations exists which can respond to crisis situations faced by native communities, bring these situations to the attention of the media and other human rights groups, and…

Indigenous Peoples - The Anti-Slavery Approach

Nearly 150 years ago, in 1837, a group of liberal-minded Quakers rounded the Aborigines Protection Society. In 1909, it merged with the Anti-Slavery Society. The Anti-Slavery Society can claim, therefore, that it is the oldest organization in the world concerned about indigenous peoples and championing their cause. Over a century and a half, the broad objective of the Society has changed from…

Indigenists, Environmentalists and the Multilateral Development Banks

The Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), with their massive development projects, affect the lives of indigenous peoples and the environment every day. But it has been hard to find ways for indigenous peoples, indigenists, and those concerned with the environment to affect their decisions. Over the last eighteen months, a campaign to do just that has brought together major US environmental…

Guatemalan Refugee Update

In August 1984 Cultural Survival, Americas Watch and Germany's Green Party sent delegations to Mexico to assess the situation of the Guatemalan refugees in Chiapas. Their highly critical reports coupled with several condemning articles in the Mexican press, put pressure on the Mexican government to rethink its resettlement of 46,000 Guatemalan refugees to mass camps 250 miles away in Campeche. In…

Famine in Ethiopia

There is, once again, famine in Ethiopia. The world has responded, albeit belatedly, with food and the financial commitment to ensure that supplies reach the intended recipients. The media has billed the response to the famine as the largest humanitarian outpouring to a natural disaster in memory. However, the situation in Ethiopia and the response in the West raise two important questions which…

Cultural Survival Projects – 1984

Since 1972, 60% of Cultural Survival's limited funds have gone to support field projects. This year, as in past years, some projects have ended, others are ongoing and some new ones have been undertaken. The following update provides a brief overview of the projects Cultural Survival currently supports. How Are Projects Selected? Cultural Survival, rather than designing projects, responds to…

Conservation and Indigenous Peoples

A Study of Convergent Interests A crucial issue before tribal societies (at the national political level) and lobbyists on their behalf (at the level of international pressure and advocacy) is to find strategies that will enlist the energies of others to act on their behalf. Many sympathetic human rights groups at the international level have begun to lobby for better aboriginal entitlement, and…

Colombian Indian Organizations

Along process of extermination and reduction of rich and advanced Indian cultures began almost 500 years ago. The Aztec, Maya, Tayrona, Inca and Muisca, among others, had large cities and a wide variety of crops; they Were accomplished artisans, musicians and singers, philosophers and mathematicians, recognized astronomers and scientists. But, the conquest violently altered the dynamics of…

Ancestral Land and Cultural Survival

Ethnic minorities in the Philippines are pursuing a number of strategies to defend and retain their ancestral lands. The least Westernized cultural groups in the Philippines, the ethnic minorities, know that loss of ancestral land means the loss of ancestral culture. This threat, however, looms larger today than ever before. A rapidly expanding national population and an increasing number of…

Amazonian Indians Participate at UN

Indians from five Amazonian countries presented their cases at UN meetings in July/August. In August of this year, the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations met in Geneva to consider the issues of indigenous peoples' rights to land. Although Mário Juruna, the Xavante Indian Deputy from Brazil, stole the show with the European press and television, a much more important story was unfolding:…

A Search for Unity Within Diversity

A number of organizations claim to represent the indigenous populations of the Andean Region. As they vie for economic and political support many of these groups are manipulated by individuals, political parties, unions, churches and assistance agencies. Since the 1950s, a number of organizations have emerged in the Andean republics which claim to represent the aspirations of the region's…