Indigenous People in the 21st Century

Wilma Mankiller

What is indigenous people? native people that fight to protect their land, natural resources, cultural practices.

They have such enormous diversity on history, language, culture, system of governance, and way of life on each group ( -+5000 distinct group).
Shared Issues :

Share some common values : Inseparable, interdependence, reciprocity. People will be respected when people help the other , play themselves out within a set of reciprocal relationships. Tribal people differs from region to region in a range of federal goverment with sovereign rights.

Problems rooted in Colonialism

Colonial policies : social, economic, political

Discovered and subjected to colonial expansion into their territories. Basic rights : disregarded, assimilated into colonial society and culture by policies poverty, raised mortality, unemployment, substance abuse. U.N Declaration that protects self-determination and treaty rights of indigenous people ( economic, social, culture development). Regain control over more of their own lands and resources to develope economies. Economies and address social issues: high premium on preserving tribal culture, languages, healing arts, songs, and ceremonies. Retained traditional knowledge still, while there such an enormous adversity.

1.

What does it mean to be an indigenous person in the 21st century?

being part of a community that is not only has faced devastating poverty and oppression, but also possessed valuable anchient knowledge without forgetting the responsibility to conserve the land.

2. Trusting on owns vision , being able to dream of the future, and having both the skills sets and leadership ability within communities to make them real. 3. Sharing and networking traditional knowledge and best practices with indigenous peoples all over the world using the recent technology ( iPhone, BlackBerry, Facebook, Youtube). 4. Being an entrepreneur, physician, scientist that will leave the recent recidence to get more experiences and then return home to be part of ceremonies that have been conducted.

5. Honoring the ancestors who kept their visions fixed firmly on the future and acknowledging past injustice without paralyzing into inaction by anger about the past or present-day challenges.