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Native people historically have faced epic oppression and violations of their human rights. When the first Europeans came to the Americas, it was inhabited by millions of sovereign Indigenous peoples. As more settlers arrived, Native people were relentlessly pushed out of their homelands. After the founding of the United States, laws were made to legally support expansion into Native lands at the expense of Native people. Indigenous law advocates and activists are diligently working on numerous human rights issues across all legal fields. Such issues include: missing and murdered Indigenous women (MMIW), violence against women and children, protection of sacred sites, educational and health disparities, crime in Indian Country, poverty and homelessness, treaty recognition, language and cultural loss, voting rights, water rights, taxation jurisdiction, climate change, employment and housing discrimination, oil pipelines across Native lands, Native misrepresentation and cultural appropriation, and the continuing effects of the Covid-19 virus and its variants.
For more specific resources on International Indigenous Rights click here
This guide would like to acknowledge that Suffolk University is located on the traditional and ancestral land of the Massachusett, Pawtucket, and Naumkeag the original inhabitants of what is now known as Boston and Cambridge. We pay respect to the people of the Massachusett, Pawtucket, and Naumkeag Tribe past and present, we honor the land itself which remains sacred to the Massachusett, Pawtucket, and Naumkeag Peoples.
This is a year-long clinic offered for 10 credits. The clinic is open to day and evening students in their last two (2) years of law school and Accelerated JD students in their last year. The clinic advocates before international human rights bodies, such as the United Nations or the Inter- American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), on behalf of tribes or indigenous non-profit organizations. Currently, the clinic represents Guatemalan indigenous rights organizations before the IACHR on a freedom of expression petition. Students would have the opportunity to contribute to that representation by updating the Commission on events, researching and writing documents related to the petition and coordinating with NGO staff. The clinic also represents Native American tribal governments and communities, as well as indigenous non-profit organizations located primarily in the New England region, but also nationally and internationally. When working with tribal governments, the types of projects on which students may work are drafting tribal court procedural rules, tribal laws or policies and procedures for a government department.
Maya Kaqchikel Indigenous Community of Sumpango and others v. Guatemala
Indigenous Research Methodologies offer a distinct and vital framework to ensure research truly benefits Indigenous Peoples and advances reconciliation. These approaches prioritize Indigenous worldviews, knowledge, and voices, directly challenging Western paradigms that have often marginalized Indigenous perspectives. Indigenous Research Methodologies center Indigenous knowledge, prioritize community partnership, and adhere to strong ethical principles, resulting in more relevant, respectful, and empowering outcomes. Indigenous research methods include storytelling, oral history, ceremony, land-based learning, art, sharing circles and much more
It is important to think critically about the “how” of your research and the ways in which your research methods have been shaped by your worldview and experiences. The way you approach research may have been shaped by leaning on community, and the sharing of knowledge by your elders. Alternatively, it may have been shaped by 15 years in a Western education system.
Researchers that only use academic markers of authority (peer review, academic credentials, etc.) to evaluate information will find a one-sided perspective because academic sources are most often written about Indigenous communities rather than by them. Reliance on academic authority effectively silences many of the voices of Indigenous people on their own culture. Under this colonialist construction of knowledge, interpretation of Indigenous cultures is denied to members of that culture and reserved for those with academic authority.
Western systems of knowledge appropriate and at the same time devalue information created by Indigenous ways of knowing. When working with Indigenous Knowledge in an academic context, it is vital to respect the authority, agency, and voice of Indigenous Knowledge. Do not treat Indigenous authorities as mere "informants," but rather as equals in the knowledge creation process.
Indigenous Knowledge System, Alaska Native Knowledge Network
A compilation of links on topics related to Indigenous Knowledge Systems.
Local and Indigenous Knowledge Systems (LINKS), UNESCO
This program by UNESCO “promotes local and indigenous knowledge and its inclusion in global climate science and policy processes” by engaging indigenous peoples with scientists and policymakers. Themes include Science Policy, Biodiversity, Climate Change, and Knowledge Transmission.
A forum for dialogues related to Indigenous knowledge and science including a recognition of practices where Western knowledge has invalidated Indigenous ways of knowing. See Past Forums for recordings and blog summaries for each dialogue. Based in Canada. Affiliated with several foundations and the Canadian government.
Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) vs. Western Science, National Park Service
A list with summaries of reports, documents, and videos that discuss how an understanding of the environment requires Indigenous knowledge.
This PDF outlines characteristics of Indigenous and Western knowledges. Provides brief summaries of research frameworks that link Indigenous and Western knowledges.
Indigenous Knowledge systems are diverse and multifarious, though they often share practices based on long histories of accumulated experiences with the world. The particulars and specifics of this knowledge are related to the whole as Native knowledge is often holistic and interrelated (Barnhardt and Kawagley, 2005). This knowledge is passed on through stories, demonstrations, and trial.
In traditional Native knowledge systems there is respect and trust for inherited wisdom, often communicated through an oral tradition, and for knowledge that has proved its utility in everyday practices. There is respect for stories that connect the particulars of knowledge to holistic worldviews, values, and life ways. Knowledge is often collective, evolving in a community of users, knowers, and actors. Authority is not conferred via systematic processes of Western bureaucracy, but rather through community decision making and respect for the knowledge and authority of elders (Barnhardt and Kawagley, 2005).
Western knowledge is typically compartmentalized, taught in detached and decontextualized settings, and indirectly measured with tests rather than judged based on one’s ability to put that knowledge into practice.
Indigenous Knowledge has often been misappropriated and misinterpreted by scientists and academics. Examples of the misappropriation of Indigenous Knowledge include:
Biopiracy - the appropriation of Indigenous knowledge of plants and natural resources by non-Indigenous scientists or for-profit companies, especially the pharmaceutical industry
Appropriation of symbols or art - this story explains the Indigenous origin of New Mexico’s state flag, a sacred symbol created by the Zia people, and shared by a non-Indigenous anthropologist without Zia consent or compensating the Zia. The Zia ask that permission be requested to use the symbol and that those using the symbol contribute to a scholarship fund for Zia children.
Appropriation of sacred land for research purposes - the summit of Maunakea on the big island of Hawai'i is sacred to the Hawaiian nation. It is also the site of 13 astronomy telescopes and the proposed location of a thirty-meter telescope, against the wishes and informed consent of Indigenous peoples. Native scientists advocate the creation of a Cultural Impact Assessment process and emphasize the need for historical context in STEM, with an awareness of the costs of research on marginalized communities that prioritizes the agency and decision-making of Indigenous groups.