Author Description

Concerned With Native American Self-determination, This Book Proposes That International Human Rights And The International Political Systems Are The Means By Which The Political Aspects Of Indian Self-determination In North And South America Must Be Achieved. The First Half Of The Book Deals With The Legal And Political Status Of Indians Peoples; The Second Half Involves Two Case Studies. The Author Shows That What In The 1970s Became Known As The New Indian Wars, With Attacks On Indian Rights By The Government And Transnational Corporations, Did Not Simply Begin Again In That Decade But Had Never Ceased. The Distinguishing Feature Of The 1970s Was That Indians Abandoned Their Defensive And Purely Local Struggles To Take The Political Offensive On The World Stage. Geopolitical Realities Of The Pre-colonial Indian World -- Resistance And Survival Of The Centres -- Why The Indian National Question Today? -- Historical Basis Of The Indian National Question. Part 1. International Framework For The Indian Question. New Realities With Indian Participation -- International Indigenous Organizations -- Existing International Instruments And Organs -- Self-determination In International Law -- The Interamerican Indian Treaty -- International Labor Organization Treaty On The Indigenous -- United Nations Sub-commission Study Of Indigenous Populations -- Working Group On Indigenous Populations -- United Nations Seminar, Managua -- International Organizations -- World Council Of Churches -- Fourth Russell Tribunal On Indians Of The Americas -- Possible International Initiatives -- Annex: The Declaration On The Granting Of Independence To Colonial Countries And Peoples. Part 2. The National Question In The Americas. Points Of Departure -- Genocide And Survival: The Origins Of Indian Advocacy -- The Fourth World -- Pan-indianism -- The Significance Of Ethnicity -- Does Indian Self-determination Threaten Class Self-determination? -- Indigenous Socialism -- Self-determination And The Development Of Theory -- The National Question In The Guatemalan Revolution -- Points Of Departure For Analysing The National Question. Part 3. The American Indian Nation In The United States. The Issues -- Land And Resources -- Labour -- Treaties And Other Territorial Rights -- Fundamental Human Rights -- Analytical Framework For The Indian Question -- The Contemporary Indian Land Base -- Inadequacy Of The Reservation Land Base -- Political Status Of Indian Reservations -- The Sioux Liberation Struggle -- Navajo Self-determination -- Contemporary Indian Resistance -- United States Government Policy In The 1970s: The 1980 Response To Helsinki Human Rights Violations -- Requirements For Indian Survival -- The National Question Of American Indians In The United States. Part 4. The Miskitu Nation In Revolutionary Nicaragua. Importance Of The Nicaraguan Case -- The Context -- The Indian Situation In Central America -- Formation Of The State In Nicaragua -- Marketing Self-reliance: Disintegration Of The Miskitu Nation -- Birth Of A Nation: 19 July 1979 -- International Human Rights In A State Of Emergency -- Summary Of The National Question In Nicaragua: Model Policy Or Exceptional Case? -- Annex: Declaration Of Principles Of The Popular Sandinista Revolution In Regards To The Indigenous Communities Of The Atlantic Coast. Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz. An Autonomedia Book. Includes Index. Bibliography: P. 281-305.