The Fourth World Journal (FWJ) is a peer-reviewed international journal published by the Center for World Indigenous Studies, USA. CWIS is an Indigenous -directed, 501 (c) 3 Non Profit research, policy and education organization. FWJ is a platform for international scholars and activists, and political and cultural leaders. Published continuously since 1984, The FWJ has been a reliable, trusted, and respected source of contemporary Fourth World scholarship and commentary from around the world. The journal publishes studies, commentaries, and analyses of the ideas, knowledge, and conditions of more than 5,000 Fourth World (Indigenous) Nations, representing over 1.9 billion people globally. The journal publishes articles across a diverse range of fields, including: Anthropology, communication and cross-cultural studies, demography, indigenous environmental sciences, food sovereignty, development governance, economics, education, ethics, geography, history, international relations, indigenous legal systems and law, linguistics, media studies, methodologies, philosophy, political science, population studies, psychology, public health, sociology, literature, visual and performing arts (music, theater, and dance), religious studies, and women’s/feminist studies.
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Embodying Mana Wāhine: Rongoā as Identity, Body Sovereignty and Knowledge Transmission
This article examines how Māori healers navigate the reclamation and revitalization of rongoā Māori as a locus of cultural identity, bodily sovereignty, and intergenerational resilience. Drawing on qualitative interviews, the study employs a hybrid methodology combining Kaupapa Māori principles with Indigenous qualitative research methods. Findings highlight that rongoā is not solely a therapeutic modality but also a living expression of mana wāhine through identity, body sovereignty, and knowledge transmission. Participants describe rongoā as an embodied experience, a reclamation of bodily autonomy, and as a form of healing knowledge succession. By applying Indigenous epistemologies, we aim to demonstrate that rongoā supports identity reclamation, self-determination in healthcare, and the ongoing creation of Indigenous knowledge. This research contributes to the growing recognition of Indigenous healing systems as central to decolonization, wellbeing, and cultural resurgence.
Copyright (c) 2026 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Wombs, Waters, and Wort: Infertility, Ethnobotany, and Pharmacognosy Among Female Healers in Southwest Nigeria
Interest in Yorùbá fertility and childbearing practices arises from deeply embedded cultural values that prioritize reproduction as central to social identity and continuity. Building on the works of Thomas Bowen, Karin Barber, and Ade Dopamu, this study argues that fertility in Yorùbáland transcends biological function, representing a critical dimension of cultural survival. Drawing on oral histories and indigenous traditions, the paper examines conceptions of pregnancy, infertility, and reproductive health within Yorùbá society. It highlights how infertility is often attributed to spiritual or malevolent forces, necessitating the intervention of traditional medicine and female healers. These practitioners play a crucial role in addressing both physical and ontological barriers to conception, demonstrating resilience and specialized knowledge. The study further explores local medical systems and gendered experiences, revealing Yorùbá maternity care as a holistic and culturally grounded practice. Ultimately, the analysis underscores the enduring relevance of indigenous knowledge in shaping reproductive health outcomes despite colonial and modern influences.
The Indigenous Matriarch Manifesto: Kinship, Matriarchy, and Indigenous Healing
This article examines Indigenous matriarchy as a dynamic framework for healing intergenerational trauma and sustaining cultural continuity. Grounded in Diné (Navajo) and Nimiipuu (Nez Perce) knowledge systems, it employs an Indigenous feminist, narrative-based methodology that positions lived experience as theory. Situating personal and familial histories within the broader context of colonial boarding school policies, the paper argues that disruptions to matriarchal roles and kinship systems have had lasting impacts on community wellbeing. Through analysis of women-centered practices—including foodways, ceremony, and relational accountability—it demonstrates that healing is enacted through collective relationships rather than individualized models of care. The article identifies Indigenous women as central agents in maintaining cultural knowledge and facilitating intergenerational recovery. It concludes that Indigenous matriarchy remains an active, adaptive system of governance and care, and calls for its greater recognition within Indigenous health frameworks and feminist scholarship.
Decolonizing Mental Health in Humanitarian Crises: A Mixed-Methods Synthesis of Cultural Resilience and Structural Equity in India and the Global South
Humanitarian crises in the Global South, intensified by climate change and conflict, expose deep inequities in mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS), rooted in colonial legacies that marginalize local epistemologies. This study advances a decolonial framework through a mixed-methods synthesis, integrating reflexive thematic analysis (RTA) with Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Drawing on studies, anonymized X posts (2023–2025), and participatory action research from Bihar’s floods and Kashmir’s conflict, we identify six themes: historical neglect, cultural misalignment, co-creation, cultural innovations, worker trauma, and decolonizing systems. SEM examines pathways such as epistemic colonialism, driving distrust and community-led innovations improving service uptake. Sensitivity analyses ensure robustness across LMIC contexts. Findings advocate for NDMA-mandated MHPSS screenings, NHM-funded storytelling, and worker support, emphasizing data sovereignty and equity. This framework reimagines MHPSS as a conduit for epistemic justice, offering scalable strategies for resilience in crisis-affected communities.
Humanitarian Crises and Psychosocial Support
Community-Based Resilience and Epistemic Justice
Interweaving Relationality – Inawendiwin (Connection): Women Revitalizing Resurgence and Reciprocity
Indigenous women’s leadership in medicine, health, and education continues to flourish across generations despite the enduring pressures of colonialism and industrialized care. This article interweaves storywork and conversational methods to illuminate seven interconnected, primarily women-led perspectives intersecting with the Center for Indigenous Land-Based Education, Research, and Wellness at xwc̓ic̓əsəm, at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver: The Medicine Camp; the Medicine Collective; the Indigenous Focusing-Oriented Therapy Collective; the ekw’í7tl Doula Programs; Women’s Wellness Gathering; Water Collective, and the Matrilineal Mentorship Collective. These sites address decolonial trauma, environmental justice, and food sovereignty through practices that restore reciprocity among land, body, memory, and community. We present a five-practice framework—research coordination, protocol engagement, preparation and access, application on the land, and reflection and storywork—as a model for weaving Indigenous relational ethics into education, health, and policy. We conclude with recommendations for Indigenous-led governance in health and higher education as pathways toward planetary wellbeing.
“Our Foods Remember Us”: Indigenous Women’s Ancestral Diets, Nutritional Knowledge, and Cardiometabolic Health
Cardiometabolic non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes, disproportionately affect Indigenous communities worldwide, with Indigenous women bearing distinct health and caregiving burdens. This review reframes Indigenous women’s ancestral diets as a form of traditional medicine and a coherent, place-based health system supporting cardiometabolic regulation. Drawing on interdisciplinary literature from India, North America, Oceania, and Latin America, the paper synthesizes evidence on traditional food systems, women’s knowledge practices, and metabolic health outcomes through Indigenous epistemologies and intersectional analysis. The findings demonstrate that ancestral diets—rooted in ecological stewardship, cultural continuity, and women’s leadership—support glucose balance, cardiovascular health, and the regulation of inflammation. Situating Indigenous nutritional knowledge in dialogue with public health and clinical nutrition, the paper argues for ethically grounded, women-led food sovereignty approaches as integral to equitable and sustainable cardiometabolic disease prevention and care.
Reclaiming the Sacred Science of Garbha Samskara: The Adi Shaiva Tradition's Vision of Conscious Conception and Prenatal Care
This paper examines Garbha Samskara practices described in the Garbha Upanishad within the Adi Shaiva tradition, exploring how ancient prenatal sciences cultivated cognitive development and spiritual consciousness in children. Drawing on original Sanskrit verses, the eNpregnancy program revived by Supreme Pontiff of Hinduism Sri Nithyananda Paramashivam (SPH), Akashic record readings, historical accounts of royal women who raised enlightened children, and testimonies of parents participating in the eNpregnancy program in modern times, the study demonstrates that pre-colonial Indian societies possessed advanced understandings of fetal consciousness and maternal–fetal bonding. It argues that modern Western educational paradigms and the contemporary expectations imposed on women have eroded access to these knowledge systems, leading to a disconnection from embodied feminine wisdom. Through analysis of ritual structures, philosophical foundations, and methodologies, the paper positions Garbha Samskara as an indigenous alternative to medicalized pregnancy and calls for epistemic justice and recognition of women’s traditional medicine as legitimate science.
Yakama Women at the Longhouse: Huli-Carried Medicine and Traditional First Food Ceremonies
This paper examines Indigenous epistemologies grounded in relationality, lived knowledge, and spiritual connections to land within Yakama communities. Building on prior research, it explores Yakama women’s traditional ecological knowledge through elder interviews and participation in Longhouse (Washat) and First Foods practices. These traditions reflect a worldview that honors natural elements as living forces and emphasizes women’s roles in stewardship and knowledge transmission. Focusing on berry-picking practices and the Huckleberry Feast, this study highlights how women sustain and adapt cultural traditions. The findings underscore the resilience of Indigenous knowledge systems and their importance in maintaining reciprocal relationships with land and community.
Indigenous Women and Cultural Revitalization
Reclaiming Auntie Wisdom: Cultivating Indigenous Doula Pathways for Birth Justice and Community Healing
Indigenous doulas protect and pass on ancestral birth and reproductive knowledge and nurture safe birthing spaces for Indigenous people and communities. This paper shares findings from a community-embedded mixed-methods study of the Indigenous Responsive Mentorship Doula Initiative in the northwestern United States. The authors introduce the Auntie Wisdom Indigenous Doula Training Framework highlighting the growth and traditional healing doulas experienced in this training initiative, as represented by cedar (knowledge), sweet grass (connection), and sage (advocacy). The initiative successfully prepared doulas to offer birth support, advocate with and for their clients, and collectively support community healing and futurity. Results indicate the important need for additional resources to support community-led Indigenous doula work and physical birth justice hubs, especially in rural Tribal communities.
Naming the Fatigue, Rekindling the Fire: Gitxsan Matriarchs’ Fight Against Colonial Disorder
This article introduces two conceptual frameworks—Post-Settler Disorder (PSD) and Colonial Contact Fatigue (CCF)—to describe the ongoing impacts of settler colonialism on Indigenous peoples in Canada. Written from the perspective of a Gitxsan woman, the paper draws on Indigenous epistemologies, storytelling, and feminist scholarship grounded in lived experience. PSD functions as a satirical analytical lens exposing settler denial, historical amnesia, and narratives of innocence that sustain colonial systems. CCF names the cumulative spiritual, emotional, and physical exhaustion experienced through continuous contact with colonial institutions. The article highlights the role of Indigenous women, humor, and matrilineal knowledge as sources of resilience, resistance, and pathways toward healing.
“Wayra and the Dream Snake” is a short story that explores dreams, illness, ancestral healing, and Indigenous understandings of the body through the journey of a young nurse in the Amazon. Blending magical realism and traditional medicine, the narrative reflects on vocation, memory, and spiritual transformation.
Essays, Reviews, and Creative Expression
Book Review: The Water Remembers: My Indigenous Family’s Fight to Save a River and a Way of Life, by Katsi Cook
This book review examines The Water Remembers by Amy Bowers Cordalis, highlighting Indigenous environmental knowledge, Yurok relationships to the Klamath River, and the connections between ecological restoration, cultural revitalization, and healing practices.
Beyond Integration: Indigenous Health Sovereignty and Traditional Medicine Policy in the United States
This policy paper examines Indigenous peoples’ traditional medicine in the United States as a comprehensive, land-based system of health grounded in intergenerational knowledge, ecological relationships, and community governance. It analyzes tensions between Indigenous health self-determination and state-led health policy, with particular attention to federal frameworks and the evolving approach of the World Health Organization (WHO) toward traditional medicine—from the community-based recognition reflected in the 1978 Declaration of Alma-Ata to more recent approaches emphasizing integration through regulation, biomedical validation, and standardization. The paper argues that these frameworks often marginalize Indigenous epistemologies by removing healing practices from their cultural, spiritual, and ecological contexts while privileging external evidence systems and governance structures. Drawing on examples from Tribal Nations and urban Indigenous communities, including Indigenous-governed health systems and community-based interventions, the paper highlights documented contributions to physical health, behavioral health, and community well-being. It also identifies structural barriers, including funding inequities, restrictive reimbursement policies, and the exclusion of traditional healers from formal systems. Situating these dynamics within ongoing colonial policy structures, the paper advances policy recommendations that prioritize Indigenous health self-determination, Tribal sovereignty, epistemological pluralism, and support for autonomous land-based systems of care.
Indigenous Traditional Medicine and Health Sovereignty in the United States
Decolonizing Health Policy: Indigenous Healing Systems and Epistemological Justice
Tribal Health Self-Determination and the Politics of Traditional Medicine
The Healing Power of Māori Women’s Ancestral Mark
This paper explores the interaction between feminist and Indigenous epistemologies with a particular focus on Māori women in Aotearoa (New Zealand) and the contributions of Mana Wahine theory (the authority of Māori women). Māori are the Indigenous people of Aotearoa, with connections to land, environment, cultural traditions, and a worldview shaped by whakapapa (genealogy), wairua (spirituality), and collective identity. Colonization disrupted many of these traditions; however, Māori women have continued to hold and transmit Indigenous knowledge through the generations. This paper validates the healing practice of moko kauae (traditional female chin tattoo) as a prime example of Mana Wahine. The apaper examines how Western feminist approaches can both align with and diverge from Indigenous ways of knowing. Drawing on Mana Wahine theory and the lived experiences of Māori women, it affirms the centrality of cultural identity in understanding Māori women’s health and healing.
Revitalizing Kichwa Midwifery Medicinal Plant Knowledge for Pregnant Women in San Martín, Peru
This article shares the traditional knowledge of Kichwa midwife Conzuelo (“Mamá Conzuelo”) Tapullima de Tuanama Tuanama about pregnancy, childbirth, and the use of medicinal plants in the community of Chirik Sacha, San Martín, Peru. Through interviews and visits to her garden, the text highlights four essential plants and the teachings that accompany them. Laura Corradi wrote the premises, acknowledgments, introduction, and conclusions, situating Mamá Conzuelo’s knowledge within the broader context of the stigmatization of Indigenous midwifery and the cultural revitalization efforts taking place in the region. The article aims to support the preservation of this knowledge and underscores its importance for community health and for recognizing the central role of midwives within an intercultural framework.
Community-driven research is important in studies involving women as knowledge holders, as it elevates their voices and agency. This case study adapts the concept of “translational research” following an ethnobotanical survey of Haitian women in New York City (NYC). Moving beyond documenting medicinal plants for women’s health, Haitian participants in community centers were engaged in transforming research findings into practical tools through focus group discussions, in which they re-evaluated and refined the outcomes based on their traditional knowledge and preferences. This collaboration resulted in co-created educational materials—compiled by researchers but authored by Haitian women—that are available in Haitian community centers in NYC and online. This model showcases translational ethnobotany, in which research proactively engages communities to generate practical resources that support their health, knowledge sharing, and cultural heritage. Future ethnobotanical surveys and funding bodies should recognize translational outcomes as essential for ensuring that research benefits communities at its core.
Nomadic Tribes and the Integration of Health, Wellness, and Traditional Ecological Knowledge in India
This paper examines the intersection of health, wellness, and traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) among nomadic and denotified tribes in India through a critical ethnographic and feminist lens. Drawing on fieldwork conducted with the Raika, Van Gujjar, and Sansi communities, the study highlights how these groups sustain culturally rooted health systems that are deeply embedded in ecological relationships, seasonal rhythms, and gendered knowledge transmission. Despite possessing rich medicinal and healing traditions, these communities remain excluded from formal healthcare due to historical criminalization, legal invisibility, and policy designs that favor sedentary populations. The research underscores the need for pluralistic, mobile, and culturally respectful health models that integrate traditional healers, recognize women’s roles as health custodians, and protect indigenous knowledge through legal and institutional frameworks. Through thematic analysis, the study proposes a reimagining of public health in India—one that is inclusive, decolonial, and responsive to the lived realities of nomadic peoples. The findings advocate for policy transformation rooted in participatory governance, ecological justice, and epistemic plurality.
Oral Testimonies of Traditional Medicine A Kamëntša Woman’s Legacy
This article presents an oral testimony of Mamita Maria Dolores, a Kamëntša elder and healer from the Sibundoy Valley in southwest Colombia. Through an interview, the author documents the intertwined dimensions of Kamëntša ancestral knowledge, women’s roles, healing practices, and the cultural significance of the chagra. Mamita’s narratives reveal how spirituality, plant medicine, storytelling, and communal labor sustain Kamëntša identity amid the enduring impacts of colonization, language loss, and social change. Her personal history—rooted in midwifery, uterine care, herbal medicine, and community leadership—embodies the resilience and continuity of Indigenous women’s knowledge. The article blends ethnographic reflection with lived testimony, offering a window into a worldview in which healing, land, memory, and womanhood remain profoundly interconnected.
In In this article Hailey Allen (Yakama) explores the role of traditional medicine among Yakama women as a vital expression of Indigenous knowledge and a fundamental aspect of Longhouse (Washat) cultural continuity. Referred to as the Seven Drums Religion, or Waashat and Washani, the Longhouse Religion of the Columbia Plateau, including the Yakama, is better understood as a spiritual way of life rather than a formal religion. This study employs an immersive, participatory framework, utilizing elder interviews, Longhouse ceremonies, ceremonial runs, and community knowledge, alongside the harvesting of sacred First Foods: salmon, roots, berries, deer, and water. These elements are central to Longhouse practice. Anchored in the metaphor of Huli, the Sahaptin term for wind, Allen illustrates how Yakama women embody the cyclical and relational transmission of knowledge, thereby fostering cultural continuity and ecological stewardship through generations.
Traditional ceremonies of the Columbia Plateau
Within the context of the World Health Organization’s new Global Strategy on Traditional Medicine (2025–2034), this article employs Indigenous Research Methodologies to examine the integration of Indigenous medicine into contemporary clinical practice. Drawing on personal reflexive ethnography, the author proposes moving beyond a dualistic framework and the notion of “second sight” toward a multifocal perspective that weaves together narrative, Indigenous teachings, and scientific discourse. This approach emerges from a mixed Indigenous and multicultural identity that articulates Indigenous medical practices, integrative medicine, and Western biomedical science. The analysis includes a critical review of traditional, integrative, and complementary medicine, biomedicine, gender disparities in healthcare, and the historical role of women, with particular emphasis on Sámi traditional medicine. Finally, the article discusses clinical experiences that engage with the four objectives of the WHO strategy: evidence, safety and efficacy, integration into health systems, and community empowerment.
This book review examines a distinctive literary collaboration that brings together original artwork, Indigenous storytelling, and carefully researched historical facts to portray forty-four legends from dozens of diverse Indigenous Peoples across the Americas and Oceania. The collection offers readers a rare opportunity to experience ancestral narratives through both visual and textual forms, highlighting the richness of cultural traditions and the resilience of communities whose voices have often been marginalized. Each legend is accompanied by striking artistic interpretations that not only illuminate the stories but also serve as a bridge between oral tradition and contemporary scholarship. The review situates the book within the broader context of Indigenous knowledge systems, emphasizing its relevance to ongoing conversations about cultural preservation, identity, and the intergenerational transmission of women’s wisdom. By presenting legends that span vast geographies and diverse peoples, the volume underscores the interconnectedness of Indigenous worldviews and their enduring significance.This review informs readers of the book’s format and thematic scope while encouraging engagement with its unique artistic and historical content. Ultimately, the work stands as both a cultural archive and a creative celebration, inviting scholarly audiences to appreciate its contributions to Indigenous literature and heritage.
This text is an intimate and moving tribute to Ema, a forest healer whose life was dedicated to the ancestral art of healing through plants and spiritual rituals. Narrated from the personal experience of author Randy Chung Gonzales and written by Lucas Nakandacare, the story reconstructs the relationship between mentor and apprentice, marked by the silent transmission of profound knowledge born from the bond with Pachamama and the spirits that inhabit the forest. Through memories, descriptions of traditional cures—such as the treatment of mal de aire in children—and a sensitive and poetic language, the author portrays Ema’s greatness, her humbleness, and her legacy. The text honors the value of Indigenous knowledge and of wise women, guardians of a spiritual medicine often ignored by modernity, and suggests a reflection on the continuity of this knowledge in those who receive it with respect and commitment.
This article was originally published in Vol. 1, No. 1, October 1985. In this article, Rÿser discusses the actions Indigenous nations should take based on international legislation developed between 1970 and 1985. While he considers much of this change superficial, he focuses on the 1977 Protocol I and II additions to the Geneva Conventions, which present new opportunities other than war for nations to achieve self-detemination. Comparing these protocols to the original Geneva Conventions—which enabled genocide within decolonized states under the guise of respecting state sovereignty—Rÿser highlights their potential. He explains the functions of Protocol I, showing that while it is focused on international conflict, it supports Indigenous causes by implicitly including Fourth World combatants through its defintion of the involved parties and the role of supervising states. Rÿser emphasizes how it normalizes recognition of Indigenous nations and helps prevent genocide. He also discusses Protocol II on internal conflicts, which, though a step forward, is less comprehensive and therefore unlikely to be widely applied given Fourth World nations’ limited access to international institutions. Overall, Rÿser calls on Indigenous nations to take initiative in enforcing both protocols, suggesting they ratify the accords to enable peaceful conflict resolution and seize the opportunity to positively influence the international order and gain equal footing with states.
Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Regulating Access to Customary Fourth World Foods and Medicines
This article was originally published in Vol. 17, No. 1, Winter 2019. Fourth World (indigenous) nations regularly express concerns, frustrations, and demands declaring their rights to sustained access to wild-harvested plants and animals as sources of medicines and nutrition for the benefit of their people. They give rhetorical power to the claim that biological diversity is essential for sustainable life on the planet. Yet, despite public declarations and appeals to prevent contamination, damage, or destruction of biologically diverse medicinal sources of wild plants and animals, biologically diverse plants and wildlife continue to be destroyed. In this article, the authors argue that little actual evidence exists to demonstrate that either the cultural and governing leadership of Fourth World nations or states (or their international bodies) proactively engage in the promulgation of enforceable customary or statutory regulations or laws ensuring access and uses of medicinal plants and animals beneficial to indigenous communities. The authors furthermore argue that cultural and governing leaders in Fourth World nations can and must initiate regulatory rules, laws, and practices that they enforce to prevent continuing plant and animal damage and destruction reported by the nations themselves and the states exercising jurisdiction. Non-Fourth World jurisdictions (cities, states, provinces/counties) regularly engage in economic, social, and political development activities that alter and often destroy access to or the healthful use of wild plants and animals beneficial for the health and sustainability of Fourth World communities and individuals. These alterations include activities that elevate CO2 and other greenhouse gas levels, herbicide and insecticide contamination, and genetic modifications. Pathways to restore access to, and protection of, customary wild-harvested foods and medicines to Fourth World nations may include a framework, statutory incorporation of customary laws (cultural incorporation), complementary jurisdictional regulation, or intergovernmental protocols. Alternatively, a form of internationally supervised reconciliation that in part holds non-Fourth World jurisdictions accountable for the destruction and restoration of dietary and medicinally beneficial wildlife that recognizes the agency of Fourth World nations to proactively establish and enforce customary and statutory laws may serve as an alternative or parallel initiative.
United Nations Conference on Environmental Development
Copyright (c) 2025 Rudolph C. Rÿser, PhD, Leslie Korn, PhD, MPH, Dina Gilio-Whitaker (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Trust Arrangements between States and Indigenous Nations in the International Environment
This article was originally published in Vol. 12, No. 2, Winter 2014. In this transcript of Dr. Rÿser’s remarks made before the US Department of the Interior’s Secretarial Commission on Indian Trust Administration and Reform, held in Seattle, Washington, on Feb 13, 2003, Dr. Rÿser examines historical and contemporary trust relationships between states and indigenous nations. He outlines the origins and evolution of these arrangements, emphasizing the imbalance of power and the often exploitative nature of such relationships.
Commission on Indian Trust Administration and Reform
Dr. Miguel Alfonso Martinez Final Report
Copyright (c) 2025 Rudolph C. Rÿser, PhD (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Conjoining: The Reawakening to Spiralism from the Age of Progressivism
Written in 1999 at the beginning of the Mayan calendar's transformation to a new era, this article explores the value of Indigenous American thought systems, which he terms Cuarto Spiralism. Rÿser argues that while all cultural philosophies contribute to a shared quest to understand reality, Spiralism offers a more meaningful framework than dominant modern ideologies—yet still accommodates elements of them. Drawing from his Cowlitz perspective, Rÿser critiques progressivism and its rise to prominence, highlighting its assumptions of human dominance, rationalism, and inevitable improvement. He shows how these beliefs have enabled Western conquest and ecological harm, and how Spiralism now challenges them. Using Mesoamerican and Cowlitz traditions like the Give-Away, Rÿser presents Spiralism as a philosophy that unites reason and intuition, embraces both material and immaterial realities, and sees time as cyclical—where past, present, and future are intertwined. In contrast to progressivism’s emphasis on accumulation, Spiralism calls for respect, sacrifice, and balance. At this time of world renewal, Rÿser suggests that Spiralism offers hope for restoring harmony with the Earth and with one another.
In this article, Rÿser discusses the actions Indigenous nations should take based on international legislation developed between 1970 and 1985. While he considers much of this change superficial, he focuses on the 1977 Protocol I and II additions to the Geneva Conventions, which present new opportunities other than war for nations to achieve self-detemination. Comparing these protocols to the original Geneva Conventions—which enabled genocide within decolonized states under the guise of respecting state sovereignty—Rÿser highlights their potential. He explains the functions of Protocol I, showing that while it is focused on international conflict, it supports Indigenous causes by implicitly including Fourth World combatants through its defintion of the involved parties and the role of supervising states. Rÿser emphasizes how it normalizes recognition of Indigenous nations and helps prevent genocide. He also discusses Protocol II on internal conflicts, which, though a step forward, is less comprehensive and therefore unlikely to be widely applied given Fourth World nations’ limited access to international institutions. Overall, Rÿser calls on Indigenous nations to take initiative in enforcing both protocols, suggesting they ratify the accords to enable peaceful conflict resolution and seize the opportunity to positively influence the international order and gain equal footing with states.
This article was originally published in Vol. 9, No. 1, Summer 2010. The study documents the outcomes of a research simulation conducted during a ̈Global Pluralism ̈ course at Antioch University/Muckleshoot College in 2009. During this 10-week exercise, ten graduate students assumed the roles of various stakeholders in climate negotiations, mirroring real-world dynamics observed in international conferences such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This simulation revealed indigenous peoples’ marginalized status within civil society frameworks.
Copyright (c) 2025 Rudolph C. Rÿser, Ph.D. (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
A Framework for Implementing the Principle of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) – Comity or Conflict
This article was originally published in Vol. 21, No. 2, Winter 2022. The central issue facing the world’s first nations was historically and remains today the question of access to and use of the territory they occupy. Peoples’ migrations, occupations, and colonization have continued as part of human relations for more than 60,000 years. Over this time, relations between emerging nations featured one nation being absorbed by another, some becoming associated through social mixing and independent nations remaining independent from one another. Peoples achieve these cultural processes through forced absorption, cultural exchange, or recognition of the equality of power. These changes continue today, except that the establishment of permanent boundaries around nations or combined nations has forced the need for structures and processes for mediating relations between nations that were forced inside bounded areas of states. These circumstance demands determining whether nations will remain “absorbed, associated or become independent of modern states. Nations’ claims over their territories come into conflict with States’ claims over the same regions—a circumstance exacerbated by the economic and business interests of transnational corporations and commercial enterprises seeking to profit from the location of nations’ territories or access to undeveloped subsurface raw materials, lands, forests, surface minerals and soils supportive of agriculture. Nations and States constitute the primary political systems of human organization required under modern state-based international law to implement the principle of free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC). However, without a formal and enforceable mechanism to carry out international and domestic pledges intended to implement nations’ rights to “consent,” the imbalance of power between nations and their counterparts in states and corporations leaves nations depending on their opponent’s implementation is possible. This article discusses subjects of concern between nations, states, transnational corporations, and commercial businesses. Given limited FPIC details expressed in state-based laws and agreements, neither states nor nations can be assured of an acceptable and defined process for reaching mutual agreements or methods for enforcing commitments made by consenting parties. Defining the establishment and functions of intergovernmental or non-governmental monitoring mechanisms that may serve as agencies for facilitating mediation or negotiations between nations and states, I discuss these in detail.
To Establish a Congress of Nations and States (CNS)
This article was originally published in Vol. 19, No. 2, Winter 2020. In my book entitled, Biodiversity Wars: Coexistence of Biocultural Collapse in the 21st Century (DayKeeper Press, 2019)[1] I discuss at length the need for a renewed effort to identify and advance an analysis and proposals for new mechanisms to bridge the economic, social, political and cultural gap between Fourth World nations and the world’s 203 states. I point to the ultimate necessity of establishing constructive mechanisms for cooperation between nations and states with an urgency that responds to the global emergency that is the impending environmental collapse threatening sustainable biodiversity and the diversity of Fourth World peoples. The threat I maintain is in no small measure the result of human waste and the promotion of unrestrained development and consumption that destroys life-supporting plants and animals and radically alters the global climate. Central to all of this is a needed shift in international policy toward the respect and acceptance of Fourth World self-determination—the right of Fourth World peoples to exist—by states, corporations, trans-state religions, and non-governmental organizations. I propose the convening of a permanent Congress of Nations and States—an innovative international relations solution to long-standing disputes between Fourth World nations and the internationally recognized states. And further, I propose that this Congress authorize the establishment of an International Criminal Court on Genocide for Fourth World nations. These are central topics in my book, but here I wish to share an extract from a chapter focused on the development of the Congress of Nations and States. The following extract from Chapter 4 of my book summarizes the process in 1992 of organizing and implementing a plan to establish the Congress of Nations and States with the newly formed government of the Russian Federation serving as the host. The Preparatory Committee had the states of Germany, Japan, and the United States as participants and the six Fourth World participating nations: Lummi Nations, San Blas Kuna, Saami, Tibet, Yakut-Sakah, and Maasai.
United States Working Group on Indigenous Populations
Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
International Labor Organization Conventions 107 and 169
Foundation for International Cooperation and Development