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Indigenous peoples’ knowledge systems remain for most of the world quite opaque and mysterious. From the smallest community in a jungle, savannah, ice flow, desert, or mountaintop to transplanted indigenous peoples’ communities and individuals located in the middle of a bustling city awareness of the value and importance of the immense variety of knowledge systems has begun to grip the imagination and consciousness of indigenous peoples. This may come as a surprise to our readers, but most indigenous peoples do not categorize, package, or project the knowledge system on which they have depended generation after generation. Like other aspects of culture, a knowledge system simply exists as a part of the
everyday experience. Knowledge systems of all types have become valuable and the object of documentary research in the progressive world of what is now labeled “intellectual property.” Knowledge of plant medicines, animal behaviors, architectural methods, measurements of the cosmos, nutrition, healing practices, entheogens, and child rearing practices, mental illness, producing foods on lands enhancing their beneficial use, and the secrets of domestication are just some of the types of indigenous knowledge embedded in different knowledge systems. As in previous issues, Fourth World Journal continues to unfold the invisible to reveal valuable insights and profoundly important perspectives that continue the process of joining indigenous peoples’ contributions to knowledge to the body of all human knowledge.
Contributors in this issue spotlight critical concerns that bear on the principle of consent so widely touted in international agreements. It is clear by their commentary that the individual states’ have much to do to formally incorporate the principle of consent for indigenous peoples, and of equal or greater import, indigenous peoples must take more deliberate action on their own to create and activate their own instruments for consent.
In this edition of the Fourth World Journal our contributors explore the subjects of American Indian “lived experience” in the face of the US government’s policy of “termination,” democracy, and consent. Contributors to FWJ have given voice to a basic human right that indigenous peoples the world over seek to enjoy, but have yet to fully realize. The power to make one’s own decisions is taken for granted by civil society in most countries, but for indigenous peoples there are only glimmers of that power. Mostly indigenous peoples experience the consequences of decisions by those who are in control of the machinery of state exercising unilateral power that can only be resisted or acceded to. There is little room for compromise or negotiations.
More than 145 states’ governments approved in 2007 the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, yet only two of those states (Bolivia and Denmark) have formally enacted legislation implementing the Declaration in whole or in part. A key principle written into the Declaration is recognition of indigenous peoples’ right, indeed, power of consent, yet this ordinary right guaranteed under all internationally recognized human rights law remains unfulfilled for indigenous peoples. States were formed over the last century (most of them since the 1948 agreement to decolonize countries) on top of indigenous peoples—most of the time without their consent. The world’s ruling powers in twentieth century simply assumed all of the different peoples inside the prescribed boundaries of a new state were willing participants in the decolonization process. Mostly, they were not. Once established on top of indigenous peoples, many immigrant states such as the United States, Brazil, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and Israel simply claimed and confiscated indigenous peoples’ territories. Consent may have been written
into some agreements and treaties, but respect for the right of consent would be papered over repeatedly.
Since the beginning of the twentieth century, indigenous peoples have vigorously pursued recognition of their right to consent. They want the right of individuals to consent as well as the collective right of consent.
In just the last fifteen years international organizations have, (under persistent pressure from indigenous peoples’ representatives in Geneva, New York, Bangkok, Berlin, and other venues where new international conventions have been negotiated) adopted new international agreements incorporating this idea that indigenous peoples must have their right to consent recognized and effectively incorporated in decisions affecting their lives and property. These new international agreements such as the Convention on Biodiversity, the Convention to Combat Desertification, and a new treaty to supplement the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change being negotiated in a series of annual meetings referred to as Conference of Parties seemingly embrace the right of indigenous peoples to consent first, after they have been freely informed, to actions or policies that directly affect them. Yet even as such agreements are being struck,
indigenous peoples are not official participants in the negotiations and states’ governments signing these agreements are not engaging in legislative efforts to incorporate these agreements in domestic law.
Contributors in this issue spotlight critical concerns that bear on the principle of consent so widely touted in international agreements. It is clear by their commentary that the individual states’ have much to do to formally incorporate the principle of consent for indigenous peoples, and of equal or greater import, indigenous peoples must take more deliberate action on their own to create and activate their own instruments for consent.
The Fourth World Journal is devoted to advancing the application of traditional knowledge to understanding and promoting constructive and peaceful relations between peoples; and to the examination and explanation of solutions to challenges that rankle the human condition. Each year our publication demonstrates growing improvement and expansion of indigenous sciences and their beneficial uses helping us understand better approaches to solving difficult predicaments experienced by indigenous peoples the world over as well as challenges faced by metropolitan populations. It is essential that we all understand our world and interact with all its parts with greater ease and success. To do so, requires that we draw on the best knowledge, the best scientific tools and the most effective application of both.
There are certain aspects of knowledge and scientific tools whether produced by the experiences of indigenous peoples or metropolitan peoples that stand as universal. These seem to be hardwired into all human being. Yet, there are other knowledge systems that are unique to groups of people and even localities largely defined by human relationships to each other and to the land and the cosmos. Those
unique knowledge systems can explore the mundane as well as the sublime and help explain suitable truths about living in a specific locality. When more closely examined, it is sometimes the case that the unique knowledge systems of indigenous peoples may have wider applications—utility in other places—by other indigenous peoples and metropolitan societies. Considered without bias, indigenous scientific knowledge from different localities may indeed prove to be beneficial for the security, health, happiness and/or spiritual growth of other peoples. It is also true that some scientific knowledge is really beneficial in the locality of its origin. In either case, it is a valuable to gain access to traditional knowledge and indigenous sciences and add them to the global body of knowledge and systems of thought. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat invited the Center for World Indigenous Studies (and therefore this Journal as well) to join in partnership with the Nairobi Work Program. CWIS has agreed to
contribute to the growing dialog aimed at identifying sciences and suitable knowledge to uncover strategies for climate change adaptation and mitigation. We are quite frankly pleased to join in this effort to promote traditional knowledge and indigenous sciences as a part of this critical effort. The Center for World Indigenous Studies, as a part of its efforts to address food security, climate refugees, land tenure policies and implementation of relevant parts of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples recognizes the importance of the Nairobi Work Plan. CWIS research and policy development outcomes in these and related fields are being documented and will be reported to the UNFCCC-Nairobi Work Program and shared with indigenous peoples, NWP partners as well as states' government parties, international non-governmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, research institutes and the in-country private sector. The Nairobi Work Program focuses on adaptation, assessment methodologies, and the range of vulnerabilities appropriate to local, regional and international environments. The Center is uniquely positioned due to our emphasis on indigenous peoples to contribute to this
process in ways that can directly benefit indigenous peoples as well as promote constructive and
cooperative efforts to advance adaptation policies and practices with states' governments.
Our emphasis in the partnership is on the application of traditional systems and traditional knowledge as effective approaches to climate change mitigation and adaptation. We have called for the
application of traditional knowledge to constructive responses to climate change. We have emphasized the importance of identifying the mechanisms of traditional knowledge that result in effective adaptation at the level of indigenous communities. These may include governance, health, social organization, economics and cultural standards for customary regulation. In this issue of the Fourth World Journal we benefit from the considerable efforts of contributors, concerned with indigenous research, comparisons of state treatment of indigenous peoples, story telling, and recent accomplishments by indigenous peoples in the diplomatic arena. Central to this issue of FWJ, as always, is the systematic understanding of indigenous peoples’ perspectives, application of traditional knowledge and achievements in the reduction of conflict between indigenous peoples and states’ government that compete for land and resources as well as political influence in relations between nations and states.
A significant transformation is in process throughout the world. Many billions of people are ready and eager to make changes to preserve life even as hundreds of millions are still unconvinced that the transformation is necessary. All of the contributors to this issue of the Fourth World Journal demonstrate, with their thinking and writing that the evolving transformation has numerous facets, twists and turns that call out for our attention. We benefit from a series of essays that speak to indigenous peoples’ identity, property interest, influence in the international arena, philosophical treatise on right and wrong, and
linking conventional rationalism with traditional knowledge. The common theme throughout this collection is perception and modes of thought among indigenous thinkers and change agents.
In less than two years, a global revolution appears to have come to the surface for all to see. The most stable of states, the most reliable of medical systems, the most advanced technologies, the most productive economic system...indeed, virtually anything one can think of...all have become topsy turvy. What has been considered the conventional wisdom is no longer conventional or wise. Still, while the collapsing international system, bankrupt and corrupt states, and an economic system lead by financial institutions now collapsing shake one’s confidence in the future, there are some new indicators suggesting the unfolding of an alternative world. The International Criminal Court has been steadily developing to identify, capture, indict, and subject those charged with genocide and other crimes against humanity to trial. Climate Change and its associated greenhouse gas emission has become a major topic of debate and public policy formation by states, multi-lateral organizations, as well as indigenous peoples. Older industries are either forced to close their doors or adjust to contributing to a new global economy based on non-carbon energy production. Communications world-wide has become considerably less expensive allowing individuals and groups to reach out to each other to discover new and creative ways to find peaceful and cooperative relations. New political leadership like that of President Barack Obama is now coming to the front row to define new priorities, and new public policy directions that seem more intent on responding to human wants and needs instead of corporate needs and wants. These hopeful signs seem reinforced somewhat by the words of contributors to this issue of the Fourth World Journal. Thoughtful and creative analysis of geopolitical relations, constructive efforts dealing with trauma and mental health, alternative visions for health care, comments on climate change, and two reviews demonstrating different views on subsistence as a promoter of life and issues concerning bigotry toward American Indian people.
Pre-emptive wars, climate change, bacterial and viral pandemics, and the unstable global economy all find their roots in the rush of development and the capital-centered, commodity-centered economy of the modern state system. Socialism and capitalism are the modern systems of economy directly connected to the various threats that now dominate regional and global affairs. These economic theories buttress the modern system of states that was established by the Roman Catholic Church negotiated Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 that is now tested as it has never been tested before. Teetering on the brink of breakdown, the many of the world’s states are either bankrupt, ruled by narco-criminal regimes, or have simply collapsed all-together.
The most observable aspect of the state-system breakdown is recognized as environmental breakdown—pollution, commodification of plant, animal and other forms of life and the disruption of cultural societies in the Fourth World. Contributors to this issue of the Fourth World Journal touch on some of the central
controversies involved in environmental breakdown. Enactment of international property rights agreements that states’ governments fail to enforce contribute to threats to the global commons by systematically undermining Fourth World cultures. Corporations overwhelm or buy-out states’ governments to gain access to Fourth World lands and resources. Wars are preemptively launched in violation of the United Nations Charter resulting in substantial environmental damage as well as cultural dislocation of Fourth
World nations.
In this issue of Fourth World Journal we benefit from the work of CWIS Associate Scholars around the world undertaking independent research and applying the results in concrete a measurable ways for the benefit of Fourth World peoples. International, and nation and state conflicts have been an important focus in the
Fourth World and evidenced by the contributed works of Associate Scholars conflicts and the resolution of conflicts involving Fourth World nations will remain a high priority for our attention. The role that indigenous knowledge plays and will continue to play in local and global affairs will open new avenues to resolving conflicts in the world. Massive “Roman style” wars like World War I and WWII have essentially run their course as a result of the Globalization consciousness of the 21st century. Asymmetric relations between large and small states and nations have now come to the forefront of modern international experience. Fourth World nations have become front row players in the modern clashes and their knowledge has become an essential part of the solutions of local and global conflicts. States and state institutions are organized to undertake imperial relations with the world-demanding massive organization and large institutional structures.
"Development," "self-directed development," "community trauma," and "sustainability" are all part of the lexicon of development literature. The Fourth World tackles these issues from an inside-out perspective.
In this issue, we've gathered writings from accomplished scholars and researchers who elevate the discussion of self-government, traditional medicine, and sexual violence in the Fourth World. The Fourth World Journal has consistently provided a platform for subjects often dismissed or ignored.
Since the founding of the United Nations there have been five “development decades.” Each of these periods served as a global goal-setting agenda intended to transform LDCs (Less Developed Countries into progressively improved economies, governing systems and social systems. Despite prodigious efforts, each of these planned periods of development has failed. Planners, administrators, political leaders and workers have through various international and domestic development
agencies undertaken to apply their skills and best thinking to raise the standard of living of peoples who have long suffered from too little food, too little comfort, too little quality of life and health. Yet expenditures of such great effort and wealth donated by various states governments have failed to achieve the goals set for each decade. Indeed, the level of world poverty is, in many respects, greater now than it was fifty years ago. While the United Nations Development Decades have clearly failed (2
billion and more impoverished worldwide) is it the case that those who seek the improvement of life for so many millions of people are inept, lacking in skill or both? Why have the efforts of so many been unable to transform the world?
Perhaps the problem is less in the people and even the institutions than in the conceptual framework. Maybe “development” is the wrong focus. Maybe the idea that human beings can and should dominate the natural environment, progressively change the life condition of people through “programs and aid” and promote modernity is erroneous. The authors of essays in this issue of the Fourth World Journal offer
alternative ways of thinking about the wealth and life quality of peoples in the world. While “development” is assumed by most who use the term to be an “ultimate good” maybe there is a difference between “introduced development,” or “imposed development” and “self-directed development.” Maybe the problem with all the failures is that someone on the outside presumes to have all the answers for inside-nation needs. Maybe “sustained development” and externally introduced
development produce serious problems and failures because human culture doesn’t respond well to imposed solutions, but works much better when human societies adapt and absorb outside ideas, technologies and ways of life according to the dictates of inside-cultural pace instead of outside ideas for success.
After fifteen years, the Fourth World Journal is now being published in digital form for those who have access to a computer. This publication is free to those who register to read the ideas and thoughts of authors writing from the Fourth World perspective. This issue will become available in hard copy and therefore available to individuals and libraries the world over. We are happy to make this issue available online. We look forward to your comments and
constructive suggestions.
The contributors to this issue are as diverse as the subjects of their essays. From the ancient knowledge of Minoan culture and the Anishnabe to the more contemporary commentaries on current events in Africa, the Northwest United States and Europe, and discussions of Fourth World theories in the world of globalisation our contributors pack a great deal into a very small space.
Laws have been made among humans in one form or another for at least six millennia before the present. Historians record that while laws and rules of conduct were orally proclaimed and occasionally written in various forms throughout antiquity, no laws defining the responsibilities of a ruler and the ruled had been codified until 1068 AD. It was in that year that the Código o Compilación de los Usatges, a written code defining the reciprocal rights and responsibilities of the sovereign and his subjects in Catalunya of the Kingdom of Aragon, was penned by Ponç Bofill March of Barcelona. Ponç Bofill March was appointed “judge of the palace” in 1030 AD, but he did not begin to write the Código until 1035 AD. One hundred forty-seven years before the English barons forced King John to accept the Magna Carta (1215 AD), the people of Catalunya instituted the world’s first document declaring fundamental human rights. For more than 900 years, the definition and practice of human rights has continued to evolve.
As Bertha R. Miller’s Rights of Distinct Peoples reveals, principles of human rights may be extended to peoples of the Fourth World through a Universal Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples currently being debated in the United Nations. Miller reviews the revised first draft of the Declaration and reports the differing viewpoints of states, nations, and non-governmental organizations participating in sessions of the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations.
In his review of Dan Jacobs’ The Brutality of Nations, Associate Editor Jerome E. Taylor comments on the Nigerian/Biafran war and how Jacobs’ book may more accurately describe the “brutality of states.”
A frequent contributor to the Journal, Bernard Q. Nietschmann reveals for the first time the detailed circumstances surrounding the death of a leading Miskito warrior, Brww Gabriel, during the war between Nicaragua and the Miskito, Sumo, and Rama peoples of Yapti Tasbia in 1984. Nietschmann’s closeness to the Miskito people and conversational writing style reveal the truth of a life that should have continued and a war that should never have been.
After World War II, reconstruction of war-torn Europe became both a moral and economic necessity to the countries on the winning side. Without reconstruction, the world’s economy was surely to collapse along with the rubble under millions of tons of bombs. But, after Europe regained its economic footing, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (“The World Bank,” as it is more commonly known, was established in 1945) turned its attention to “developing the Third World.” The World Bank became a major source of investment revenue for building roads, hydroelectric dams, communications facilities, and urban and agricultural development projects. While such development efforts often failed to produce economic prosperity for Third World states, and instead seemed to serve the interests of businesses and governments of the Second and First worlds, in the 1970s and 1980s the World Bank discovered the Fourth World. Fourth World nations were discovered to be an obstacle to World Bank development projects, due in large measure to the frequent encroachment of such projects into Fourth World nation territories. In The World Bank’s Tribal Economic Policy we discuss the 1982 policy and its impact and implications for nations and states.
As this issue of the Fourth World Journal, was going to press, we received a call from Chief George Manuel’s wife, Martene — Chief Manuel died from long-term health complications in a hospital near his Niskonlith home in Shuswap Territory on November 15, 1989. Though saddened by the loss of a dear friend and colleague, we are heartened by the legacy of this great man who changed the world. We dedicate this issue of the Fourth World Journal to Chief George Manuel.
Morillege Partipuny, a member of the Tanzanian parliament and a Maasai, contributed his statement on the human rights situation of some African nations. Partipuny’s statement before the U.N. Working Group on Indigenous Populations in Geneva, Switzerland, is both a strong testimony to Chief Manuel’s vision and proof of Tanzania’s importance to the global dialogue on the rights of Indigenous peoples in Africa.
In False Promises, Ward Churchill of the Creek Nation examines Marxism and its relevance — or irrelevance — to the interests of Fourth World nations. A serious scholar of Marxist ideology, Churchill writes clearly and persuasively about this often thorny subject.
Education is a persistent topic of discussion and debate in the Fourth World. But there is frequently a tension between educational systems imposed on Fourth World peoples versus the educational approaches inherent in distinct cultural systems. Rimell Fm and C.W.I.S. Founding Board Member Carol Minugh present a compelling proposal for community-determined liberal arts education.
The Ainu of Japan suffer from the kind of invisibility promoted by state governments that often afflicts Fourth World nations. In their submission before the U.N. Working Group on Indigenous Peoples, the Ainu Association of Hokkaido presents a troubling picture of a people long submerged. In Japan’s Suppression of Ainu Moshiri, the Ainu Association outlines the historical positions taken by the Japanese government toward the Ainu and presents their views on a new approach for relations between the Japanese and the Ainu. The Ainu Association also outlines, in their submission, Ainu views about proposed revisions to International Labor Organization Convention 107 concerning the treatment of “tribal and semi-tribal peoples.”
Finally, we publish for our readers a contribution by Lummi Indian Nation Chairman Larry Kinley — formerly published in the C.W.I.S. book Indian Self-Government: The Political Status of Tribal Nations in the United States of America. Chairman Kinley presents a thoughtful discussion of what he calls “Potlatch Economics” — how this system once provided for a healthy Lummi economy before contact with Europeans, and how, with modification, Potlatch Economics may once again prove the salvation of the Lummi people.
After a lengthy hiatus, the Fourth World Journal is back in print. We are picking up where we left off with the publication of Volume Two. Subscribers will continue to receive FWJ based on their existing orders. Our regular readers will notice that FWJ has undergone a complete facelift. The type is clearer, easier to read, and we now have the ability to include line drawings, maps, and occasionally black-and-white photography.
We have reorganized by adding Associate Editor Jenny Taylor and Assistant Editor Tina L. Benshoof—both with excellent editorial experience. Thanks to several small grants, we are now able to maintain our subscriptions on computer. As a result of improvements in our worldwide contacts, we are now better able to provide our readers with a wider selection of articles, essays, and analysis.
With these improvements and changes, we hope to provide our readers with an even better publication. We wish to express our special thanks and appreciation to subscribers for the strong support and confidence given to the Fourth World Journal. Through the changes and improvements we have made, we hope we will continue to earn that support.
In this issue, contributors take us to West Papua and the Philippines, explore the historical wrongs done to the people of Armenia, and examine a decision of the U.S. Supreme Court concerning tribal government zoning powers of the Yakima Indian Nation in the United States.
Professor David Hyndman, an experienced researcher who has spent a great deal of his professional life in Papua, has written an exposé on the treacherous impact of Indonesia's introduction of tapeworm-infested pigs on the peoples of West Papua. His intimate knowledge of the people and his examination of the implications of Indonesia's hidden policy of "Papuan de-population" is revealing and calls for global condemnation.
In a major piece written expressly for FWJ, Joseph E. Fallon, a freelance writer with extensive foreign affairs analytical experience, examines the historical circumstances surrounding the establishment of the Philippine state. He also discusses the prospects for the emergence of several Fourth World nations from the wars being waged against centralized control.
Dr. Richard Korn, a professor at John Jay College and Director of the Institute for the Study of Genocide, documents the case of Turkey’s early 20th-century genocidal attack on the peoples of Armenia. In light of Armenia’s efforts to withdraw from Soviet control and reunite with Turkish Armenia, Dr. Korn’s recitation of one aspect of Armenia’s contemporary history will doubtless have broad implications for that region of the world.
Finally, I have contributed a review of a U.S. Supreme Court decision concerning the right of a tribal government to zone its own lands. Despite the fact that a majority of the residents in an area of Yakima tribal territory are not members of the Indian Nation, the Yakima Nation sought to regulate how the land was used. This case is significant because of its direct implications for Indian nations in the United States, and its broad implications for other Fourth World nations globally. Many countries directly borrow from U.S. court decisions related to Fourth World nations and incorporate what they consider “favorable rules of law” into their own codes. This decision may be used to give states the "lawful authority" to annex Fourth World territories—thus insulating them from external criticism.
In this issue of the Fourth World Journal, we explore pressing challenges facing Indigenous nations worldwide—from reclaiming traditional education systems and preserving cultural identity, to resisting land dispossession, political marginalization, and disguised forms of colonial expansion. The articles examine cases from the United States, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Bangladesh, offering critical perspectives on Indigenous sovereignty, self-determination, and the survival of ancestral knowledge in the modern world.
The Center for World Indigenous Studies is a non-profit research and education organization dedicated to fostering wider understanding and appreciation of ideas and knowledge originating from Indigenous peoples and from the lived realities of Indigenous Nations.
More than 3,000 Indigenous Nations play a major role in the life of the natural world and in relations among more than 160 states. With rich cultures and a wealth of creativity, Indigenous Nations have steadfastly held their ground despite centuries of colonization and repression.
Frequently misunderstood by the modern world, and often misrepresented by outside observers, the peoples of Indigenous Nations rarely have the opportunity to directly contribute to the world’s better understanding of their spiritual, historical, political, economic, social, and philosophical traditions.
The Fourth World Journal is one of several publications of the Center for World Indigenous Studies, produced to elevate the visibility of Indigenous peoples’ ideas and knowledge, and to share information about the circumstances of Indigenous Nations.