Vol. 18 No. 1 (2019)

In the spring of 1979, during a session of the Conference of Tribal Governments in Tumwater, Washington, Muckleshoot Tribal Chairman Clifford Keline proposed establishing a documentation center to facilitate information sharing among tribal governments. He emphasized the need to share successes and failures in social, economic, and cultural developments to benefit each "nation." With the agreement of other prominent tribal officials, including Quinault's President Joe DeLaCruz and Yakama Nation Councilman Russell Jim, the Center for World Indigenous Studies was authorized. The Editor in Chief was tasked with setting up this center and collecting documents, initially leading to the informal "beer-box collection" due to how materials were delivered.

The concept of "sharing" information was, from the beginning and remains to this day, a central operating principle of the Center for World Indigenous Studies 40 years later. Sharing and giving opens the door to new knowledge and beneficial changes in how we think and respond to the world and environment around us.

We are proud of this issue, as it reflects the sharing tradition of the Center's founding. While we have roots in the "beer-box collection," our view has stretched the world over. Since Chief George Manuel asked that the Center serve as a documentary secretariat for the World Council of Indigenous Peoples, we have extended the tradition of our progenitors to the peoples in Uyghuristan, the Tuareg, Amazigh, and the rule of law as it relates to Fourth World peoples. We also include Founding Board member, Dr. David Hyndman’s exposé on the role of anthropology in counter insurgency and the security state (United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) as these states seek to understand culture and cultural factors of Fourth World nations’ behavior in conflict situations. In this issue, Fourth World activists, scholars, and researchers open our eyes to relevant and powerful subjects affecting the lives and cultures of Fourth World peoples and, indeed, the peoples of the world.

In this CWIS 40th Anniversary Celebration edition of the Fourth World Journal, we have the benefit of scholarly and activist works in the study areas of biocultural/biodiversity understanding of permaculture, play among the children of the Amazigh, a perspective on the rule of law in the international arena in relation to Fourth World peoples, the dimensions of standards for contemporary ethnographies, as well as the horrors of cultural genocide now perpetrated on the peoples in western China.