Vol. 15 No. 2 (2017)

In this issue of the Fourth World Journal we stretch across the globe examining patterns of Ainu culture, Lakota language in context, indigenous women’s health disparities in Canada, the Uyghur Meshrep (Moral School), United Nations efforts to enable indigenous peoples participation in that organization, structural repression of indigenous peoples in Canadian schools, and the role of non-governmental organization advocacy of issues concerning indigenous peoples in the international arena. Our authors are from Canada, India, Uyghuristan (Xinjang China), and the United States. As these scholars deliver their observations and analysis of cultural renewal, international politics, institutional bigotry, and techniques for restoring knowledge from the past it is noteworthy to recognize that their work is presented in a global vacuum. By this I mean that much of the urbanized and industrial world is completely ignorant of the scholarship represented by authors such as these. The global political, cultural, strategic, and environmental context
is rapidly changing—demanding a keen eye to the past, present, and future simultaneously. Without such a perspective it is impossible to comprehend the significance of these scholarly observations.