The 500 million people represented by the World Indigenous Movement do not control nuclear arsenals, central banks, or other weapons of mass destruction. What they do have in abundance, though, is the power of moral sanction. As evidenced in the recent establishment of the United League of Indigenous Nations to govern international trade, travel, health, and security among the remaining 6,000 original nations, they are prepared to use this power to democratize capital ownership and its benefits worldwide.
Gathering for a North American Regional Conference this fall in Mexico, they will be discussing how to further their priorities and projects, “in defense of Mother Earth and Indigenous territories and cultures.” As an authentic, cohesive, and determined movement of peoples presenting a coherent program for remedying the world’s maladies, they have already elevated discussions in the global public mind from the elementary civil and human rights to the more profound right to exist.
For their noble non-indigenous friends around the globe, it is a time to stand and be counted.