Indigenous peoples have lived in different part of the globe since time immemorial. In 2003 they number about 350 million, belonging to different nations, communities, and groups, with specific cultures, traditions, customs, languages, and religions. They have survived in spite of the massacres, discrimination, oppression, diseases, poverty, and misery inflicted on them principally by the colonial powers (Spain, Britain, France, the Netherlands, and the United States).

The problems of indigenous peoples exist, to varying degrees, on all continents. Even in countries where the indigenous still constitute a majority, they remain powerless, by and large unheard, misunderstood, or simply ignored by their governments. Their past history is disdained, their way of life scorned, their subjugation unrecognized, their social and economic system unvalued. The belief that indigenous peoples were sub-human and inferior was common among...