Our Elders Understand Our Rights : Evolving International Law Regarding Indigenous People

Sharon Helen Venne

This reality is not generally included in history books: "Until the late 1970s, mainstream historians propagated the view that everything significant about America began in 1492 or thereafter and that the story of America was of the triumph of European peoples bringing civilization and prosperity."1 The writing of history is dominated by the Eurocentric2 view of the world: One of the most powerful [...] In order to understand the situation of Indigenous Peoples within the context of international law, there is a need to exam- ine the history of interaction between Indigenous Peoples of the Americas and the states that colonized their lands.5 Columbus arrived on the shores of the Indigenous America in 1492. [...] This denial of the rights of Indigenous Peoples in the Americas gave rise to the role of the sovereign and state in the subsequent devel- 5 Our Elders Understand Our Rights: Evolving International Law Regarding Indigenous Peoples opment of customary international law. [...] Third, the most inter- esting component was not about the biology of Indigenous Peoples— whether they were indeed humans—but rather "whether the Indians were to be accorded the status of legitimate humans in the eyes of the church and state."27 Fourth was the treatment of Indigenous Peoples as objects of the debate without inviting them to be active participants. [...] After the war in Indigenous America against the French and their Indigenous allies (1755-1763), the British monarch, George III, recon- firmed boundaries between the colonies and the Indigenous territories in the Royal Proclamation of 1763.33 Nearly one-third of the text is devoted to British relations with Indigenous Nations, many of whom were allied to the British victors.

indigenous peoples legal status, laws, etc