Indigenous Acknowledgement

The following is excerpted from the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The full Declaration may be found at this website: https://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/DRIPS_en.pdf

As stated in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Southwestern Anthropological Association (SWAA) affirms that:

• Indigenous peoples are equal to all other peoples, while recognizing the right of all peoples to be different, to consider themselves different, and to be respected as such.
• All peoples contribute to the diversity and richness of civilizations and cultures, which constitute the common heritage of humankind.
• All doctrines, policies and practices based on or advocating superiority of peoples or individuals on the basis of national origin or racial, religious, ethnic or cultural differences are racist, scientifically false, legally invalid, morally condemnable and socially unjust.
• Indigenous peoples, in the exercise of their rights, should be free from discrimination of any kind. [We should be] concerned that indigenous peoples have suffered from historic injustices as a result of, inter alia, their colonization and dispossession of their lands, territories and resources, thus preventing them from exercising, in particular, their right to development in accordance with their own needs and interests.
• [There is an] urgent need to respect and promote the inherent rights of indigenous peoples which derive from their political, economic and social structures and from their cultures, spiritual traditions, histories and philosophies, especially their rights to their lands, territories and resources. [There is] also the urgent need to respect and promote the rights of indigenous peoples affirmed in treaties, agreements and other constructive arrangements with States.