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Indigenous People's Rights

After nearly 500 years, the indigenous people of the Americas are still struggling for their basic rights: the right to subsistence, e.g., hunting and fishing rights and the ownership of land guaranteed to them by treaty, the right to freedom of religion, and the right to govern themselves. The struggle is such that just maintaining our culture can be a political issue. This forum will be followed by a mini-summit of the Native people present.

Speakers:

• Yvonne Bushyhead, a law student and representative of the Leonard Peltier Support Committee, will speak about indigenous prisoner's rights, with special reference to the case of Leonard Peltier.

• Chris Peters, Seventh Generation Fund, will talk on efforts to preserve Native American religious freedom, in particular the recent erosion of these rights by the Supreme Court.

• Mary Ann Mills, Sovereign Indigenous Women of the Arctic (SIWA), has extensive experience in the field of fighting for hunting and fishing subsistence rights. SIWA plays an important role in gathering and maintaining information on all Alaskan Native rights issues. She will talk on the effects of the Native Claims Settlement Act on Native People.

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