Governor Bill Anoatubby370 million indigenous people key to human rights efforts
Indigenous people ring the globe.
We Chickasaws are one of thousands of tribes of native peoples who live on every continent on Earth. It's an incredible story when you consider the way our world appears today.
For tens of thousands of years, native people formed tribes in their homeland areas. Different tribes matured in different ways, but the common denominator was living and surviving in the natural world.
That was the reality for all native people until the time of contact with colonial powers. As far back as the ancient Egyptians, interaction with native people inevitably brought change. Often, the encroaching power changed the environment, and the people, in dramatic ways.
We all know our world has changed significantly in just the last century. However, those changes seem almost minor when viewed in the framework of the millions of native peoples' lives following contact.
Our lives as native people have obviously been impacted in countless ways. It was just over 500 years ago that the Chickasaw Nation had its first contact with European people in our original homeland area. Those 500 years represent not much more than one day in a lifetime of native history.
In 2007, the United Nations presented its Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The declaration was endorsed by the United States.
This declaration, while not a binding instrument in international law, recognizes that treatment of indigenous people will be a significant lever in improving universal human rights.
The declaration takes into account many elements of modern native life, including health, education, employment and all those things in which virtually all people have an interest. More interesting is the declaration's focus on native culture, identity and language. For us, and for all native people, this focus is an affirmation of all those things we Chickasaws have held dear since time began.
Additionally, the declaration makes it clear that indigenous peoples should be fundamentally involved in "their own visions of economic and social development." It seems clear the Chickasaw Nation is ahead of the curve in those areas. We have, together, taken the initiative to develop our own commercial endeavors, as well as our own social institutions.
These are things we sometimes take for granted. But we should not. We have dedicated much effort to preserving our heritage, while also engaging the modern world in the ways that prepare the Chickasaw generations that will follow us.
We must remember that not all native peoples are in the type of environment Chickasaws now find themselves. We are in the modern world, while respecting, nurturing and celebrating our culture and traditions. Of the 370 million native peoples in the world, only a fraction enjoys the human rights and opportunities we have. It is our duty to support our native "cousins" who are even today experiencing neglect, discrimination and even, in some cases, elimination.
Even in our own country, hundreds of thousands of Indian people live in the hardest of circumstances and enjoy few of the human rights many of us often take for granted. In April of this year, the U.N. commissioned an investigation into how Indian people in America live, what their human rights really look like, and what can be done to improve the environment.
James Anaya, a human rights professor from the University of Arizona, is leading the investigation. He is visiting five states with significant Indian populations, including Oklahoma, where he has already concluded his visit.
Human rights are fundamental rights. Each person has the right to proper treatment. For indigenous peoples, those rights have frequently been ignored. The time is always right to engage and lift up the native peoples of the world, who have endured so much for so many generations.
