Addressing the Land Claims of Indigenous People

Indigenous people have lived in the same locations for hundreds, if not thousands of years. The national governments involved either refuse to recognize the land claims of indigenous people or are only willing to settle claims in ways unacceptable to them. However, unless these claims are resolved in such a way that First Peoples gain control sufficient, at the very least, to maintain their language and culture, they will disappear. In this paper, we explore 14 cases of indigenous land claims, concentrating on the strategies that these First Nations have pursued and the responses they have received from the dominant cultures that surround them. Our goal is to understand the preconditions for effectively resolving the land claims of indigenous peoples around the world.