ABSTRACT
Being ‘Indigenous’ is a political identification and not a racial indicator. Indigenous Peoples identify with their lands and territories. It is not the color of the skin nor the state government’s racial criteria that makes an Indigenous person. Being Indigenous comes from the heart and the mind, as the Elders have said on so many occasions. Colonizer states, like Canada and the United States of America, have used racial criteria to decide and register Indigenous Peoples. This chapter talks about the myth meeting the reality. The myth is that Indigenous Peoples can survive without their lands and territories. Once Indigenous Peoples are removed from their territories, they begin to lose their identity. In the mindset of the colonizer, in order for Indigenous Peoples to claim rights to their lands and resources they would have had to remain in the same condition as when colonization began.
