ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that, contrary to both of these divergent views, the Indigenous rights movement is a unique force in global politics and is, in fact, reshaping how politics can be done at the UN and in other international fora. Every meeting, whether an International Indian Treaty Council (IITC) Board meeting, an Indigenous Caucus meeting in Geneva, or the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) at UN headquarters in New York, begins with an opening prayer and/or song, always conducted in the Indigenous language of the person invited to do so. The late Tonya Gonnella Frichner (2011), Onondaga lawyer, activist, president and founder of the American Indian Law Alliance, and expert member of the UNPFII. Early activist movements that formed the roots of the global Indigenous rights movement, especially the American Indian Movement (AIM) in the USA and the National Indian Brotherhood (NIB) in Canada, were male dominated in both leadership and participation, often with a certain warrior ethos.
