ABSTRACT
The previous chapter analyzed the social determinants of health (SDH) of the Indigenous population. This chapter demonstrates the interplay of SDH and selfdetermination. While there is extensive diversity in Indigenous peoples throughout the world, all Indigenous peoples have one thing in common-they all share a history of injustice and deprivation: they have been denied rights, killed, tortured and enslaved. Throughout the world (most of North and South America and through much of the Third World) an overwhelming aggression-legal, physical and psychological-against the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by colonial powers and by other nations has taken place. They have been denied the right to participate in political system and governing processes of the current state systems. In many cases, they continue to face threats to their very existence due to systematic exclusionary policies of respective governments.
