American Indian Culture and Research Journal

Questions concerning the rights and legal and political standing of indigenous peoples have assumed a peculiar prominence in the world's juridical debates over the past quarter-century. Nowhere is this more pronounced than in North America, a continent presided over by a pair of Anglo-European settler powers, the United States and Canada; both of which purport to have resolved such issues-or to being very close to resolving them-in a manner which is not only legally consistent, but so intrinsically just as to serve as a humanitarian model deserving of emulation on a planetary basis. Indeed, the United States in particular has long been prone to asserting that it has already implemented the programs necessary to guarantee self-determination, including genuine self-governance, to the Native peoples residing within its border. Most recently, its representatives to the United Nations announced that it would therefore act to prevent the promulgation of an international convention on the rights of indigenous peoples if the proposed instrument contradicted U.S. domestic law in any significant way.