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{{Redirect|First nations|other uses}}
{{Redirect|First peoples|the study of human origins|Human evolution{{!}}Anthropogeny}}
{{Redirect|Indigenous studies|the academic field studying the Indigenous peoples of North America|Native American studies}}
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{{Use American English|date=July 2023}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2021}}
{{More citations needed|date=August 2025}}
[[File:Cakchiquel family.JPG|thumb|right|upright=1.35|A [[Kaqchikel people|Kaqchikel]] family in the Patzutzun hamlet of [[Sololá Department|Sololá]], [[Guatemala]] (1993)]]
There is no generally accepted definition of '''Indigenous peoples''',{{Efn|name=name}}<ref name="UN HCR-2013">{{Cite web |last=United Nations Human Rights, Office of the High Commissioner |date=2013 |title=Indigenous Peoples and the United Nations Human Rights System, Fact Sheet No. 9/Rev.2 |url=https://www.ohchr.org/en/publications/fact-sheets/fact-sheet-no-09-rev-2-indigenous-people-and-united-nations-human-rights |access-date=29 December 2023 |website=United Nations |page=2 |ref={{sfnref|UNHR Fact Sheet No. 9|2013}} }}</ref><ref name="cidh.org2">{{cite web |title=Indigenous and Tribal People's Rights Over Their Ancestral Lands and Natural Resources |url=http://cidh.org/countryrep/Indigenous-Lands09/Chap.III-IV.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200601100727/http://cidh.org/countryrep/Indigenous-Lands09/Chap.III-IV.htm |archive-date=1 June 2020 |access-date=30 May 2020 |website=[[Inter-American Commission on Human Rights]]}}</ref><ref name="Cultural Survival3">{{Cite journal |last=McIntosh |first=Ian |date=September 2000 |title=Are there Indigenous Peoples in Asia? |url=https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/are-there-indigenous-peoples-asia |url-status=live |journal=Cultural Survival Quarterly Magazine |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210422165651/https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/are-there-indigenous-peoples-asia |archive-date=22 April 2021 |access-date=1 April 2021}}</ref> although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territory, and an experience of subjugation and discrimination under a dominant cultural model.{{sfn|Secretariat of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues|2009|p=6}}
Estimates of the population of Indigenous peoples range from 250 million to 600 million.<ref name="Muckle-2012a">{{cite book |last=Muckle |first=Robert J. |title=Indigenous Peoples of North America: A Concise Anthropological Overview |publisher=University of Toronto Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-4426-0416-2 |pages=18}}</ref> There are some 5,000 distinct Indigenous peoples spread across every inhabited climate zone and inhabited continent of the world.<ref name="UN-2023">{{cite web |title=Indigenous Peoples and the United Nations Human Rights System |url=https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Publications/fs9Rev.2.pdf |access-date=21 May 2023 |publisher=[[United Nations]] |page=2 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250602111438/https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Publications/fs9Rev.2.pdf |archive-date=2 June 2025}}</ref><ref>Acharya, Deepak and Shrivastava Anshu (2008): Indigenous Herbal Medicines: Tribal Formulations and Traditional Herbal Practices, Aavishkar Publishers Distributor, Jaipur, India. {{ISBN|978-81-7910-252-7}}. p. 440</ref> Most Indigenous peoples are in a minority in the state or traditional territory they inhabit and have experienced domination by other groups, especially non-Indigenous peoples.{{sfn|UNHR Fact Sheet No. 9|2013|p=3}}<ref name="Saito-2020">{{cite book |last=Taylor Saito |first=Natsu |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kFuODwAAQBAJ |title=Settler Colonialism, Race, and the Law: Why Structural Racism Persist |publisher=[[NYU Press]] |year=2020 |isbn=978-0-8147-0802-6 |chapter=Unsettling Narratives |format=eBook |quote=...several thousand nations have been arbitrarly (and generally involuntarily) incorporated into approximately two hundred political constructs we call independent states... |access-date=21 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230315021648/https://www.google.com/books/edition/Settler_Colonialism_Race_and_the_Law/kFuODwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0 |archive-date=15 March 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref> Although many Indigenous peoples have experienced colonization by settlers from European nations,<ref name="Miller-2010">{{Cite book |last1=Miller |first1=Robert J. |title=Discovering Indigenous Lands: The Doctrine of Discovery in the English Colonies |last2=Ruru |first2=Jacinta |last3=Behrendt |first3=Larissa |last4=Lindberg |first4=Tracey |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-19-957981-5 |pages=9–13}}</ref> Indigenous identity is not determined by Western colonization.{{sfn|Secretariat of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues|2009|p=6}}
The rights of Indigenous peoples are outlined in national legislation, treaties and international law. The 1989 International Labour Organization (ILO) [[Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989|Convention on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples]] protects Indigenous peoples from discrimination and specifies their rights to development, customary laws, lands, territories and resources, employment, education and health.{{Sfn|UNHR Fact Sheet No. 9|2013|p=9}} In 2007, the United Nations (UN) adopted a [[Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples]] including their rights to self-determination and to protect their cultures, identities, languages, ceremonies, and access to employment, health, [[Sustainable Development Goal 4|education]] and natural resources.{{sfn|Bodley|2008|p=2}}
Indigenous peoples continue to face threats to their sovereignty, economic well-being, languages, cultural heritage, and access to the resources on which their cultures depend.{{Sfn|UNHR Fact Sheet No. 9|2013|p=4}} In the 21st century, Indigenous groups and advocates for Indigenous peoples have highlighted numerous apparent violations of the rights of Indigenous peoples.
== Etymology ==
''Indigenous'' is derived from the Latin word {{Lang|la|indigena}}, meaning "sprung from the land, native".<ref>"indigene, adj. and n." ''OED Online''. Oxford University Press, September 2016. Web. 22 November 2016.</ref> The Latin ''{{Lang|la|indigena}}'' is based on the [[Old Latin]] {{Lang|la|indu}} "in, within" + ''gignere'' "to beget, produce". ''Indu'' is an extended form of the [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] ''en'' or "in".<ref>{{Cite web |title=indigenous (adj.) |url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/indigenous |access-date=4 March 2021 |website=Online Etymology Dictionary |archive-date=9 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210309181025/https://www.etymonline.com/word/indigenous |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Peters |first1=Michael A. |last2=Mika |first2=Carl T. |date=10 November 2017 |title=Aborigine, Indian, indigenous or first nations? |journal=[[Educational Philosophy and Theory]] |volume=49 |issue=13 |pages=1229–1234 |doi=10.1080/00131857.2017.1279879 |issn=0013-1857 |doi-access=free}}</ref>
== Definitions ==
[[File:Amis postcard.jpg|thumb|upright|Colorized photograph of an [[Amis people|Amis]] couple in traditional clothing. Taken in pre–World War II Japanese-ruled Taiwan.]]There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples in the United Nations or international law.<ref name="UNHR-2013">{{harvnb|UNHR Fact Sheet No. 9|2013|p=2}}</ref> Various national and international organizations, non-government organizations, governments, Indigenous groups and scholars have developed definitions or have declined to provide a definition.<ref name="Cultural Survival3"/>
=== Historical ===
As a reference to a group of people, the term "indigenous" was first used by Europeans to differentiate the Indigenous peoples of the Americas from [[Atlantic slave trade|enslaved]] Africans. The first known use was by [[Thomas Browne|Sir Thomas Browne]] in 1646, who wrote "and although in many parts thereof there be at present swarms of ''Negroes'' serving under the ''Spaniard'', yet were they all transported from ''Africa'', since the discovery of ''Columbus''; and are not indigenous or proper natives of ''America''."<ref name="Mathewson-20042">{{cite book |last=Mathewson |first=Kent |title=Dangerous Harvest: Drug Plants and the Transformation of Indigenous Landscapes |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-19-514319-5 |pages=13 |chapter=Drugs, Moral Geographies, and Indigenous Peoples: Some Initial Mappings and Central Issues |quote=As Sir Thomas Browne remarked in 1646, (this seems to be the first usage in its modern sense).}}</ref><ref name="Browne-16462">{{Cite web |last=Browne |first=Sir Thomas |date=1646 |title=Pseudodoxia Epidemica, Chap. X. Of the Blackness of Negroes. |url=http://penelope.uchicago.edu/pseudodoxia/pseudo610.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230315021620/http://penelope.uchicago.edu/pseudodoxia/pseudo610.html |archive-date=15 March 2023 |access-date=3 March 2021 |website=[[University of Chicago]]}}</ref>
In the 1970s, the term was used as a way of linking the experiences, issues, and struggles of groups of colonized people across international borders. At this time 'indigenous people(s)' also began to be used to describe a legal category in Indigenous law created in international and national legislation. The use of the plural 'peoples' recognizes the cultural differences between various Indigenous peoples.<ref name=":2a2">{{cite book |last=Smith |first=Linda Tuhiwai |title=Decolonizing methodologies : research and indigenous peoples |publisher=[[Otago University Press]] |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-877578-28-1 |edition=2nd |___location=Dunedin, New Zealand |oclc=805707083}}</ref>{{pn|date=August 2025}}<ref name="Hitchcock-2004">Robert K. Hitchcock, Diana Vinding, ''Indigenous Peoples' Rights in Southern Africa'', IWGIA, 2004, p. 8 based on ''Working Paper by the Chairperson-Rapporteur, Mrs. Erica-Irene A. Daes, on the concept of indigenous people.'' UN-Dokument E/CN.4/Sub.2/AC.4/1996/2 ([http://www.unhchr.ch/Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/(Symbol)/E.CN.4.Sub.2.AC.4.1996.2.En?Opendocument] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160914000416/http://www.unhchr.ch/Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/(Symbol)/E.CN.4.Sub.2.AC.4.1996.2.En?Opendocument|date=14 September 2016}}, unhchr.ch)</ref>
The first meeting of the [[United Nations]] [[Working Group on Indigenous Populations]] (WGIP) was on 9 August 1982 and this date is now celebrated as the [[International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples]].<ref>{{cite web |title=International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples - 9 August |url=https://www.un.org/en/events/indigenousday/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190119234610/http://www.un.org/en/events/indigenousday/ |archive-date=19 January 2019 |access-date=11 March 2020 |website=[[United Nations]]}}</ref>
=== Recent ===
In the 21st century, the concept of Indigenous peoples is understood in a wider context than only the colonial experience. The focus has been on self-identification as indigenous peoples, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territory, and an experience of subjugation and discrimination under a dominant cultural model.{{Sfn|Secretariat of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues|2009|p=6}}
====United Nations====
No definition of Indigenous peoples has been adopted by a United Nations agency. The Secretariat of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues states, "in the case of the concept of 'indigenous peoples', the prevailing view today is that no formal universal definition of the term is necessary, given that a single definition will inevitably be either over- or under-inclusive, making sense in some societies but not in others."<ref name="PFII-2009">{{Cite book |last=Secretariat of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues |title=State of the World's Indigenous Peoples |publisher=[[United Nations]] |year=2009 |___location=New York |pages=4–7}}</ref>
However, a number of UN agencies have provided statements of coverage for particular international agreements concerning Indigenous peoples or "working definitions" for particular reports.<ref name="PFII-2009" />
The International Labour Organization's (ILO) Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (ILO Convention No. 169), states that the convention covers:<blockquote>peoples in independent countries who are regarded as indigenous on account of their descent from the populations which inhabited the country, or a geographical region to which the country belongs, at the time of conquest or colonisation or the establishment of present state boundaries and who, irrespective of their legal status, retain some or all of their own social, economic, cultural and political institutions.<ref name="Sanders2">{{cite journal |last=Sanders |first=Douglas E. |year=1999 |title=Indigenous peoples: Issues of definition |journal=[[International Journal of Cultural Property]] |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=4–13 |doi=10.1017/s0940739199770591}}</ref></blockquote>The convention also covers "tribal peoples" who are distinguished from Indigenous peoples and described as "tribal peoples in independent countries whose social, cultural and economic conditions distinguish them from other sections of the national community and whose status is regulated wholly or partially by their own customs or traditions or by special laws or regulations."{{Sfn|Secretariat of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues|2009|p=5}}
The convention states that self-identification as indigenous or tribal is a fundamental criterion for determining the groups to which the convention applies.<ref name="UNHR-2013" /> The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples does not define Indigenous peoples but affirms their right to self-determination including determining their own identity.{{Sfn|UNHR Fact Sheet No. 9|2013|pp=4-5}}
==== Inter-American Commission on Human Rights ====
[[Inter-American Commission on Human Rights|The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights]] does not provide a definition of Indigenous peoples stating that, "such a definition is not necessary for purposes of protecting their human rights." In determining coverage of Indigenous peoples, the commission uses the criteria developed in documents such as ILO Convention No. 169 and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The commission states that self-identification as indigenous is a fundamental criterion.<ref name="cidh.org2"/>
==== World Bank ====
The [[World Bank]] states, "Indigenous Peoples are distinct social and cultural groups that share collective ancestral ties to the lands and natural resources where they live, occupy or from which they have been displaced."<ref>{{Cite web |date=6 April 2023 |title=Indigenous Peoples |url=https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/indigenouspeoples#1 |access-date=28 December 2023 |website=[[The World Bank]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250724151919/https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/indigenouspeoples#1 |archive-date=24 July 2025}}</ref>
====
Amnesty International does not provide a definition of Indigenous peoples but states that they can be identified according to certain characteristics:<ref>{{Cite web |last=Amnesty International |date=2023 |title=Indigenous Peoples |url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/indigenous-peoples/ |access-date=30 December 2023 |website=[[Amnesty International]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250702113615/https://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/indigenous-peoples/ |archive-date=2 July 2025}}</ref>
* Self identification as Indigenous peoples
* A historical link with those who inhabited a country or region at the time when people of different cultures or ethnic origins arrived
* A strong link to territories and surrounding natural resources
* Distinct social, economic or political systems
* A distinct language, culture and beliefs
* Marginalized and discriminated against by the state
* They maintain and develop their ancestral environments and systems as distinct peoples
==== Scholars ====
Academics and other scholars have developed various definitions of Indigenous peoples. In 1986–87, José Martínez Cobo, the [[UN Special Rapporteur]] on the problem of discrimination against indigenous populations, developed the following "working definition":
<blockquote>Indigenous communities, peoples, and nations are those that, having a historical continuity with pre-invasion and pre-colonial societies that developed on their territories, consider themselves distinct from other sectors of the societies now prevailing in those territories, or parts of them. They form at present non-dominant sectors of society and are determined to preserve, develop, and transmit to future generations their ancestral territories, and their ethnic identity, as the basis of their continued existence as peoples, in accordance with their own cultural patterns, social institutions and legal systems.<ref name="IWGIA-2011">{{cite web |date=9 April 2011 |title=A working definition, by José Martinez Cobo |url=https://www.iwgia.org/en/news-alerts/archive?view=article&id=340:a-working-definition-by-jose-martinez-cobo&catid=143 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191026153237/https://www.iwgia.org/en/news-alerts/archive?view=article&id=340:a-working-definition-by-jose-martinez-cobo&catid=143 |archive-date=26 October 2019 |access-date=11 March 2020 |website=IWGIA - International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs |quote=}}</ref></blockquote>
Martínez Cobo states that the following factors are relevant to historical continuity: occupation of ancestral lands, or at least of part of them; common ancestry with the original occupants of these lands; cultural factors such as religion, tribalism, dress, etc.; language; residence in certain parts of the country, or in certain regions of the world; and other relevant factors.{{sfn|Secretariat of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues|2009|pp=4–5}}
[[File:Chichicastenango-004.jpg|thumb|Guatemalan girls in their traditional clothing from the town of Santa Catarina Palopó on [[Lake Atitlán]]]]
In 2004, professor of human rights law and policy [[James Anaya]], defined Indigenous peoples as "living descendants of pre-invasion inhabitants of lands now dominated by others. They are culturally distinct groups that find themselves engulfed by other settler societies born of forces of empire and conquest".<ref name="Anaya-2004">{{cite book |first=S. James |last=Anaya |author-link=James Anaya |title=Indigenous Peoples in International Law |edition=2nd |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |date=2004 |page=3 |quote=Professor Anaya teaches Native American Law, and is the third Commission on Human Rights Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of Indigenous People}}</ref>
In 2012, Indigenous studies scholars [[Eve Tuck]] and [[K. Wayne Yang]] proposed a criterion based on accounts of origin: "Indigenous peoples are those who have creation stories, not colonization stories, about how we/they came to be in a particular place – indeed how we/they came to be a place. Our/their relationships to land comprise our/their epistemologies, ontologies, and cosmologies".<ref name="Tuck-2012">{{cite journal |last1=Tuck |first1=Eve |author1-link=Eve Tuck |last2=Yang |first2=K. Wayne |author-link2=K. Wayne Yang |title=Decolonization is not a metaphor |journal=Tabula Rasa |volume=38 |date=2012 |pages=61–111}}</ref> Indigenous peoples such as the Maasai and the Māori have oral traditional histories involving migration to their current ___location from somewhere else.<ref name=singh/>
Anthropologist Manvir Singh states that the term may lack coherence, pointing to inconsistencies in which ethnic groups are called Indigenous or not, and notes several scholars who suggest that it instead acts as a relabeling of discredited and colonial ideas about "primitive" people.<ref name=singh>{{cite magazine |last1=Singh |first1=Manvir |title=It's Time to Rethink the Idea of the "Indigenous" |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/02/27/its-time-to-rethink-the-idea-of-the-indigenous |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |access-date=3 November 2024 |date=20 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250627191511/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/02/27/its-time-to-rethink-the-idea-of-the-indigenous |archive-date=27 June 2025}}</ref> Singh states that some Indigenous people argue that the term and identity has resulted in pressure to appear "primordial" and "unchanging", and erases complex and modern identities.<ref name=singh/>
Other scholars, such as Dominic O'Sullivan and Marjo Lindroth, have analysed and defined Indigenous peoples as those in a specific power-relationship with the state, called "indigeneity", that has come about due to the process of [[settler-colonialism]].<ref>{{cite book |last=O'Sullivan |first=Dominic |date=2017 |chapter=The politics of indigeneity |title=Indigeneity: A Politics of Potential: Australia, Fiji and New Zealand |publisher=[[Bristol University Press]] |pages=35–50}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lindroth |first1=Marjo |last2=Sinevaara-Niskanen |first2=Heidi |date=2019 |title=Colonialism invigorated? The manufacture of resilient indigeneity |journal=Resilience |volume=7 |number=3 |pages=240–254 |doi=10.1080/21693293.2019.1601860}}</ref><ref>{{bulleted list|
| {{cite book |last=Weaver |first=Jace |date=2005 |chapter=Indigenousness and Indigeneity |title=A Companion to Postcolonial Studies |editor1-first=Henry |editor1-last=Schwarz |editor2-first=Sangeeta |editor2-last=Ray |publisher=[[Blackwell Publishing]] |pages=221–235 |isbn=0-631-20663-9}}
| {{cite journal |last=Merlan |first=Francesca |date=June 2009 |title=Indigeneity: Global and Local |journal=[[Current Anthropology]] |volume=50 |number=3 |pages=303–333 |doi=10.1086/597667 |jstor=10.1086/597667 |pmid=19827331 }}
| {{cite journal |last1=Trigger |first1=David S. |last2=Dalley |first2=Cameo |date=2010 |title=Negotiating Indigeneity: Culture, Identity, and Politics |journal=[[Reviews in Anthropology]] |volume=39 |number=1 |pages=46–65 |doi=10.1080/00938150903548618}}
| {{cite journal |first1=Jodi A. |last1=Byrd |first2=Michael |last2=Rothberg |date=2011 |title=Between Subalternity and Indigineity |journal=Interventions |volume=13 |number=1 |pages=1–12 |doi=10.1080/1369801X.2011.545574}}
| {{cite journal |last=Radcliffe |first=Sarah A. |date=2015 |title=Geography and indigeneity I: Indigeneity, coloniality and knowledge |journal=Progress in Human Geography |volume=41 |number=2 |pages=220–229 |doi=10.1177/0309132515612952}}
| {{cite journal |first=Inés Durán |last=Matute |date=June 2020 |title=Indigeneity as a transnational battlefield: disputes over meanings, spaces and peoples |journal=Globalizations |volume=18 |number=2 |doi=10.1080/14747731.2020.1771962 |pages=256–272}}
}}</ref>
==== Other views ====
It is sometimes argued that all Africans are Indigenous to Africa, all Asians are Indigenous to parts of Asia, or that there can be no Indigenous peoples in countries which did not experience large-scale Western settler colonialism.{{Sfn|Secretariat of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues|2009|p=6}} Many countries have avoided the term Indigenous peoples or have denied that Indigenous peoples exist in their territory, and have classified minorities who identify as Indigenous in other ways, such as 'hill tribes' in Thailand, 'scheduled tribes' in India, 'national minorities' in China, 'cultural minorities' in the Philippines, 'isolated and alien peoples' in Indonesia, and various other terms.<ref name="Cultural Survival3"/>
==History==
===Classical antiquity===
Greek sources of the [[Classical Greece|Classical]] period acknowledge Indigenous people whom they referred to as "[[Pelasgians]]". Ancient writers saw these people either as the ancestors of the [[Greeks]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Abel |first=V. Lynne Snyder |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WilCAAAAIAAJ |title=Fifth Century B.C. Concepts of the Pelasgians |date=1966 |publisher=[[Stanford University]] |pages=12 & 49 |language=en}}</ref> or as an earlier group of people who inhabited [[Greece]] before the Greeks.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Colvin |first=Stephen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_kJOAgAAQBAJ&q=pelasgians+the+inhabitants+of+Greece+before+the+emergence+or+arrival+of+the+Greeks&pg=PT26 |title=A Brief History of Ancient Greek |date=5 December 2013 |publisher=[[John Wiley & Sons]] |isbn=978-1-118-61072-5 |language=en |access-date=15 August 2021 |archive-date=15 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230315021622/https://books.google.com/books?id=_kJOAgAAQBAJ&q=pelasgians+the+inhabitants+of+Greece+before+the+emergence+or+arrival+of+the+Greeks&pg=PT26 |url-status=live}}</ref> The disposition and precise identity of this former group is elusive, and sources such as [[Homer]], [[Hesiod]] and [[Herodotus]] give varying, partially mythological accounts. [[Dionysius of Halicarnassus]] in his book, ''Roman Antiquities'', gives a synoptic interpretation of the Pelasgians based on the sources available to him then, concluding that Pelasgians were Greek.<ref name="Dionysius1.17">Dionysius of Halicarnassus. ''Roman Antiquities'', [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Dionysius_of_Halicarnassus/1B*.html 1.17] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221215151343/https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Dionysius_of_Halicarnassus/1B%2A.html |date=15 December 2022 }}.</ref>
===Africa===
In European late antiquity, many [[Berbers]], [[Copts]] and [[Nubians]] of north Africa converted to various forms of Christianity under Roman rule, although elements of traditional religious beliefs were retained.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Shillington |first=Kevin |title=History of Africa |publisher=Red Globe Press |year=2019 |isbn=978-1-137-50403-6 |edition=4th |___location=London |pages=188–91}}</ref> Following the Arab invasions of North Africa in the 7th century, many Berbers were enslaved or recruited into the army. The majority of Berbers, however, remained nomadic pastoralists who also engaged in trade as far as sub-Saharan Africa.<ref>Shillington (2019). p. 202</ref> Coptic Egyptians remained in possession of their lands and many preserved their language and Christian religion. By the 10th century, however, the majority of the population of north Africa spoke Arabic and practiced Islam.<ref>Shillington (2019). pp. 194–95</ref>[[File:AlonsoFernandezdeLugo2.JPG|thumb|upright=1.15|[[Alonso Fernández de Lugo]] presenting the captured [[Guanches|Guanche]] kings of [[Tenerife]] to [[Ferdinand and Isabella]]]]From 1402, the [[Guanches|Guanche]] of the Canary Islands resisted Spanish attempts at colonization. The islands finally came under Spanish control in 1496. [[Mohamed Adhikari]] has called the conquest of the islands a [[genocide]].{{sfn|Taylor|2013|pp=15–16}}<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Adhikari |first1=Mohamed |author-link=Mohamed Adhikari |date=7 September 2017 |title=Europe's First Settler Colonial Incursion into Africa: The Genocide of Aboriginal Canary Islanders |journal=[[African Historical Review]] |volume=49 |issue=1 |pages=1–26 |doi=10.1080/17532523.2017.1336863}}</ref>
Early 15th-century Portuguese exploration of the west coast of Africa was motivated by a quest for gold and crusading against Islam.{{sfn|Pagden|2001|pp=58–59}} Portugal's first attempt at colonization in what is now [[Senegal]] ended in failure.{{sfn|Pagden|2001|p=93}} In the 1470s, the Portuguese established a fortified trading post on the West coast of Africa, south of the [[Akan people|Akan]] goldfields. The Portuguese engaged in extensive trade of goods for gold and, in later years, slaves for their sugar plantations in the islands off West Africa and in the New World.<ref>Shillington (2019). pp. 343–46</ref> In 1488, Portuguese ships rounded the Cape of Good Hope<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Burkholder |first1=Mark A. |title=Colonial Latin America |last2=Johnson |first2=Lyman L. |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2001 |isbn=0-19-513702-7 |edition=4th |___location=New York |pages=33}}</ref> and by the 17th century, Portugal had established seaborn trading routes and fortified coastal trading posts from West Africa to India and Southern China, and a settler colony in Brazil.{{sfn|Pagden|2001|pp=59–60, 93}}
In 1532, the first African slaves were transported directly to the Americas. The trade in slaves expanded sharply in the 17th century, with the involvement of the French, Dutch and English, before declining in the 19th century. At least 12 million slaves were transported from Africa.<ref>Shillington (2019). p. 350.</ref> The slave trade increased inter-tribal warfare and stunted population growth and economic development in the west African interior.<ref>Shillington (2019). pp. 350-52</ref>{{sfn|Pagden|2001|pp=108–111}}
===Americas===
{{See also|Age of Discovery}}
Indigenous encounters with Europeans increased during the [[Age of Discovery|age of discovery]]. The Europeans were motivated by a range of factors including trade,{{sfn|Taylor|2013|pp=15–16}}{{sfn|Pagden|2001|pp=91–95}} the exploitation of natural resources,{{sfn|Taylor|2013|pp=15–16}}<ref>Padgen (2001). pp. 84-85</ref> spreading Christianity,{{sfn|Pagden|2001|pp=72–73}} and establishing strategic military bases, colonies and settlements.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Benton |first1=Lauren |last2=Straumann |first2=Benjamin |date=February 2010 |title=Acquiring empire by law: From Roman doctrine to early modern European practice |journal=[[Law and History Review]] |publisher=[[American Society for Legal History]] |volume=28 |issue=1 |pages=1–38 [34–36] |doi=10.1017/S0738248009990022 |jstor=40646121}}</ref>
From 1492, the [[Arawak]] peoples of the Caribbean islands encountered Spanish colonizers initially led by [[Christopher Columbus]]. The Spanish enslaved some of the native population and forced others to work on farms and gold mines in a system of labor called ''[[encomienda]]''. Spanish settlements spread from Hispaniola to Puerto Rico, the Bahamas and Cuba, leading to a severe decline in the Indigenous populations from disease, malnutrition, settler violence and cultural disruption.<ref>Burkholder and Johnson (2001). pp. 34-39</ref>{{sfn|Taylor|2013|p=17}}
In the 1520s, the peoples of [[Mesoamerica]] encountered the Spanish who entered their lands in search of gold and other resources. Some indigenous peoples chose to ally with the Spanish to end [[Aztec Empire|Aztec]] rule. The Spanish incursions led to the [[Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire|conquest of the Aztec Empire]] and its fall. The Cempoalans, [[Tlaxcaltec|Tlaxcalans]] and other allies of the Spanish were given some autonomy, but the Spanish were de facto rulers of Mexico. Smallpox devastated the indigenous population and aided the Spanish conquest.<ref>Burkholder and Johnson (2001). pp. 42-50.</ref>
[[File:Age of Discovery explorations in English.png|thumb|upright=1.35|Map with the main travels of the [[Age of Discovery]] (which began in the 15th century)]]
In 1530, the Spanish sailed south from Panama to the lands of the [[Inca Empire]] in the west of South America. The Inca, weakened by a smallpox epidemic and civil war, were defeated by the Spanish at Cajamarca in 1532, and the emperor Atahualpa was captured and executed. The Spanish appointed a puppet emperor and captured the Inca capital of Cuzco with the support of a number of native peoples. The Spanish established a new capital in 1535 and defeated an Inca rebellion in 1537, thus consolidating the conquest of Peru.<ref>Burkholder and Lyman (2001). pp. 50-56</ref>
In the 1560s, the Spanish established colonies in Florida and in 1598 founded a colony in New Mexico.{{sfn|Taylor|2013|pp=28–30}} However, the heartland of the Spanish colonies remained [[New Spain]] (including Mexico and most of Central America) and [[Viceroyalty of Peru|Peru]] (including most of South America).{{sfn|Taylor|2013|p=33}}
In the 17th century, French, English and Dutch trading posts multiplied in northern America to exploit whaling, fishing and fur trading. French settlements progressed up the St Lawrence river to the Great Lakes and down the Mississippi to Louisiana.{{sfn|Taylor|2013|pp=35–38, 83}} English and Dutch settlements multiplied down the Atlantic coast from modern Massachusetts to Georgia.{{sfn|Taylor|2013|pp=51–76, 80}} Native peoples formed alliances with the Europeans in order to promote trade, preserve their autonomy, and gain allies in conflicts with other native peoples.{{sfn|Taylor|2013|pp=35–38, 83}}{{sfn|Pagden|2001|pp=95–96}} However, horses and new weapons made inter-tribal conflicts more deadly and the native population was devastated by introduced diseases. Native peoples also experienced losses from violent conflict with the colonists and the progressive dispossession of their traditional lands.{{sfn|Taylor|2013|pp=43, 76}}
[[File:LienzodeTlaxcalaLamina5.jpg|thumb|Depiction of a Spaniard entering [[Chalco (altépetl)|Chalco]] with three [[Tlaxcalans|Tlaxcalan]] soldiers and an Indigenous porter in the ''[[Lienzo de Tlaxcala]]'' (pre-1585)]]
In 1492, the population of the Americas as a whole was about 50 to 100 million. By 1700, introduced diseases had reduced the native population by 90%.{{sfn|Taylor|2013|pp=17–18}} European migration and transfer of slaves from Africa reduced the native population to a minority. By 1800 the population of North America comprised about 5 million Europeans and their descendants, one million Africans and 600,000 indigenous Americans.{{sfn|Taylor|2013|p=20}}
Native populations also encountered new animals and plants introduced by Europeans. These included pigs, horses, mules, sheep and cattle; wheat, barley, rye, oats, grasses and grapevines. These exotic animals and plants radically transformed the local environment and disrupted traditional agriculture and hunting practices.{{sfn|Taylor|2013|p=20}}
=== Oceania ===
The indigenous populations of the Pacific had increasing contact with Europeans in the 18th century as British, French and Spanish expeditions explored the region. The natives of Tahiti had encounters with the expeditions of [[Samuel Wallis|Wallis]] (1766), [[Louis Antoine de Bougainville|Bougainville]] (1768), [[James Cook|Cook]] (1769) and many others before being colonized by the French.{{sfn|Pagden|2001|pp=120–126}} The indigenous inhabitants of the [[Hawaiian Islands]] first encountered Europeans in 1778 when Cook explored the region.{{sfn|Pagden|2001|pp=30–31}} Following increasing contact with European missionaries, traders and scientific expeditions, the indigenous population fell before their lands were annexed by the United States in 1893.{{sfn|Pagden|2001|pp=129–131}}
The [[Māori people|Māori]] of New Zealand also had sporadic encounters with Europeans in the 17th and 18th centuries. Following encounters with Cook's exploration parties in 1769–70, New Zealand was visited by numerous European and North American whaling, sealing, and trading ships.<ref>King (2003). p. 122</ref> From the early 19th century, Christian missionaries began to settle New Zealand, eventually converting most of the Māori population.<ref>{{cite book |last=Wagstrom |first=Thor |title=Indigenous Peoples and Religious Change |date=2005 |publisher=[[Brill Publishers|Brill Academic Publishers]] |isbn=978-90-04-13899-5 |editor-last=Brock |editor-first=Peggy |___location=Boston |pages=71 and 73 |chapter=Broken Tongues and Foreign Hearts}}</ref> The Māori population declined to around 40% of its pre-contact level during the 19th century; introduced diseases were the major factor.<ref>{{cite book |last=Lange |first=Raeburn |title=May the people live: a history of Māori health development 1900–1920 |date=1999 |publisher=[[Auckland University Press]] |isbn=978-1-86940-214-3 |page=18}}</ref> New Zealand became a British Crown colony in 1841.<ref>{{cite web |date=March 2009 |title=Crown colony era – the Governor-General |url=https://nzhistory.govt.nz/page/crown-colony-era |access-date=7 January 2011 |website=NZHistory |publisher=[[New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage]] |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220628213842/https://nzhistory.govt.nz/politics/history-of-the-governor-general/crown-colony-era |archive-date=28 June 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Moon |first=Paul |title=New Zealand Birth Certificates – 50 of New Zealand's Founding Documents |publisher=AUT Media |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-95829971-8 |page=66 |author-link=Paul Moon}}</ref>
The [[Aboriginal Australians|Aboriginal inhabitants]] of Australia, after brief encounters with European explorers in the 17th and 18th centuries, had extensive contact with Europeans when the continent was progressively colonized by the British from 1788. During colonization, the Aboriginal people experienced depopulation from disease and settler violence, dispossession of their land, and severe disruption of their traditional cultures. By 1850, indigenous peoples were a minority in Australia.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Macintyre |first=Stuart |title=A Concise History of Australia |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=2020 |isbn=978-1-108-72848-5 |edition=5th |___location=Melbourne |pages=38–39, 71–77, 83}}</ref>
=== European justifications for colonization ===
{{See also|Discovery doctrine}}
From the 15th to the 19th centuries, European powers used a number of rationales for the colonization of newly encountered lands populated by indigenous peoples. These included a duty to spread the [[Gospel]] to non-Christians, to bring civilization to barbarian peoples, a [[natural law]] right to explore and trade freely with other peoples, and a right to settle and cultivate uninhabited or uncultivated land which they considered ''[[terra nullius]]'' ("no one's land").<ref>{{Cite book |last=Slattery |first=Brian |title=Despotic Dominion, property Rights in British Settler Societies |publisher=[[University of British Columbia Press]] |year=2005 |editor1-last=McLaren |editor1-first=John |___location=Vancouver |pages=51, 55, 58, 62–65, 67, 69 |chapter=Paper Empires: The legal dimensions of French and English Ventures in North America |editor2-last=Buck |editor2-first=A. R. |editor3-last=Wright |editor3-first=Nancy E.}}</ref>
Robert J. Miller, Jacinta Ruru, Larissa Behrendt and Tracey Lindberg argue that European powers rationalized their colonization of the New World by the [[discovery doctrine]], which they trace back to papal decrees authorizing Spain and Portugal to conquer newly discovered non-Christian lands and convert their populations to Christianity.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Miller |first1=Robert J. |title=Discovering indigenous lands, the doctrine of discovery in the English colonies |last2=Ruru |first2=Jacinta |last3=Behrendt |first3=Larissa |last4=Lindberg |first4=Tracey |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2010 |isbn=9780199651856 |___location=New York |pages=9–12}}</ref> Kent McNeil, however, states, "While Spain and Portugal favoured discovery and papal grants because it was generally in their interests to do so, France and Britain relied more on symbolic acts, colonial charters, and occupation."<ref>McNeil (2016). p. 707</ref> Benton and Strauman argue that European powers often adopted multiple, sometimes contradictory, legal rationales for their acquisition of territory as a deliberate strategy in defending their claims against European rivals.<ref>Benton and Strauman (2010). pp. 3, 12</ref>
=== Settler independence and continuing colonialism ===
{{See also|Settler colonialism}}
Although the establishment of colonies throughout the world by various European powers aimed to expand those powers' wealth and influence, settler populations in some localities became anxious to assert their own autonomy. For example, settler independence movements in thirteen of the [[Thirteen Colonies|British American colonies]] were successful by 1783, following the [[American Revolutionary War]]. This resulted in the establishment of the [[United States|United States of America]] as an entity separate from the [[British Empire]]. The United States continued and expanded European colonial doctrine through adopting a version of the discovery doctrine as law in 1823 with the [[Supreme Court of the United States|US Supreme Court]] case ''[[Johnson v. McIntosh]]''. Statements at the ''Johnson'' court case illuminated the United States' support for the principles of the discovery doctrine:<ref>{{Cite book |last=Miller |first=Robert J. |title=Native America, Discovered and Conquered: Thomas Jefferson, Lewis & Clark, and Manifest Destiny |publisher=[[Praeger Publications]] |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-275-99011-4 |pages=9–10}}</ref><blockquote>The United States ... [and] its civilized inhabitants now hold this country. They hold, and assert in themselves, the title by which it was acquired. They maintain, as all others have maintained, that discovery gave an exclusive right to extinguish the Indian title of occupancy, either by purchase or by conquest; and gave also a right to such a degree of sovereignty, as the circumstances of the people would allow them to exercise. ... [This loss of native property and sovereignty rights was justified, the Court said, by] the character and religion of its inhabitants ... the superior genius of Europe ... [and] ample compensation to the [Indians] by bestowing on them civilization and Christianity, in exchange for unlimited independence.</blockquote>
==Population and distribution==
[[File:Isolierte-Völker.png|thumb|upright=1.35|A map of [[uncontacted peoples]], around the start of the 21st century]]
21st-century estimates of the population of Indigenous peoples range from 250 million to 750 million.<ref name="Muckle-2012a"/> In 2007, Mirjan Hirch, a researcher with the Center for World Indigenous Studies, estimated the population at 750 million to a billion, comprising six to seven thousand distinct peoples.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hirch |first=Mirjan |date=20 September 2007 |title=What the UN Declaration Means |url=https://www.cwis.org/2007/09/what-the-un-declaration-means/ |access-date=19 February 2025 |website=Center for World Indigenous Studies |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250428024901/https://www.cwis.org/2007/09/what-the-un-declaration-means/ |archive-date=28 April 2025}}</ref> The United Nations estimated in 2009 that there were over 370 million Indigenous people living in over 90 countries worldwide, belonging to at least 5,000 distinct peoples.<ref>{{Cite book |last=UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues |title=State of the world's indigenous peoples |date=2009 |publisher=[[United Nations]] |isbn=978-92-1-130283-7 |___location=New York}}</ref>{{Sfn|Secretariat of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues|2009|p=1}} In 2011, the World Bank estimated 300 million indigenous peoples, including 23 million in Latin America, 106 million in China, 95 million in South Asia, 30 million in Southeast Asia, 22 million in Africa, 15 million in the Arab States and 9 million in the rest of the world.<ref>{{Cite conference |last=World Bank |date=2011 |title=Indigenous Peoples: Still among the poorest of the poor |url=https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/144831468330276370/pdf/647600BRI0Box30ndigenous0clean00421.pdf |conference= |___location=Washington |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250616033211/https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/144831468330276370/pdf/647600BRI0Box30ndigenous0clean00421.pdf |archive-date=16 June 2025}}</ref> The International Labor Organization in 2019 estimated, based on census data, that there were 476 million Indigenous people in 58 countries.<ref>The countries included were: Angola, Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Costa Rica, Denmark, Dominica, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, Gabon, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Mali, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Namibia, Nepal, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Russian Federation, Senegal, South Africa, Suriname, Uganda, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Viet Nam. The report accepted the UN count of at least 90 countries with Indigenous peoples, but did not including the remaining 32 countries in its count. {{Cite conference |last1=Kumar Dhir |first1=Rishabh |last2=Cattaneo |first2=Umberto |last3=Cabrera Ormaza |first3=Maria Victoria |last4=Coronado |first4=Hernan |last5=Oelz |first5=Martin |date=2019 |title=Implementing the ILO Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention No. 169: Towards an inclusive, sustainable and just future |url=https://www.ilo.org/publications/implementing-ilo-indigenous-and-tribal-peoples-convention-no-169-towards |publisher=[[International Labour Organization]] |access-date=14 February 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250614100237/https://www.ilo.org/publications/implementing-ilo-indigenous-and-tribal-peoples-convention-no-169-towards |archive-date=14 June 2025}}</ref> Both the UN and the ILO described their estimates as minimums with the latter calculated using "the most reliable lower bound estimates available."<ref>{{Cite conference |last1=Kumar Dhir |first1=Rishabh |last2=Cattaneo |first2=Umberto |last3=Cabrera Ormaza |first3=Maria Victoria |last4=Coronado |first4=Hernan |last5=Oelz |first5=Martin |date=2019 |title=Implementing the ILO Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention No. 169: Towards an inclusive, sustainable and just future |url=https://www.ilo.org/publications/implementing-ilo-indigenous-and-tribal-peoples-convention-no-169-towards |conference= |publisher=[[International Labour Organization]] |pages=51 |access-date=14 February 2025 |quote=Country-level data on indigenous peoples' population could only be gathered for the 58 most populous countries, where indigenous peoples are considered to live. As a result, the true extent of the indigenous peoples' population is likely to be found to be even greater than the estimates presented below. However, working with the data currently available, it is difficult to determine the range within which the "true" value lies. The figures presented below are the most reliable lower bound estimates available, based on the sources listed in Appendix A.2 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250614100237/https://www.ilo.org/publications/implementing-ilo-indigenous-and-tribal-peoples-convention-no-169-towards |archive-date=14 June 2025}}</ref>
As there is no universally accepted definition of Indigenous Peoples, their classification as such varies between countries and organizations.<ref name="Cultural Survival3"/> In the Americas, Australia and New Zealand, Indigenous status is often applied unproblematically to groups descended from the peoples who lived there prior to European settlement. However, In [[Asia]] and Africa, Indigenous status has sometimes been rejected by certain peoples, denied by governments or applied to peoples who may not be considered "Indigenous" in other contexts.<ref name="McIntosh-2000">{{Cite journal |last=McIntosh |first=Ian |date=September 2000 |title=Are there Indigenous Peoples in Asia? |url=https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/are-there-indigenous-peoples-asia |url-status=live |journal=Cultural Survival Quarterly Magazine |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210422165651/https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/are-there-indigenous-peoples-asia |archive-date=22 April 2021 |access-date=1 April 2021 |quote=the word itself now has little meaning outside of the struggle for rights and dignity on the part of minorities and the oppressed.}}</ref> The concept of indigenous peoples is rarely used in Europe, where very few indigenous groups are recognized, with the exception of groups such as the [[Sámi people|Sámi]].<ref name="Grote2">{{cite journal |last=Grote |first=Rainer |year=2006 |title=On the Fringes of Europe: Europe's Largely Forgotten Indigenous Peoples |journal=American Indian Law Review |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=425–443 |doi=10.2307/20070794 |jstor=20070794}}</ref>
===Environmental and economic benefits of the Indigenous stewardship of land===
{{Unbalanced|date=January 2022}}
{{See also|Climate change and indigenous peoples}}
A WRI report mentions that "tenure-secure" Indigenous lands generates billions and sometimes trillions of dollars' worth of benefits in the form of [[carbon sequestration]], reduced pollution, clean water and more. It says that tenure-secure Indigenous lands have low deforestation rates,<ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://www.wri.org/blog/2016/10/protecting-indigenous-land-rights-makes-good-economic-sense |title=Protecting Indigenous Land Rights Makes Good Economic Sense |date=7 October 2016 |website=World Resources Institute |last1=Veit |first1=Peter |last2=Ding |first2=Helen |access-date=21 October 2019 |archive-date=8 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191008065702/https://www.wri.org/blog/2016/10/protecting-indigenous-land-rights-makes-good-economic-sense |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.wri.org/publication/climate-benefits-tenure-costs |title=Climate Benefits, Tenure Costs |first1=Helen |last1=Ding |first2=Peter |last2=Veit |first3=Erin |last3=Gray |first4=Katie |last4=Reytar |first5=Juan-Carlos |last5=Altamirano |first6=Allen |last6=Blackman |first7=Benjamin |last7=Hodgdon |date=10 June 2016 |isbn=978-1-56973-894-8 |via=www.wri.org |access-date=21 October 2019 |archive-date=17 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191017180454/https://www.wri.org/publication/climate-benefits-tenure-costs |url-status=live}}</ref> they help to reduce GHG emissions, control erosion and flooding by anchoring soil, and provide a suite of other local, regional and global [[ecosystem services]].
However, many of these communities find themselves on the front lines of the deforestation crisis, and their lives and livelihoods threatened.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/story/defending-defenders-tropical-forests-front-line |title=Defending the defenders: tropical forests in the front line |newspaper=Unep |date=13 May 2019 |access-date=21 October 2019 |archive-date=20 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191020154906/https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/story/defending-defenders-tropical-forests-front-line |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.un.org/development/desa/dspd/2018/04/protect-indigenous-peoples-land/ |title=Protect indigenous people's land rights and the whole world will benefit | DISD |website=[[United Nations]] |access-date=21 October 2019 |archive-date=12 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200812131111/https://www.un.org/development/desa/dspd/2018/04/protect-indigenous-peoples-land/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2015/05/what-role-do-indigenous-people-and-forests-have-in-a-sustainable-future/ |title=What role do indigenous people and forests have in a sustainable future?|first=Sharon |last=Birch |date=11 May 2015 |website=[[United Nations]] |access-date=21 October 2019 |archive-date=20 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191020154548/https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2015/05/what-role-do-indigenous-people-and-forests-have-in-a-sustainable-future/ |url-status=live}}</ref>
== Indigenous peoples and the environment ==
Misconceptions about the historical relationship between Indigenous populations and their landbase has informed some [[Westerners]] view of California's "wild Eden", which may influence policy decisions about the "wilderness". Some academics assumed that the only pre-Colonial human interactions with nature were as "hunter-gatherers". Others say that the relationship was one of "calculated tempered use of nature as active agents of environmental change and stewardship". They argue that a view of "wilderness" as uninhabited nature has resulted in removal of Indigenous inhabitants to preserve "the wild", and that depriving the land of traditional Indigenous practices such as controlled burns, harvesting, and seed scattering has yielded dense understory shrubbery or tickets of young trees which are inhospitable to life. Recent studies indicate that Indigenous peoples used land sustainably, without causing substantial losses of biodiversity, for thousands of years.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ellis |first1=Erle C. |last2=Gauthier |first2=Nicolas |last3=Goldewijk |first3=Kees Klein |last4=Bird |first4=Rebecca Bliege |last5=Boivin |first5=Nicole |last6=Díaz |first6=Sandra |last7=Fuller |first7=Dorian Q. |last8=Gill |first8=Jacquelyn L. |last9=Kaplan |first9=Jed O. |last10=Kingston |first10=Naomi |last11=Locke |first11=Harvey |last12=McMichael |first12=Crystal N. H. |last13=Ranco |first13=Darren |last14=Rick |first14=Torben C. |last15=Shaw |first15=M. Rebecca |last16=Stephens |first16=Lucas |last17=Svenning |first17=Jens-Christian |last18=Watson |first18=James E. M. |title=People have shaped most of terrestrial nature for at least 12,000 years |journal=[[Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences]] |date=27 April 2021 |volume=118 |issue=17 |article-number=e2023483118 |doi=10.1073/pnas.2023483118 |pmid=33875599 |pmc=8092386 |bibcode=2021PNAS..11823483E |doi-access=free}}</ref>
A goal is to ascertain an unbiased view of Indigenous practices of resource management.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Diamond |first1=Jared M. |title=The rise and fall of the third chimpanzee |date=1991 |publisher=Radius |isbn=978-0-09-174268-3}}</ref>{{pn|date=August 2025}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Harari |first1=Yuval N. |title=Sapiens: a brief history of humankind |date=2015 |___location=New York |publisher=Harper |isbn=9780062316097 |edition=1st U.S.}}</ref>{{pn|date=August 2025}}<ref>{{Cite book |title=A Concise History of New Zealand |last=Mein Smith |first=Philippa |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=2012 |isbn=978-1107402171 |pages=2, 5–6}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |title=Naïve birds and noble savages – a review of man-caused prehistoric extinctions of island birds |last1=Milberg |last2=Tyrberg |first1=Per |first2=Tommy |date=1993 |journal=Ecography |volume=16 |issue=3 |pages=229–250 |doi=10.1111/j.1600-0587.1993.tb00213.x |bibcode=1993Ecogr..16..229M}}</ref> Historical literature, archaeological findings, ecological field studies, and Native Peoples' cultures show indications that Indigenous land management practices were largely successful in promoting habitat heterogeneity, increasing [[biodiversity]], and maintaining certain vegetation types, sustaining human lives while conserving natural resources.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Natcher |first1=David C. |title=M. Kat Anderson: Tending the Wild: Native American Knowledge and the Management of California's Natural Resources: Berkeley: University of California Press 2005 (526pp). ISBN 0-520-23856-7 |journal=[[Human Ecology (journal)|Human Ecology]] |date=5 April 2007 |volume=35 |issue=3 |pages=381–382 |doi=10.1007/s10745-006-9075-4 |bibcode=2007HumEc..35..381N}}</ref>
Recently, it has come to light that the [[deforestation]] rate of Indonesian rainforests has been far greater than estimated. Such a rate could not have been the product of [[globalization]] as understood before; rather, it seemed that ordinary local people dependent on these forests for their livelihoods are in fact "joining distant corporations in creating uninhabitable landscapes."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lowenhaupt Tsing |first=Anna |title=Friction: an ethnography of global connection |date=2005 |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |isbn=0-691-12065-X |oclc=937000280}}</ref>{{pn|date=August 2025}}
In eastern [[Penan]], three categories of misrepresentation are noticeable: The Molong concept is purely a stewardship notion of resource management. Communities or individuals take ownership of specific trees, maintaining and harvesting from them sustainably over a long period of time. Some feel this practice has been romanticized in environmentalist writings. Landscape features and particularly their names in local languages provided geographical and historical information for Penan people; whereas in environmentalist accounts, it has turned into a spiritual practice where trees and rivers represent forest spirits that are sacred to the Penan people. A typical stereotype of some environmentalists' approach to ecological [[ethnography]] is to present Indigenous "knowledge" of nature as "valuable" to the outside world because of its hidden medicinal benefits. In reality, eastern Penan populations do not identify a medicinal stream of "knowledge". These misrepresentations in the "narrative" of Indigeneity and "value" of Indigenous knowledge might have been helpful for Penan's people in their struggle to protect their environment, but it might also have disastrous consequences. What happens if another case did not fit in this romantic narrative, or another Indigenous knowledge did not seem beneficial to the outside world. These people were being uprooted in the first place because their communities did not fit well with the state's system of values.<ref>{{cite book |title=Indigenous Environmental Knowledge and its Transformations |chapter=Endangered Forest, Endangered People Environmentalist Representations of Indigenous Knowledge |date=2003 |pages=302–327 |doi=10.4324/9780203479568-18 |isbn=978-0-203-47956-8 |editor1-first=Alan |editor1-last=Bicker |editor2-first=Roy |editor2-last=Ellen |editor3-first=Peter |editor3-last=Parkes}}</ref>
At the [[2024 United Nations Biodiversity Conference|2024 United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP16)]]''',''' Nations agreed to a new permanent body for Indigenous peoples, which will allow them to advise and offer their view at biodiversity COPs directly.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Chandrasekhar |first1=Aruna |last2=Dunne |first2=Daisy |last3=Dwyer |first3=Orla |last4=Quiroz |first4=Yanine |last5=Viglione |first5=Giuliana |date=2 November 2024 |title=COP16: Key outcomes agreed at the UN biodiversity conference in Cali, Colombia |url=https://www.carbonbrief.org/cop16-key-outcomes-agreed-at-the-un-biodiversity-conference-in-cali-colombia/ |access-date=3 November 2024 |website=Carbon Brief |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250723161925/https://www.carbonbrief.org/cop16-key-outcomes-agreed-at-the-un-biodiversity-conference-in-cali-colombia/ |archive-date=23 July 2025}}</ref>
==Indigenous peoples by region==
{{See also|List of Indigenous peoples}}
Indigenous populations are distributed in regions throughout the globe. The numbers, condition and experience of Indigenous groups may vary widely within a given region. A comprehensive survey is further complicated by sometimes contentious membership and identification.
===Africa===
{{Main|Indigenous peoples of Africa}}
{{See also|:Category:Indigenous peoples of Africa}}
==== Sub-Saharan Africa ====
[[File:BushmenSan.jpg|thumb|Starting fire by hand, [[San people]] in Botswana]]
[[File:Pygmées (RDC).jpg|thumb|[[African Pygmies]] in Congo]]
In the [[Postcolonialism|postcolonial]] period, the concept of specific Indigenous peoples within the African continent has gained wider acceptance, although not without controversy. The highly diverse and numerous ethnic groups that comprise most modern, independent African states contain within them various peoples whose situation, cultures and [[pastoralism|pastoralist]] or [[hunter-gatherer]] lifestyles are generally marginalized and set apart from the dominant political and economic structures of the nation. Since the late 20th century these peoples have increasingly sought recognition of their rights as distinct Indigenous peoples, in both national and international contexts.
Though the vast majority of African peoples are "indigenous" in the sense that they originate from that continent, in practice, identity as an ''Indigenous people'' per the modern definition is more restrictive, and certainly not every African ethnic group claims identification under these terms. Groups and communities who do claim this recognition are those who, by a variety of historical and environmental circumstances, have been placed outside of the dominant state systems, and whose traditional practices and land claims often come into conflict with the objectives and policies implemented by governments, companies and surrounding dominant societies.
==== North Africa ====
The indigenous peoples of North Africa predominantly comprise the [[Berbers]] in the [[Maghreb]] and the [[Copts]] and [[Nubians]] in the [[Nile Valley]]. The vast majority of them have been Arabized after the Islamic conquests under the [[Rashidun Caliphate|Rashidun]] and [[Umayyad Caliphate|Umayyad]] caliphates.
===Americas===
{{Main|Indigenous peoples of the Americas}}
{{See also|:Category:Indigenous peoples of the Americas}}
[[File:Qamutik 1 1999-04-01.jpg|thumb|[[Inuit]] on a traditional ''qamutik'' (dog sled) in [[Cape Dorset]], [[Nunavut]], Canada]]
[[File:Tocado tradicional nahua.jpg|thumb|upright|A girl wears the traditional [[Nahuas|Nahua]] headdress in [[Yohualichan]], [[Veracruz]].]]
Indigenous peoples of the Americas are broadly recognized as being those groups and their descendants who inhabited the region before the arrival of European colonizers and settlers (i.e., [[pre-Columbian]]). Indigenous peoples who maintain, or seek to maintain, traditional ways of life are found from the high Arctic north to the southern extremities of [[Tierra del Fuego]].
The impacts of historical and ongoing [[European colonization of the Americas]] on Indigenous communities have been in general quite severe, with many authorities estimating ranges of significant [[Population history of Indigenous peoples of the Americas|population decline]] primarily due to disease, land theft and violence. Several peoples have become extinct, or very nearly so. But there are and have been many thriving and resilient Indigenous nations and communities.
==== North America ====
North America is sometimes referred to by Indigenous peoples as [[Abya Yala]] or [[Turtle Island (North America)|Turtle Island]].
In Mexico, about 11 million people, or 9% of Mexico's total population, self-reported as Indigenous in 2015, making it the country with the highest Indigenous population in North America.<ref>{{cite web|title=In the 2010 census "Indigenous" people were defined as persons who live in a household where an Indigenous language is spoken by one of the adult family members or people who self identified as Indigenous ("Criteria del hogar: De esta manera, se establece, que los hogares indígenas son aquellos en donde el jefe y/o el cónyuge y/o padre o madre del jefe y/o suegro o suegra del jefe hablan una lengua indígena y también aquellos que declararon pertenecer a un grupo indígena|url=http://www.cdi.gob.mx/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=272&Itemid=58|access-date=9 April 2018|website=Cdi.gob.mx|archive-date=25 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191225095213/http://www.cdi.gob.mx/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=272&Itemid=58|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Persons who speak an indigenous language but who do not live in such a household (Por lo antes mencionado, la Comisión Nacional Para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indígenas de México (CDI) considera población indígena (PI) a todas las personas que forman parte de un hogar indígena, donde el jefe(a) del hogar, su cónyuge y/o alguno de los ascendientes (madre o padre, madrastra o padrastro, abuelo(a), bisabuelo(a), tatarabuelo(a), suegro(a)) declaro ser hablante de lengua indígena. Además, también incluye a personas que declararon hablar alguna lengua indígena y que no forman parte de estos hogares|url=http://www.cdi.gob.mx/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=38&Itemid=54|access-date=9 April 2018|website=Cdi.gob.mx|archive-date=1 May 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110501220616/http://www.cdi.gob.mx/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=38&Itemid=54|url-status=dead}}</ref> In the southern states of [[Oaxaca]] (65.73%) and [[Yucatán (state)|Yucatán]] (65.40%), the majority of the population is Indigenous, as reported in 2015. Other states with high populations of Indigenous peoples include [[Campeche]] (44.54%), [[Quintana Roo]], (44.44%), [[Hidalgo (state)|Hidalgo]], (36.21%), [[Chiapas]] (36.15%), [[Puebla]] (35.28%), and [[Guerrero]] (33.92%).<ref name="somosprimos.com">{{cite web |title=John P. Schmal |url=http://www.somosprimos.com/schmal/schmal.htm |access-date=19 April 2016 |website=Somosprimos.com |archive-date=20 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080920002624/http://www.somosprimos.com/schmal/schmal.htm |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Comisión Nacional para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indígenas. México |language=es |trans-title=National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples. Mexico |url=http://www.cdi.gob.mx/index.php?id_seccion=91 |access-date=22 April 2013 |publisher=Cdi.gob.mx |archive-date=15 November 2004 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041115115005/http://www.cdi.gob.mx/index.php?id_seccion=91 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
[[Indigenous peoples in Canada]] comprise the [[First Nations in Canada|First Nations]],<ref name="First Nations Culture Areas Index">{{cite web |title=Civilization.ca – Gateway to Aboriginal Heritage–Culture |work=Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation |publisher=[[Government of Canada]] |date=12 May 2006 |url=http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/exhibitions/tresors/ethno/etb0170e.shtml |access-date=18 September 2009 |archive-date=11 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110811033229/http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/exhibitions/tresors/ethno/etb0170e.shtml |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Inuit]]<ref name="ICCcharter">{{cite web |title=Inuit Circumpolar Council (Canada) – ICC Charter |work=Inuit Circumpolar Council > ICC Charter and By-laws > ICC Charter |year=2007 |url=http://inuitcircumpolar.com/index.php?auto_slide=&ID=374&Lang=En&Parent_ID=¤t_slide_num= |access-date=18 September 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100305060320/http://inuitcircumpolar.com/index.php?auto_slide=&ID=374&Lang=En&Parent_ID=¤t_slide_num= |archive-date=5 March 2010}}</ref> and [[Métis people (Canada)|Métis]].<ref>{{cite web |title=In the Kawaskimhon Aboriginal Moot Court Factum of the Federal Crown Canada |work=Faculty of Law |publisher=[[University of Manitoba]] |year=2007 |url=http://www.umanitoba.ca/law/newsite/kawaskimhon_factums/FINALWrittenSubmissionsofFederalCrown_windsor.pdf |page=2 |access-date=18 September 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090326043230/http://www.umanitoba.ca/law/newsite/kawaskimhon_factums/FINALWrittenSubmissionsofFederalCrown_windsor.pdf |archive-date=26 March 2009}}</ref> The descriptors "Indian" and "[[Eskimo]]" have fallen into disuse in Canada.<ref>{{cite web |title=Words First An Evolving Terminology Relating to Aboriginal Peoples in Canada |url=http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/pr/pub/wf/trmrslt_e.asp?term=12 |archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20071214120211/http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca:80/pr/pub/wf/trmrslt_e.asp?term=12 |url-status=dead |archive-date=14 December 2007 |publisher=Communications Branch of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada |year=2004 |access-date=26 June 2010}}</ref><ref name="Indian">{{cite web |title=Terminology of First Nations, Native, Aboriginal and Métis |url=http://www.aidp.bc.ca/terminology_of_native_aboriginal_metis.pdf |publisher=Aboriginal Infant Development Programs of BC |year=2009 |access-date=26 June 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100714021655/http://www.aidp.bc.ca/terminology_of_native_aboriginal_metis.pdf |archive-date=14 July 2010}}</ref> More currently, the term "Aboriginal" is being replaced with "Indigenous". Several national organizations in Canada changed their names from "Aboriginal" to "Indigenous". Most notable was the change of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC) to Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) in 2015, which then split into Indigenous Services Canada and Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Development Canada in 2017.<ref>{{cite web |title=Why we say "Indigenous" instead of "Aboriginal" |url=https://www.animikii.com/news/why-we-say-indigenous-instead-of-aboriginal |website=Indigenous Innovation |access-date=22 September 2020 |archive-date=25 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200925062840/https://www.animikii.com/news/why-we-say-indigenous-instead-of-aboriginal |url-status=live}}</ref> According to the 2016 Census, there are around 1,670,000 Indigenous people in Canada.<ref>Statistics Canada, ''[https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/ref/guides/009/98-500-x2016009-eng.cfm] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221215151344/https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/ref/guides/009/98-500-x2016009-eng.cfm|date=15 December 2022}}'' (table), ''Census Profile'', 2016 Census of Population, Catalogue № 98-316-X2016001 (Ottawa: 2017‑11‑29); ———, ''[https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census‑recensement/2016/ref/guides/009/98‑500‑x2016009‑eng.pdf Aboriginal Peoples Reference Guide] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191212025754/https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census%E2%80%91recensement/2016/ref/guides/009/98%E2%80%91500%E2%80%91x2016009%E2%80%91eng.pdf|date=12 December 2019}}'', 2016 Census of Population, Catalogue № 98‑500‑X2016009 (Ottawa: 2017‑10‑25), ISBN‑13:978‑0‑660‑05518‑3, [accessed 2019‑10‑08].</ref> There are currently over 600 recognized [[List of First Nations peoples|First Nations governments or bands]] spread across Canada, such as the Cree, Mohawk, Mikmaq, Blackfoot, Coast Salish, Innu, Dene and more, with distinctive Indigenous cultures, languages, art, and music.<ref name="one">{{cite web |title=Assembly of First Nations - Assembly of First Nations-The Story |publisher=Assembly of First Nations |url=http://www.afn.ca/article.asp?id=59 |access-date=2 October 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090802164225/http://www.afn.ca/article.asp?id=59 |archive-date=2 August 2009}}</ref><ref name="three">{{cite web |title=Civilization.ca-Gateway to Aboriginal Heritage-object |publisher=Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation |date=12 May 2006 |url=http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/exhibitions/tresors/ethno/etb0000e.shtml |access-date=2 October 2009 |archive-date=4 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131104202019/http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/exhibitions/tresors/ethno/etb0000e.shtml |url-status=live}}</ref> First Nations peoples signed 11 numbered treaties<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/aboriginal-treaties |title=Treaties with Indigenous Peoples in Canada | the Canadian Encyclopedia |access-date=22 September 2020 |archive-date=22 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200922140713/https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/aboriginal-treaties |url-status=live}}</ref> across much of what is now known as Canada between 1871 and 1921, except in parts of British Columbia.{{cn|date=August 2025}}
The Inuit have achieved a degree of administrative autonomy with the creation in 1999 of the territories of [[Nunavik]] (in Northern Quebec), [[Nunatsiavut]] (in Northern Labrador) and [[Nunavut]], which was until 1999 a part of the Northwest Territories. The autonomous territory of [[Greenland]] within the [[Denmark|Kingdom of Denmark]] is also home to a recognized Indigenous and majority population of Inuit (about 85%) who settled the area in the 13th century, displacing the Indigenous European [[Greenlandic Norse]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Kintisch |first1=Eli |title=Why did Greenland's Vikings disappear? |url=https://www.science.org/content/article/why-did-greenland-s-vikings-disappear |access-date=29 December 2019 |work=Science {{!}} AAAS |date=10 November 2016 |archive-date=11 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211111131631/https://www.science.org/content/article/why-did-greenland-s-vikings-disappear |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The World Is Changing for Greenland's Native {{sic|Inuit People|nolink=yes}} |url=https://oceanwide-expeditions.com/blog/the-world-is-changing-for-the-native-inuit-people |website=oceanwide-expeditions.com |access-date=29 December 2019 |archive-date=7 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190707090646/https://oceanwide-expeditions.com/blog/the-world-is-changing-for-the-native-inuit-people |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Wade |first1=Nicholas |title=DNA Offers Clues to Greenland's First Inhabitants |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/30/science/30ancestor.html |access-date=29 December 2019 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=30 May 2008 |archive-date=13 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191213205316/https://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/30/science/30ancestor.html |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=Reverse Colonialism - How the Inuit Conquered the Vikings |journal=Canadian Geographic |date=27 July 2015 |url=https://www.canadiangeographic.ca/article/reverse-colonialism-how-inuit-conquered-vikings |access-date=29 December 2019 |archive-date=29 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191229224623/https://www.canadiangeographic.ca/article/reverse-colonialism-how-inuit-conquered-vikings |url-status=dead}}</ref>
In the United States, the combined populations of Native Americans, Inuit and other Indigenous designations totaled 2,786,652 (constituting about 1.5% of 2003 U.S. census figures). Some 563 scheduled tribes are recognized at the federal level, and a number of others recognized at the state level.
==== Central and South America ====
[[File:Quechuawomanandchild.jpg|thumb|[[Quechuas|Quechua]] woman and child in the [[Sacred Valley]], Andes, Peru]]In some countries (particularly in Latin America), Indigenous peoples form a sizable component of the overall national population{{Snd}}in Bolivia, they account for an estimated 56–70% of the total nation, and at least half of the population in Guatemala and the Andean and Amazonian nations of Peru. In English, Indigenous peoples are collectively referred to by different names that vary by region, age and ethnicity of speakers, with [[Native American name controversy|no one term being universally accepted]]. While still in use in-group, and in many names of organizations, "Indian" is less popular among younger people, who tend to prefer "Indigenous" or simply "[[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native]]", with most preferring to use the specific name of their tribe or Nation instead of generalities. In Spanish or Portuguese speaking countries, one finds the use of terms such as índios, ''pueblos [[wikt:indígena|indígenas]]'', ''amerindios'', ''povos nativos'', ''povos indígenas'', and, in Peru, ''Comunidades Nativas'' (Native Communities), particularly among Amazonian societies like the [[Urarina]]<ref>Dean, Bartholomew 2009 ''Urarina Society, Cosmology, and History in Peruvian Amazonia'', Gainesville: University Press of Florida {{ISBN|978-0-8130-3378-5}} [http://www.upf.com/book.asp?id=DEANXS07] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717170729/http://www.upf.com/book.asp?id=DEANXS07|date=17 July 2011}}</ref> and [[Matsés]]. In Chile, there the most populous indigenous peoples are the [[Mapuche]] in the Center-South and the [[Aymaras]] in the North.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://marcachile.cl/vida-cultura/los-10-principales-pueblos-indigenas-de-chile/ |title=Los 10 principales pueblos indígenas de Chile |trans-title=The 10 main indigenous peoples of Chile |date=24 June 2021 |access-date=15 December 2021 |website=marcachile.cl |language=es |archive-date=31 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211231114616/https://marcachile.cl/vida-cultura/los-10-principales-pueblos-indigenas-de-chile/ |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Rapa Nui people|Rapa Nui]] of [[Easter Island]], who are a [[Polynesians|Polynesian]] people, are the only non-[[Amerindian]] indigenous people in Chile.{{cn|date=August 2025}}
Indigenous peoples make up 0.4% of all Brazilian population, or about 700,000 people.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4392805.stm Brazil urged to protect Indians] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171117071558/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4392805.stm |date=17 November 2017 }}. BBC News (30 March 2005). Retrieved on 11 October 2011.</ref> Indigenous peoples are found in the entire territory of Brazil, although the majority of them live in Indian reservations in the North and Center-Western part of the country. On 18 January 2007, [[Fundação Nacional do Índio|FUNAI]] reported that it had confirmed the presence of 67 different [[uncontacted peoples]] in Brazil, up from 40 in 2005. With this addition Brazil has now overtaken the island of [[New Guinea]] as the country having the largest number of uncontacted peoples.<ref>[https://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN17285256 Brazil sees traces of more isolated Amazon tribes] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171117071747/https://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN17285256 |date=17 November 2017 }}. [[Reuters]]. Retrieved on 11 October 2011.</ref>
===Asia===
{{See also|Category:Indigenous peoples of Asia}}
[[File:Kalasha Girls.jpg|thumb|[[Kalash people|Kalash]] girls in Pakistan]]
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:Assyrianfolkcostume.png|thumb|[[Assyrian people]], who are indigenous to northern [[Iraq]], are seen here in traditional costume and participating in a [[Assyrian folk dance|folk dance]].]] -->
====West Asia====
* [[Armenians]] are the Indigenous people of the [[Armenian Highlands]].<ref name="Travis">{{cite journal |last1=Travis |first1=Hannibal |title=The Cultural and Intellectual Property Interests of the Indigenous Peoples of Turkey and Iraq |journal=[[Texas Wesleyan Law Review]] |date=March 2009 |volume=15 |issue=2 |pages=415–494 |doi=10.37419/TWLR.V15.I2.6 |ssrn=1549804 |quote=The U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples requires states to provide an effective remedy to indigenous peoples deprived of their cultural, religious, or intellectual property (IP) without their free, prior and informed consent. The Declaration could prove to be an important safeguard for the indigenous peoples of Iraq and Turkey, the victims for centuries of massacres, assaults on their religious and cultural sites, theft and deterioration of their lands and cultural objects, and forced assimilation. These peoples, among them the Armenians, Assyrians, Greeks, and Yezidis of Turkey and Turkish-occupied Cyprus, and the Armenians, Assyrians, Yezidis, and Mandaeans of Iraq, have lost more than two-thirds of their peak populations, most of their cultural and religious sites, and thousands of priceless artifacts and specimens of visual art.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Abramian |first1=Jackie |title=A Year After Unleashing War Crimes Against Indigenous Armenians, Azerbaijan's Threats And Violations Continue |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackieabramian/2021/09/27/a-year-after-unleashing-war-crimes-against-indigenous-armenians-azerbaijans-threats-and-violations-continue/ |website=[[Forbes]] |date=27 September 2021 |access-date=3 August 2022 |archive-date=3 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220803212456/https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackieabramian/2021/09/27/a-year-after-unleashing-war-crimes-against-indigenous-armenians-azerbaijans-threats-and-violations-continue/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Armenian (people) |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Armenian-people |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=3 August 2022 |archive-date=26 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190426130529/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Armenian-people |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Morris |first1=Glenn T. |last2=Maghakyan |first2=Simon |title=The U.S. has finally acknowledged the genocide of Armenians. What about Native Americans? |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/04/29/us-biden-armenian-genocide-native-americans-recognition/ |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=29 April 2021 |access-date=3 August 2022 |archive-date=21 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211121224112/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/04/29/us-biden-armenian-genocide-native-americans-recognition/ |url-status=live}}</ref> There are currently more Armenians living outside their ancestral homeland because of the [[Armenian genocide]] of 1915.
* [[Anatolian Greeks]], including the [[Pontic Greeks]] and [[Cappadocian Greeks]], are the Greek-speaking minorities that existed in [[Anatolia]] millennia before Turkic conquest. They are indigenous to Asiatic Turkey.<ref name="Travis"/><ref>{{cite book |author1=Zografou, Magda |author2=Pipyrou, Stavroula |editor1-last=Meglin |editor1-first=Joellen A. |editor2-last=Matluck Brooks |editor2-first=Lynn |title=Preserving Dance Across Time and Space |date=2016 |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |isbn=9781134906383 |page=267 |chapter=Dance and Difference: Toward an Individualization of the Pontian Self |quote=The Pontians are a population that originate from the historical area of Pontus in Anatolia, originally located around the southern and eastern coasts of the Black Sea.}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Mackridge |first1=Peter |title=The Pontic Dialect: A Corrupt Version of Ancient Greek? |journal=Journal of Refugee Studies |date=1991 |volume=4 |issue=4 |pages=335–339 |doi=10.1093/jrs/4.4.335 |quote=These people originate from the eastern half of the southern shores of the Black Sea. }}</ref><ref>{{cite thesis |last=Michailidis |first=Nikos |date=2016 |title=Soundscapes of Trabzon: Music, Memory, and Power in Turkey |type=PhD |publisher=[[Princeton University]] |page=62}}</ref> Most were either killed in the [[Greek genocide]] or displaced during the following [[Population exchange between Greece and Turkey|population exchange]]; however, some remain in Turkey.<ref>{{cite web |title=Rediscovering Romeyka |url=https://www.romeyka.org/rediscovering-romeyka/ |website=Romeyka Project |access-date=30 December 2021 |archive-date=30 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211230200117/https://www.romeyka.org/rediscovering-romeyka/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Head |first1=Jonathan |title=Greek community in Turkey fears for its survival |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-12133163 |work=[[BBC News]] |date=7 January 2011 |access-date=30 December 2021 |archive-date=30 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211230200114/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-12133163 |url-status=live}}</ref> There has been a Greek presence in Anatolia since at least the 1000s BCE,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hajnal |first1=Ivo |title=Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics |chapter=120. Graeco-Anatolian contacts in the Mycenaean period |date=2018 |pages=2037–2055 |doi=10.1515/9783110542431-041 |isbn=978-3-11-054243-1}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Crouch |first1=Dora P. |title=Geology and Settlement: Greco-Roman Patterns |date=2003 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=9780197560457 |page=185 |chapter=Eastern Greco-Roman Cities}}</ref> and Greek traders visited western Anatolia beginning in 1900 BCE.<ref>{{cite book |first=Dora P. |last=Crouch |title=Geology and Settlement: Greco-Roman Patterns |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |___location=New York |year=2004 |isbn=9780197560457 |page=183}}</ref>
* [[Assyrian people|Assyrians]] are indigenous to Mesopotamia.<ref>{{cite web |first1=Sargon George |last1=Donabed |first2=Daniel Joseph |last2=Tower |title=Reframing Indigeneity: The Case of Assyrians in Northern Mesopotamia |url=https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/january-2018/reframing-indigeneity-the-case-of-assyrians-in-northern-mesopotamia |website=Perspectives on History |publisher=[[American Historical Association]] |date=1 January 2018 |access-date=3 August 2022 |archive-date=3 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220803212457/https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/january-2018/reframing-indigeneity-the-case-of-assyrians-in-northern-mesopotamia |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Kelley |first1=Katelyn |title=Indigenous Persistence Despite Government and Religious Persecution |url=https://historycorps.lib.uiowa.edu/exhibits/show/indigenousstruggles1900/assyrians |website=History Corps |publisher=[[University of Iowa]] |access-date=3 August 2022 |url-status=dead |archive-date=24 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220824035153/https://historycorps.lib.uiowa.edu/exhibits/show/indigenousstruggles1900/assyrians}}</ref><ref name="Travis"/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.refworld.org/docid/49749c9837.html |title=Refworld – World Directory of Minorities and indigenous Peoples – Turkey: Assyrians |author=United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees |work=Refworld |access-date=18 July 2015 |archive-date=3 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190503103556/https://www.refworld.org/docid/49749c9837.html |url-status=live}}</ref> They claim descent from the ancient [[Neo-Assyrian Empire]], and lived in what was [[Assyria]], their original homeland, and still speak dialects of Aramaic, the official language of the Assyrian Empire.{{cn|date=August 2025}}
* [[Copts]] are an [[Ethnoreligious group|ethnoreligious]] group, indigenous to [[Egypt]] and parts of the [[Sudan]] and [[Libya]], one of the oldest Christian communities in the world.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sauter |first=Megan |date=7 February 2023 |title=What Is Coptic and Who Were the Copts in Ancient Egypt? |url=https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/ancient-cultures/ancient-near-eastern-world/what-is-coptic-and-who-were-the-copts-in-ancient-egypt/ |access-date=27 October 2023 |website=Biblical Archaeology Society |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Refugees |first=United Nations High Commissioner for |title=Refworld {{!}} World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples - Egypt : Copts of Egypt |url=https://www.refworld.org/docid/49749d2b2d.html |access-date=27 October 2023 |website=Refworld |language=en}}</ref>
* [[Kurds]] are one of the Indigenous peoples of [[Mesopotamia]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Elassar |first1=Alaa |title=Who are the Kurds and why are they under attack? |url=https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/09/world/kurds-in-syria-explainer-trnd/index.html |website=CNN |date=10 October 2019 |access-date=3 August 2022 |archive-date=3 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220803212453/https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/09/world/kurds-in-syria-explainer-trnd/index.html |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=O'Grady |first1=Siobhán |last2=Berger |first2=Miriam |title=Who are the Kurds, and why is Turkey attacking them? |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/10/11/who-are-kurds-why-is-turkey-attacking-them/ |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=14 October 2019 |access-date=3 August 2022 |archive-date=8 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211208095553/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/10/11/who-are-kurds-why-is-turkey-attacking-them/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Blakemore |first1=Erin |title=Today, the Kurds are spread across four nations. Who are they? |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/who-are-kurds |website=[[National Geographic]] |date=16 August 2019 |access-date=3 August 2022 |archive-date=3 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220803212456/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/who-are-kurds |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29702440 |title=Who Are the Kurds? |work=[[BBC News]] |date=31 October 2017 |access-date=8 July 2018 |archive-date=24 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200924095902/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29702440 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.oswego.edu/~baloglou/anatolia/kurds.html |title=Kurds and Kurdistan: Facts and Figures |access-date=8 July 2018 |archive-date=25 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225231747/https://www.oswego.edu/~baloglou/anatolia/kurds.html |url-status=dead}}</ref>
* [[Yazidis]] are indigenous to [[Upper Mesopotamia]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=atlasofhumanity.com |title=Iraq, Yazidis |url=https://www.atlasofhumanity.com/yazidis |access-date=1 February 2021 |website=Atlas Of Humanity |archive-date=22 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200922215914/https://www.atlasofhumanity.com/yazidis |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Travis"/><ref>{{cite web |last1=Asher-Schapiro |first1=Avi |title=Who Are the Yazidis, the Ancient, Persecuted Religious Minority Struggling to Survive in Iraq? |website=[[National Geographic]] |date=11 August 2014 |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/140809-iraq-yazidis-minority-isil-religion-history |access-date=3 August 2022 |archive-date=10 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220810100618/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/140809-iraq-yazidis-minority-isil-religion-history |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Evans |first1=K.R. |title=The Yazidis - An Ancient Indigenous People |url=https://saymag.com/yazidis-ancient-indigenous-people/ |website=SAY Magazine |date=6 June 2017 |access-date=3 August 2022 |archive-date=3 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220703055559/https://saymag.com/yazidis-ancient-indigenous-people/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Grimm |first1=Matthew |title=A Brief History of the Yazidis of Iraq |url=https://daily.jstor.org/history-of-yazidi/ |website=JSTOR Daily |date=20 September 2014 |access-date=3 August 2022 |archive-date=5 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221005083427/https://daily.jstor.org/history-of-yazidi/ |url-status=live}}</ref>
Due to changes in the [[Demographic history of Palestine (region)|demographic history of Palestine]], there are competing claims that [[Jews]] and [[Palestinians|Palestinian Arabs]] are indigenous to the region.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Busbridge |first1=Rachel |title=Israel-Palestine and the Settler Colonial 'Turn': From Interpretation to Decolonization |journal=[[Theory, Culture & Society]] |date=January 2018 |volume=35 |issue=1 |pages=91–115 |doi=10.1177/0263276416688544 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ukashi |first1=Ran |title=Zionism, Imperialism, and Indigeneity in Israel/Palestine: A Critical Analysis |journal=[[Peace and Conflict Studies]] |date=2018 |doi=10.46743/1082-7307/2018.1442 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Goldberg |first1=Carole |title=Swimming against the Current |chapter=Invoking the Indigenous, for and against Israel |date=2020 |pages=298–318 |doi=10.1515/9781644693087-019 |isbn=978-1-64469-308-7}}</ref> The argument entered the [[Israeli–Palestinian conflict]], with Jews claiming indigeneity, citing [[History of the Jews and Judaism in the Land of Israel|historical]] and [[Promised Land|religious]] connections to the land as their ancient homeland.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Troen |first=S. Ilan |date=2013 |title=Israeli Views of the Land of Israel/Palestine |journal=Israel Studies |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=100–114 |doi=10.2979/israelstudies.18.2.100 |jstor=10.2979/israelstudies.18.2.100}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Kattan |first1=Victor |title='Invented' Palestinians, 'Indigenous' Jews: The Roots of Israel's Annexation Plan, and Why the World Must Stop Netanyahu, Before It's Too Late |url=https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-why-the-world-must-stop-netanyahu-before-it-s-too-late-1.8905737 |work=Haaretz |access-date=1 August 2021 |archive-date=1 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210801111136/https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-why-the-world-must-stop-netanyahu-before-it-s-too-late-1.8905737 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Pappe |first1=Ilan |title=Indigeneity as Cultural Resistance: Notes on the Palestinian Struggle within Twenty-First-Century Israel |journal=South Atlantic Quarterly |date=1 January 2018 |volume=117 |issue=1 |pages=157–178 |doi=10.1215/00382876-4282082 |hdl=10871/28176 |hdl-access=free}}</ref> Palestinians claim Indigenous status as a pre-existing population displaced by [[Aliyah|Jewish settlement]], and currently constituting a minority in the [[State of Israel]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Troen |first1=Ilan |last2=Troen |first2=Carol |title=Indigeneity |journal=Israel Studies |date=2019 |volume=24 |issue=2 |pages=17–32 |doi=10.2979/israelstudies.24.2.02 |jstor=10.2979/israelstudies.24.2.02 }}</ref><ref name="Swedenburg-2003">{{Cite book |last=Ted |first=Swedenburg |title=Memories of Revolt: the 1936-1939 Rebellion and the Palestinian National Past |publisher=University of Arkansas Press |year=2003 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q7RTdcvtO2sC&pg=PA81 |isbn=1-55728-763-5 |pages=81–82 |oclc=834799171 |access-date=11 July 2022 |archive-date=15 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230315021653/https://books.google.com/books?id=q7RTdcvtO2sC&pg=PA81 |url-status=live}}</ref> In 2007, the [[Negev Bedouin]] were officially recognized as Indigenous peoples of Israel by the United Nations.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Frantzman |first1=Seth J. |last2=Yahel |first2=Havatzelet |last3=Kark |first3=Ruth |title=Contested Indigeneity: The Development of an Indigenous Discourse on the Bedouin of the Negev, Israel |journal=Israel Studies |date=2012 |volume=17 |issue=1 |pages=78–104 |id={{Project MUSE|460759}} |doi=10.2979/israelstudies.17.1.78 }}</ref> This has been criticized both by scholars associated with the Israeli state, who dispute the Bedouin's claim to indigeneity,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Yiftachel |first1=Oren |last2=Roded |first2=Batya |last3=Kedar |first3=Alexandre (Sandy) |title=Between rights and denials: Bedouin indigeneity in the Negev/Naqab |journal=Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space |date=1 November 2016 |volume=48 |issue=11 |pages=2129–2161 |doi=10.1177/0308518X16653404 |bibcode=2016EnPlA..48.2129Y }}</ref> and those who argue that recognizing just one group of Palestinians as indigenous risks undermining others' claims and "fetishizing" nomadic cultures.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Tatour |first1=Lana |title=The culturalisation of indigeneity: the Palestinian-Bedouin of the Naqab and indigenous rights |journal=The International Journal of Human Rights |date=26 November 2019 |volume=23 |issue=10 |pages=1569–1593 |issn=1364-2987 |doi=10.1080/13642987.2019.1609454 }}</ref>
====South Asia====
India's [[Andaman and Nicobar Islands]] in the Indian Ocean are also home to several Indigenous groups such as the [[Andamanese peoples|Andamanese]] of [[Strait Island]],<ref name="Lodrick">{{Britannica|23488|People of Andaman and Nicobar Islands|Deryck O. Lodrick}}</ref> the [[Jarawas (Andaman Islands)|Jarawas]] of [[Middle Andaman Island|Middle Andaman]] and [[South Andaman Island]]s,<ref name="Lodrick" /> the [[Onge]] of [[Little Andaman]] Island<ref name="Lodrick" /> and the uncontacted [[Sentinelese]] of [[North Sentinel Island]].<ref name="Lodrick" />
In Sri Lanka, the Indigenous [[Vedda]] people constitute a small minority of the population today.<ref name="Rathnayake 2022 p988">{{cite web |last=Rathnayake |first=Zinara |title=Sri Lanka's last indigenous people |website=BBC Travel |date=28 March 2022 |url=https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20220327-sri-lankas-last-indigenous-people |access-date=20 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250722024345/https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20220327-sri-lankas-last-indigenous-people |archive-date=22 July 2025}}</ref>
[[File:Nivkh Marina Temina Árran-konferánssas 2019 03.jpg|thumb|upright|Marina A. Temina, a native speaker and teacher of the [[Nivkh languages|Nivkh language]]]]
====Northeast Asia====
{{further|Indigenous peoples of Siberia}}
[[File:Ainu man.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Ainu people|Ainu]] man performing a traditional Ainu dance]]
[[Ainu people]] are an ethnic group indigenous to [[Hokkaido]], the [[Kuril Islands]], and much of Sakhalin. As Japanese settlement expanded, the Ainu were pushed northward and fought against the Japanese in [[Shakushain's Revolt]] and [[Menashi-Kunashir Rebellion|Menashi–Kunashir Rebellion]], until by the [[Meiji period]] they were confined by the government to a reservation near [[Lake Akan]] in Hokkaido.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7437244.stm Recognition at last for Japan's Ainu] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171108102235/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7437244.stm |date=8 November 2017 }}, BBC NEWS</ref> In a ground-breaking 1997 decision involving the [[Ainu people#Litigation|Ainu people]] of Japan, the Japanese courts recognized their claim in law, stating that "If one minority group lived in an area prior to being ruled over by a majority group and preserved its distinct ethnic culture even after being ruled over by the majority group, while another came to live in an area ruled over by a majority after consenting to the majority rule, it must be recognized that it is only natural that the distinct ethnic culture of the former group requires greater consideration."<ref>Judgment of the Sapporo District Court, Civil Division No. 3, 27 March 1997, in (1999) 38 ILM, p. 419</ref>
The [[Dzungar people|Dzungar Oirats]] are indigenous to the [[Dzungaria]] in Northern [[Xinjiang]].
The [[Tajiks in China|Sarikoli Pamiris]] are indigenous to [[Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County|Tashkurgan]] in Xinjiang.
The [[Tibetans]] are indigenous to Tibet.
The [[Ryukyuan people]] are indigenous to the [[Ryukyu Islands]].
The languages of [[Taiwanese aborigines]] have significance in [[historical linguistics]], since in all likelihood Taiwan was the place of origin of the entire [[Austronesian language]] family, which spread across Oceania.<ref>[[Robert Blust|Blust, R.]] (1999), "Subgrouping, circularity and extinction: some issues in Austronesian comparative linguistics" in E. Zeitoun & P.J.K Li, ed., ''Selected papers from the Eighth International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics.'' Taipei: Academia Sinica</ref><ref>Fox, James J.''{{cite web |url=http://dspace.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/43158/1/Comparative_Austronesian_Studies.pdf |title=Current Developments in Comparative Austronesian Studies |access-date=21 December 2006 |archive-date=12 October 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061012145718/http://dspace.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/43158/1/Comparative_Austronesian_Studies.pdf |url-status=dead}} {{small|(105 KB)}}''. Paper prepared for Symposium Austronesia Pascasarjana Linguististik dan Kajian Budaya. Universitas Udayana, Bali 19–20 August 2004.</ref><ref>Diamond, Jared M. ''{{cite web |url=http://faculty.washington.edu/plape/pacificarchwin06/readings/Diamond%20nature%202000.pdf |title=Taiwan's gift to the world |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090617075424/http://faculty.washington.edu/plape/pacificarchwin06/readings/Diamond%20nature%202000.pdf |archive-date=17 June 2009 }} {{small|(107 KB)}}''. Nature, Volume 403, February 2000, pp. 709–10</ref>
In [[Hong Kong]], the [[indigenous inhabitants of the New Territories]] are defined in the [[Sino-British Joint Declaration]] as people [[patrilineality|descended through the male line]] from a person who was in 1898, before [[Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory]].<ref>{{cite web|title=ANNEX III of Sino-British Joint Declaration|url=http://www.cmab.gov.hk/en/issues/jd5.htm|access-date=21 August 2016|archive-date=8 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161008161358/http://www.cmab.gov.hk/en/issues/jd5.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> There are several different groups that make up the indigenous inhabitants, the [[Punti]], [[Hakka people|Hakka]], [[Hoklo people|Hoklo]], and [[Tanka people|Tanka]]. All are nonetheless considered part of the [[Cantonese]] majority, although some like the Tanka have been shown to have genetic and anthropological roots in the [[Baiyue]] people, the pre-Han Chinese inhabitants of Southern China.
The Russians [[Russian conquest of Siberia|invaded Siberia and conquered the indigenous people]] in the 17th–18th centuries.
[[Nivkh people]] are an ethnic group indigenous to [[Sakhalin]], having a few speakers of the [[Nivkh language]], but their fisher culture has been endangered due to the development of oil field of Sakhalin from 1990s.<ref>{{cite news |date=25 February 2009 |title=Natives in Russia's far east worry about vanishing fish |work=The Economic Times |agency=[[Agence France-Presse]] |___location=India |url=http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/environment/flora--fauna/natives-in-russias-far-east-worry-about-vanishing-fish/articleshow/4203839.cms |access-date=5 March 2011}}</ref>
In [[Russia]], definition of "Indigenous peoples" is contested largely referring to a number of population (less than 50,000 people), and neglecting self-identification, origin from indigenous populations who inhabited the country or region upon invasion, colonization or establishment of state frontiers, distinctive social, economic and cultural institutions.<ref name="ILO-2016">{{Cite web |date=22 July 2016 |title=Who are the indigenous and tribal peoples? |url=http://www.ilo.org/global/topics/indigenous-tribal/WCMS_503321/lang--en/index.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190502064617/http://www.ilo.org/global/topics/indigenous-tribal/WCMS_503321/lang--en/index.htm |archive-date=2 May 2019 |access-date=2 May 2019 |website=www.ilo.org}}</ref><ref name=IWGIA>IWGIA (2012). Briefing note. Indigenous peoples in the Russian Federation</ref> Thus, indigenous peoples of Russia such as Sakha, Komi, Karelian and others are not considered as such due to the size of the population (more than 50,000 people), and consequently they "are not the subjects of the specific legal protections."<ref>Fondahl, G., Filippova, V., Mack, L. (2015). Indigenous peoples in the new Arctic. In B.Evengard, O.Nymand Larsen, O.Paasche (Eds), The New Arctic (pp. 7–22). Springer</ref> The Russian government recognizes only 40 ethnic groups as indigenous peoples, even though there are 30 other groups to be counted as such. The reason of nonrecognition is the size of the population and relatively late advent to their current regions, thus indigenous peoples in Russia should be numbered less than 50,000 people.<ref name=IWGIA/><ref>Lehtola, M. (2012). HoWhy theory and the cultural transition in the Sakha Republic. In T.Aikas, S.Lipkin, A.K.Salmi (Eds.), Archaeology of social relations: ten case studies by Finnish archaeologists (pp. 51–76). Oulu University</ref><ref>Slezkine, Y. (1994). Arctic mirrors: Russia and the small peoples of the North. New York, NY: Cornell University Press</ref>
====Southeast Asia====
[[File:Dayak dancer, Sarawak.jpg|thumb|[[Dayak people]] in [[Borneo]] ]]
The [[Malay Singaporeans]] are the Indigenous people of Singapore, inhabiting it since the Austronesian migration. They had established the [[Kingdom of Singapura]] back in the 13th century. The name "Singapore" is an [[anglicisation]] of the Malay name [[Names of Singapore|''Singapura'']] which is derived from the [[Sanskrit]] word for 'lion city'. The native Malay name for the main island of Singapore is [[Singapore Island|''Pulau Ujong'']].
Dayak People are one of the Indigenous groups of [[Borneo]]. It is a loose term for over 200 riverine and hill-dwelling ethnic groups, located in [[Borneo]], each with its own dialect, customs, laws, territory, and culture, although common distinguishing traits are readily identifiable.
The [[Chams|Cham]] are the Indigenous people of the former state of [[Champa]] which was conquered by Vietnam in the [[History of the Cham–Vietnamese wars|Cham–Vietnamese wars]] during [[Nam tiến]]. The Cham in Vietnam are only recognized as a minority, and not as an Indigenous people by the Vietnamese government despite being indigenous to the region.
The [[Degar]] (Montagnards) are indigenous to [[Central Highlands (Vietnam)]] and were conquered by the Vietnamese in the Nam tiến.
The [[Khmer Krom]] are the Indigenous people of the [[Mekong Delta]] and [[Saigon]] which were acquired by Vietnam from Cambodian King [[Chey Chettha II]] in exchange for a Vietnamese princess.
In [[Indonesia]], there are 50 to 70 million people who are classified as Indigenous peoples by the local Indigenous rights advocacy group ''[[Aliansi Masyarakat Adat Nusantara]]''.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.iwgia.org/en/indonesia |title=Indonesia |access-date=17 January 2018 |archive-date=17 January 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180117190618/https://www.iwgia.org/en/indonesia |url-status=live }}</ref> However, the [[Government of Indonesia|Indonesian government]] does not recognize the existence of indigenous peoples, classifying every [[Native Indonesian]] ethnic group as "indigenous" despite the clear cultural distinctions of certain groups.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://intercontinentalcry.org/indonesia-and-the-denial-of-indigenous-peoples-existence/ |title=Indonesia and the Denial of Indigenous Peoples' Existence |date=17 August 2013 |access-date=17 January 2018 |archive-date=17 January 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180117190603/https://intercontinentalcry.org/indonesia-and-the-denial-of-indigenous-peoples-existence/ |url-status=live}}</ref> This problem is shared by many other countries in the [[ASEAN]] region.
In the Philippines, there are 135 ethno-linguistic groups, 110 of which are considered as Indigenous peoples by the [[National Commission on Indigenous Peoples]].<ref name=Errico2017>{{cite book |last1=Errico |first1=Stefania |title=The Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Asia: Human Rights-based Overview of National Legal and Policy Frameworks Against the Backdrop of Country Strategies for Development and Poverty Reduction |date=2017 |publisher=International Labor Organization |isbn=978-92-2-130490-6 |url=https://www.ilo.org/sites/default/files/wcmsp5/groups/public/@dgreports/@gender/documents/publication/wcms_545487.pdf }}{{pn|date=August 2025}}</ref> The Indigenous people of [[Cordillera Administrative Region]] and [[Cagayan Valley]] in the Philippines are the [[Igorot people]]. The Indigenous peoples of [[Mindanao]] are the [[Lumad peoples]] and the [[Moro people|Moro]] ([[Tausug people|Tausug]], [[Maguindanao people|Maguindanao]] [[Maranao people|Maranao]] and others) who also live in the [[Sulu archipelago]]. There are also others sets of Indigenous peoples in [[Palawan]], [[Mindoro]], [[Visayas]], and the rest central and south [[Luzon]]. The country has one of the largest Indigenous peoples population in the world. The recognition of the rights of Indigenous peoples was legally enshrined in 1997 with the [[Indigenous Peoples' Rights Act of 1997|Indigenous Peoples' Rights Act]].<ref name=Errico2017/>
In [[Myanmar]], indigenous peoples include the [[Shan people|Shan]], the [[Karen people|Karen]], the [[Rakhine people|Rakhine]], the [[Karenni people|Karenni]], the [[Chin people|Chin]], the [[Kachin people|Kachin]] and the [[Mon people|Mon]]. However, there are more ethnic groups that are considered indigenous, for example, the [[Akha people|Akha]], the [[Lisu people|Lisu]], the [[Lahu people|Lahu]] or the [[Mru people|Mru]], among others.<ref>{{cite web|title=Myanmar - IWGIA - International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs|url=https://www.iwgia.org/en/myanmar.html|website=www.iwgia.org|access-date=30 May 2020|archive-date=3 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200603004156/https://www.iwgia.org/en/myanmar.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
===Europe===
{{Main|Ethnic groups in Europe}}
{{See also|Genetic history of Europe|Category:Indigenous peoples of Europe}}
[[File:Sami family Finland 1936.jpg|thumb|[[Sámi people|Sámi family]] in [[Lapland (Finland)|Lapland]], 1936]]
Various [[Ethnic groups in Europe|ethnic groups]] have [[Genetic history of Europe|lived in Europe for millennia]]. However, the concept of Indigenous peoples is rarely used in the European context.{{why|date=October 2024}}<ref name=Grote>{{cite journal|last=Grote|first=Rainer|title=On the Fringes of Europe: Europe's Largely Forgotten Indigenous Peoples|journal=American Indian Law Review|volume=31|issue=2|year=2006|jstor=20070794 |pages=425–443|doi=10.2307/20070794 }}</ref>
Indigenous minority populations in Europe include the [[Sámi people|Sámi]] peoples of northern [[Norway]], [[Sweden]], and [[Finland]] and northwestern [[Russia]] (in an area also referred to as [[Sápmi]]);<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.regjeringen.no/en/topics/indigenous-peoples-and-minorities/Sami-people/midtspalte/What-Defines-an-Indigenous-People/id451320/|title=What Defines an Indigenous People?|publisher=Norwegian Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development|date=22 March 2019|accessdate=26 August 2023}}</ref><ref name=Euronews/> the [[Nenets people|Nenets]] of northern Russia,<ref name=Euronews>{{cite web |url=https://www.euronews.com/2019/08/09/who-are-europe-s-indigenous-peoples-and-what-are-their-struggles-euronews-answers |title=Who are Europe's indigenous peoples and what are their struggles? |publisher=[[Euronews]] |date=2019-09-08 |access-date=22 November 2019 |archive-date=14 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200114173548/https://www.euronews.com/2019/08/09/who-are-europe-s-indigenous-peoples-and-what-are-their-struggles-euronews-answers |url-status=live}}</ref>, the [[Basques]] of [[Spain]] and [[France]],<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024 |last=Kalso |first=Reed |title=Basques {{!}} EBSCO Research Starters |url=https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/ethnic-and-cultural-studies/basques |access-date=19 June 2025 |website=www.ebsco.com |language=en }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Hualde |first1=J.I. |title=Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics |chapter=Basque |date=2006 |pages=695–697 |doi=10.1016/B0-08-044854-2/04381-9 |isbn=978-0-08-044854-1}}</ref> the [[Inuit]] of [[Greenland]],<ref name="Euronews" /><ref>{{cite news |url=https://unric.org/en/greenlanders-should-take-pride-in-their-indigenous-identity/ |title=Greenlanders should take pride in their indigenous identity |publisher=United Nations Regional Information Centre for Western Europe |date=8 August 2023 |access-date=28 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250725225058/https://unric.org/en/greenlanders-should-take-pride-in-their-indigenous-identity/ |archive-date=25 July 2025}}</ref> and the [[Irish Travellers|Irish travelers]] (also referred to as Pavees or Mincérs) of [[Ireland]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples - Ireland : Travellers |url=https://www.refworld.org/reference/countryrep/mrgi/2008/en/64837 |access-date=14 August 2024 |website=Refworld |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241216073414/https://www.refworld.org/reference/countryrep/mrgi/2008/en/64837 |archive-date=16 December 2024}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Travellers in Ireland |url=https://minorityrights.org/communities/travellers/ |access-date=14 August 2024 |website=Minority Rights Group |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=1 March 2017 |title=Irish Travellers granted formal recognition as ethnic minority |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39135942 |access-date=15 August 2024 |work=[[BBC News]] |language=en-GB }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Keane |first1=David |title=International Law and the Ethnicity of Irish Travellers |journal=Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice |date=2005 |volume=11 |issue=1 |pages=43 |url=https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/crsj/vol11/iss1/4/ }}</ref>{{Efn|"Irish Travellers are a minority community indigenous to Ireland who have existed on the margins of Irish society for centuries. They share common cultural practices, such as nomadism, early marriage, and a tradition of self-employment. They have distinct rituals of death and cleansing, and their own language, Gammon or Cant." (Keane 43)}} Some sources describe the Sámi as the only recognized Indigenous peoples in Europe,<ref name=Baer>{{cite journal |last=Baer |first=Lars-Anders |title=The Rights of Indigenous Peoples – A Brief Introduction in the Context of the Sámi |journal=International Journal on Minority and Group Rights |volume=12 |issue=2/3 |year=2005 |jstor=24675300 |pages=245–267 |doi=10.1163/157181105774740589}}</ref><ref name="Gouverneur">{{cite news |last=Gouverneur |first=Cédric |title=Europe's only indigenous people |work=[[Le Monde Diplomatique]] |date=1 January 2017 |url=https://mondediplo.com/2017/01/14saami |access-date=28 August 2023 }}</ref><ref name=FUF>{{cite web |title=Europe's only recognized indigenous peoples live in Sweden |publisher=Swedish Development Forum |date=27 March 2018 |url=https://fuf.se/en/magasin/europas-enda-erkanda-urfolk-bor-i-sverigre/ |access-date=28 August 2023 }}</ref> with others describing them as the only Indigenous people in the [[European Union]].<ref name=CoE>{{cite web |url=https://edoc.coe.int/en/national-minorities/6684-the-sami-the-people-their-culture-and-languages.html |title=The Sámi: The People, Their Culture and Languages |year=2015 |publisher=[[Council of Europe]] |access-date=28 August 2023 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Rights of the Sámi People |publisher=[[Finnish Ministry of Justice]] |url=https://oikeusministerio.fi/en/rights-of-the-sami-people |access-date=28 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250729100720/https://oikeusministerio.fi/en/rights-of-the-sami-people |archive-date=29 July 2025}}</ref><ref name=Jaakkola>{{cite journal |last1=Jaakkola |first1=Jouni J. K. |last2=Juntunen |first2=Suvi |last3=Näkkäläjärvi |first3=Klemetti |title=The Holistic Effects of Climate Change on the Culture, Well-Being, and Health of the Saami, the Only Indigenous People in the European Union |journal=Current Environmental Health Reports |volume=5 |issue=4 |year=2018 |doi=10.1007/s40572-018-0211-2 |pages=401–417 |pmid=30350264 |pmc=6306421 |bibcode=2018CEHR....5..401J}}</ref><ref name="Valkonen Valkonen 2017 pp. 138–152">{{cite book |last1=Valkonen |first1=Sanna |last2=Valkonen |first2=Jarno |title=Shaping Citizenship: A Political Concept in Theory, Debate and Practice |chapter=The Non-State Sámi |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=2017 |doi=10.4324/9781315186214-11 |pages=138–152 |isbn=9781315186214 |editor1-first=Claudia |editor1-last=Wiesner |editor2-first=Anna |editor2-last=Björk |editor3-first=Hanna-Mari |editor3-last=Kivistö |editor4-first=Katja |editor4-last=Mäkinen}}</ref>
Other groups, particularly in Central, Western and Southern Europe, that might be considered to fit the description of Indigenous peoples in the [[Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989]], such as the [[Sorbs]], are generally categorized as [[national minorities]] instead.<ref name=Grote/>
=== Oceania ===
{{main|Indigenous peoples of Oceania}}
{{See also|:Category:Indigenous peoples of Oceania}}
==== Australia ====
[[File:1981 event Australian aboriginals.jpg|thumb|right|[[Aboriginal Australians|Aboriginal Australian]] dancers]]
In Australia, the Indigenous populations are the [[Aboriginal Australian]] peoples (comprising many different nations and [[Aboriginal Australian languages|language groups]]) and the [[Torres Strait Islander]] peoples (also with sub-groups). These two groups are often referred to as [[Indigenous Australians]],<ref>{{cite web |title=Indigenous Australians: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People |url=https://aiatsis.gov.au/explore/indigenous-australians-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-people |website=Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders |date=12 July 2020 |access-date=29 September 2021 |archive-date=22 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210922082846/https://aiatsis.gov.au/explore/indigenous-australians-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-people |url-status=live}}</ref> although terms such as First Nations<ref>{{cite web |title=First Nations Arts and Culture |website=[[Australia Council for the Arts]] |url=https://australiacouncil.gov.au/advocacy-and-research/first-nations-arts-and-culture/ |access-date=16 October 2021 |archive-date=16 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211016074051/https://australiacouncil.gov.au/advocacy-and-research/first-nations-arts-and-culture/ |url-status=live}}</ref> and First Peoples are also used.<ref>{{cite web |title=Australia's First Peoples |website=AIATSIS |date=30 June 2021 |url=https://aiatsis.gov.au/explore/australias-first-peoples |access-date=16 October 2021 |archive-date=16 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211016074051/https://aiatsis.gov.au/explore/australias-first-peoples |url-status=live }}</ref>
==== Pacific Islands ====
[[Polynesians|Polynesian]], [[Melanesians|Melanesian]] and [[Micronesians|Micronesian]] peoples originally populated many of the present-day [[Pacific Island]] countries in the [[Oceania]] region over the course of thousands of years. European, [[American colonialism|American]], [[History of Easter Island|Chilean]] and [[Japanese colonies|Japanese]] colonial expansion in the Pacific brought many of these areas under non-Indigenous administration, mainly during the 19th century. During the 20th century, several of these former colonies gained independence and nation-states formed under local control. However, various peoples have put forward claims for Indigenous recognition where their islands are still under external administration; examples include the [[Chamorros]] of [[Guam]] and the [[Northern Marianas]], and the [[Marshallese people|Marshallese]] of the [[Marshall Islands]]. Some islands remain under administration from Paris, Washington, London or [[Wellington]].
[[File:Papua 20160808 0449.jpg|thumb|[[Dani people]] from the central highlands of [[western New Guinea]]]]
The remains of at least 25 miniature humans, who lived between 1,000 and 3,000 years ago, were recently found on the islands of [[Palau]] in Micronesia.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/science/2008/mar/12/fossils Pygmy human remains found on rock islands] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161228031358/https://www.theguardian.com/science/2008/mar/12/fossils |date=28 December 2016 }}, Science | ''The Guardian'', 12 March 2008.</ref>
In most parts of Oceania, Indigenous peoples outnumber the descendants of colonists. Exceptions include Australia, New Zealand and [[Hawaii]]. In New Zealand, based on various factors including census data and self-identification, the proportion of full or part [[Māori people|Māori]] of the population on 30 June 2021 was estimated to be 17%.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Māori population estimates: At 30 June 2021 {{!}} Stats NZ |url=https://www.stats.govt.nz/information-releases/maori-population-estimates-at-30-june-2021 |access-date=16 January 2022 |website=www.stats.govt.nz |archive-date=16 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220116072109/https://www.stats.govt.nz/information-releases/maori-population-estimates-at-30-june-2021 |url-status=live}}</ref> Māori developed from Polynesian people who settled in New Zealand after migrations from other Pacific islands, probably in the 13th century.<ref>{{Cite web |title=A Brief History of New Zealand {{!}} New Zealand Now |url=https://www.newzealandnow.govt.nz/live-in-new-zealand/history-government/a-brief-history |access-date=16 January 2022 |website=www.newzealandnow.govt.nz |archive-date=16 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220116073612/https://www.newzealandnow.govt.nz/live-in-new-zealand/history-government/a-brief-history |url-status=live}}</ref> Many leaders of Māori nations ([[iwi]]) signed a written agreement with the British Crown in 1840, known as the [[Treaty of Waitangi]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Signing of the Treaty {{!}} Waitangi Tribunal |url=https://www.waitangitribunal.govt.nz/treaty-of-waitangi/signing-of-the-treaty/ |access-date=16 January 2022 |website=www.waitangitribunal.govt.nz |archive-date=16 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220116074717/https://www.waitangitribunal.govt.nz/treaty-of-waitangi/signing-of-the-treaty/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Declaration of Independence |url=https://nzhistory.govt.nz/culture/declaration-of-independence-taming-the-frontier|access-date=16 January 2022 |website=nzhistory.govt.nz |archive-date=11 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170711075427/https://nzhistory.govt.nz/culture/declaration-of-independence-taming-the-frontier |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Archives New Zealand {{!}}{{!}} The declaration of the independence of new zealand |url=https://www.archives.govt.nz/discover-our-stories/the-declaration-of-independence-of-new-zealand|access-date=16 January 2022 |website=www.archives.govt.nz |archive-date=16 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220116074717/https://www.archives.govt.nz/discover-our-stories/the-declaration-of-independence-of-new-zealand |url-status=live}}</ref>
A majority of the [[Papua New Guinea]] population is Indigenous, with more than 700 different nationalities recognized in a total population of 8 million.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-15436981 |title=Papua New Guinea country profile |date=2018 |work=[[BBC News]] |access-date=1 February 2018 |archive-date=2 February 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180202034750/http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-15436981 |url-status=live}}</ref> The country's constitution and key statutes identify traditional or custom-based practices and land tenure, and explicitly set out to promote the viability of these traditional societies within the modern state. However, conflicts and disputes concerning land use and resource rights continue between indigenous groups, the government, and corporate entities.
== Indigenous rights and other issues ==
{{Indigenous rights}}
[[File:NZ delegation UN Forum on Indigenous Issues.jpg|thumb|left|alt=endorses Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, 2010|The New Zealand delegation, including [[Māori people|Māori]] members, endorses the United Nations [[Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples]] in 2010]]
The 1989 ILO Convention on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples mainly concerns non-discrimination but also covers indigenous peoples' rights to development, customary laws, lands, territories and resources, employment, education and health. By 2013, the convention had been ratified by 22 countries, mainly in Latin America.{{sfn|UNHR Fact Sheet No. 9|2013|p=9}}
In 2007, the United Nations (UN) adopted a [[Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples]] (UNDRIP) specifying the collective rights of Indigenous peoples, including their rights to self-determination and to protect their cultures, identities, languages, ceremonies, and access to employment, health, [[Sustainable Development Goal 4|education]] and natural resources.{{sfn|Bodley|2008|p=2}} The declaration is not a formally binding treaty but some provisions might be considered customary international law. The declaration has been endorsed by at least 148 states but its provisions have not been consistently implemented.{{sfn|UNHR Fact Sheet No. 9|2013|pp=4, 8}}
Indigenous peoples confront a diverse range of concerns associated with their status and interaction with other cultural groups, as well as changes in their inhabited environment. Some challenges are specific to particular groups; however, other challenges are commonly experienced.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Dean |editor1-first=Bartholomew |editor2-last=Levi |editor2-first=Jerome M. |title=At the Risk of Being Heard: Identity, Indigenous Rights, and Postcolonial States |date=2003 |publisher=[[University of Michigan Press]] |isbn=978-0-472-06736-7}}{{pn|date=August 2025}}</ref>
Wherever Indigenous cultural identity is asserted, common societal issues and concerns arise. These concerns are often not unique to Indigenous groups. Despite the diversity of Indigenous peoples, they share common problems and issues in dealing with the prevailing, or invading, society.{{cn|date=August 2025}} They are generally concerned that the cultures and lands of Indigenous peoples are being lost and that Indigenous peoples suffer both discrimination and pressure to assimilate into the surrounding or colonizing societies. This is borne out by the fact that the lands and cultures of nearly all of the peoples listed at the end of this article are under threat. Notable exceptions are the [[Yakuts|Sakha]] and [[Komi peoples]] (two northern [[Indigenous peoples of Russia]]), who now control their own autonomous republics within the Russian state, and the Canadian [[Inuit]], who form a majority of the territory of [[Nunavut]] (created in 1999). Despite the control of their territories, many Sakha people have lost their lands as a result of the [[Russian Homestead Act]], which allows any Russian citizen to own any land in the Far Eastern region of Russia.{{cn|date=August 2025}}
In Australia, a landmark case, ''Mabo'' v ''Queensland'' (No 2),<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/HCATrans/1991/23.pdf |title=Mabo v Queensland |access-date=2 January 2020 |archive-date=24 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224220009/http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/HCATrans/1991/23.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref> saw the High Court of Australia reject the idea of {{Lang|la|terra nullius}}. This rejection ended up recognizing that there was a pre-existing system of law practiced by the Meriam people.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ritter |first=David |date=1 March 1996 |title=The "Rejection of Terra Nullius" in Mabo: A Critical Analysis |url=https://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/SydLawRw/1996/1.pdf |journal=[[Sydney Law Review]] |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=5–33 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250611033111/https://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/SydLawRw/1996/1.pdf |archive-date=11 June 2025}}</ref>
A 2009 United Nations publication says:<ref name="UN ESA-2009a">{{cite report |url=https://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/SOWIP_web.pdf |title=State of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Secretariat of Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, UN, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100215113446/http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/SOWIP_web.pdf |archive-date=15 February 2010 |pages=1–2}}</ref><blockquote>Although indigenous peoples are often portrayed as a hindrance to development, their cultures and traditional knowledge are also increasingly seen as assets. It is argued that it is important for the human species as a whole to preserve as wide a range of [[cultural diversity]] as possible, and that the protection of indigenous cultures is vital to this enterprise.</blockquote>
=== Human rights violations ===
[[File:Indigenous march right to self-determination.jpg|thumb|Indigenous peoples march for their right to [[self-determination]] in [[Davao City]] (2008).]]
According to Samuel Totten, some governments do not respect the rights of Indigenous peoples.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Totten |first1=Samuel |author1-link=Samuel Totten |title=Genocide of Indigenous Peoples: A Critical Bibliographic Review |last2=Hitchcock |first2=Robert K. |publisher=Transaction Publishers |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-4128-4455-0 |pages=5–6 |language=en |quote=See table 1 for some examples of indigenous groups that have been labeled negatively by governments in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.}}</ref> In the latter part of the twentieth century the genocide of Indigenous peoples in Australia and Namibia attracted more attention from the international community including scholars and [[human rights organizations]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jones |first1=Adam |author-link=Adam Jones (Canadian scholar) |title=Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction |date=2010 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-136-93797-2 |page=224 |quote=The cases of the aboriginal populations of British-colonized Australia and German-colonized Namibia further illuminate the fate of indigenous peoples worldwide. In both instances, decades of denial gave way, at the twentieth century's close, to a greater readiness to acknowledge the genocidal character of some colonial actions.}}</ref>
The Bangladeshi government has stated that there are "no indigenous peoples in Bangladesh".<ref name="Shafiq">[http://bdnews24.com/details.php?id=198775&cid=3 No 'indigenous', reiterates Shafique] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120319055434/http://bdnews24.com/details.php?id=198775&cid=3 |date=19 March 2012 }}. bdnews24.com (18 June 2011). Retrieved on 11 October 2011.</ref> This statement has angered the Indigenous peoples of [[Chittagong Hill Tracts]], Bangladesh, collectively known as the Jumma.<ref name="Mochta">[https://web.archive.org/web/20080708205108/http://www.mochta.gov.bd/faq.php Ministry of Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs]. mochta.gov.bd. Retrieved on 28 March 2012.</ref> Experts have protested against this move of the Bangladesh government and have questioned the government's definition of the term "indigenous peoples".<ref name="ChakmaRaja">[http://bdnews24.com/details.php?id=196924&cid=2 INDIGENOUS PEOPLEChakma Raja decries non-recognition] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120319055438/http://bdnews24.com/details.php?id=196924&cid=2 |date=19 March 2012 }}. bdnews24.com (28 May 2011). Retrieved on 11 October 2011.</ref><ref name="SultanaKamal">[http://www.bdnews24.com/details.php?id=196847&cid=2 'Define terms minorities, indigenous'] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111118150718/http://www.bdnews24.com/details.php?id=196847&cid=2 |date=18 November 2011 }}. bdnews24.com (27 May 2011). Retrieved on 11 October 2011.</ref> This move by the Bangladesh government is seen by the Indigenous peoples of Bangladesh as another step by the Government to further erode their already limited rights.<ref name="shams">[http://www.himalmag.com/component/content/article/4511-disregarding-the-jumma.html Disregarding the Jumma] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110619044741/http://himalmag.com/component/content/article/4511-disregarding-the-jumma.html |date=19 June 2011 }}. Himalmag.com. Retrieved on 11 October 2011.</ref>
Hindu Chams and Muslim Chams have both experienced religious and ethnic persecution and restrictions on their faith under the current Vietnamese government, with the Vietnamese state confiscating Cham property and forbidding Cham from observing their religious beliefs. Hindu temples were turned into tourist sites against the wishes of the Cham Hindus. In 2010 and 2013 several incidents occurred in Thành Tín and Phươc Nhơn villages where Cham were murdered by Vietnamese. In 2012, Vietnamese police in Chau Giang village stormed into a Cham Mosque, stole the electric generator, and also raped Cham girls.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chamtoday.com/index.php/news-tin-t-c/100-mission-to-vietnam-advocacy-day |title=Mission to Vietnam Advocacy Day (Vietnamese-American Meet up 2013) in the U.S. Capitol. A UPR report By IOC-Campa |publisher=Chamtoday.com |date=14 September 2013 |access-date=17 June 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222133028/http://www.chamtoday.com/index.php/news-tin-t-c/100-mission-to-vietnam-advocacy-day |archive-date=22 February 2014}}</ref> Cham in the Mekong Delta have also been economically marginalized, with ethnic Vietnamese settling on land previously owned by Cham people with state support.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Taylor |first1=Philip |title=Economy in Motion: Cham Muslim Traders in the Mekong Delta |journal=The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology |date=December 2006 |volume=7 |issue=3 |pages=237–250 |doi=10.1080/14442210600965174}}</ref>
The Indonesian government has outright denied the existence of Indigenous peoples within the countries' borders. In 2012, Indonesia stated that 'The Government of Indonesia supports the promotion and protection of indigenous people worldwide ... Indonesia, however, does not recognize the application of the indigenous peoples concept ... in the country'.<ref name="survivalinternational.org">{{cite web |url=https://www.survivalinternational.org/news/8710 |title=Indonesia denies it has any indigenous peoples |access-date=17 January 2018 |archive-date=27 March 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170327142523/http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/8710 |url-status=live}}</ref> Along with the brutal treatment of the country's [[Indigenous people of New Guinea|Papuan people]] (a conservative estimate places the violent deaths at 100,000 people in [[West New Guinea]] since Indonesian occupation in 1963, see [[Papua conflict]]) has led to [[Survival International]] condemning Indonesia for treating its Indigenous peoples as the worst in the world.<ref name="survivalinternational.org"/>
The Vietnamese viewed and dealt with the Indigenous [[Montagnard (Vietnam)|Montagnards]] from the [[Central Highlands (Vietnam)|Central Highlands of Vietnam]] as "savages", which caused a Montagnard uprising against the Vietnamese.<ref name="Cosmas">{{cite book |first=Graham A. |last=Cosmas |title=MACV: The Joint Command in the Years of Escalation, 1962–1967 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZcLQcquYkcIC&q=moi+savages+vietnamese&pg=PA145 |publisher=Government Printing Office |isbn=978-0-16-072367-4 |pages=145– |year=2006 |access-date=12 November 2020 |archive-date=15 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230315021635/https://books.google.com/books?id=ZcLQcquYkcIC&q=moi+savages+vietnamese&pg=PA145 |url-status=live}}</ref> The Vietnamese were originally centered around the Red River Delta but engaged in conquest and seized new lands such as Champa, the Mekong Delta (from Cambodia) and the Central Highlands during Nam Tien. While the Vietnamese received strong Chinese influence in their culture and civilization and were Sinicized, and the Cambodians and Laotians were Indianized, the Montagnards in the Central Highlands maintained their own Indigenous culture without adopting external culture and were the true Indigenous of the region. To hinder encroachment on the Central Highlands by Vietnamese nationalists, the term ''Pays Montagnard du Sud-Indochinois'' (PMSI) emerged for the Central Highlands along with the indigenous being addressed by the name Montagnard.{{sfn|Salemink|2003|p=28}} The tremendous scale of Vietnamese Kinh colonists flooding into the Central Highlands has significantly altered the demographics of the region.{{sfn|Salemink|2003|p=29}} The anti-ethnic minority discriminatory policies by the Vietnamese, [[environmental degradation]], deprivation of lands from the Indigenous people, and settlement of Indigenous lands by an overwhelming number of Vietnamese settlers led to massive protests and demonstrations by the Central Highland's indigenous ethnic minorities against the Vietnamese in January–February 2001. This event gave a tremendous blow to the claim often published by the Vietnamese government that in Vietnam "There has been no ethnic confrontation, no religious war, no ethnic conflict. And no elimination of one culture by another."<ref>{{cite book |last1=McElwee |first1=Pamela |title=Civilizing the Margins: Southeast Asian government policies for the development of minorities |date=2004 |publisher=[[Cornell University Press]] |isbn=978-0-8014-8930-3 |pages=182–213 |chapter=Becoming socialist or becoming kinh? Government policies for ethnic minorities in the socialist republic of Viet Nam}}</ref>
[[File:Indian protesters from Vale do Javarí in Belém 2009 1530FP8886.jpg|thumb|Indigenous protesters from [[Vale do Javari]], one of the largest [[Indigenous territory (Brazil)|indigenous territories]] in Brazil]]
In May 2016, the Fifteenth Session of the [[United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues]] (UNPFII) affirmed that Indigenous peoples are distinctive groups protected in international or national legislation as having a set of specific rights based on their linguistic and historical ties to a particular territory, prior to later settlement, development or occupation of a region.<ref name="Coates">Coates 2004:12</ref> The session affirms that, since Indigenous peoples are vulnerable to exploitation, [[Social exclusion|marginalization]], [[oppression]], forced [[Cultural assimilation|assimilation]], and [[genocide]] by nation states formed from colonizing populations or by different, politically dominant ethnic groups, individuals and communities maintaining ways of life indigenous to their regions are entitled to special protection.{{cn|date=August 2025}}
The Indigenous people from [[Tanzania]]'s [[Maasai people|Maasai]] community were reportedly subjected to eviction from their ancestral land to make way for a luxury game reserve by Otterlo Business Corporation in June 2022. The [[game reserve]] was reportedly being set up for the royals of the United Arab Emirates also linked to OBC or the Otterlo Business Corporation. According to lawyers and human rights groups and activists, approximately 30 Maasai people were injured by security forces in the process of eviction and delimiting a land area of {{Convert|1500|km2|abbr=on}}. A 2019 [[UN]] report has described OBC as a 'UAE-based' luxury-game hunting company, granted a license to hunt by the Tanzanian government in 1992 for "the UAE royal family to organize private hunting trips", denying the Maasai people access to their own land.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.ft.com/content/1fbcc5c4-579a-47db-b736-cf368ccee40a |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/https://www.ft.com/content/1fbcc5c4-579a-47db-b736-cf368ccee40a |archive-date=10 December 2022 |url-access=subscription |title=Tanzanian Maasai battle eviction from ancestral land |access-date=18 June 2022 |work=[[Financial Times]] |date=18 June 2022}}</ref>
===Health issues===
In December 1993, the [[United Nations General Assembly]] proclaimed the International Decade of the World's Indigenous People, and requested UN specialized agencies to consider with governments and indigenous people how they can contribute to the success of the Decade of Indigenous People, commencing in December 1994. As a consequence, the [[World Health Organization]] (WHO), at its Forty-seventh World Health Assembly, established a core advisory group of Indigenous representatives with special knowledge of the health needs and resources of their communities, thus beginning a long-term commitment to the issue of the health of Indigenous peoples.<ref name="WHO">{{cite web |url=https://www.who.int/ethics/activities/WHA47.27.pdf |title=Resolutions and Decisions. WHA47.27 International Decade of the World's Indigenous People. The Forty-seventh World Health Assembly |work=[[World Health Organization]] |access-date=17 April 2011 |archive-date=22 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121022140405/http://www.who.int/ethics/activities/WHA47.27.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref>
The WHO noted in 2003 that "Statistical data on the health status of indigenous peoples is scarce. This is especially notable for indigenous peoples in Africa, Asia and eastern Europe", but snapshots from various countries (where such statistics are available) show that indigenous people are in worse health than the general population, in advanced and developing countries alike: higher incidence of [[diabetes]] in some regions of Australia;<ref>Hanley, Anthony J. [http://www.medscape.org/viewarticle/540921 Diabetes in Indigenous Populations] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120310132048/http://www.medscape.org/viewarticle/540921 |date=10 March 2012 }}, Medscape Today</ref> higher prevalence of poor sanitation and lack of safe water among Twa households in Rwanda;<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ohenjo |first1=Nyang'ori |last2=Willis |first2=Ruth |last3=Jackson |first3=Dorothy |last4=Nettleton |first4=Clive |last5=Good |first5=Kenneth |last6=Mugarura |first6=Benon |title=Health of Indigenous people in Africa |journal=[[The Lancet]] |date=June 2006 |volume=367 |issue=9526 |pages=1937–1946 |doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(06)68849-1 |pmid=16765763}}</ref> a greater prevalence of childbirths without [[prenatal care]] among ethnic minorities in Vietnam;<ref>Health and Ethnic Minorities in Viet Nam, Technical Series No. 1, June 2003, WHO, p. 10</ref> suicide rates among Inuit youth in Canada are eleven times higher than the national average;<ref>Facts on Suicide Rates, First Nations and Inuit Health, Health Canada</ref> [[infant mortality]] rates are higher for Indigenous peoples everywhere.<ref name="WHO2">{{cite web |url=http://allcountries.org/health/health_of_indigenous_peoples.html |title=Health of indigenous peoples |work=Health Topics A to Z |access-date=17 April 2011 |archive-date=18 September 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110918020122/http://allcountries.org/health/health_of_indigenous_peoples.html |url-status=live}}</ref>
The first UN publication on the State of the World's Indigenous Peoples revealed alarming statistics about indigenous peoples' health. Health disparities between indigenous and non-indigenous populations are evident in both developed and developing countries. [[Native Americans in the United States]] are 600 times more likely to acquire tuberculosis and 62% more likely to commit suicide than the non-Indian population. Tuberculosis, obesity, and type 2 diabetes are major health concerns for the indigenous in developed countries.<ref name="UN ESA-2009b">{{cite book |title=State of the world's indigenous peoples |date=2009 |publisher=[[United Nations]] |author=United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs |author-link=United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs |isbn=978-92-1-130283-7 |___location=New York |oclc=699622751}}</ref>{{pn|date=August 2025}} Globally, health disparities touch upon nearly every health issue, including HIV/AIDS, cancer, malaria, cardiovascular disease, malnutrition, parasitic infections, and respiratory diseases, affecting indigenous peoples at much higher rates. Many causes of Indigenous children's mortality could be prevented. Poorer health conditions amongst indigenous peoples result from longstanding societal issues, such as extreme poverty and racism, but also the intentional marginalization and dispossession of Indigenous peoples by dominant, non-Indigenous populations and societal structures.<ref name="UN ESA-2009b" />
===Racism and discrimination===
[[File:Mokka and their house.jpg|thumb| "Savages of Mokka and Their House in Formosa", pre-1945, [[Taiwan under Japanese rule]]]]
Indigenous peoples have frequently been subjected to various forms of [[racism]] and [[discrimination]]. Indigenous peoples have been denoted as being ''[[Barbarian|barbaric]]'', ''primitive'', ''savage''<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eJxABLtxX60C&q=1880%20cincinnati&pg=PA35 |title=Centennial History of Cincinnati and Representative Citizens |volume=1 |publisher=Biographical Publishing Company |year=1904 |access-date=22 May 2013 |first=Charles Theodore |last=Greve |page=35}}</ref> or ''uncivilized''. These terms were commonly used during the heyday of European colonial expansion, and they are still being used by certain societies in modern times.<ref>''See'' ''Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe'', 435 U.S. 191 (1978); also see Robert Williams, ''Like a Loaded Weapon''</ref>{{full citation needed|date=August 2025}}
During the 17th century, Europeans commonly labeled Indigenous peoples "uncivilized". Some philosophers, such as [[Thomas Hobbes]] (1588–1679), considered Indigenous people mere "savages". Others (especially literary figures in the 18th century) popularized the concept of "[[noble savage]]s". Those who were close to the Hobbesian view tended to believe that they had a duty to "civilize" and "modernize" the Indigenous.
[[Survival International]] runs a campaign to stamp out media portrayals of Indigenous peoples as "primitives" or "savages".<ref name=survivalinternationalfaq>[http://www.survivalinternational.org/info Survival International website – About Us/FAQ] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170519142147/http://www.survivalinternational.org/info |date=19 May 2017 }}. Survivalinternational.org. Retrieved on 28 March 2012.</ref>
After [[World War I]] (1914–1918), many Europeans came to doubt the morality of the means which were used to "civilize" peoples. At the same time, the anti-colonial movement, and advocates for the rights of Indigenous peoples, argued that words such as "civilized" and "savage" were products and tools of [[colonialism]], and they also argued that colonialism itself was savagely destructive. In the mid-20th century, European attitudes began to shift to the view that Indigenous and tribal peoples are the only peoples who should have the right to decide what should happen to their ancient cultures and their ancestral lands.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/declaration-on-the-rights-of-indigenous-peoples.html |title=United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples {{!}} United Nations For Indigenous Peoples |website=[[United Nations]] |date=5 June 2015 |access-date=22 January 2020 |archive-date=1 November 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151101044521/http://undesadspd.org/IndigenousPeoples/DeclarationontheRightsofIndigenousPeoples.aspx |url-status=live}}</ref>
=== Cultural appropriation ===
[[New Age]] and [[Neopagan]] adherents often look to the cultures of Indigenous peoples seeking to find ancient traditional truths and [[spirituality|spiritual practices]] to [[cultural appropriation|appropriate]] into their lifestyles and worldviews.<ref>
{{cite book
| last1 = Pike
| first1 = Sarah M.
| author-link1 = Sarah M. Pike
| chapter = 4: The 1960s Watershed Years
| title = New Age and Neopagan Religions in America
| year = 2004
| url = https://archive.org/details/newageneopaganre00pike
| url-access = registration
| series = Columbia Contemporary American Religion Series
| ___location = New York
| publisher = Columbia University Press
| publication-date = 2004
| page = [https://archive.org/details/newageneopaganre00pike/page/82 82]
| isbn = 978-0-231-50838-4
| access-date = 19 February 2020
| quote = Many young people looked to American Indian traditions for alternative lifestyles, and this was to shape New Agers' and Neopagans' subsequent turn to and incorporation of indigenous peoples' practices into their own rituals and belief systems. [...] The desire to share in native peoples' perceived harmony with nature became a common theme of the 1960s counterculture and in 1970s Neopaganism and New Age communities.
}}
</ref>
=== Environmental injustice ===
[[File:Helena Gualinga.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Helena Gualinga]], an indigenous environmental and human rights activist<ref>{{cite news |last1=FOGGIN |first1=SOPHIE |title=Helena Gualinga is a voice for Indigenous communities in the fight against climate change |url=https://latinamericareports.com/helena-gualinga-voice-indigenous-communities-fight-climate-change/4192/ |access-date=11 September 2020 |agency=Latin America reports |date=31 January 2020 |archive-date=11 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210311153820/https://latinamericareports.com/helena-gualinga-voice-indigenous-communities-fight-climate-change/4192/ |url-status=live }}</ref>]] At an international level, Indigenous peoples have received increased recognition of their environmental rights since 2002, but few countries respect these rights in reality. The [[UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples]], adopted by the General Assembly in 2007, established Indigenous peoples' [[right to self-determination]], stating rights to manage natural resources, and cultural and intellectual property. In countries where these rights are recognized, land titling and demarcation procedures are often put on delay, or leased out by the state as concessions for [[extractive industries]] without consulting Indigenous communities.<ref name="UN ESA-2009b" />
Many in the United States federal government are in favor of exploiting oil reserves in the [[Arctic National Wildlife Refuge]], where the [[Gwich'in]] Indigenous people rely on herds of [[caribou]]. Oil drilling could destroy thousands of years of culture for the Gwich'in. On the other hand, some of the [[Iñupiat|Inupiat people]], from another Indigenous community in the region, favor oil drilling because they could benefit economically.<ref>{{cite journal|access-date=17 April 2020 |archive-date=26 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200926061634/https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/envirobiology/chapter/1-5-environmental-justice-and-indigenous-struggles/ |date=2017 |first1=Matthew R. |last1=Fisher |title=1.5 Environmental Justice & Indigenous Struggles |url=https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/envirobiology/chapter/1-5-environmental-justice-and-indigenous-struggles/ |url-status=live |journal=[[Environmental Biology]]}}</ref>
The introduction of [[Industrial agriculture|industrial agricultural]] technologies such as fertilizers, pesticides, and large plantation schemes have destroyed ecosystems that Indigenous communities formerly depended on, forcing resettlement. Development projects such as dam construction, pipelines and resource extraction have displaced large numbers of Indigenous peoples, often without providing compensation. Governments have forced Indigenous peoples off of their ancestral lands in the name of [[ecotourism]] and national park development. Indigenous women are especially affected by land dispossession because they must walk longer distances for water and fuel wood. These women also become economically dependent on men when they lose their livelihoods. Indigenous groups asserting their rights has most often resulted in torture, imprisonment, or death.<ref name="UN ESA-2009b" />
The building of [[dam]]s can hurt Indigenous peoples by hurting the ecosystems that provide them water, food. For example, the [[Munduruku people]] in the [[Amazon rainforest]] are opposing the building of [[Tapajós hydroelectric complex|Tapajós dam]]<ref>{{cite web |last1=Branford |first1=Sue |title=Brazil's indigenous Munduruku occupy dam site, halt construction |url=https://news.mongabay.com/2017/07/brazils-indigenous-munduruku-occupy-dam-site-halt-construction/ |website=Mongabay |date=19 July 2017 |access-date=5 September 2021 |archive-date=5 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210905091206/https://news.mongabay.com/2017/07/brazils-indigenous-munduruku-occupy-dam-site-halt-construction/ |url-status=live}}</ref> with the help of Greenpeace.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Minami |first=Tica |date=21 March 2016 |title=Damn the Dam: The Threat One Mega-Dam Poses to the Amazon and Those Who Live There |url=https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/damn-the-dam-the-threat-one-mega-dam-poses-to-the-amazon-and-those-who-live-there/ |work=[[Greenpeace USA]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211021142412/https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/damn-the-dam-the-threat-one-mega-dam-poses-to-the-amazon-and-those-who-live-there/ |archive-date=21 October 2021}}</ref>
Most Indigenous populations are already subject to the deleterious effects of climate change. Climate change has not only environmental, but also human rights and socioeconomic implications for Indigenous communities. The [[World Bank]] acknowledges climate change as an obstacle to [[Millennium Development Goals]], notably the fight against poverty, disease, and child mortality, in addition to [[environmental sustainability]].<ref name="UN ESA-2009b" />
=== Use of indigenous knowledge ===
{{Main|Traditional knowledge}}
[[File:College of DuPage Celebrates Native American Culture 2020 54.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|[[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] dancer of the Save Our Ancestors Remains and Resources Indigenous Network Group (SOARRING) Foundation, a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to educate people about Indigenous ways of life]]
Indigenous knowledge is considered as very important for issues linked with [[sustainability]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Senanayake |first1=S. G. J. N. |title=Indigenous knowledge as a key to sustainable development |journal=Journal of Agricultural Sciences – Sri Lanka |date=4 January 2006 |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=87–94 |doi=10.4038/jas.v2i1.8117 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Traditional Techniques Provide Useful Models for Biodiversity Policies |url=https://www.cbd.int/article/indigenous%26localcommunitiesforbiodiversity-1 |website=Convention on biological diversity |publisher=[[United Nations]] |access-date=25 March 2021 |archive-date=10 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210310105607/https://www.cbd.int/article/indigenous%26localcommunitiesforbiodiversity-1 |url-status=live}}</ref> Indigenous peoples play an essential role in conserving biodiversity around the world. An oft-cited statistic is that Indigenous peoples steward lands which comprise 80% of the world's biodiversity. In 2024, Fernández-Llamazares et al. investigated the origin of this claim in ''Nature'' and found that it is without basis, also stating that "biodiversity" is broad and not precisely defineable, and that the claim may do more harm than good. With a specific description, such as "natural lands" (that being lands with low levels of ecological disturbance), it can be said that at least 37% of remaining natural lands fall within the territories of Indigenous peoples. Fernández-Llamazares et al. state that the 80% claim "could undermine these and other rigorous studies — as well as effective efforts to conserve biodiversity by Indigenous Peoples on the ground".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Fernández-Llamazares |first1=Álvaro |last2=Fa |first2=Julia E. |last3=Brockington |first3=Dan |last4=Brondízio |first4=Eduardo S. |last5=Cariño |first5=Joji |last6=Corbera |first6=Esteve |last7=Farhan Ferrari |first7=Maurizio |last8=Kobei |first8=Daniel |last9=v |first9=Pernilla |last10=Márquez |first10=Guadalupe Yesenia H. |last11=Molnár |first11=Zsolt |last12=Tugendhat |first12=Helen |last13=Garnett |first13=Stephen T. |title=No basis for claim that 80% of biodiversity is found in Indigenous territories |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |date=5 September 2024 |volume=633 |issue=8028 |pages=32–35 |doi=10.1038/d41586-024-02811-w |pmid=39232141 |bibcode=2024Natur.633...32F |url=https://ddd.uab.cat/record/300753}}</ref>
The Western and Eastern [[Penan people]] are two major groups of Indigenous populations in [[Malaysia]]. The Eastern Penan are famous for their resistance to loggers threatening their natural resources, specifically Sago palms and various fruit bearing trees. Because of the Penan's international fame, environmentalists often visited the area to document such happenings and learn more about and from the people there, including their perspective on the land's invasion.<ref>{{Cite web |date=16 November 2018 |title=Indigenous peoples defend Earth's biodiversity—but they're in danger |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/can-indigenous-land-stewardship-protect-biodiversity- |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210221232802/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/can-indigenous-land-stewardship-protect-biodiversity- |url-status=dead |archive-date=21 February 2021 |access-date=11 September 2023 |website=[[National Geographic]] |language=en}}</ref>
Environmentalists such as Davis and Henley, who Brosius writes lumped all native groups of Malaysia into one homogeneous group with the same ideas and traditions, and lacked dialectical connections needed to deeply understand the Penan, lacked full knowledge of the situation's specific weight to the Indigenous peoples.<ref name="Brosius-1997"/> The two embarked on a mission, stating they wished to help with conservation of the Penan's land resources, but Brosious states they were among the many who repackaged [[traditional knowledge]] into something that fit a Western narrative and agenda, and that Davis and Henley romanticized and misconstrued the traditional Penan concept of molong (meaning: "to preserve"{{Snd}}the Penan marked trees for personal use and to preserve them for future harvesting of fruits or for materials).<ref name="Brosius-1997">{{Cite journal |last=Brosius |first=J. Peter |date=1997 |title=Endangered Forest, Endangered People: Environmentalist Representations of Indigenous Knowledge |journal=[[Human Ecology (journal)|Human Ecology]] |volume=25 |issue=1 |pages=47–69 |doi=10.1023/A:1021983819369 |jstor=4603225 |bibcode=1997HumEc..25...47B}}</ref>
Another common occurrence is to extend Indigenous knowledge beyond its limits and into unrelated meanings that western consumers find spiritually profound. This tendency of journalists extends beyond Davis and Henley. It serves non-Natives to add a narrative and value beyond that which already exists within the knowledge base of Indigenous peoples. Not only do these fictionalized accounts of some Indigenous knowledge and traditions skew the beliefs of onlookers, but they also contribute to cultural genocide as the actual spiritual and religious beliefs of the Indigenous people are disappeared and replaced with the westernized fiction.<ref name="Brosius-1997" />
==See also==
{{Portal|Civilizations|World}}
{{div col|colwidth=25em}}
* [[Collective rights]]
* [[Colonialism]]
* [[Cultural appropriation]]
* [[Ethnic minority]]
* {{section link|Ecotourism|Impact on Indigenous people and Indigenous land}}
* [[Genocide of Indigenous peoples]]
* [[Human rights]]
* [[The Image Expedition]]
* [[Indigenism]]
* [[Indigenous Futurisms]]
* [[Indigenous intellectual property]]
* [[Indigenous Peoples Climate Change Assessment Initiative]]
* [[Indigenous rights]]
* [[Intangible cultural heritage]]
* [[International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples]]
* [[National Indigenous Peoples Day]], Canada
* [[Indigenous Peoples' Day (United States)]]
* [[Isuma]]
* [[Jus sanguinis]], 'right of blood'
* [[List of active non-governmental organizations of national minorities, Indigenous and diasporas]]
* [[List of ethnic groups]]
* [[List of Indigenous peoples]]
* [[Missing and murdered Indigenous women]]
* [[Uncontacted peoples]]
* [[United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues]]
* [[Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization]]
* [[Virgin soil epidemic]]
{{div col end}}
==Notes==
{{Notelist|refs=
{{Efn|name=name|1=Also known as '''first peoples''', '''first nations''', '''Aboriginal peoples''', '''native peoples''', '''Indigenous natives''', or '''autochthonous peoples'''. Since 2020, most style guides have recommended capitalization of "Indigenous" when referring to specific Indigenous peoples as [[ethnicity|ethnic groups]], nations, and the citizens or members of these groups.<ref name=APstyle>{{cite web |agency=[[Associated Press]] |url=https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/bias-free-language/racial-ethnic-minorities |title=APA Style - Racial and Ethnic Identity |work=Section 5.7 of the APA Publication Manual |edition=Seventh |date=1 November 2019 |access-date=3 February 2022 |quote=Racial and ethnic groups are designated by proper nouns and are capitalized. ... capitalize terms such as "Native American," "Hispanic," and so on. Capitalize "Indigenous" and "Aboriginal" whenever they are used. Capitalize "Indigenous People" or "Aboriginal People" when referring to a specific group (e.g., the Indigenous Peoples of Canada), but use lowercase for "people" when describing persons who are Indigenous or Aboriginal (e.g., "the authors were all Indigenous people but belonged to different nations") |archive-date=15 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230315021652/https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/bias-free-language/racial-ethnic-minorities |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=IndigTermGuide>{{cite web |url=https://www.naja.com/reporter-s-indigenous-terminology-guide/ |title=Reporter's Indigenous Terminology Guide |website=The Native American Journalists Association|access-date=2022-02-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181116050310/https://www.naja.com/reporter-s-indigenous-terminology-guide/ |archive-date=2018-11-16}}</ref><ref name=NAJA-styleguide>{{cite web |url=https://www.naja.com/resources/naja-ap-style-guide/ |title=NAJA AP Style Guide |website=The Native American Journalists Association |access-date=2022-02-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181218222154/https://www.naja.com/resources/naja-ap-style-guide/ |archive-date=18 December 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bia.gov/guide/editorial-guide|title=Editorial Guide|website=Indian Affairs|publisher=[[US Bureau of Indian Affairs]]|access-date=2023-02-14|quote=The term "indigenous" is a common synonym for the term "American Indian and Alaska Native" and "Native American." But "indigenous" doesn't need to be capitalized unless it's used in context as a proper noun.|archive-date=18 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230118220603/https://www.bia.gov/guide/editorial-guide|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/Capitalization/faq0106.html|website=[[The Chicago Manual of Style Online]]|access-date=2023-02-14|title=FAQ Item: Capitalization|quote=We would capitalize "Indigenous" in both contexts: that of Indigenous people and groups, on the one hand, and Indigenous culture and society, on the other.|archive-date=26 November 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221126214942/https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/Capitalization/faq0106.html|url-status=live}}</ref>}}
}}
==References==
{{reflist}}
==Sources==
* {{cite book |last=Bodley |first=John H. |year=2008 |title=Victims of Progress |___location=Plymouth, England |publisher=AltaMira Press |isbn=978-0-7591-1148-6 |edition=5th}}
* {{Cite book |last=Pagden |first=Anthony |year=2001 |title=Peoples and Empires |publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson |___location=London |isbn=0-297-643703}}
* {{cite book |last=Salemink |first=Oscar |year=2003 |title=The Ethnography of Vietnam's Central Highlanders: A Historical Contextualization, 1850–1990 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2_zKFyHlBk0C&q=moi+savages+vietnamese&pg=PA28 |publisher=[[University of Hawai'i Press]] |isbn=978-0-8248-2579-9 |access-date=12 November 2020 |archive-date=15 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230315021633/https://books.google.com/books?id=2_zKFyHlBk0C&q=moi+savages+vietnamese&pg=PA28 |url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |last=Taylor |first=Alan |date=2013 |title=Colonial America: A Very Short Introduction |___location=New York |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]}}
==Further reading==
{{refbegin |indent = yes}}
* {{cite web |author = African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights |url = http://www.achpr.org/english/Special%20Mechanisms/Indegenous/ACHPR%20Report%20ENG.pdf |title = Report of the African Commission's Working Group of Experts on Indigenous Populations/Communities |year = 2003 |publisher = ACHPR & IWGIA |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070926115913/http://www.achpr.org/english/Special%20Mechanisms/Indegenous/ACHPR%20Report%20ENG.pdf |archive-date = 26 September 2007 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Alfred |first1=Taiaiake |last2=Corntassel |first2=Jeff |title=Being Indigenous: Resurgences against Contemporary Colonialism |journal=Government and Opposition |date=2005 |volume=40 |issue=4 |pages=597–614 |doi=10.1111/j.1477-7053.2005.00166.x }}
* {{cite book |last=Baviskar |first=Amita |year=2007 |chapter=Indian Indigeneitites: Adivasi Engagements with Hindu Nationalism in India |title=Indigenous Experience today |editor1-first=Marisol de la |editor1-last=Cadena |editor2-first=Orin |editor2-last=Starn |editor2-link=Orin Starn |___location=Oxford, UK |publisher=Berg Publishers |isbn=978-1-84520-519-5}}
* {{cite book |last=Clifford |first=James |year=2007 |chapter=Varieties of Indigenous Experience: Diasporas, Homelands, Sovereignties |title=Indigenous Experience today |editor1-first=Marisol de la |editor1-last=Cadena |editor2-first=Orin |editor2-last=Starn |editor2-link=Orin Starn |___location=Oxford, UK |publisher=Berg Publishers |isbn=978-1-84520-519-5}}
* {{cite book |last=Coates |first=Ken S. |year=2004 |title=A Global History of Indigenous Peoples: Struggle and Survival |___location=New York |publisher=[[Palgrave MacMillan]] |isbn=978-0-333-92150-0}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Farah |first1=Paolo D. |last2=Riccardo |first2=Tremolada |year=2014 |title=Intellectual Property Rights, Human Rights and Intangible Cultural Heritage |journal=Rivista di Diritto Industriale |issue=2, part I |pages=21–47 |issn=0035-614X |ssrn=2472388}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Farah |first1=Paolo D. |last2=Riccardo |first2=Tremolada |year=2014 |title=Desirability of Commodification of Intangible Cultural Heritage: The Unsatisfying Role of IPRs |journal=Transnational Dispute Management |volume=11 |issue=2 |issn=1875-4120 |ssrn=2472339}}
* {{cite book |last=Groh |first=Arnold A. |year=2018 |title=Research Methods in Indigenous Contexts |___location=New York |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-3-319-72774-5}}
* {{cite book |editor1-last=Gerharz |editor1-first=Eva |editor2-last=Uddin |editor2-first=Nasir |editor3-last=Chakkarath |editor3-first=Pradeep |year=2017 |title=Indigeneity on the move: Varying manifestations of a contested concept |___location=New York |publisher=[[Berghahn Books]] |isbn=978-1-78533-723-9}}
* {{cite news |last=Henriksen |first=John B. |year=2001 |title=Implementation of the Right of Self-Determination of Indigenous Peoples |url=http://www.iwgia.org/graphics/Synkron-Library/Documents/publications/Downloadpublications/IndigenousAffairs/selfdetermination.pdf |edition=[[PDF]] |periodical=Indigenous Affairs |___location=Copenhagen |publisher=[[International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs]] |pages=6–21 |volume=3/2001 |issn=1024-3283 |oclc=30685615 |access-date=1 September 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100602192104/http://www.iwgia.org/graphics/Synkron-Library/Documents/publications/Downloadpublications/IndigenousAffairs/selfdetermination.pdf |archive-date=2 June 2010}}
* {{cite book |last=Hughes |first=Lotte |title=The no-nonsense guide to indigenous peoples |year=2003 |publisher=[[Verso Books]] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VFRft8e1vtgC |isbn=978-1-85984-438-0 |access-date=18 October 2015 |archive-date=15 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230315021639/https://books.google.com/books?id=VFRft8e1vtgC |url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |last=Howard |first=Bradley Reed |year=2003 |title=Indigenous Peoples and the State: The struggle for Native Rights |___location=DeKalb, Illinois |publisher=[[Northern Illinois University Press]] |isbn=978-0-87580-290-9}}
* {{cite book |last=Johansen |first=Bruce E. |year=2003 |title=Indigenous Peoples and Environmental Issues: An Encyclopedia |___location=Westport, Connecticut |publisher=[[Greenwood Press]] |isbn=978-0-313-32398-0 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/indigenouspeople0000joha}}
* {{cite book |author = Martinez Cobo, J. |chapter = United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations |title = Study of the Problem of Discrimination Against Indigenous Populations |publisher = UN Commission on Human Rights |year = 198 |chapter-url = http://social.un.org/index/IndigenousPeoples/Library/Mart%C3%ADnezCoboStudy.aspx }}{{dead link|date=November 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
* {{cite book |last=Maybury-Lewis |first=David |year=1997 |title=Indigenous Peoples, Ethnic Groups and the State |___location=Needham Heights, Massachusetts |publisher=Allyn & Bacon |isbn=978-0-205-19816-0}}
* {{cite book |last=Merlan |first=Francesca |year=2007 |chapter=Indigeneity as Relational Identity: The Construction of Australian Land Rights |title=Indigenous Experience today |editor1-first=Marisol de la |editor1-last=Cadena |editor2-first=Orin |editor2-last=Starn |editor2-link=Orin Starn |___location=Oxford, UK |publisher=Berg Publishers |isbn=978-1-84520-519-5}}
* {{cite book |last=Pratt |first=Mary Louise |year=2007 |chapter=Afterword: Indigeneity Today |title=Indigenous Experience today |editor1-first=Marisol de la |editor1-last=Cadena |editor2-first=Orin |editor2-last=Starn |editor2-link=Orin Starn |___location=Oxford, UK |publisher=Berg Publishers |isbn=978-1-84520-519-5}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Sabbagh-Khoury |first1=Areej |date=2022 |title=Tracing Settler Colonialism: A Genealogy of a Paradigm in the Sociology of Knowledge Production in Israel |journal=[[Politics & Society]] |volume=50 |issue=1 |pages=44–83 |doi=10.1177/0032329221999906}}
* {{cite book |last=Tsing |first=Anna |year=2007 |chapter=Indigenous Voice |title=Indigenous Experience today |editor1-first=Marisol de la |editor1-last=Cadena |editor2-first=Orin |editor2-last=Starn |editor2-link=Orin Starn |___location=Oxford, UK |publisher=Berg Publishers |isbn=978-1-84520-519-5}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Wolfe |first1=Patrick |date=2006 |title=Settler colonialism and the elimination of the native |journal=[[Journal of Genocide Research]] |volume=8 |issue=4 |pages=387–409 |doi=10.1080/14623520601056240 |doi-access=free}}
{{refend}}
==External links==
{{Wikisource}}
{{Wiktionary}}
{{Commons category}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120305050618/http://social.un.org/index/IndigenousPeoples/NewsandMedia/Video.aspx Awareness raising film by Rebecca Sommer for the Secretariat of the UNPFII] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130727044905/http://web.archive/ |date=27 July 2013 }}
* [https://www.pbs.org/show/first-peoples/ "First Peoples" from PBS] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211126201235/https://www.pbs.org/show/first-peoples/ |date=26 November 2021 }}
* [https://www.iwgia.org/en/resources/indigenous-world.html "The Indigenous World" from International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs]
===Institutions===
* [https://www.ifad.org/en/indigenous-peoples IFAD and indigenous peoples (International Fund for Agricultural Development, IFAD)]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060810100556/http://ipsnews.net/new_focus/indigenous_peoples/index.asp IPS Inter Press Service] News on indigenous peoples from around the world
{{Ethnicity}}
{{Indigenous peoples by continent}}
{{Indigenous rights footer}}
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Indigenous peoples| ]]
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