an ngo in consultative status with ecosoc 

american indian law alliance 
to hear the voices of our people, even unto the SEVENTH generation 

Our Own Voices

Why International Work 

Border Crossing Rights

Urban Indian

Legal Services Project

Pagans in the Promised Land

Documents & Reports 

As the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues met for the first time in New York City, May 13^th – 24^th, 2002, the American Indian Law Alliance published a booklet from various sources containing the words of our leaders and elders which reminded us of our strengths and the strengths of our ancestors.   The text of the entire booklet is available here in pdf format (OUR OWN VOICES.pdf).

“It is the heart broken that I must affirm that since several months I am against the most cruel indifference . . . My appeal to the Society of Nations has not been heard, and nothing in the attitude of Government [leaves] me any hope. 

 It is in this dreadful agony that I take the advantage to cry out that injustice, by the means of your free review, to my Brothers from all races and all religions.  Too long we have suffered from the tyranny of our neighbors who tread under feet our Right, and laugh at the Pact which binds them . . . Our appeal is for all those which are animated by the spirit of justice and we ask them their benevolent help.”

The Cayuga Chief Deskaheh, November 1924, in a letter to the editor of a Swiss journal

“I ask you a question or two.  Do not hurry with your answers.  Do you believe – really believe – that all peoples are entitled to equal protection of international law now that you are so strong?  Do you believe – really believe – that treaty pledges should be kept?  Think these questions over and answer them to yourselves.”

On the evening of March 10, 1925, Deskaheh in his last speech, before a radio microphone in Rochester, NY.

We, the Indigenous Peoples and Nations from around the world, are over 300 million strong.   We represent thousands of still existing Nations, cultures, and languages, as well as our millions of relatives in the natural world.   We speak for and represent our ancestors and our children yet unborn, unto the seventh generation.  Above all we speak for our Mother, the Sacred Mother Earth. 

Despite five centuries of unspeakable encroachment on our lands and territories, deplorable acts of violence against our peoples, and attempts to force alien values and beliefs on our way of life, we are still here.  And we are speaking out to the world.  In our efforts to bring world attention to the shared experiences of Indigenous Peoples worldwide, we have worked for over 75 years to have a voice in the international arena.

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