Indigenous Research

Identifying Aboriginal Peoples

It is estimated that there are more than 370 million Indigenous people spread across 70 countries from the Arctic to the South Pacific. According to a common definition, Indigenous peoples are the descendants of those who inhabited a country or a geographical region at the time when people of different cultures or ethnic origins arrived. The new arrivals later became dominant through conquest, occupation, settlement, or other means.

Most Indigenous peoples have retained distinct characteristics that differ from those of other segments of the population. They display resolve to maintain and adapt their heritage and historical links to their territories and associated natural resources.

Indigenous peoples may identify as a single people, such as the Maori of New Zealand, or as belonging to diverse tribes of Native Americans in the United States or distinct First Nations in Canada. Related peoples may span several national boundaries, as do the Inuit of the Arctic region. Intermarriage with persons of other ethnic origins, urbanization, and lifestyle changes contribute to increasing diversity within Indigenous communities. Self-identification and acceptance by the community are the criteria suggested by United Nations (UN) agencies as the most fruitful approach for identifying members of the collective.

An Evolving Research Paradigm

Indigenous peoples and societies have been objects of research interest since the 19th century and the rise of social anthropology as a distinct field of research led by U.S. and British scholars. Indigenous peoples in the Americas and other colonial sites provided case studies for the development of theories of cultural evolution that implicitly legitimized the Introduction of civilizing institutions to govern Indigenous homelands.

The 1960s and 1970s were times of social ferment around the globe, characterized by the dismantling of colonial empires, the civil rights movement in the United States, and the articulation of human rights in the international sphere. Particularly in nation-states with a British colonial connection, Indigenous peoples sought redress for neglect and violation of historic treaties. In concert with social movements to link Indigenous peoples within nation-states and across international boundaries, Indigenous writers began publishing trenchant critiques of the power relationships that fostered and maintained marginalization, poverty, and powerlessness among their peoples.

Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto, published in 1969 by Vine Deloria, Jr., was a call to consciousness that reached tribal people in their communities and helped to animate collective action. Harold Cardinal's The Unjust Society: The Tragedy of Canada's Indians, also published in 1969, had a similar impact. During succeeding decades, increasing numbers of Indigenous peoples pursued higher education, acquired [Page 425]research skills, and turned them to the service of political and community development.

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