UN documents indigenous apartheid

US Apartheid of Indigenous Peoples documented in UN report

Environmental racism, treaty rights and border rights of Indigenous Peoples stated in new report to the United Nations on Apartheid in the USThe systematic racism, forced assimilation and apartheid of Indigenous Peoples in the United States has been documented in the “Consolidated Indigenous Shadow Report,” to be presented by the International Indian Treaty Council to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

Dedicated to Floyd Red Crow Westerman, who passed to the Spirit World on December 13, 2007, the report is compiled from the testimony of individuals and groups of Indigenous Peoples and includes data from a wide range of sources.

The data reveals “a system of Apartheid and forced assimilation,” where Indigenous Peoples are “warehoused in poverty and neglect” in the United States. The racism permeates Indian life, including life at its foundation, at American Indian sacred places.

Indian treaty rights, the abrogation of treaties and discrimination toward non-federally recognized Indian Nations are detailed. Statistics are included for unemployment, violence against women and sexual abuse in residential schools. The destruction of sacred places, environmental racism and border injustices are revealed. Further, the high rate of incarceration and disproportionate long prison sentences for American Indians are exposed in the 87-page report.Below:  Sebastian Quinac, Mayan, speaks on searching for bodies on the Tohono O'odham reservation during the Indigenous Peoples' Border Summit of the Americas. Bill Means, co-founder of the International Indian Treaty Council, is seated. (Photo by Brenda Norrell.)