Hello everyone. My name is John Stevens and I am a graduate student at
Cornell University, My academic specialization is Native North America
(hopefully focusing on the Iroquois Confederacy and political activism) and
the "International Community", especially the UN as an international arena
for "international civil society." This summer I will be traveling to
Geneva to attend the Human Rights Commission meetings and the Working Group
on Indigenous Populations, to (a) do pre-dissertation field and library
research (under the aegis of the Academic Council of the United Nations);
(b) conduct interviews and gather other information for a major article for
*Native Americas* magazine, for whom I am interning this summer, and (c) to
contact indigenous rights activists and get more involved in the struggle
for indigneous rights. Before the meetings, however, I would like to try
to contact indigenous rights activists who will be attending and start
collecting information and perhaps schedule some interviews before the
meeting, to get a sense of folks' expectations for the meetings and also
discuss the significance of the 20th anniversary of formal indigneous
peoples' participation in UN fora. This information and that gathered at
the meetings will be used for the *Native Americas* article and (if
accepted) as a paper at the American Anthropological Society meetings in
November. I also hope to start putting together material for a longer
article on the history of Native North Americans' participation in and
shaping of UN fora and policies, something that will hopefully be of use
to both indigenous activists and educational for UN officials and
participants.
An abbreviated summary of what I hope to do in Geneva is reproduced below.
Anyone who is interested in contacting me for more information about this
endeavor or who has suggestions for individuals or organizations to contact
can reach me by phone or e-mail as listed below. Thank you in advance for
your time and interest.
Summary of research:
This is a summer research venture focused on examining the struggle for
recognition of international indigenous rights; specifically, it is focused
on analyzing the international legal-political milieu in which indigenous
peoples are asserting human rights claims and their participation in the
United Nations Human Rights Commission and the Working Group on Indigenous
Populations. In executing this project I will be addressing the thesis of
my proposed dissertation research: that the participation of indigenous
peoples in international politics has revealed a number of shortcomings in
intergovernmental political procedures and institutions and in the
formulation and application of a number of key concepts such as
sovereignty, self-determination, and peoplehood. Indigenous peoples,
through their persistence as diverse political actors and communities,
question the assumption that the only viable polities are nation-states,
and that only those entities declared "fully sovereign" have political
efficacy in the global political arena. In fact, I believe that indigenous
peoples' political activities challenge prevailing assumptions about the
global political arena as it is currently envisioned. I will probe these
contentions through an ethnographic and documentary study of how
representatives of various indigenous communities and advocacy
organizations construct and enact their political agendas and needs within
the above international fora, and how these activities demonstrate the
pitfalls and possibilities of participating in the international
political-legal milieu.
The project will proceed as follows: in June of 1997 I will begin my
internship with Native Americas as a research associate, reviewing the
documentary history of the indigenous rights movement since 1977. I will
then proceed to Geneva in early July and undertake my research there.
While in Geneva, I will do three things: first, observe meetings of the
Commission and the Working Group to assess how indigenous activists work
within these fora to assert their agendas and reinterpret prevailing
political notions and the legal history that underpins many of these
notions; second, meet and talk with indigenous rights activists who are
participating in the Working Group and bringing their concerns to the Human
Rights Commission; and third, conduct exploratory interviews with
indigenous activists and other participants about the impact of the U.N.'s
activities on international indigenous rights and the concomitant work of
indigenous activists to reshape the international human rights landscape
through their participation in these fora.
Upon my return to the United States in early August I will work on a major
article for Native Americas describing my assessment of the Geneva
meetings. This will primarily be an evaluation of the progress of
indigenous human rights and a discussion of how activists' ideas of
self-determination, interdependence, and peoplehood affect the way they
perform their political work. I will also review documentary material from
the meetings as well as Internet discussions and conduct any necessary
followup interviews with Native American participants in the meetings.
This article will serve the dual function of educating the readership of
Native Americas about these issues and indicating some of the ideas and
strategies that underpin the activities of indigenous rights activists.
Since the point of this research is to inform activists and other
interested folks about the WGIP, I will make the results of this research,
both in the form of the *Native Americas* article (provided permission can
be secured) and the report I will write for the programs that gave me my
travel grant (Cornell's Peace Studies and International Studies Programs),
available to the Native-L listserv and the NativeNet archive.
Best regards,
John H. Stevens, Jr.,
Graduate Student
Department of Anthropology
Research Associate, *Native Americas* Magazine
Cornell University
jhs14@cornell.edu
snail: c/o Dept. Of Anthropology, 265 McGraw Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853
home phone: 607.256.1829
fax: 607.255.3747
Quote of Note:
The living need history, too. Not to be made to feel guilty for a past they
are not responsible for or cannot change. The living need a history
disturbing enough to change the present. . . . It is the present made by
our past that we are responsible for. It is our own banality that needs to
be disturbed, our presumption that we are disempowered by the very
structures and systems which we make ourselves and sustain with our moral
lethargy. Greg Dening
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Student Area Coordinator, Amnesty International (Central NY)
Urgent Action Coordinator and Trainer, Cornell Student AI Chapter
Co-President, Anthropology Graduate Student Association
Member, Human Rights Educators' Network, Society for American Ethnohistory,
American Anthropological Association, American Ethnological Society,
Association for Political and Legal Anthropology, Academic Council of the
United Nations System
Listowner, NATIONID-L (Listserv for the Ford Working Group on Nationalism,
Citizenship, and Identity)