Indigenous but not Indian? Chicana/os and the politics of indigeneity

In the Fall of 2005 the University of New Mexico hosted an International Symposium, “Indigenous Peoples of the Americas: Conflict, Resistance, & Peace Making.” The Symposium was conceived as a response to the directive of the Second International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People, initiated in January of 2005, which called on States, NGOs, and tribal groups to “strengthen international cooperation” to find solutions to the “problems faced by Indigenous Peoples in areas such as culture, education, health, human rights, environment and socio-economic development” (Tricentennial Truth Alliance, 2005, press release). Co-sponsored by an array of university and non-university agencies and organizations (including UNM’s Native American Studies Program, International Programs & Studies, Peace Studies Program, the Ibero-American Science & Technology Education Consortium, the Society for Native American Graduate Students, and the American Friends Service Committee), the Symposium attempted to enter into an ongoing conversation that was taking place in Mexico, Ecuador, Guatemala, and other parts of Latin America in an effort to strengthen transnational links connecting indigenous struggles across the Americas.