Indigenous Peoples

On December 16, 2010, President Barack Obama announced that the United States would reverse its original stance and endorse the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Since that time, observers have asked what implications it will have for relations between the U.S. and American Indian tribal governments. They have been less concerned with placing the Declaration in historical context. Case studies of Queen Liliuokalani (Native Hawaiian), Deskaheh (Iroquois), and Vine Deloria, Jr. (Standing Rock Sioux) show the movement for its passage to be a manifestation of a longstanding indigenous political tradition of locating Native rights in the context of international law. To first acknowledge and then to teach this history can contribute to the decolonization and globalization of U.S. history.