Indigenous Territorial Autonomy and Self-government in the Diverse Americas

The global activism of Indigenous Peoples and afrodescentents has been pushing for and bringing to public attention the right for self-determination, autonomy, and self-government. This has led to important progress in international law; however, these achievements and their implementation are threatened by policies from national governments and economic interests that run against these essential rights.

This book explains autonomy as a variety of practices, processes, and mechanisms of self-government through which the inherent rights of Indigenous Peoples and afrodescentends, and their sovereign aspirations, are expressed and become endowed with meaning. The right to self-determination is an intrinsic part of Indigenous People's sociopolitical life, and its exercise in their territories today is, probably, one of the only ways for their survival.

The contributions in this volume, many of them of Indigenous authorship, examine the challenges of self-determination and connect ancestral voices with contemporary issues.