The Ninth Inter-American Indian Congress Historical Overview

Abstract

Historical Review of Indian Educaion, Cultural Policies. U.S. Position, by Henri (etta) Whiteman, Ph.D., and Contemporary Cultural Revitalization: Bilingual and Bicultural Education, by Beatrice Medicine, Ph.D.,are two papers of particular interest to Indian Studies practitioners and are printed here as only two of the presentations of the 1985 Ninth Inter-American Indian Congress. They appear at the conclusion of this historical overview written for WS.R. by William Willard, Ph.D. The Ninth Inter-American Indian Congress of the Inter-American Indian Institute was held October 28-November 1, 1985 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, a major historic event in the history of the indigenous peoples of this hemisphere for several reasons. First, the Ninth Congress was the first held in the United States in the 45 years since the first Congress was held and the Institute was organized. Second, the holding of the Congress in New Mexico was recognition (although never officially stated), that the origins of the Institute and Congress are in the Santa Fe and Taos based organization of political action to save Pueblo land and water rights in the 1920's. Third, this meeting had a larger contingent of Indian delegates and observers than has been the case in past Congresses. This time the Indian participants took a larger role than in the past when non-Indian government representatives controlled the proceedings. Fourth, the emergence of trans-nationalpoliticalpower of indigenous people was apparent in the movement to establish a fifth committee of the Congress of non-governmental Indian delegates as an official component of the Congress. The reality behind the Congress is that there is a rapidly increasing Indian population in all Western Hemisphere nations except the Caribbean Island nations without present-time indigenous communities. Another part of the reality is that trans-national immigration, refugee movements, participation in international conferences, and the increasing access to high tech communications, are all contributing to a larger more sophisticated Indian population in theAmericas, apopulation which is becoming more aware of other Indian people, both within and outside any particular national boundary. Given the increasing awareness of the indigenous presence, the Congress and the Institute become more important than in the past; therefore, the question of What is this Institute? is an important question for everyone in the American Indian Studies field.