Addressing the Land Claims of Indigenous Peoples Around the World

The Public Disputes Program (PDP) in conjunction with the MIT Human Rights and Justice Program and the Consensus Building Institute has explored ways of addressing the needs of indigenous peoples around the world, particularly with regard to their demands for self-government, control of their borders, the right to use their natural resources as they see fit, and the right to take whatever actions are required to preserve their cultural identity. What rules ought to govern the interaction between quasi-autonomous peoples and the dominant democratic states in which they live? And, in advanced western democracies, how can the tools of peacemaking and consensus building be used to resolve the conflicts that threaten the survival of aboriginal peoples? PDP has worked with DINE, Inc. – tribal leaders in Navajo Nation – to explore ways of applying traditional peacemaking tools to resolve natural resource management disputes, particularly disagreements regarding the development of coal-fired power plants, extraction and processing of uranium, allocation of scarce water supplies, resolution of long-standing land claims that have stymied sorely needed infrastructure investment, and the prospect of investing in renewable energy on the reservation.