Genocide of Indigenous Peoples

An estimated 350 to 600 million indigenous people reside across the globe. Numerous governments fail to recognize its indigenous peoples living within their borders. It was not until the latter part of the twentieth century that the genocide of indigenous peoples became a major focus of human rights activists, non-governmental organizations, international development and finance institutions such as the United Nations and the World Bank, and indigenous and other community-based organizations. Scholars and activists began paying greater attention to the struggles between Fourth World peoples and First, Second, and Third World states because of illegal actions of nation-states against indigenous peoples, indigenous groupsrs" passive and active resistance to top-down development, and concerns about the impacts of transnational forces including what is now known as globalization. This volume offers a clear message for genocide scholars and others concerned with crimes against humanity and genocide: much greater attention must be paid to the plight of all peoples, indigenous and otherwise, no matter how small in scale, how little-known, how "invisible" or hidden from view.Samuel Totten is currently The Distinguished Visiting Ida E. King Scholar of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. He is also the editor of the Transaction Series on Genocide Studies.Robert K. Hitchcock is professor of geography at Michigan State University. He is a renowned expert on southern Africa and the author or editor of numerous books, including Kalahari Communities: Bushmen and the Politics of the Environment in Southern Africa and Indigenous Peoplesrs" Rights in Southern Africa.