This archive collects stories about Indigenous communities around the world — their land rights victories, cultural preservation efforts, environmental leadership, and legal milestones. Each story highlights progress driven by or directly affecting Indigenous peoples.
The Court found the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers violated the National Environmental Policy Act when it affirmed federal permits for the pipeline originally issued in 2016.
The tribal council last week approved a same-gender marriage ordinance in a 12-3 vote with one abstention.
Ecuador’s Waorani indigenous tribe won their first victory against big oil companies in a ruling that blocks entry onto ancestral lands for oil exploration.
The Navajo Nation voted not to pursue the plan to operate the coal-powered Navajo Generating Station itself, but rather to create a new local economy based on renewable energy.
The Great Bear Rainforest agreement, signed in February 2016, protected 85% of old-growth trees across 6.4 million hectares of British Columbia’s coast — a temperate rainforest roughly the size of Ireland. Reached after nearly 20 years of negotiation, it placed 26 First Nations at the center as co-managers, embedding Indigenous authority into conservation law.
Indigenous protection in Brazil took its first formal shape on June 20, 1910, when the government created the Serviço de Proteção aos Índios, the Americas’ first federal agency tasked with shielding Indigenous peoples from settler violence. Its leader, Cândido Rondon, instructed agents entering uncontacted territory unarmed: “Die if you must, but never kill.”
A codex known as the “Yuta Tnoho” that belonged to the Mixtec culture in the 1500s B.C.E. is the earliest historical record of psilocybin use in human history.
