Donations from Erik Bluemel - Indigenous Peoples

Writing this introduction is the most difficult of the seven pieces included in this blog series. What can I say? I never had the opportunity to sit down and talk with Erik in any depth about his passion for indigenous issues, but I have to say I felt we shared an instinctive connection at the heart level for the world view expressed in the lives and practices of indigenous peoples around the world.

Having worked in this field for over 20 years, I have had the great privilege to work with many great indigenous scholars and activists and I will always count Erik among them. What made him different? To me, it was the joy and optimism he brought to the work. This is a difficult field in which to engage. There are no easy questions. These studies can challenge not only the ”world view” of non-indigenous persons, but very real things such as our basic property rights. Erik didn’t avoid the tough questions or try to pretend the conditions of indigenous peoples are better than they are. He knew that for every success there are years and years of work and the memory of hundreds or thousands of lives that one wishes could have been touched by the success, but for whom the ‘victory’ comes too late. And he knew that there is still so much to do. But, Erik focused on the achievements and saw the obstacles as challenges.

While these are not all the titles he owned on the subject, they represent important writers and subjects in the field. You will see other titles listed in posting number six, "Second Copies" and the previous post on environmental books noted several titles that could be cross-listed.

No more states?: globalization, national self-determination, and terrorism, ed. By Richard N. Rosecrance and Arthur A. Stein

Human rights and revolutions, ed. by Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom, Lynn Hunt and Marilyn B. Young

Indigenous Peoples in International Law, by S. James Anaya (author is the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous peoples)

International human rights in the 21^st century: protecting the rights of groups, ed. By Gene M. Lyons and James Mayall

Multicultural odysseys: navigating the new international politics of diversity, by Will Kymlicka

Political theory and the rights of indigenous peoples, ed. By Duncan Ivison, Paul Patton, Will Sanders

The Nations Within: the past and future of American Indian Sovereignty, by Vine Deloria, Jr., and Clifford M. Lytle

Multicultural citizenship: a liberal theory of minority rights, by Will Kymlicka

Paradigm wars: indigenous peoples’ resistance to globalization, ed. By Jerry Mander and Victoria Tauli-Corpuz