International Indian Treaty Council
The International Indian Treaty Council (IITC) is a prominent organization founded in July 1974 during a conference held on the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota. Initially established with the guidance of Lakota elders, its mandate was to advocate for the recognition of the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty at an international level. Russell Means, a leader of the American Indian Movement (AIM), took on the role of "Permanent Trustee," while Jimmie Durham, a Cherokee member of AIM, became the founding director.
The IITC evolved to serve as the international diplomatic arm of AIM, advocating for the rights of indigenous peoples globally. Notably, it became the first indigenous non-governmental organization (NGO) recognized by the United Nations, leading to the establishment of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations to address the grievances of native peoples. Despite its early successes, including organizing a significant forum on indigenous rights in Geneva, the organization faced internal disputes and challenges in the late 1980s, leading to structural changes and a decline in support. By the 1990s, many indigenous nations had begun to assert their rights independently on the international stage, reflecting a shift in the landscape of indigenous advocacy.
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International Indian Treaty Council
The International Indian Treaty Council was founded during a conference convened on the Standing Rock Reservation (North Dakota) during July 1974. Its initial mandate, conveyed by the Lakota elders, was to “take the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty and place it before the community of nations.” American Indian Movement (AIM) leader Russell Means, asked to assume responsibility for IITC, accepted by agreeing to serve as “Permanent Trustee.” Jimmie Durham, a Cherokee AIM member, became IITC’s founding director.
By 1975, Means and Durham had established an office in New York and expanded the mission of the “international diplomatic arm of AIM” to include advocacy of the rights of all indigenous peoples, worldwide. Durham then set about organizing the first major forum on indigenous rights in the history of the United Nations.
This resulted in the “Indian Summer in Geneva,” an assembly of delegates from ninety-eight indigenous nations throughout the Western Hemisphere at the Palace of Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, during July 1977. As the coordinating entity, IITC became the first indigenous nongovernmental organization (NGO; Type-II, Consultative) ever recognized by the United Nations.
The assembly stimulated the United Nations to establish a formal body, the Working Group on Indigenous Populations, under its Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) for purposes of receiving annual reports on the grievances of the world’s native peoples. The Working Group’s broader charge was to make the studies necessary to prepare a Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by 1992 (later extended to 1994) for ratification by the UN General Assembly as international law.
With this established, Durham resigned in 1981 to pursue a career as an artist. He was replaced by Russell Means’s younger brother, Bill, who proved a far less appropriate director. Almost immediately, the younger Means initiated a policy of aligning IITC with a range of leftist governments, many of them oppressing indigenous peoples within their borders. The result was a steady erosion of constituent support for IITC.
By 1986, disputes over IITC’s support of Nicaragua’s Sandinista regime in its drive to subordinate the Miskito, Sumu, and Rama peoples of the country’s Atlantic coast led to a purge. “Indigenists,” such as Harvard-trained Shawnee attorney Glenn Morris, were summarily expelled from IITC. The Lakota elders’ original mandate was negated, Russell Means displaced from his permanent trusteeship, and IITC structurally separated from AIM by its incorporation under US law.
Thereafter, although Bill Means continued to speak of “representing more than a hundred indigenous nations,” IITC’s isolation and decline accelerated. By the early 1990s, it was increasingly encumbered by the fund-raising requirements of supporting its staff. Fortunately, many of the peoples whose rights it had once championed had by then learned to represent themselves internationally.
Bibliography
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Johansen, Bruce E. “International Indian Treaty Council. (IITC).” Encyclopedia of the American Indian Movement. Santa Barbara: Greenwood, 2013. 155–156. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 4 May. 2015.
Littleton, Steven A., and James E. Seelye. Voices of the American Indian Experience. Santa Barbara: Greenwood, 2013. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 4 May. 2015.
McIntyre, Michael. “International Indian Treaty Council.” Engage/Social Action 4 (1976): 57–59. ATLA Religion Database. Web. 4 May. 2015.
Trask, Mililani, and Elvira Pulitano. Indigenous Rights in the Age of the UN Declaration. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2012. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 4 May. 2015.