A useful, albeit somewhat politically charged, definition is that framed by the Gereneral Council of the Internaional Labout Organisation in 1989. According to their convention, formally ʻentered into forceʻ in 1991, indigenous people are,
"Peoples in independent countries who are regarded as indigenous on account of their descent from the populations which inhabited the country, or a geographical region to which the country belongs, at the time of conquest or colonisation or the establishmentof present State boundaries and who, irrespective of thier legal status, retain some or all of their own social, economic, cultural and political institutions." (International Labout Organisation, 1991)
(1).thumbnail.JPG "Sámi leather cap")
Who are Indigenous
The United Nations employs a similar definition, generally omittine references to maintaining social, economic, cultural and political institutions. A 1995 resolution, for instance, state that
"indigenous or aboriginal peoples are so-called because they were living on their lands before sellers came from elsewhere; they are the descendants...of those who inhabited a counry or a geographical region at the time when people of different cultures or ethnic origins arrived, the new arrivals later becoming dominant through conquest, occupation, selttlement or other means." (General Assembly The United nations, 1995)