Toolkit for Native Youth Think Globally, Act Locally

The Salamanca High School Model UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues helps Native youth learn about their own cultures by connecting with the experiences of indigenous peoples around the world. How many of your students know about the issues facing indigenous people? This toolkit introduces the topic by familiarizing students with the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Essential Questions

1. What is the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues?
2. What is the purpose of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples?
3. What are some issues facing indigenous people today?

Procedure

1. Ask students what the word “indigenous” means to them. Explain that indigenous people are people whose ancestors were native to a particular area before that area was taken over by others. Invite students to share any knowledge they have of indigenous people. If you have indigenous students in your class, make sure not to put them on the spot; this is a conversation for everyone to participate in. Chart student responses to your questions.

2. Carefully review UNICEF’s “Know Your Rights: UNDRIP for Indigenous Adolescents.” Determine the sections you want to focus on.

• Allow plenty of time for reading. Students can read alone, in partnerships or in small groups.
• Have students keep a list of key vocabulary; you may want to construct a word wall using the vocabulary words listed on pages 32-35 of UNICEF’s “Know Your Rights: UNDRIP for Indigenous Adolescents.”
• Independently or as a group, have students take the quiz on pages 30-31 of UNICEF’s “Know Your Rights: UNDRIP for Indigenous Adolescents.”
• Reconvene your class to discuss what they learned and what questions they still have. Make a list of students’ observations and questions.

3. As a class, have your students discuss the following:

• What issues did you learn about from the reading?
• What priorities and needs does the Declaration attempt to address? How does it go about addressing these needs?
• What questions do you still have about the experience and needs of indigenous people? Make a list.

4. Using the resources listed on page 36 of the UNICEF guide, have students investigate the answers to their own questions.

5. As an extension, have students visit UNICEF’s Voices of Youth website, read about an area of human rights work that interests them and comment on an article.