Jennifer O’Neal

Beyond the Trail of Broken Treaties: The International Native American Rights Movement, 1975-1980

Dr. O’Neal’s book project examines the transformative shift, beginning in the mid-1970s, of organized Native American and Indigenous groups within the United States and Canada to internationalize Indigenous activism. Utilizing an Indigenous feminist approach, this work argues that Native American activism after the Red Power Movement shifted significantly from a domestic agenda to an international Indigenous initiative seeking increased sovereignty, self-determination, and human rights through global political relationships and partnerships, both within and outside the nation-state. Based on extensive archival research and in-depth activist interviews, the study specifically focuses on the role of Native Americans activists within organized groups that developed strong networks and exchanges in the Indigenous international arena. Through an interdisciplinary comparative case study approach of Indigenous activists groups across North America, including the International Indian Treaty Council, the National Congress of the American Indian, the National Indian Brotherhood, the World Council of Indigenous Peoples, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the study examines the experiences of Native American activists working across colonial imposed international borders to effect political change, the challenges to develop a shared international Indigenous movement, and the results of working within an Indigenous transnational movement during the emerging human rights policy era. Elucidating the stories and perspectives of activists and leaders behind this movement, the research uncovers, highlights, and centers the complex and influential role of Native Americans in building the foundation for a larger global Indigenous movement leading up to the development of the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.