Eleven Indigenous Nations, including representatives from the US, Canada, Aotearoa (New Zealand) and Australia, meeting on the homelands of the Lummi Indian Nation near Bellingham, Washington, concluded negotiations and reached agreement on an historic Treaty of Indigenous Nations on August 1, 2007.

The Treaty establishes an international political and economic alliance to advance their common interests regarding the impacts of climate change on their homelands, to promote trade and commerce among Indigenous Nations, to bring their cultural properties under the protection of the laws of Indigenous Nations, to protect the human rights of Indigenous Peoples and to assert traditional rights to cross international borders.

The 1st Signing Meeting

The signing of the Treaty and joining the League as equal members occurred at a formal “Treaty Ratifi cation Meeting” on November 15th, 2007, in Denver, Colorado. The Treaty was developed and proposed by the National Congress of American Indians’s Special Committee on Indigenous Nation Relationships following meetings with the Assembly of First Nations, Canada, the Mataatua Assembly of Maori Tribes of Aotearoa, (New Zealand) and the Ngarrindjeri Nations of South Australia. At the request of the NCAI Special Committee, the leadership of the Lummi Indian Nation agreed to host and convene the gathering of indigenous nation political leadership to discuss the Treaty. In developing the Treaty, the NCAI Special Committee determined that relationships between indigenous nations are defi ned by the laws of indigenous nations, not by the laws of former colonial nations. Such colonial laws are not regarded as binding on the ability of Indigenous Nations to recognize and affirm their inherent rights of self determination and self governance by entering into nation-to-nation agreements with each other for their mutual interest and benefit.