In many areas of the Americas the traditional way of life and culture of Indigenous peoples are threatened. In the face of globalization, many Indigenous groups are striving to achieve economic development without threatening their cultural heritage. It is the young who are the future of the Indigenous Peoples, and only they can ensure the survival and prosperity of Indigenous Peoples throughout the Americas. In the Charter of the Organization of American States and at high-level meetings such as the Presidential Summits of the Americas, the Member States consistently give high priority to actions to overcome poverty, especially the debilitating conditions that affect marginalized groups such as young persons and Indigenous peoples. In this program, indigenous young people will articulate their own experiences and needs and devise development goals that are implicit in their existing value system.
Many Indigenous people rely on biodiversity as a means of survival and a source of future capital.
Our program will bear this in mind, emphasizing environmental sustainability as a core value of all development. The approach will be holistic one, addressing all of the needs of Indigenous young people and not solely focusing on the purely economic. This will mean an emphasis on the personal development of young people as a means of enabling long-term development and prosperity. This emphasis on personal development and our grassroots approach will ensure that we are not engaging in short-term projects but rather are building a culturally sustainable means of empowering Indigenous young people. This project will create an action-oriented network of these organizations, named the Young Indigenous Circle.