It was also pointed out that the Taino and the State of Puerto Rico are in similar positions, since the Taino people are oppressed under the government of Puerto Rico, while Puerto Rico exists under a virtual colonial regime of United States with little or no recognition in US government. The pyramid of oppression is multileveled. Land rights were a central concern at the conference. A central part of defining indigenous people is that their survival is tied to their traditional land. Her passion stems from the fact that the Dineh are in the process of being forcibly relocated from their traditional homeland at Big Mountain, Arizona by the US government.
Tourism is another issue that plagues indigenous peoples around the globe.
The Kalash people live in the northern Himalayas of Pakistan. Heavy snows protect them from the rest of the world for six months of the year. Recently, the government has begun advertising the area where the Kalash live as an exotic place for tourists to visit. The tourist industry, in partnership with the government, has taken over the river, the Kalash's only source of water, in order to build hotels near it. A delegate from the Argentinean Coya notes that tourists buy trips from agencies that do not realize that indigenous peoples still exist.