The Indian Law Resource Center provides legal assistance to indigenous
peoples of the Americas to combat racism and oppression, to protect their lands
and environment, to protect their cultures and ways of life, to achieve
sustainable economic development and genuine self-government, and to realize
their other human rights.
The Indian Law Resource Center seeks to overcome the grave problems
that threaten Native peoples by advancing the rule of law, by establishing
national and international legal standards that preserve their human rights and
dignity, and by challenging the governments of the world to accord justice and
equality before the law to all indigenous peoples of the Americas.
Purposes and Goals
Indian nations and tribes and other indigenous communities throughout
the world are afflicted by poverty, poor health, and discrimination. Many
Native communities are subjected to grave human rights abuses. Indian land and
natural resources are often expropriated or degraded. When indigenous peoples
are deprived of their ways of life and their ties to the earth, they suffer.
Many have disappeared completely. Profoundly aware that when any culture ceases
to exist, the whole world is diminished irrevocably, the Indian Law Resource
Center’s principal goal is the preservation and well-being of Indian and other
Native nations and tribes.
The Center provides legal assistance to Indian nations and other
indigenous peoples in the United States and throughout the Americas at no cost
to our clients.
The Center has an international Board of Directors, and it is a
Non-Governmental Organization in consultative status with the United Nations
Economic and Social Council. The Indian Law Resource Center is a tax-exempt
organization under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. We are
funded entirely by grants and contributions from Indian nations, foundations,
and individuals. The Center accepts no government support.
