Homo Sacer: The American Indian Experience in the United States of America

This research aims to study the relationship between indigenous peoples and the State. By using the concept of homo sacer/ homines sacri (Giorgio Agamben 1998), the study interprets the relationship of the American Indians with the United States of America. Based on a revision of the literature on the American Indians, the study aims at highlighting how the struggles of indigenous peoples over territory and natural resources relate to rights recognized by the international human rights frameworks: the Inter-American Human Rights System and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). In this way, the main argument of this study is that international human rights law upholds the rights of the American Indians. This argument is tested against three cases: the recognition and protection of indigenous land rights on the basis of traditional tenure (The Dann Sisters´ case before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights), human rights violations (the case of Leonard Peltier, activist of the American Indian Movement) and the issue of indigenous nationalism (the case of the Hawaiian sovereignty movement).