The International Covenant on the Rights of Indigenous Nations (ICRIN)

What we do
Accomplishments

For over 40 years, CWIS has been the leading indigenous peoples’ think tank ensuring that communities can safeguard their rights and resources.
Education

Activate your potential with online courses on Indigenous Studies and Traditional Medicine.
Research & Public Policy

The leading think-tank defining and implementing indigenous-centric policy and strategic implementation in climate change, governance, conflict resolution and health care.
Chief George Manuel Library

The library was founded as a documents repository in 1979 in response to a resolution of the Conference of Tribal Governments.
Who we are
Who we are

Our mission: Activist scholars advancing the rights of indigenous peoples worldwide
Our Story

Consult with us

Providing technical support to indigenous nations including international legal advice, policy analysis and conflict resolution and self governance.
Publications
Volume 24, Number 1
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June 3, 2024
Asserting Native Resilience: Insights from Rudolph Rÿser on the Climate Crisis
Environment
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View our blogs
Bookstore

Discover titles by CWIS authors.
Traditional Medicine
About CTM

Traditional medicine is the “mother” of all medicine. More than 80% of the world’s population uses a form of traditional medicine to treat primary health.
Treating Diabetes

Engage in ancient and modern indigenous medicinal methods to prevent and treat diabetes.
Massage Project

This project strengthens the outreach and trains additional therapists to deliver more massage therapy for diabetes to underserved people in urban and rural indigenous areas.
Act
Donate

For over 40 years, CWIS has been the leading indigenous peoples’ activist think tank, ensuring that communities can safeguard their rights and resources.
Your donation may be earmarked for any of our ongoing projects or can be identified to support general operating costs.
Volunteer

Discover ways to share your skills and expertise to further our mission.
Internships

Join a select group of activist scholars who participate in 3-12 month internships for academic credit.
Video
Searching for Capomo

Discover this extraordinary tree, known as Capomo, or the Breadnut, and all of its gifts. The seed is traditionally eaten as a food and roasted into cafe de capomo. Endemic...
Medical Massage for Diabetes

This project strengthens the outreach and trains additional therapists to deliver more massage therapy for diabetes to underserved people in urban and rural indigenous areas.
Salal, Cedar and Spruce: A Journey with Salish Plant and Medicine Traditions

Salal berries for digestive relief, Cedar tea to reduce fevers, and Spruce tips for nourishment and congestive relief… Traditional Salish foods and medicines are experiencing a revival in the Pacific...
Pathfinder: The Untold Story of “The Indian Business”

Pathfinder: The Untold Story of the “Indian Business” is a feature-length documentary currently in production about the “Fourth World’s” struggle for self-determination and overcoming bigotry and internalized traumas, told through...

Salal, Cedar and Spruce

A Journey with Salish Plant and Medicine Traditions

Trailer

Additional Features

Listen to Valerie Seagrest describe her collaboration with CWIS working with youth to define food deserts on Muckleshoot Reservation.

Learn from Aleta Poste about the ways in which Salish Roots Farm at Squaxin Island Tribe, provides fresh produce for the tribal community.

Discover how Keith Stevenson and Valerie Seagrest construct and use Cedar bentwood boxes to prepare foods traditionally.

Learn about Cinnamon Bear, Janay Joseph and Lisa Wilson as they share their journeys studying and teaching herbal medicine.

Discover the work of Martell Hesketh as she explores indigenous sciences and indigenous ways of knowing as methods used to evaluate project success.

Listen to Rose James discuss her work advancing food sovereignty among nations in the Pacific Northwest.

Salal berries for digestive relief, Cedar tea to reduce fevers, and Spruce tips for nourishment and congestive relief…

Traditional Salish foods and medicines are experiencing a revival in the Pacific Northwest. Indigenous peoples, environmentalists, and activists explore ways to nourish the body, mind, and spirit, fight food insecurity, address climate change and educate native youth about their traditions, which were often outlawed and nearly lost to colonization.

In this 30-minute documentary, we explore this movement toward traditional knowledge for modern times and some of the myriad ways in which that knowledge is reemerging as a sustainable way to nourish and heal people and our struggling planet.

We tour the urban woodlands with elder and traditional foods and medicines knowledge-keeper Dr. Rudolph Rÿser. We visit the Tend, Gather, and Grow urban youth program in Wild Foods and Medicines in Olympia, Washington, building a cadre of native youth who are taking this knowledge back to their tribes. We explore the sustainable farming practices of the Squaxin Island Tribal Garden regional food security project, and partake in a delicious traditional feast with the Muckleshoot tribe.

Join us on this journey toward a new sustainable future, built on strong healthy communities and traditional Indigenous knowledge rooted in a harmonious relationship with the earth.