On the wire
Latin AmericaFuture of Amazon rainforest policies at stake in Brazilian presidential electionCanada$2.2M Boost For Quantum Test Targeting Iron Issues In First Nations GroupsWorldCelebrate Indigenous Peoples' Day with City Hall Flag Raising and Native-Led Events Across SeattleOceaniaMāori Band Coterie Revives Iconic Warriors Anthem — LBBWorldIndigenous Peoples Day: Reflections on 500 Years of ResistanceWorldIndigenous Peoples Day 2026WorldPRCS Announces Facility Schedule Changes for Indigenous Peoples’ DayWorldHRC63: States must protect Indigenous territories and those who defend our natural and cultural heritageUnited StatesHurdles ahead for New Mexico's Native American midterm votersLatin AmericaIndigenous Women Mix Tradition With Tech To Help Save a Threatened Turtle Species in the AmazonLatin AmericaFuture of Amazon rainforest policies at stake in Brazilian presidential electionCanada$2.2M Boost For Quantum Test Targeting Iron Issues In First Nations GroupsWorldCelebrate Indigenous Peoples' Day with City Hall Flag Raising and Native-Led Events Across SeattleOceaniaMāori Band Coterie Revives Iconic Warriors Anthem — LBBWorldIndigenous Peoples Day: Reflections on 500 Years of ResistanceWorldIndigenous Peoples Day 2026WorldPRCS Announces Facility Schedule Changes for Indigenous Peoples’ DayWorldHRC63: States must protect Indigenous territories and those who defend our natural and cultural heritageUnited StatesHurdles ahead for New Mexico's Native American midterm votersLatin AmericaIndigenous Women Mix Tradition With Tech To Help Save a Threatened Turtle Species in the Amazon
Kabila

Visual explainers

Ideas that are hard to hold in words, drawn step by step. Press "Next step" and watch each part light up.

  1. From band to nationThe circles of belonging that many peoples use, from the household to the whole people. It is a rough map that scholars debate, not a ladder of progress.7 steps
  2. How a clan system fits togetherOne common pattern: a people divided into two halves, each half into clans, each clan into lineages and households.7 steps
  3. Tracing descent: through the mother or the fatherThree common rules for deciding which family group a child belongs to, and what follows from each rule.8 steps
  4. How a council of elders reaches a decisionA common way of deciding without voting: talk until nearly everyone can accept the outcome.7 steps
  5. The hunter-gatherer year: a seasonal roundHow foraging peoples move through the same territory year after year, following water, plants and animals.6 steps
  6. The pastoral year: transhumanceTranshumance is the seasonal movement of herds between fixed summer and winter pastures. The picture shows one full year.6 steps
  7. Shifting cultivation: the swidden cycleSwidden farming clears a small forest plot, crops it for a short time, then lets the forest grow back before returning.7 steps
  8. How knowledge passes down by oral traditionHow a society keeps its history, law and science accurate over generations without writing.7 steps
  9. How a language becomes endangered and how it is revivedThe usual path by which a language stops being passed to children, and the steps communities take to bring it back.7 steps
  10. How the world's languages group into familiesA language family is a set of languages that descend from one older language. These are some of the largest families, with examples.9 steps
  11. How free, prior and informed consent worksThe steps a government or company should follow before a project that affects an indigenous people's land or life.7 steps
  12. How a people gains official recognitionThe usual stages by which a state formally accepts a group as a tribe or indigenous people, shown through the United States and India.7 steps
  13. From first contact to self-determinationA pattern repeated on several continents over the past five centuries. Dates and details differ from place to place.7 steps
  14. How a land claim moves from claim to titleThe usual stages by which a community turns long use of its land into ownership that the state's law recognises.7 steps

Seven peoples, once a week

Every Monday: seven peoples you may never have heard of, who they are and where they live.