Source Materials for Comparative Studies of the Indians of the Americas

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30 1957 Editorial. "El IV Congreso Indigenista Inter-Americano," America Indigena, XVII, No. 4 (October, 1957), pp. 291-292. From the first noble Indianists of America, Pedro de Gante, Bartolome de las Casas, Fray Bernardino de Sahagun and others who so deeply concerned themselves with improving the unhappy situation of the Indians, until the present day, multiple efforts have been made to redeem these groups. Among the most important activities which have been carried out in recent years in this respect are those of the Interamerican Indian Congresses of Patzcuaro, Mexico; Cuzco, Peru and La Paz, Bolivia. These were attended by representatives of the American governments and of institutions which are interested in the continent's Indian problem, who discussed the various aspects of this problem. The recommendations and suggestions made by the Congress appeared in the final minutes of these assemblies, which were published and widely distributed by the Interamerican Indian Institute. These proposals were made in order that the governments., if they so deem advisable, should put them into practice on behalf of their respective aboriginal groups. In an editorial of the magazine America Indigena (Vol. XV, No. 4, October, 1955) we indicate that, unfortunately, very few of these recommendations and suggestions were put into practice; a result, furthermore, which often occurs in congresses and assemblies of other kinds. Nevertheless, because the Indian problem requires urgent attention, it is to be hoped that the governments of those countries will re­consider the recommendations and suggestions of preceding congresses and heed, within the limits of their possibilities. 1958 Editorial. "La Situacion Economica Del Instituto Indigenista Inter­americano," America Indigena, XVIII, No. 3 (July, 1958), pp. 163- 166. For more than four centuries, since 1521, the living condi­tions of the continental Indigenous population have been character­ized by servitude, misery and sorrow. Independence of U.S. and of so-called Latin America did not bring them immediate advantages because the minorities of European origin continued considering the groups which constituted this segment as socially inferior elements, without capacity to rise to higher levels than those in which they had vegetated so long.