Center for World Indigenous Studies

The Center for World Indigenous Studies (CWIS) is a non-profit American organization. It was incorporated in 1984by Dr. Rudolph C. Ryser, Ph.D. (Cowlitz tribe) and Chief George Manuel (1929–1989, Shuswap nation) as an independent research and education organization. It was founded earlier as an unincorporated research and documentation clearing house in 1979 in response to calls for establishment of a documentation archive by the Conference of Tribal Governments in the United States and the World Council of Indigenous Peoples. George Manuel, former chief of the National Indian Brotherhood/Assembly of First Nations in Canada, was first to initiate global communication and coordination amongst indigenous peoples emerging from colonialism. Joe DeLaCruz (1937–2000), chair of public policy at CWIS and former president of the National Congress of American Indians, was once called the greatest American Indian leader of the twentieth century.CWIS today is considered the premier indigenous think tank and archival repository serving the Fourth World.The Center hosts a comprehensive web site (cwis.org) that offers access to the Fourth World Journal, the Certificate/graduate studies Program offering study emphasis in the field of Traditional healing Arts and Sciences and the field of Fourth worl Geopolitics, a media and publications center, the Center for traditional Medicine, and th Chief George Manuel Memorial Library. With more than thirty Associate Scholars and four Fulbrght Scholars the Center is recognized as a reliable and accurate source for indigenous, culture-based research applying traditional knowledge systems to solving problems in indigenous communities and presenting analysis of benefit to all peoples..