"One of the most significant declarations ever to emanate from the United Nations, the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, is belittled—mocked, almost—by the acronym so often used to refer to it. UNDRIP: it sounds like a health problem. Or something to fix a plumbing system.

The value of speaking clearly, the importance of language in human relations, the history of misuse and misunderstanding of language, the deceptions made possible by tricky language: these are all reasons for us to name the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in full, or, at a minimum, to refer to it as the Declaration. Forget UNDRIP.

N. Scott Momaday (Kiowa-Cherokee), in The Names: A Memoir, wrote about the meaning of who we are that is contained and not contained in our names. Names are mysterious, sometimes revealing sometimes concealing our identity or the identity of a people or place."

Get the Story:
Peter d'Errico: Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: What’s in a Name? Say It (Indian Country Today 5/9)