Jake Swamp is Wolf Clan sub-chief of the Kahniakehaka (People of the Flint), Mohawk Nation. For more than thirty years Chief Swamp has been a Mohawk sub-Chief and representative on the Grand Council of the Haudenosaunee, Iroquois Confederacy: Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, Tuscarora.

Oren Lyons is a traditional Faithkeeper of the turtle Clan and a proud and accomplished Native American who works tirelessly towards the issues concerning indigenous peoples in the United States and the world. He is a member of the Seneca Nation and of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee), consisting of Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk and the Tuscarora Indian reservations in northern New York state. He is deeply involved with national and international issues that affect native peoples and has represented them in many forums throughout the world, including several at the UN focusing on the rights and status of indigenous peoples, the environment and sustainable development.

Marcos Terena is from the Terena, or Xané, people from the Pantanal region in Mato Groso do Sul, Brazil. Marcos has played an important role in the movement for indigenous peoples’ rights both in Brazil and in the international political arena. He founded the first indigenous peoples rights movement in Brazil, the Union of Indigenous Nations, in 1977. In 1992 he organized the historic World Conference of Indigenous Peoples on Territories, Environment and Development. Marcos is a founding member of the Inter-Tribal Committee, the International Alliance of Indigenous Tribal Peoples of the Tropical Forests and the Brazilian Indigenous Institute on Intellectual Property.

Gloria Ushigua is a shaman and leader of the Zapara people who live in Ecuador and Peru. Until a few years ago, the Zapara were thought to have been extinct. Starting with the rubber boom in the early nineteenth century, the Zapara have experienced a history of slavery, massacres and sickness that has reduced their population from 20,000 to 350 (approximately 200 in Ecuador and 150 in Peru). The Zapara are now fighting to preserve their culture, language and traditional knowledge, and to have their lands legalized and demarcated. Their lands and culture are currently threatened by oil development.

Christiana Saiti Louwa is an El-Molo leader from Kenya, and head of a women's cooperative. El-Molo is the smallest tribe in Kenya.

Viktor Kaisiepo is from the Biak people of West Papua (ruled by Indonesia), living in exile in Holland. Viktor epresents the Papua Traditional Council, which represents over 1 million indigenous West Papuans.

Brian Keane is the Co-Founder and Director of Land is Life, an international network of indigenous communities and organizations with a long history of significant achievements in the worldwide struggle for indigenous peoples’ rights. Keane has been active for 20 years in efforts to improve indigenous access to international policy-making processes; preserve threatened ecosystems; protect the human rights of indigenous peoples; and help indigenous communities to preserve their lifeways, maintain their sacred traditions, speak their own languages and continue caring for their ancestral homelands.

Tomas Alarcon is Aymara from the Andes in Peru. He is a lawyer, and director of CAPAJ, an organization that works for the rights of the Aymara people in Peru and Bolivia. Tomas has been participating in United Nations conferences and meetings for over twenty years.