A Journey into Five Decades of Struggles for Indigenous Self-Determination in the Americas

Born in Nicaragua, he is a Mskito Indian from the village of Karat, La Moskitia. At the age of 18, he became President of his Karat community and, in 1972, he became a founding member of AIPROMISU, the first regional Indian organization in La Moskitia that works to defend Miskito rights to self-determination, land, territories, environment, natural resources, sustainable development and their cultural survival. In 1977, Armstrong and other Indigenous leaders from around the world traveled to the United Nations' headquarters in Geneva to demand that the international community hold countries accountable for violating their individual and collective rights. After the Sandinista Revolution of 1979 in Nicaragua, Armstrong became the national representative for MISURASATA, a regional Indian organization in the country. Due to his human rights work in La Moskitia, he was arrested both during the Somoza and Sandinista regimes and was taken as a political prisoner. In 1981, the political situation in Nicaragua forced him into exile. In the United States, Armstrong started working for the Indian Law Resource Center (ILRC) and currently serves as the Director of the Washington D.C. Office. For the past two decades, Armstrong has been actively involved A Journey into Five Decades of Struggles for Indigenous Self-Determination in

Human rights · Indigenous · Indigenous rights · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Human Rights and Development · Human Rights and Immigration · Indigenous Peoples' Rights and Law · Law