Hundreds of delegates are arriving at the United Nations this week for the world’s largest gathering of Indigenous peoples, the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. This year’s forum centers on the survival of Indigenous peoples in the context of armed conflict. Advocates also warn that the artificial intelligence boom is driving a new era of digital extractivism, with tech companies scraping Indigenous medicinal knowledge, traditional stories and genetic data without consent, while massive data centers threaten tribal lands and water resources. The Trump administration has also made it increasingly difficult for delegates from the Global South to obtain U.S. visas to attend the forum.
