In its broadest sense, the term indigenous is used repeatedly to refer to everything that is relative or proper to an original population of the territory in which it inhabits, because its presence and establishment in it precedes other peoples, or, because the presence there turns out to be long and stable enough to be considered a native of the territory in question.
And on the other hand, in a stricter sense, the word indigenous is usually used to refer to those ethnic groups that preserve traditional non-European cultures, this group includes those that belong to traditions prior to the appearance of the modern state and those cultures that they were able to survive the expansion of European civilization.
In most cases, indigenous people represent a minority within the territory in which they live, especially if they are in those European states, in which, of course, the cultural guidelines and customs that both propose are absolutely opposed. .
As indicated by statistical reports some 350 million indigenous people inhabit planet earth and most of them even today continue to abide by and strictly respect their ancestral behavior guidelines. In some other cases, although they have not resigned some of their customs, their language and traditions at all, they have been forced to accept and assimilate the patterns imposed on them by the Western world.
The indigenous people, especially those who have systematically refused to change their customs and traditions and accept Westernization, had to suffer the most tremendous persecutions, curtailment of rights and violations as a consequence of their decision not to compromise. Many of course managed to resist centuries and centuries of oppression and social, political, cultural and economic domination, mainly of those most important and decisive socio-economic groups, and so today we can find many of them organized in various movements. and associations that have the objective of defending, promoting and promulgating their rights throughout the world.
