R U D O L P H C. R Y S E R BIOGRAPHIC SKETCH November 1995 Chairman Center For World Indigenous Studies Rudolph Ryser is a member of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe and the Chair of the Center for World Indigenous Studies in the United States. He has for more than twenty-five years worked in the field of Indian Affairs as a writer/researcher and Indian rights advocate. He was born in Elma in southwest Washington state as the youngest of eight children in Chehalis territory and grew up in a town of 150 people called Ocean City just south of the Quinault Reservation. He graduated from Hoquiam High School and attend Washington State University where he studied philosophy. Since 1977, Mr. Ryser has expanded his work in Indian Affairs to encompass indigenous peoples throughout the world. After undergraduate studies in philosophy at Washington State University, undertaking a series of graduate level studies in international affairs and war/peace studies with the Center for War/Peace Studies and Indian Education Administration (UCLA) in the 1960s, Mr. Ryser became a contributor to policy development activities of the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, the Conference of Tribal Governments and the National Congress of American Indians. In 1975 Mr. Ryser was selected by tribal leaders in the Northwest U.S. States to serve as a Specialist on U.S. government federal administration of Indian Affairs on the American Indian Policy Review Commission (A joint U.S. Senate/House of Representatives Commission established to study U.S. and tribal policies and recommend alternative policies to the Congress). Mr. Ryser authored the Federal Administration Task Force Report issued to the Commission in 1976. He later served as the Executive Director of the Small Tribes Organization of Western Washington -- an organization established by twenty-three Indian tribes to support community development and community organization activities at each tribe. In 1979, Mr. Ryser served as the Special Assistant to the World Council of Indigenous Peoples President George Manuel (Canada) and served as the Acting Executive Director of the National Congress of American Indians in 1983. He became the Chair of the Center for World Indigenous Studies in 1984. In January 1996 Mr. Ryser will take his Ph.D. in International Relations through The Union Institute in Cincinnati, OH. Mr. Ryser has conducted systematic research in: * tribal law enforcement and Indian education (Social Research Center -- Washington State University). * Tribal economic development (Battelle Memorial Institute - Richland, Washington). * Tribal/State relations; tribal development and appropriate technology; north/south economic relations and tribal development; tribal health systems; South American tribal political development; tribal self- government, and; tribal/Canadian political relations (COSAMCO, Ltd.). * War/peace tribal/state resolution in Melanesia, Pacific Islands, Central America, South Asia (World Council of Indigenous Peoples). * Tribal land annexation in Canada, U.S., Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala; anti-Indian movements in the U.S. and; tribal self-government (Center for World Indigenous Studies). He has developed and conducted tribal and intertribal workshops and seminars on health, community organization, self-government, law enforcement, and natural resource management. He has presented these programs in the United States, Canada, Australia, Mexico and in Peru in Indian communities. In several capacities, Mr. Ryser has also functioned as a liaison and facilitator for diplomatic linkages between indigenous spokespersons and representatives of states' governments and international organizations. The subjects of these diplomatic communications have ranged from developing cooperative efforts in cultural exchanges, environmental impact cooperation, political support and diplomatic cooperation in international organizations. Rudolph C. Ryser has contributed to two anthologies on Indian Rights, "Indian Rights and the Great Lie" (1983), and "Fourth World Wars: The Emerging International Political Order," published by the University of Toronto Press (1985). He contributed to and edited an anthology entitled, "Indian Self-Government: Perspectives on the Political Status of Indian Nations in the United States of America" (1989), published by the Center for World Indigenous Studies in the United States and in Canada. He contributed to the "Encyclopedia of Native Americans in the 20th Century" (1993), Garland Publishing, NY, and published several papers through the International Work Group on Indigenous Affairs in Copenhagen. He has become a well known essayist among indigenous peoples throughout the world and he is among the leading spokespersons for Fourth World political development, tribal/state conflict resolution and international cooperation between indigenous nations. His most recent publications include "Resuming Self-Government in Indian Country," Murdoch University E-Law Review, Western Australia (1995) and "State Craft, Nations and Sharing Governmental Power," in _Systems of Self-Government for Indigenous Peoples_, International Work Group on Indigenous Affairs, Copenhagen (1994). He is currently working on a new book for publication in 1996 entitled, _Fourth World Geopolitics: Coexistence and the New International Political Order_. Center For World Indigenous Studies P.O. Box 2574 Olympia, Washington 98507-2574 U.S.A. FAX 956-1087 E-Mail