Short answers, pulled from the story.
Indigenous peoples are non-dominant groups descended from the original inhabitants of their territories, especially those that have been colonized. Estimates of their population range from 250 million to 600 million, spread across 5,000 distinct groups in every inhabited climate zone and continent.
The term Indigenous peoples, derived from the Latin word for sprung from the land, was first used by Europeans in 1646 to differentiate these groups from enslaved Africans. This definition masks a complex history of survival, resistance, and adaptation spanning thousands of years.
From 1492, the Arawak peoples of the Caribbean encountered Spanish colonizers led by Christopher Columbus, leading to a system of labor called encomienda that enslaved some and forced others to work on farms and gold mines. The Spanish incursions led to the conquest of the Aztec Empire and its fall, with smallpox devastating the indigenous population and aiding the Spanish conquest.
The first meeting of the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations was on the 9th of August 1982, and this date is now celebrated as the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples. The United Nations adopted a Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007, affirming their right to self-determination and to protect their cultures, identities, languages, ceremonies, and access to employment, health, education, and natural resources.
Native Americans in the United States are 600 times more likely to acquire tuberculosis and 62% more likely to commit suicide than the non-Indian population. Tuberculosis, obesity, and type 2 diabetes are major health concerns for the Indigenous in developed countries, and globally, health disparities touch upon nearly every health issue, including HIV/AIDS, cancer, malaria, cardiovascular disease, malnutrition, parasitic infections, and respiratory diseases, affecting Indigenous peoples at much higher rates.