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Mother and child are Masai, pastoral nomads who <br />compete with game parks for Kenya's grazing land. <br />78 <br />`We are here. We <br />live'. a tribute to <br />diverse cultures <br />1 <br />The new book Endangered Peoplestlooks,al <br />•lute plight of minorities whose ways of life—and <br />sourtelintes whose lives themselves—are in peril <br />"Many people have said that indigenous peoples are ± <br />myths of the past, ruins that have died. But the indige- <br />nous community .. , is full of vitality and has a course <br />and a future. It has much wisdo n and richness to con- <br />tribute," writes Rigoberta Menchu in her foreword to <br />Gnlangvvd Peoples, published this month by Sierra Club <br />Books. Menchu, recipient of the 1992 Nobel Peace <br />Prize, is a Quiche from Guatemala who was forced to <br />live in exile by her government because she sought <br />rights for her people. She is one of an estimated 200 mil- <br />lion to 250 million Indigenous persons left in the world. <br />Cultural evolution, migration and assimilation have <br />occurred throughout the ages, but recently the disap. <br />pearance of distinct cultures has accelerated at an <br />alarming rate. By some estimates as many as 200,000 in- <br />digenous people die every year of disease and malum <br />tritution, altered habitat from development and defor- <br />estation, political persecution and discrimination, and <br />internecine warfare and bloody land disputes. 'I'u give a <br />face and a voice to those who survive, writer Art David. <br />son and several photographers traveled thousands of <br />miles to record individual stories. As Menchu asserts, <br />"They have not killed us and they will not kill us now. <br />We are stepping forth to say, 'No, we are here. We live." <br />Endangrroed Peoples Mcuses on indigenous groups with <br />both essays and photographs. Davidson has spent 25 <br />years with native Alaskans, the Yup'ik and Cup'ik Eski- <br />mos on the Bering Sea coasl. His experience is reflect- <br />ed in his commentary on them. In researching the <br />book, Davidson dodged gunfire during the Philippineau <br />civil w• to reach an Igorot village, while photographer <br />Art Wolfe made clandestine trips into Sarawak escorted <br />by tribesmen who were forbidden to talk to outsiders. <br />The hookas a testament to the gifts of indigenous <br />groups: their attachment and reverence for the land, <br />