" In the course of human history many tens of thousands of communities have survived and thrived for hundreds, even thousands, of years. Scores of these largely self-sustaining traditional communities continue to this day in remote jungles, forests, mountains, deserts, and in the icy regions of the North. A few remain completely isolated from modern society. According to United Nations estimates, upwards of 370 million indigenous people are spread out over 70 countries worldwide. Between them, they speak over 5,000 languages. ?Living well is all about keeping good relations with Mother Earth and not living by domination or extraction." -- Victoria Tauli Corpuz, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples But as the fingers of economic development reach into ever more distant corners of the globe, many of these communities find themselves ? and their way of life ? under threat. The march of progress means that efforts are being made both to extract the resources on which these communities rely and to ?mainstream? indigenous groups by introducing Western medical, educational and economic systems into traditional ways of life..."