His fellow Mayans in Guatemala have fought for years for such rights.

''Unfortunately, up to now, there have been few advances,'' the young lawyer said in Spanish.

Chex is among tribal representatives from across the Western Hemisphere who gathered on the Navajo Nation this week. Their discussions about some of most fundamental issues in Indian country are aimed at helping guide governments in their dealings with indigenous peoples.

The road that led to this week's meeting began years ago with the Organization of American States' draft declaration on the rights of indigenous people.

Next month in Washington, the OAS will hold the latest round of negotiations on the declaration. This week's gathering was a chance for Chex and fellow indigenous leaders to agree on proposals they'll bring to the table.

''We're trying to get countries to change the way they treat Indian people and other indigenous people,'' said Robert Coulter, executive director of the Indian Law Resource Center in Helena, Mont., and a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. ''We're trying to make this new international law so that it will push . . . countries to do better.''

Tribal representatives have worked for years to incorporate their perspectives into the declaration, which was first released for public comment in 1995. They hope for adoption by the 34 member countries of the OAS within the next two to three years.

Tribes are also participating in the United Nations' ongoing effort to draft a global declaration.

The discussions strike at the heart of indigenous concerns - from the recognition of the individual rights of indigenous people to their collective rights to land and resources.

Joining Navajo leaders at the table this week from the United States were representatives of the Blackfeet Indian Tribe in Montana and members of the Iroquois Confederacy from the Northeast, among others. Tribal representatives from Canada, Mexico, Panama, Nicaragua, Brazil and Argentina also attended.

''Indigenous people are being dealt with as serious actors, effective actors, in the world community,'' Coulter said. ''There's a significant awareness that indigenous leaders are a really significant force in the Americas.''

Hector Huertas, a Kuna Indian from Panama who helped lead this week's meeting, agreed and said he has seen change in his South American region over the last decade.

''There's been a certain evolution in the role of states with indigenous people. There has been constitutional reforms, which have changed and really have created a new relationship between states and indigenous people,'' he said in Spanish.

But much work remains in what Lottie Cunningham calls a complicated process. The Miskito Indian is an attorney for the Center for Justice and Human Rights of the Atlantic Coast in Nicaragua.

Speaking in Spanish, she said the process is a difficult one because states have historically lacked understanding of indigenous rights and the internal mechanisms to honor them.

Putting into ''one voice'' the various indigenous perspectives on core issues such as self-determination also is a challenge, said Navajo Nation Council delegate Rex Lee Jim of Rock Point, Ariz.

Self-determination among Navajos and other North American tribes often involves questions of jurisdictional control over tribal issues and those who travel across tribal lands, he said.

And ''the umbilical cord'' among those perspectives at the table this week is one of the main agenda items - land, said Costa Rican indigenous leader Jose Carlos Morales.

''A community without land dies; it disappears,'' he said in Spanish. ''This is the heart of it.''