JAMES (SA’KE’J) YOUNGBLOOD HENDERSON, a member of the Chickasaw Nation, is an internationally recognized authority in Indigenous knowledge, heritage and jurisprudence, constitutional rights and human rights. He is research director at the Native Law Centre of Canada and teaches Aboriginal law at the College of Law, University of Saskatchewan. He is the author of Mi’kmaq Concordat, Aboriginal Tenure in the Constitution of Canada, First Nation Jurisprudences and Aboriginal Rights, Treaty Rights in the Constitution of Canada, and Protecting Indigenous Knowledge and Heritage, and has contributed to many other books and journals. He was one of the strategists who created the Indigenous diplomacy network, working through the Four Directions Council, an NGO, in the UN system, and he was a member of the drafting team for many of the existing documents, including the ILO Convention concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries (1991), Guidelines and Principles for the Protection of Indigenous Heritage (1994-2001), and the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007). He has been an advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (2003-1997) and the UNESCO Convention of Cultural Diversity. Since 2000, he has been a member of the Canadian Commission to UNESCO. His achievements in international and national law have been recognized by being named Indigenous Peoples’ Counsel (2005), and receiving the National Aboriginal Achievement Award for Law and Justice (2006) and an Honorary Doctorate of Laws, Carlton University (2007).