I and my husband would like to determine if there is any interest among any of the Americymru members appertaining to developing a standard or set of criteria for recognition of Y Cymru or the Welsh people as an indigenous people. Although we are just beginning to explore our Welsh heritage we noticed that no such procedure exists although it would appear from our limited research that it should. The reasons are as follows:

1) The Welsh originate historically from a Brythonic or pre-Brythonic people from pre-Roman times which may go back millenia and are arguably the progenitors of the indigenous peoples of the British Isles.

2) The Welsh language and culture has attempted to keep its integrity intact although currently Welsh has been declared as an endangered language by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

3) Without a formal procedure for acknowledgement it disallows the Cymru from addressing their indigenous peoples circumstance pursuant to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples which affects their rights under various national and international legal standards. This puts the Welsh throughout the world at a decided disadvantage unlike other indigenous peoples of western European origin such as the Basque in Northern Spain and Southern France or the Sami in the Scandinavian regions who have developed such a standard and are entitled to such recognition.

4) This status for an individual so recognized as Welsh is apart from their nationality or legal citizenship. For example, a person of United States citizenship by virtue of being born in the United States can be acknowledged by the government of Canada as an indigenous person of Canada and issued a Certificate of Indian Status by the Canadian government or a person of Mexican nationality may be issued a Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood from the United States, Department of the Interior by virtue of having rights to enrollment in a federally recognized Indian tribe within the jurisdiction of the United States.

5) Upon completion of the standard or criteria having been developed a petition could be submitted to Cynulliad Cenedlaethol Cymru and to the United Nations ECOSOC for acknowledgement. A separate organization specifically addressing the cultural, linguistic and ideological factors and rights of the Welsh people might be necessitated to perfect this at this stage.

We have only recently become a part of your web site and would like your advice on whether this would be an appropriate topic to be addressed on this site.