George Manuel

Surviving the Kamloops Indian Residential School and tuberculosis, Manuel organized Indigenous communities across British Columbia before assuming the presidency of the National Indian Brotherhood (1970–1976). He led the united Indigenous resistance against the 1969 White Paper and established formal diplomatic links with tribal nations worldwide.

In 1974, Manuel published The Fourth World: An Indian Reality, a seminal work outlining self-determination for Indigenous nations trapped within post-colonial nation-states. In 1975, he organized the historic founding conference of the World Council of Indigenous Peoples in Port Alberni, BC.