Survival System International

We are Survival, the global movement for tribal peoples’ rights.

We’re the only organization that champions tribal peoples around the world.

We help them defend their lives, protect their lands and determine their own futures. Tribal peoples have developed ways of life that are largely self-sufficient and extraordinarily diverse. Many of the world’s staple crops and drugs used in Western medicine originate with them, and have saved millions of lives. Even so, tribal peoples are portrayed as backward and primitive simply because their communal ways are different. Industrialized societies subject them to genocidal violence, slavery and racism so they can steal their lands, resources and labor in the name of ‘progress’ and ‘civilization’.