Indigenous Peoples at the United Nations: Keeping Languages Alive in the Era of A.I. Theft

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, July 22, 2026

GENEVA -- Indigenous Peoples countered the United Nations position on A.I. and described how artificial intelligence data centers are poisoning the land and rivers in the United States. The delegation of Mong said not only are the descriptions wrong on A.I. search engines, but they use racially-derogatory words for their people.

Speaking at the U.N. Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Jaimie Williams, Miami Nation in Indiana, speaking on behalf of the Society of Native Nations, responded to the A.I. summary presented by the U.N. Expert Mechanism.

Williams said the summary does not reflect the true impact of artificial intelligence, particularly in the way the technology is powered.

"A.I. data centers are rapidly being constructed on the land of Indigenous Peoples without free, prior and informed consent from us."

Williams described how sacred waterways and lands are being used by massive A.I. data centers.

"I was once convinced artificial intelligence could help my tribe build our language and culture, but A.I. is not a sustainable solution," Williams said during the session in Geneva, July 13 -- 17, 2026.

Artificial Intelligence search engines are causing great harm to the Mong People who are misclassified and defined with derogatory words in A.I. search engines.

Speaking for the first time at the United Nations, Taichiming Cha, president of Mong Heritage, said his people, Mong Indigenous People, are an ancient people with deep historical roots from Northern and Eastern Asia who are now scattered around the world. They possess their own unique history, language and culture -- and yet they are misclassified as being other racial groups.

On the web, Mong Indigenous are either not found, or are being classified as Mongolians.

A.I. and search engines misrepresent Mong Indigenous as a subgroup and define the Mong name with derogatory meanings.

"This misrepresentation has caused lasting harm, discrimination, exclusion, and dehumanization."

He points out that A.I. systems are trained on existing information that often contains racially-biased misinformation.

He said that AI systems are trained on existing information that often contains an inaccurate and biased representation of the Mong, further entrenching the erasure of the Mong people. "To stop the erasure and safeguard the Mong language, history, identity, and cultural heritage, urgent official recognition and corrective measures are needed."

During the week-long session in Geneva, Indigenous Peoples described how the theft of languages, art and histories by A.I. companies, profit-making companies, have seized Indigenous knowledge and work without free, prior and informed consent as stated in the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

From every region of the world, Indigenous Peoples described their battle to save and revitalize their ancient languages.

While some at the U.N. say A.I. is helpful in some cases, Native Americans in the United States and from other regions did not support this. They described the battle to shut down the massive data centers; the theft of copyrighted work, and the pollution that is now making the rivers too warm for the salmon to run.

Joseph White Eyes, Cheyenne River Lakota, spoke on the harm of data collection and A.I., at Bear Butte in South Dakota, during World Peace and Prayer Day on June 20, 2026.

"The moment we engage with them, the information no longer belongs to us," White Eyes said and described the danger of searches on A.I. search engines and chat boxes, which leads AI to seize more information without consent.

Further, Meta has been data-scraping public posts on Facebook and Instagram since 2007 for its A.I., which most users were unaware of. Now, Twitter/X uses posts there for its A.I. search engine and also includes Facebook posts in its search answers.

During the testimony, Indigenous Peoples described efforts to rescue and revitalize their Mother Tongue, which carry the identity, heritage and survival of their people.

"When Indigenous languages die, Indigenous Peoples die," Maori told the U.N. Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Canada tried to silence the Mother Tongues in residential schools. In Botswana, displacement and genocide could mean the silencing of the peoples spoken word. In Morocco, discrimination is the reality for the language carriers, the mothers of future generations. In Venezuela, sanctions have not prevented the government from revitalizing 42 Indigenous languages, Indigenous delegates told the U.N. Expert Mechanism.

Indigenous from Central and South America described the ongoing violence and deaths in their homelands, as they battle mining, oil and gas development and illegal logging.

The Russian Federation was among the countries who attempted to silence the truth tellers, calling for their removal for the United Nations session.

Read more in Censored News original series:

'Keeping It Alive' The Beauty of Ancient Languages, A Path to Memory and Identity
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2026/07/keeping-it-alive-beauty-of-ancient.html

Indigenous at UN Expose AI Data Centers and Racially Biased Misinformation
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2026/07/indigenous-at-united-nations-expose-ai.html

At the UN, Indigenous Testify on Persecution and Treaties
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2026/07/at-united-nations-indigenous-human.html

UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Begins in Geneva
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2026/07/un-expert-mechanism-on-rights-of.html

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