Perhaps Morris’ most controversial position was his naming of specific organizations, such as the Indian Law Resource Center (ILRC), the Native American Rights Fund (NARF), the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), and the International Indian Treaty Council (IITC) for their participation in the HLPM. Why would he specifically name the organizations instead of referring to them through generalities or euphemisms?

Unfortunately, those organizations helped to give the false appearance of a consensus of North American Indigenous peoples’ support for the UN high level meeting, which the UN insisted on inaccurately labeling a “UN World Conference on Indigenous Peoples.” The named organizations provided the false appearance of a consensus of support from North America for a UN outcome document (now a problematic UN resolution) that was fundamentally flawed. This resulted in a huge set-back for the advancement of the international rights of Original Nations and Peoples now commonly called “indigenous.”

Importantly, those organizations completely disregarded the decision made on March 2, 2014 by the North American Indigenous Peoples Caucus (NAIPC) to withdraw completely from the Global Coordinating Group, and to call for a cancellation of the UN high level plenary meeting. Since all of those organizations attended the 2013 NAIPC gathering at Sycuan, they knew of NAIPC’s cautionary stance toward the UN high level meeting process and the state controlled outcome document.

The NAIPC’s 2014 position calling for a cancellation of the UNHLPM/WCIP was an effort to prevent the world community from being given the false impression that there was a consensus of support from North America for what was foreseen as a damaging outcome document, the final text of which was to be and was ultimately controlled by international states.