The term natives is used here for what the UN calls indigenous people. The Organization just began a two-week discussion about the problems they confront in today's fast-paced world where the cleft stick gave way long ago to telegrams, that in turn were displaced by e-mail, and homes with central heating and Jacuzzis are preferred over huts clad with the skins of animals, and igloos. Also, to give them credit for "their invaluable contribution" to the world.

Not to be cynical, but some may consider this an exercise of questionable merit, considering the many other pressing matters of peace and war there are to worry about. But no. It turns out to be the first session of yet another UN entity most folks may be unaware of, namely the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

For reasons unexplained, the maligned media blamed for not reporting on "indigenous issues" will be allowed into the proceedings on a basis "yet to be determined," although they were permitted a peek at the opening meeting.

For anyone who follows the news, it may seem that many indigenous people have a problem remaining indigenous. They can't wait to wander, thousands of them risking life and limb to get to someplace else. But the UN chooses to regard them, en masse, as delicately exotic creatures whose cultures must be nurtured and protected and kept from an exposure to the 21st century that they themselves in many cases seem to seek.

"Indigenous peoples have not been able to represent their own interests directly to any major body of the UN," states a background note about the Forum, whose "eight indigenous experts will advise and report directly to the Economic and Social Council."

Ah, ECOSOC. After years of serving as a poor relation among UN bodies, the Council is on a bit of a roll and this is just one more thing it has gotten into. "In addition to advising the Council, the Forum has been asked to raise awareness, promote the integration and coordination of activities relating to indigenous issues within the UN system and disseminate information on indigenous issues," the background note explains.

It will be news to many, but it seems we are all well into the International Decade of the World's Indigenous People, which the UN proclaimed in 1995.

The current exercise in a forum that the planners expected to attract 600 or more participants is part of the 10-year-long proceedings.

It seems that some indigenous people are more equal than others, and many of them (most in all likelihood) get to speak only as "observers," not full delegates. Rules of procedure is an item on the agenda and the rules finally agreed upon will guide the conduct of future sessions and determine who shall or shall not contribute to the debate.

Human rights are involved, of course, in the treatment of what used to be called native minorities by majorities presumed not to be indigenous, no matter how settled and how many generations of ancestry they may trace.

Mary Robinson, who is scheduled to step down in September as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, came to New York for the Forum and joined Barbara Pyle in the discussions about the alleged shortcomings of news media unwilling to unable to spot the positive stories in the indigenous life.

She recommended that "indigenous media" fill the gap and eventually "ensure that the mainstream media hear and understand the points you are making."

"It's good," she said, "to be a voice for indigenous people, and it's necessary, but it's also necessary to get indigenous issues into the mainstream of media and communications."

Looking at the matter from a different critical angle, it could be argued that the UN has set its sights too low and that the Forum is a pathetically inadequate response to problems out there that may go unrecognized. Official estimates put the number of "indigenous groups" at 5,000, embracing 300 million people living in more than 70 countries and 5 continents.

Their "invaluable contribution to the survival of humankind" led the UN to proclaim this international decade, the background note advises.