In an ironic twist, one of the most powerful challenges to globalization has come from the indigenous peoples whose localized, "pre-modern" existence was supposed to have crumbled under the pressure of modern capitalist projects – from that of the colonial project to that of the "development project" (McMichael 2000). Encapsulating the clashing forces of this historical short-circuit, the plight and transnational resistance of indigenous peoples expose with unique clarity the cultural, political, and legal issues at stake in the confrontation between hegemonic and counter-hegemonic globalization.