Who was here first? The two meanings of ‘Indigenous’ in Europe

August 17, 2026

The article examines how Europeans hold contradictory views of "Indigenous," romanticizing distant Native Americans through entertainment media while using "autochthonous" claims at home to assert nationalist territorial rights over neighbors and migrants. In the Balkans particularly, popular culture like Karl May novels, Western films, and comics shaped generations' understanding of Indigenous peoples as heroic resistors of colonization, yet this didn't prevent the same audiences from embracing ethnic cleansing justified by claims of being "first inhabitants. " The concept of autochthony has been weaponized across Europe to categorize populations into "hosts" with superior rights versus "guests" with conditional belonging, supported by selective historical narratives and misused genetic research.

Who is affected

Native Americans/American Indians (subject of romanticized European narratives)
Balkan populations (Serbs, Bulgarians, Romanians, Albanians, ethnic Macedonians, Greeks)
Migrants and "newcomers" to European countries
Guest workers (Gastarbeiter) from the Balkans and Turkey in Germany and their descendants
Neighboring ethnic groups in the Balkans portrayed as having weaker territorial claims
Victims of forced assimilation, population exchange, and ethnic cleansing from the late 19th century through the Yugoslav Wars (1991-2001)
Children taught autochthony beliefs leading to negative attitudes toward out-groups

What action is being taken

No explicit ongoing actions are described in the article. The article discusses historical events, cultural productions, and rhetorical patterns but does not describe current initiatives or programs underway.

Why it matters

This matters because it reveals a profound moral contradiction in how societies selectively apply principles of justice and Indigenous rights. The same populations that consume and celebrate stories of Indigenous resistance to colonization can simultaneously embrace nationalist ideologies that justify excluding, displacing, or harming their own neighbors using identical "firstness" logic. This demonstrates that cultural exposure to human rights values through popular media does not automatically prevent bigotry or ethnic violence. The consequences are severe: autochthony claims have provided moral cover for ethnic cleansing, forced migration, and violent conflict, particularly in the Balkans but also in anti-migrant movements across Europe. The article highlights how seemingly academic concepts about ancestry and historical continuity can be weaponized to rank human worth and deny equal rights, with genetic research being misappropriated to give scientific veneer to nationalist territorial claims.

What's next

No explicit next steps stated in the article

Read full article from source: Global Voices