This paper offers some basic thoughts on how non-state indigenous law is produced, transformed, ascertained and transmitted. Indigenous legal systems have often been marginalized or rendered invisible by colonial policies. They also have experienced major upheavals as a result of cultural and economic changes that have marked the life of indigenous societies. Thus, it can be difficult today, especially for the non-indigenous, to understand the sources of indigenous legal systems and how they evolve. The author first shows that several indigenous legal cultures are still grounded in the inherent and original jurisdiction of the collective so that law is not derived from political, judicial or doctrinal authority. He also explains, however, that the indigenous legal world is increasingly confronted with the issue of hierarchical authority, power relationships and command as sources of legal norms which also introduces the need to think about the role of written law and about its relationship—constructive or conflictual—with non-written law. In the last section, the author shows how the need for a contemporary understanding of indigenous legal traditions, the will to restore their central role in the daily regulation of communities and the hope to make them more legible for non-indigenous society have given rise to a new scholarly indigenous movement. This movement mobilizes indigenous stories and oral tradition as a source of legal teaching or doctrine capable of providing strong foundations for more legitimate and effective self-determination initiatives.