Lakota Indians Withdraw Treaties Signed With U.S. 150 Years Ago
Lakota Indians Withdraw Treaties Signed With U.S. 150 Years Ago
Thursday, December 20, 2007
WASHINGTON — The Lakota Indians, who gave the world legendary warriors Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, have withdrawn from treaties with the United States.
"We are no longer citizens of the United States of America and all those who live in the five-state area that encompasses our country are free to join us,'' long-time Indian rights activist Russell Means said.
A delegation of Lakota leaders has delivered a message to the State Department, and said they were unilaterally withdrawing from treaties they signed with the federal government of the U.S., some of them more than 150 years old.
The group also visited the Bolivian, Chilean, South African and Venezuelan embassies, and would continue on their diplomatic mission and take it overseas in the coming weeks and months.
Lakota country includes parts of the states of Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming.
The new country would issue its own passports and driving licences, and living there would be tax-free - provided residents renounce their U.S. citizenship, Mr Means said.
The treaties signed with the U.S. were merely "worthless words on worthless paper," the Lakota freedom activists said.
Withdrawing from the treaties was entirely legal, Means said.
"This is according to the laws of the United States, specifically article six of the constitution,'' which states that treaties are the supreme law of the land, he said.
"It is also within the laws on treaties passed at the Vienna Convention and put into effect by the US and the rest of the international community in 1980. We are legally within our rights to be free and independent,'' said Means.
The Lakota relaunched their journey to freedom in 1974, when they drafted a declaration of continuing independence — an overt play on the title of the United States' Declaration of Independence from England.
Thirty-three years have elapsed since then because "it takes critical mass to combat colonialism and we wanted to make sure that all our ducks were in a row,'' Means said.
One duck moved into place in September, when the United Nations adopted a non-binding declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples — despite opposition from the United States, which said it clashed with its own laws.
"We have 33 treaties with the United States that they have not lived by. They continue to take our land, our water, our children,'' Phyllis Young, who helped organize the first international conference on indigenous rights in Geneva in 1977, told the news conference.
The U.S. "annexation'' of native American land has resulted in once proud tribes such as the Lakota becoming mere "facsimiles of white people,'' said Means.
Oppression at the hands of the U.S. government has taken its toll on the Lakota, whose men have one of the shortest life expectancies - less than 44 years - in the world.
Lakota teen suicides are 150 per cent above the norm for the U.S.; infant mortality is five times higher than the U.S. average; and unemployment is rife, according to the Lakota freedom movement's website.
wow
Submitted by Wheres Raven on Fri, 2007-12-21 04:59.
ok, I'm all set.....
I've got my Montana t-shirt all ready to go, now I've just got to find a way to get into the US without a passport.....hmm ....oh, theres my shovel!... I'll dig a tunnel from South BC, and pop up somewhere in the free land by the time the Olympics shows up... perfect time to emerge.
The light at the end of the tunnel is growing... and so is the call of the drum.
That is amazing. I am truly amazed.
Hell, Yeah!
Submitted by Amanda on Fri, 2007-12-21 16:12.
That is so cool! I am rooting for them! What a slap in the face to Mother Culture!
"Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living." - Mary Harris "Mother" Jones
Unlikely
Submitted by Truly on Fri, 2007-12-21 20:01.
I'm rooting for them too, but its hardly a slap in the face of mother culture, since the treaties themselves are a part of that cultural melu.
If they can manage to actually follow through, they will still have to deal with being surrounded on all sides by the US. They will be as well effected by surrounding ecological events, such as the draining of the Ogallala aquifer and down stream polution.
Melu?
Submitted by Amanda on Fri, 2007-12-21 22:09.
What is "melu"? Are you trying to spell "milieu"?
(Sorry, but if you are going to get nitpicky with me, I will nitpick right back atcha!)
"Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living." - Mary Harris "Mother" Jones
OH BURN!
Submitted by Truly on Fri, 2007-12-21 23:50.
I never claimed perfect spelling, but taking a jab at me for it seems a little trite.
I think the concept of mother culture is an often misunderstood one that has mutated into something akin to 'the devil' when it is not. I also think that it is an unfair and overly simplistic treatment of an extremely complex topic. To change culture, its not simply enough to reject it, you have to understand the basic psychological, cognitive, biological, and evolutionary aspects that go into making culture as it is.
The Lakota seperation in this case utilizes the cultural mechanisms that have been built up by the culture that systematically abused them, so it doesn't represent a reclaiming of pre-colonial culture, just a push to get beyond the political control of the US. Maybe if they manage to do that, and they arn't choked to death by the global consumer-industrial enterprise, they might be able to start moving beyond this cultural paradigm.
Cultural Change
Submitted by Adam Hintz on Sat, 2007-12-22 00:27.
To change culture, its not simply enough to reject it, you have to understand the the basic psychological, cognitive, biological, and evolutionary aspects that go into making culture as it is.
Could you go more in depth on this? Does this apply only to our culture or other cultures as well? Was it the understanding of the basic psychological, cognitive, biological, and evolutionary aspects that go into making culture that made the Berlin Wall fall? Or ended Apartheid? Or started the four-legged revolution? Agricultural Revolution?
Looking forward to your insights, your a wealth of knowledge 
,
Adam Hintz
I'm scared to see how this
Submitted by PaganBear on Sat, 2007-12-22 07:27.
I'm scared to see how this gets spun in our country, but I'm all for it... the more of us gets behind them, the more punch they have. With UN backing, recognition from worldwide embassies, and the treaties in hand, the US has no choice.
Karma slap in the head... cuz what were we doing, supposedly, in Iraq? Making a Democracy so that it'd spread around the third world nations? Sure... imagine if this works, and this land of freedom spreads around the so-called "land of the free" when people see actual freedom for once in their life!!!
THE MERE POSSIBILITY IS DELICIOUS!!!
Ray, the PaganBear
Tucson, Arizona
http://www.thestumblingblock.com
thepaganbear@yahoo.com
Personal LiveJournal: paganbear
http://paganbear.livejournal.com
Savvy Emperor
Submitted by William on Sun, 2007-12-23 06:28.
A savvy emperor, er I mean president, might let them secede, which would draw in all sorts of "undesirables" from the US at large, and then a few years down the line trump up some "crimes again humanity" to justify invading the place. I hope that doesn't happen, but my paranoia stills seems justified.
Republic of Lakotah
Submitted by Huby7 on Wed, 2008-01-02 12:13.
Hey all,
Has anybody that owns land within the Republic of Lakotah recieved a notice to attend a public meeting yet?
Take care,
Curt
------------------------------------
JAN 1, 2008
Notice to All Foreign Governments and Private Owners of Real Estate within the Republic of Lakotah
TO:
The United States of America;
The States of: Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska;
The County and Municipal Governments Operating within the Republic of Lakotah; and All Private Owners of Real Estate within the Republic of Lakotah
Lakotah, through its government, have appointed representatives to withdraw from all the treaties with the United States of America.
Lakotah, through such representatives, have formally withdrawn from all agreements and treaties with the United States of America. The reinstitution of our freedom and independence is found in law.
Lakotah has reclaimed sovereignty as a nation and over its traditional lands.
Despite many years of repeated bad faith on the part of the United States government towards the Lakotah People, the Lakotah hold no animosity toward the American people, most of whom have had no part in the actions of their government. We wish to deal with the American people in good faith and in a win-win manner.
While we have the right to impose liens on all of the real estate in our country, we prefer to come to resolutions with you all with out resorting to such measures. Accordingly, at this time, we are only declaring liens on real estate held by governments foreign to the Republic of Lakotah, but not on real estate held by private parties.
The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States of America and the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties substantiate this freedom.
Lakotah welcomes the opportunity to meet and discuss this matter. We are in the process of scheduling meetings and will issue public invitations. Should you desire input with regard to scheduling these meetings, please contact us at the above.
Russell Means, Chief Facilitator
Provisional Government
Republic of Lakotah
yar. thar be a forum now,
Submitted by green feather on Tue, 2008-01-08 21:45.
yar. thar be a forum now, mateys.
http://republicoflakotah.com/forum/index.php?action=forum
--
Look, Ishmael... are you sore at me or something?
I wasn't thinking, in my first post. I was fanticizing.
Submitted by Wheres Raven on Thu, 2008-01-17 18:38.
This all sounds good, but is it, really?
I sense anger in the words of this letter. Which will be answered with anger from the people who 'know' the one right way to live. I see tongue-in-cheek rascism as well... another way to separate people.
Writing another law book isn't the answer. Fighting law with law isn't the answer. New drivers licenses to create Lakota "Drivers"? Pretty letters signed and dated?
I see a 'Native Pride' thing happening where I am from.... backed by t-shirts, and ball caps. Mostly from people who know they should be angry, but aren't quite sure why yet? This is dangerous, and blinding, especially to kids. And to me it equates to an NHL hockey team slogan. Equally as vacuous.
Pride is dangerous for everything, in absence of erratic retaliation. 'Big Daddy USA' doesn't play that game!
How is this NOT going to lead to war? Anything bad for business is good for war, and therefore good for business.
Maybe that's where the ball-caps come from?
It seems that the Lakota people think that 'doing something in opposition' is going to solve the problem... has it ever? Isn't it really doing something DIFFERENT that will change people, and their situations?
So far I see sticks in the river here?
As much as I love the illusion of a "free country". I see this term as an oxymoron. It is utopian, like our laws.
Goliath thinks that wellness is had by taking more and more. You can't teach him that this is futile by stealing his fridge. That'll just piss him off. You have to show him what wellness REALLY means. Then he'll smash his own fridge, and join you.
It's all about food, isn't it? Not treaties, or absence of treaties.
What if the Lakota planted food EVERYWHERE instead?
What's a Treaty/Law going to do about that?
Hee Hee
I'm not sure how it will all work out but it sure makes me giggle. What a wonderful, incredible, heroic thing (and yes, I have a Lakota friend from Montana). I can't wait to see what happens next.
Oh... and an interesting end to Empires begins when they start to lose their 'colonies'.
Best
Bill Maxwell
Mitaku Oyasin
("We are all related" -- Lakota)
"Change comes from giving up the myth that you are in control."