Posted on 12/21/2007 5:00:50 AM PST by eldest
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WASHINGTON — The Lakota Indians, who gave the world legendary warriors Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, have withdrawn from treaties with the United States.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.
Should’ve opened a casino.
As much as I respect these people, I believe that we are responsible for our own actions. I do not agree that they are currently suffering from oppression at the hands of the US government.
If they think the US government was nasty 150 years ago, wait ‘till they see how it operates today!
Good...now I guess all those US tax-payer funded welfare checks to the Lakotas can stop. We are no longer responsible for the education of their children and their medical care, either. There ought to be some financial consequences for this divorce.
The bar owners of New York should sell or sublease their premesis to Lakota who declare it to be a lakota nation Consulate and allow the sale of drinks and smoking
Fair enough. Now would you please give back any federal funds you have received. Also, do not ask for or expect any student loans, financial aid to send your children to college, and be sure that you register as an alien resident, as you are no longer a citizen of the USA.
Also - be sure you now submit taxes for all income earned while working in the USA. Also - please remit the tobacco taxes now due to the federal and state governments you reside in.
Have fun...
No welfare, no social security, no state health care, no education program, I guess no maintenance on state and interstate roads going through the area although I’m pretty sure that the interstate roads are part of our national defense system. hmmm, what else to take away?
“Get Lakota”
do the yreally think they will come out on top in all this?
guess they didnt get the memo.
I wonder how often they wear Che Guevara shirts.
Doesn’t this make them hostile enemy aliens in possession of what is now US lands and property?
Really think you’re discriminated against? Any time any white guy tries this, he ends up dead, quickly.
They produce nothing. They have nothing of value to sell. No one is going to go to that god-forsaken place to gamble. What are they going to do for money? Ask the UN for handouts? Uh, wouldn’t that be money from the evil white man? Bunch of losers.
With a name like eldest you would think format would be part of the vocabulary
A delegation of Lakota leaders
They probably will get away w this since it is not politically correct to hurt or use Indian nicknames.
Now, if they go after Mt Rushmore and some of the non-Indiana lands, that will be trouble.
I wonder if the Rosebud Reservation on the SD-Nebr. border is Lakota? They have a casino there. Cant think of any other Lakota casinos
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