Posted on 12/20/2007 5:36:13 AM PST by Sopater
WASHINGTON — The Lakota Indians, who gave the world legendary warriors Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, have withdrawn from treaties with the United States.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.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
If would be hard because of how political and corrupt it all is...but, IMHO, it needs doing to put all of this BS to rest permanently.
No productive land as determined by pale face standards but highly suited for people wishing to go back to living the old ways as hunter gatherers.
Thanks. I figured the political infighting/corruption would slow the redevelopment down a lot, a la the Urban Train. But eventually that got done, so it’s probably just a matter of time. Lots of time...
This should be interesting. I wonder, being out here in Colorado, if I need to fort up.
“I’m stuned! I was almost certain that Russell Means had choked on his own vomit years ago.”
Oh no! He’s a regular “turd in the punchbowl” every Columbus Day down in Denver.
The Chippewa pushed them out of the rich fishing and game laden woods of the upper Midwest. There are several remnants of battlegrounds between the Dakota and the Chippewa archaeologists know of.
And so it went for eons.
I guess we WILL need to bring some of our troops home from Iraq. Is Petraeus ready to lock and load?
Yes but compare that with the "old ways" that these so called leaders want their people to return to... a lifetime of shifting about in extended family groups searching for food and water, seldom wearing more than a loincloth in summer and always on the lookout for other indians in order to either attack and take what little provisions they may have or to defend yourself from attack. Not much of a life if you ask me. Just like all liberals, I'm certain the "leaders" only intend such life for the little indians.
As for me, I'd take the trailer and monthly government check. Then I'd get an education and if I had to, find a job off the reservation but return on the weekends to hunt, fish, shoot my guns and generally enjoy the outdoors.
A return to enforcing laws against alcohol sales to indians would do a lot to help also.
The basic problem is they have little to no incentive. That's where you start.
Fairchild did exactly that. They built a semiconductor plant on the Navajo Reservation near Shiprock. It was a problem plant because of the quality of the workforce but they were willing to see it through. They employed about 1000 Navajos in good paying jobs.
AIM went on the warpath and "occupied" the plant in 1974. After an extended period of outrageous demands and grandstanding AIM relinquished the plant back to Fairchild. Fairchild shut it down. In the middle of all this was a guy by the name of Russell Means.
But Means wasn't done on the Navajo Reservation. He got drunk and beat up his father-in-law. The guy was 80 years old and had an artificial arm. Means claimed immunity from prosecution because he was not a Navajo and not subject to their laws on their reservation.
There's more. A lot more.
Is Ward Churchill another Lakota...Sioux leader, now, too ?
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To where?
Compare that attitude with the Israeli's who took a hard scrabble piece of land nobody thought was good for anything and turned it into a bountiful agricultural exporter. Do a Google Earth of Israel and notice the green color right up to the borders with her neighbors where the green ends and the squalor begins.
Plenty of other examples, certainly the Nevada desert is far less productive than the Northern Plains but last time I checked, people figured out a way to make the Nevada wasteland productive.
Those treaties were actually between 2 sovereign nations, the Lakota and the US. This could mean more trouble than it first sounds like.
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According to Intrade, the winner of the December 12th GOP debate was... Duncan Hunter.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1938773/posts
Sure there is. The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican-American war, and the treaty that finalized the Gadsen Purchase. Both stipulated a payment that the U.S. paid to Mexico for the land.
Ask Custer?
This would seem to be a big win for Republicans. Indians were Tom Daschle’s base.
Well,
Nice not to have their vote coutned. They’d better sign a treaty really quick...they don’t have the luxury Cuba has.
All this is is Socialsim, it has nothing to do with Native American culture.
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