Lakota Sioux secede from the USA - SD, ND, NE, WY, MT

[LVZ]

Lakota Sioux secede from the USA - SD, ND, NE, WY, MT

http://buzzfeed.com/buzz/Lakota_Nation
http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2007/12/lakota-withdraw.html

The Lakota Sioux Indians, whose ancestors include Sitting Bull, Red Cloud and Crazy Horse, have withdrawn from all treaties their forefathers signed with the U.S. government and have declared their independence. A delegation delivered the news to the State Department earlier this week.

Portions of Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming comprise Lakota country, and the tribe says that if the federal government doesn't begin diplomatic discussions promptly, liens will be filed on property in the five-state region.

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Now THAT will prove interesting

I hope we don't get another wounded knee though

[sjdnb]

2. About time if you ask me ....

All the treaties were not worth the paper they were written on. This entire country was stolen from the native people through lies, manipulation, and murder.

I'd be just fine with it if all the native Americans could get together, form a union, and allow me to live as a third generation immigrant under their nation. My guess is they'd treat everyone better than they were.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

3. Wanted: Room for rent within Lakota Territory ....

Sexy Divorce', quiet, one cat. Handy with tools, will trade work for rent. Has own Bow and Arrow (and able to hit the broad side of a wagon with it).

[orleans]

8. lol n/t

[Lasher]

4. Have any leaders of the Lakota tribes weighed in?

Looks like Russ Means and 3 other people are speaking with authority they don't have.

[sjdnb]

5. What leaders? If they were truly leaders ...

wouldn't they have "weighed in" by now?

After all, it's only been a hundred years or so...

[Lasher]

6. Elected presidents of the tribes are leaders.

Russ Means, a Republican/Libertarian, has run repeatedly for the Presidency of the Oglala Sioux, but has always lost.

[sjdnb]

9. So, can you share any of his specific positions?

Because there is a wide river that defines Republican/Independent and before I could even begin to assess him as a politician, I'd need to know some details.

But, even if I disagreed with him in general, on this point, the Lakota Sioux, as a group, supercede anything I could offer.

And btw, wanting Native Americans to reclaim what was theirs and/or seek fair compensation, to begin with, has NOTHING to do with present day politics. It has to do with making right past injustices.

And, believe it or not, I'd trust the indigenous people of this land to treat me (a fifth generation Norwegian immigrant) and my family more fairly than most in the current society/administration/government.

At some point, no matter what the cost, we, as a people, need to make right the wrongs of our ancestors - before any, real peace and justice, can settle upon this land.

[Lasher]

10. I looked him up on Wiki a few days ago when this came up.

Like you, I wanted to know more about Means and his "delegation". I'm trying to keep an open mind but right now it looks like he's just pulling a stunt to get noticed.

On December 20, 2007, Means announced the withdrawal of a small group of Lakota Sioux from all treaties with the United States government. Means and a delegation of activists declared the Lakota a sovereign nation with property rights over thousands of square miles in South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming and Montana. The Lakota Freedom website asserts that while their group met with "traditional treaty councils" in eight communities, their "delegation does not act for IRA (Indian Reorganization Act) Indians, 'stay by the fort indians', or other Lakota people unwilling to be free." At a D.C. presentation Means further stated that his group does not "represent collaborators, the Vichy Indians and those tribal governments set up by the United States of America," comparing tribal leaders to the French leaders of Occupied France.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Means

I also believe we should look to the Lakota Sioux as a group and that's why I've wondered if he is expressing their sentiments. But it doesn't appear Means has gained approval of even one tribal president, let alone a consensus from a majority of Lakota presidents. From his rhetoric above it doesn't seem he has support of treaty councils or a majority of Lakota tribe members.

Edit for typo.

[Yukari Yakumo]

14. In other words...

This is merely chest thumping from a known loose cannon with no real authority, power, or significance.

Heh, he couldn't even beat Ron Paul in the '88 Libertarian Presidential primaries. Yes, that same Ron Paul.

[Lasher]

17. I noticed that too.

I mentioned his libertarian background at the beginning because I thought it had some bearing on his desire to disolve relationships with the federal government. Perhaps most disturbing was his apparently violent history.

[LVZ]

7. More links ...

http://www.indybay.org/uploads/2007/12/21/121707withdrawal.pdf
http://www.indymedia.org/en/2007/12/898423.shtml
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iVC1KMTOgwiSoMQyT2LwZc9HyAgA
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,317548,00.html

[laststeamtrain]

11. Red Cloud was a winner.

He thought forever meant forever; not 'until gold was discovered'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Cloud's_War

[silverojo]

12. Um...yeah.

I'll just bet they'll be able to file liens against everyone in that vast region. They must have money up the ass to hire attorneys to file so many liens. :eyes:

[enid602]

13. SD, ND, NE, WY, MT

Isn't that bush's last stronghold?

[Yukari Yakumo]

15. Nope.

Chimpy's last stronghold is a bit south and more to the west. Also known as Utah.

[Yukari Yakumo]

16. delete- dupe post

uguu

[LVZ]

18. Other Comments

A Lakota-Sioux male has a life expectancy of 44 years -- the lowest in the world.

They consider secession "a matter of survival," as every treaty ever made with the tribes has been broken by the American government.

The Lakota-Sioux say that all are welcome to live on the land, so long as s/he renounces American citizenship.

http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/seanshealy/CqKM

A U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1980 awarded the tribes $122 million as compensation, but the court did not award land. The Lakota have refused the settlement. (As interest accrues, the unclaimed award is approaching $1 billion.)

In the late 1980s, then-Sen. Bill Bradley of New Jersey introduced legislation to return federal land to the tribes, and California millionaire Phil Stevens also tried to win support for a proposal to return the Black Hills to the Lakota.

http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2007/12/21/news/local/doc476a99630633e335271152.txt

In the face of the colonial apartheid conditions imposed on Lakota people, the withdrawal from the U.S. Treaties is necessary. These conditions have been devastating:

MORTALITY
* Lakota men have a life expectancy of less than 44 years, lowest of any country in the World (excluding AIDS) including Haiti.
* Lakota death rate is the highest in the United States.
* The Lakota infant mortality rate is 300% more than the U.S. Average.
* Teenage suicide rate is 150% higher than the U.S national average for this group.

DRUGS AND ALCOHOL
* More than half the Reservation's adults battle addiction and disease.
* Alcoholism affects 8 in 10 families.

INCARCERATION
* Indian children incarceration rate 40% higher than whites.
* In South Dakota, 21 percent of state prisoners were Native.
* Indians have the second largest state prison incarceration rate in the nation.

DISEASE
* The Tuberculosis rate on Lakota reservations is approx 800% higher than the U.S national average.
* Cervical cancer is 500% higher than the U.S national average.
* The rate of diabetes is 800% higher than the U.S national average.
* Federal Commodity Food Program provides high sugar foods that kill Native people through diabetes and heart disease.

POVERTY
* Median income is approximately $2,600 to $3,500 per year.
* 97% of our Lakota people live below the poverty line.
* Many families cannot afford heating oil, wood or propane and many residents use ovens to heat their homes.

HOUSING
* Elderly die each winter from hypothermia (freezing).
* 1/3 of the homes lack basic clean water and sewage while 40% lack electricty.
* 60% of Reservation families have no telephone.
* 60% of housing is infected with potentially fatal black molds.
* There is an estimated average of 17 people living in each family home (may only have two to three rooms).
Some homes, built for 6 to 8 people, have up to 30 people living in them.

UNEMPLOYMENT
* Unemployment rates on our reservations is 85% or higher.

THREATENED CULTURE
* Only 14% of the Lakota population can speak Lakota language.
* The language is not being shared inter-generationally, today, the average Lakota speaker is 65 years old.
* Our Lakota language is an Endangered Language, on the verge of extinction.

http://www.republicoflakota.com/why.html

[LVZ]

19. Language map

http://www.nvtc.gov/lotw/months/october/Siouan.html

[Infinite Hope]

20. What does it mean to file a lien and what is the effect?

Someone fill me in, because based on my previous vague knowledge of this subject, such an act in this case is bogus.

[Yukari Yakumo]

21. If he had any clout...

This would fast turn into an informal war of annihilation between non-tribal landowners and citizens and anyone following Means. It would get ugly fast and there would be very little anyone could do about it.

Thankfully, Means has virtually no influence at all.

[LVZ]

22. A note from Mark Mathews aka Wasaka

Russell Means, who once led an American Indian group in armed rebellion at Wounded Knee, S.D., campaigned against Ron Paul for the Libertarian Party's Presidential nomination back in 1987. It was a heated race and Ron Paul won the nomination. Mr. Means's candidacy was an effort to help the Democratic and Republican parties understand Indian problems better. At least 80 percent of the people on South Dakota's Pine Ridge Indian Reservation are unemployed. The life expectancy is 30 year old (as a result of alcohol related death), the lowest in the world. As a boy I remember going to a wake every weekend, sometimes more than one. That was just "life" (or death) on the res.

I grew up on the "res" and lived only a short distance from Russell Means. In fact, I was there in 1973 when Means led AIM's occupation of Wounded Knee, which became the group's most celebrated action. That is when my family uprooted and moved to Alaska where I spend the next 10 year of my life living in a small Indian village among the Arctic people. I have long been an admirer of Russell Means (even though most of my family didn't like him). Like Russell, I was born and raised on the Pine Ridge Reservation; my Indian name is Wasaka (which is Lakota for "man of courage"). I have always respected Russell Means as Wasaka (literal translation: "tuffy") and looked to him as an example of the kind of man I should become. My wife, close friends, and family don't know me as Mark, to them I am, and always have been Wasaka.

I will be watching this story closely as it unfolds.

http://ronpaul.meetup.com/47/messages/boards/view/viewthread?thread=3985706#13885254

[Anouka]

23. If Farrakhan declared New Africa in Queens, does that make it true?

The Lakota didn't secede; one man is letting his ego get ahead of him.