The Lakota Nation of American Indians (aka Sioux) have officially withdrawn from all treaties with the U.S. Government and unilaterally declared independence, sending envoys to such foreign governments as Bolivia and Venezuela, and notifying the United Nations of their newfound statehood. The hubris doesn’t stop there:
Property ownership in the five state area of Lakota now takes center stage. Parts of North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming and Montana have been illegally homesteaded for years despite knowledge of Lakota as predecessor sovereign [historic owner]. Lakota representatives say if the United States does not enter into immediate diplomatic negotiations, liens will be filed on real estate transactions in the five state region, clouding title over literally thousands of square miles of land and property.
I’m no apologist for America’s policy toward American Indians, but I can’t help but find this to be a bit out there. There’s no way that the U.S. is gonna fold on this, and even though the tribe claims its intent isn’t to embarrass the United States government, it’s clear that nothing else will be gained from the ordeal except that. Furthermore, it may have been a good idea to work on the 85% unemployment, 97% poverty rate, and 44-year lifespan in its population before going it on their own.
What’s really striking, though, is not the respectable attempt to draw attention to a U.S. policy that is completely out of line with America’s stated values, but the absurd philosophy that the movement’s leaders have expounded. I quote Russell Means’ 1980 speech, “For America to Live, Europe Must Die“:
The only possible opening for a statement of this kind is that I detest writing. The process itself epitomizes the European concept of “legitimate” thinking…
And more:
We don’t want power over white institutions; we want white institutions to disappear. That’s revolution.
The speech is radical even compared to the postmodern paradigm from which Means’s argument derives (a paradigm that, ironically, originated in postwar France). And although Daily Kos praises the tribe for “hav[ing] the balls to stand up to them [the Federal Government],” the Lakota leadership isn’t just making a statement against Bush, but against everything that America stands for. Hell, Means even blasts Marxism in his above-linked hate speech, a point the Kossacks must have missed. While a majority of Lakotas are surely peace-loving people seeking a restoration of their dignity and natural rights, the Lakota leadership is so far out there that some of its members even participated in the terrorist takeover of Wounded Knee in 1973.
I hope, not for America but for the peaceful and reasonable members of the Lakota tribe, that this nonsense quickly comes to an end.
Tags: American Indian, Independence, Indian, Lakota, Native American, politics, Russell Means, Sioux, Treason
December 22, 2007 at 12:09 am
I submit to you that wanting to take back your own land and humanity and self reliance from an overlord that at every turn has cheated, lied, swindled, and hurt is not treason by any stretch of the imagination.
From what little bit I have learned so far they just may have law on their side. Although we as a country are pretty good at interpreting law differently than common sense would indicate.
I think that if the United States declares war on the Lakota, as there is a real chance of, that they give the survivors help rebuilding their country, and live up to the unfulfilled promises, some of which are 150 years old.
We did it to Germany and Japan and they were flat-out killing our people not just back talking.
I don’t think the Indians were the terrorists at Wounded Knee.
Of course the victor’s write the history, as usual.
December 23, 2007 at 10:32 pm
I am Lakota. I am also the head editor of Medicine Winds News, a Native American newspaper. My people did not go quietly into the night, as the U.S. government wishes we would. We did not assimilate like the borgs of Star Trek. We have stood firmly and resolutely. For 33 years we have waited patiently. Thirty-three, the number given to us at the International Indian Treaty Council drew together more than 5000 delegates representing 98 Indian tribes and Nations from North and South America. This manifesto, representing the wisdom of thousands of people, their Ancestors, and the Great Mystery explicity supports the rights of Indigenous Nations to live free and to take whatever actions necessary for sovereignty.
In thirty-three years not one step was taken to enforce the treaties signed back in 1851 and 1868, let’s put this into perspective.
If some nation, say imagineland signed a treaty with us for peace, then failed to live up to that agreement what do you think the United States would do? What did America do when China failed after Tienemem Square? They placed sanctions on the trade of China. Well, members of the United Nations are supporting our efforts to force the U.S. into fulfilling its agreements with us. We are SOVEREIGN NATIONS. In other words we are only under U.S. rule by us voluntarily fulfilling our agreements ie. treaties. Like The Philipines, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Northern Marianas, we are all sovereign nations under U.S. rule, in the same way as 539 Native American nations. Do you think any of these would remain territories of the U.S. if the U.S. failed to fulfill those treaties? Of course not! As seperate entities bound by treaty we are not committing treason, we are demanding a fulfillment of a contract that is 150 years old and still not completed.
I realize that my email will not be posted automatically, but I would like to place it here with an invitation to address me with any questions or comments you might have. medicinewindsnews@yahoo.com I have been in telephonic contact with members of the Lakota Freedom delegation and would be happy to express any questions you might have for them.
December 27, 2007 at 3:08 am
I, also, see nothing treasonous in their actions. My hope is that the U.S. peacefully lets them go instead of initiating a bloodbath.
April 25, 2009 at 2:45 pm
I call your attention to the United States “Bill of Rights”. This document, until rather recently, was, in partnership with the “Constitution of the United States”, the foundation for this country. The “Bill of Rights”, primarily, assures the LAKOTA NATION the absolute right to take the action that they have, against that which was once the United States of America. They have shown amazing patience with the U.S., and it appears that their patience has now grown very thin!