Lakota Indians Secede from the US

Discussion in 'Freedom and Liberty' started by melbo, Dec 21, 2007.


  1. melbo

    melbo Hunter Gatherer Administrator Founding Member

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071220/lf_afp/usindigenoustreatywithdraw

    Descendants of Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse break away from US


    <!-- END HEADLINE --> <!-- BEGIN STORY BODY --> Thu Dec 20, 1:16 AM ET

    The Lakota Indians, who gave the world legendary warriors Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, have withdrawn from treaties with the United States, leaders said Wednesday.


    "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 told a handful of reporters and a delegation from the Bolivian embassy, gathered in a church in a run-down neighborhood of Washington for a news conference.


    A delegation of Lakota leaders delivered a message to the State Department on Monday, announcing they were unilaterally withdrawing from treaties they signed with the federal government of the United States, some of them more than 150 years old.


    They also visited the Bolivian, Chilean, South African and Venezuelan embassies, and will continue on their diplomatic mission and take it overseas in the coming weeks and months, they told the news conference.
    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 US citizenship, Means said.


    The treaties signed with the United States are merely "worthless words on worthless paper," the Lakota freedom activists say on their website.
    The treaties have been "repeatedly violated in order to steal our culture, our land and our ability to maintain our way of life," the reborn freedom movement says.


    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 US "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 US 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 percent above the norm for the United States; infant mortality is five times higher than the US average; and unemployment is rife, according to the Lakota freedom movement's website.
    "Our people want to live, not just survive or crawl and be mascots," said Young.


    "We are not trying to embarrass the United States. We are here to continue the struggle for our children and grandchildren," she said, predicting that the battle would not be won in her lifetime.
     
  2. melbo

    melbo Hunter Gatherer Administrator Founding Member

  3. hartage

    hartage Monkey+++

    I hate to rain on their parade but the word LANDLOCKED comes to mind. I understand their frustration but how practical is it to secede ?
     
  4. melbo

    melbo Hunter Gatherer Administrator Founding Member

    I think secede as in cut off ties. No more aid, no more taxes. Leave us the F*** alone.
    I can see their point. I would if I could.
     
  5. Mountainman

    Mountainman Großes Mitglied Site Supporter+++

    I hope it also means no more government (our money) checks to them. Also wish I could do it.
     
  6. ozarkgoatman

    ozarkgoatman Resident goat herder

    Do you think they would adopt me. [lolol]

    OGM
     
  7. Clyde

    Clyde Jet Set Tourer Administrator Founding Member

    They receive aid because our forefathers bent them over and lied, cheated, and made treaties with people who had no idea what treaties were. They can certainly see how beneficial this relationship has been. Pretty onesided as far as I am concerned; they deserve what little money we give them when since we turned their world upside down, hunted them down for fighting back, and moved them onto desolate land with no ability to make a living.

    I hate handouts. This is one of the few that I support so long as our .gov continues to subjugate them and treat them like chattel.
     
  8. Tango3

    Tango3 Aimless wanderer

    we turned their world upside down, hunted them down for fighting back, and moved them onto desolate land with no ability to make a living."

    Sounds like us in ten years...
     
  9. ColtCarbine

    ColtCarbine Monkey+++ Founding Member

    The Treaty of Fort Laramie was an agreement between the United States and the Lakota nation, Yanktonai Sioux, Santee Sioux, and Arapaho signed in 1868 at Fort Laramie in the Wyoming Territory, guaranteeing to the Lakota ownership of the Black Hills, and further land and hunting rights in South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana. The Powder River Country was to be henceforth closed to all whites. The treaty ended Red Cloud's War.

    The treaty included articles intended to "ensure the civilization" of the Lakota; financial incentives for them to farm land and become competitive - and stipulations that minors should be provided with an "English education" at a "mission building". To this end the US government included in the treaty that white teachers, blacksmiths, a farmer, a miller, a carpenter, an engineer and a government agent should take up residence within the reservation.

    Repeated violations of the otherwise exclusive rights to the land by gold prospectors led to the Black Hills War. The treaty explicitly described, "the permanent home of the Indians, which is not mineral land..." Migrant workers seeking gold had crossed the reservation borders, in violation of the treaty. Indians had assaulted migrant workers, in violation of the treaty. War ensued. The U.S. government seized the Black Hills land in 1877.

    More than a century later, the Sioux nation won a victory in court. On June 30, 1980, in United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians, 448 U.S. 371, the United States Supreme Court upheld an award of $17.5 million for the market value of the land in 1877, along with 103 years worth of interest at 5 percent, for an additional $105 million.

    Link
     
  10. ColtCarbine

    ColtCarbine Monkey+++ Founding Member

    The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 was signed on September 17 between United States treaty commissioners and representatives of the Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Crow, Shoshone, Assiniboine, Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara nations. The U.S. government promised control of the Great Plains which was the bulk of Native American territory, for "as long as the river flows and the eagle flies". The Indians guaranteed safe passage for settlers on the Oregon Trail in return for promises of an annuity in the amount of fifty thousand dollars for fifty years. The Native American nations also allowed roads and forts to be built in their territories. The United States Senate ratified the treaty, adding Article 7, to adjust compensation from fifty to ten years, if the tribes accepted the changes. Acceptance from all tribes, with the exception of the Crows, was procured. Several tribes never received the commodities promised as payments. The treaty produced a brief period of peace.

    Link
     
  11. ColtCarbine

    ColtCarbine Monkey+++ Founding Member

    The Lakota Sioux Indians were originally settled in Minnesota, but in the 1700’s they migrated into the South Dakota area. For over 160 years, the Lakota Sioux occupied a giant piece of land in the plains, which helped in supporting their bison herds, which they hunted on their land. There used to be over 60 million bison on the Great Plains. Now it’s almost odd to see them at all. I can't imagine the government having anything to do with this

    The Lakota people were nomadic, equestrian Plains Indians, who lived in hand made teepees, and hunted buffalo as a source of food, shelter, and warmth. They were exceptional hunters, horsemen, and superior warriors. Their heritage was made up of storytellers and ancestral drawings and home made crafts.

    The Lakota were divided into family groups, called tiyospaye. They hunted, processed, and ate all of the bison they killed. They slept in bison hide teepees in the summer and personally built earthen lodges in the winter.

    After the push began for western expansion of white settlers, the Lakota people felt a new wave coming their way. The Ft. Laramie treaty established the Great Sioux Reservation which destroyed the way of life forever after. The Federal Government provided inhabited land, food and clothes annually.

    Then after that struggle came the Battle of Little Bighorn. This is where the Lakota killed off Custer and his 200 troops in hopes of gaining back what they had and needed to protect their ways….The Great Plains. But instead congress cut their rations and took away more land.

    Following the Battle at Little Bighorn came the Battle at Wounded Knee Creek. After a 150-mile journey the Lakota people stopped to rest in the badlands, where the 7th cavalry surrounded them. The troops attacked and killed over 200 Lakota including Chief Bigfoot and his daughter. That is the history of the Lakota people. The struggles they went through and lost all because they wanted to preserve and keep alive their heritage and rituals.
     
  12. magmeister

    magmeister Monkey+++

    Hey in the new country of Lakota, can their people own machine guns?
    how about extradiction?
    Taxes?
    Maybe I will move there!
     
  13. hartage

    hartage Monkey+++

    What can I say ? we as a government are just lying sacks of garbage that is not trustworthy on any level at all. We honor our ancestors that have done one evil wrong after another. They don't deserve honor at all. If anything they deserve to be maligned and have their graves urinated and deficated on for what they have done. Yet we continue to hold these people in high regard. We might as well honor jack the ripper or any other serial killer. Some "honored" people in our history just make me sick to my stomach.
     
  14. monkeyman

    monkeyman Monkey+++ Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    I wonder if it changes the requirements for recognitions as a tribal member? Im enouph Lakota (and Cherokee and Saxfox) by blood to move to the res BUT its prety well impossible to prove because the family we can document well (which would be the Cherokee) escaped from the trail of tears and settled in MO which creates 2 problems in that BIA (bureu of Indian Affairs) numbers or roll numbers were issued at the END of the trail of tears so my family never got their numbers and second that up untill my dad was in highschool (1954 IIRC) you were paid a bounty by the state in addition to getting all their property/possesions as a reward for slaughtering indians so my family 'became Irish' for about 4 generations and from my granddad on it was forbiden to speak Cherokee even in the home for fear of discovery. My dad and I had spent a few years trying to get our BIA numbers and tribal affiliation but because our family lived free then hid we cant get it now.
     
  15. monkeyman

    monkeyman Monkey+++ Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    I also have to wonder what the laws of the New Lakota nation would look like and wat kind of millitary they have. Yo figure that if they stop paying taxes, try to implement their laws and are taken seriously at all then the US gov will want to make an example of them, especialy with some movement by several states to seceed. I tend to see another massacurw comeing and a rounding up of a lot of those left alive to be shipped off to Gitmo.
     
  16. Valkman

    Valkman Knifemaker Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    Wow sounds like those Indian Casinos must really be bringing in the bucks! Get it - bucks. Heh.
     
  17. Tango3

    Tango3 Aimless wanderer

  18. jim2

    jim2 Monkey+++

    Monkeyman

    Would DNA testing solve your problem?
    jim
     
  19. Quigley_Sharps

    Quigley_Sharps The Badministrator Administrator Founding Member

    LMFAO
    Maybe they can get some foreign government and the UN to send troops to seal off their borders to the rest of the US. They might be able the get Chaves from <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com[​IMG]<st1:place w:st=" /><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Venezuela</st1:place></st1:country-region> or the crazy Iranian to help out.
    They also can kick out all State government officials before stretching the Constantia wire around their new country.
    I can’t wait for this to play out; hopefully they are still strong trained warriors.
    Mean while I will go back to practicing shooting long range Blue Targets.
     
  20. Seawolf1090

    Seawolf1090 Retired Curmudgeonly IT Monkey Founding Member

    Secede from the US . . . ? They'd better look into what happened here in the Old South when my forefathers had their little tiff with Mr. Lincoln . . . taser1

    It'll never fly. This is an attempt by the professional activists for some type of personal gain. The populace of the Tribes won't support it.
     
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