From: "Richmond, Rick" <rrichmon@uwec.edu> Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2007 15:21:11 -0600 Subject: Lakota Sioux end treates with US Message-ID: <7A17A445D0203848B157E8D70D1AC77E459EE22E90@CHERRYPEPSI.uwec.edu>
News.com.au (c) 2007 http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22954249-1702,0
0.html#
THE Lakota Indians, who gave the world legendary warriors Sitting Bull and
Crazy Horse, have withdrawn from treaties with the US.
"We are no longer citizens of the United States of America and all those wh
o 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 Departm
ent, and said they were unilaterally withdrawing from treaties they signed
with the federal government of the US, 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 overs
eas in the coming weeks and months.
Lakota country includes parts of the states of Nebraska, South Dakota, Nort
h Dakota, Montana and Wyoming.
The new country would issue its own passports and driving licences, and liv
ing there would be tax-free - provided residents renounce their US citizens
hip, Mr Means said.
The treaties signed with the US were merely "worthless words on worthless p
aper," 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 s
ix 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 an
d 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 M
eans.
The Lakota relaunched their journey to freedom in 1974, when they drafted a
declaration of continuing independence -- an overt play on the title of th
e 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 i
n a row,'' Means said.
One duck moved into place in September, when the United Nations adopted a n
on-binding declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples -- despite oppos
ition 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. T
hey continue to take our land, our water, our children,'' Phyllis Young, wh
o helped organize the first international conference on indigenous rights i
n Geneva in 1977, told the news conference.
The US ``annexation'' of native American land has resulted in once proud tr
ibes 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 Lako
ta, whose men have one of the shortest life expectancies - less than 44 yea
rs - in the world.
Lakota teen suicides are 150 per cent above the norm for the US; infant mor
tality is five times higher than the US average; and unemployment is rife,
according to the Lakota freedom movement's website.