It's really sad that all the talk of Jamie Lynn Spears pregnancy and other trivial shit is considered more important or interesting than this:
http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2007/12/lakota-withdraw.html
Lakota withdraw from treaties, declare independence from U.S.
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and Crazy Horse, have withdrawn from all treaties their forefathers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. Here's the news release.
"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," said Russell Means, a longtime Indian rights activist.
"This is according to the laws of the United States, specifically
Article 6 of the Constitution," which states that treaties are the
supreme law of the land.
"It is also within the laws on treaties
passed at the Vienna Convention and put into effect by the U.S. and the
rest of the international community in 1980. We are legally within our
rights to be free and independent," he added during a press conference
yesterday in Washington.
The new country would issue its own
passports and driver licenses, and living there would be tax-free,
provided residents renounce their U.S. citizenship, he said, according
to a report from Agence France-Presse.
The Lakota say the United
States has never honored the pacts, signed with the Great Sioux Nation
in 1851 and 1868 at Fort Laramie, Wyo.
"We have 33 treaties with
the United States that they have not lived by. They continue to take
our land, our water, our children," said Phyllis Young, who helped
organize the first international conference on indigenous rights in
Geneva in 1977.
Means said the "annexation" of native American land had turned the Lakota into "facsimiles of white people."
In
1974, the Lakota drafted a declaration of continuing independence.
Their cause got a boost in September, when the United Nations adopted a
non-binding declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples. The Bush
administration opposed the measure.
____________________________________________________________________________________
another source here
http://www.commondreams.org/news2007/1220-02.htm
Freedom! Lakota Sioux Indians Declare Sovereign Nation Status
Threaten
Land Liens, Contested Real Estate Over Five State Area in U.S.West
Dakota Territory Reverts back to Lakota Control According to U.S.,
International Law
WASHINGTON, DC - December 20 - Lakota
Sioux Indian representatives declared sovereign nation status today in
Washington D.C. following Monday's withdrawal from all previously
signed treaties with the United States Government. The withdrawal, hand
delivered to Daniel Turner, Deputy Director of Public Liaison at the
State Department, immediately and irrevocably ends all agreements
between the Lakota Sioux Nation of Indians and the United States
Government outlined in the 1851 and 1868 Treaties at Fort Laramie
Wyoming.
"This is an historic day for our Lakota people,"
declared Russell Means, Itacan of Lakota. "United States colonial rule
is at its end!"
"Today is a historic day and our forefathers
speak through us. Our Forefathers made the treaties in good faith with
the sacred Canupa and with the knowledge of the Great Spirit," shared
Garry Rowland from Wounded Knee. "They never honored the treaties,
that's the reason we are here today."
The four member Lakota
delegation traveled to Washington D.C. culminating years of internal
discussion among treaty representatives of the various Lakota
communities. Delegation members included well known activist and actor
Russell Means, Women of All Red Nations (WARN) founder Phyllis Young,
Oglala Lakota Strong Heart Society leader Duane Martin Sr., and Garry
Rowland, Leader Chief Big Foot Riders. Means, Rowland, Martin Sr. were
all members of the 1973 Wounded Knee takeover.
"In order to stop
the continuous taking of our resources – people, land, water and
children- we have no choice but to claim our own destiny," said Phyllis
Young, a former Indigenous representative to the United Nations and
representative from Standing Rock.
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.
Young added, "The actions of Lakota are not intended to embarrass the United States but to simply save the lives of our people".
Following
Monday's withdrawal at the State Department, the four Lakota Itacan
representatives have been meeting with foreign embassy officials in
order to hasten their official return to the Family of Nations.
Lakota's
efforts are gaining traction as Bolivia, home to Indigenous President
Evo Morales, shared they are "very, very interested in the Lakota case"
while Venezuela received the Lakota delegation with "respect and
solidarity."
"Our meetings have been fruitful and we hope to
work with these countries for better relations," explained Garry
Rowland. "As a nation, we have equal status within the national
community."
Education, energy and justice now take top priority
in emerging Lakota. "Cultural immersion education is crucial as a next
step to protect our language, culture and sovereignty," said Means.
"Energy independence using solar, wind, geothermal, and sugar beets
enables Lakota to protect our freedom and provide electricity and
heating to our people."
The Lakota reservations are among the
most impoverished areas in North America, a shameful legacy of broken
treaties and apartheid policies. Lakota has the highest death rate in
the United States and Lakota men have the lowest life expectancy of any
nation on earth, excluding AIDS, at approximately 44 years. Lakota
infant mortality rate is five times the United States average and teen
suicide rates 150% more than national average. 97% of Lakota people
live below the poverty line and unemployment hovers near 85%.
"After
150 years of colonial enforcement, when you back people into a corner
there is only one alternative," emphasized Duane Martin Sr. "The only
alternative is to bring freedom into its existence by taking it back to
the love of freedom, to our lifeway."
We are the freedom loving
Lakota from the Sioux Indian reservations of Nebraska, North Dakota,
South Dakota and Montana who have traveled to Washington DC to withdraw
from the constitutionally mandated treaties to become a free and
independent country. We are alerting the Family of Nations we have now
reassumed our freedom and independence with the backing of Natural,
International, and United States law. For more information, please
visit our new website at www.lakotafreedom.com.
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