Lakota02:33 Jan 13 2008
Times Read: 648
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."
~ Russell Means, Lakota Freedom activist
The Lakota Indians, descendents of the legendary warriors Sitting Bull (above) and Crazy Horse, have withdrawn from treaties with the United States, it’s leaders announced this week.
A delegation of Lakota leaders delivered the message to the State Department on Monday. They announced that 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 delegation also visited other nations embassies, including the Bolivian, Chilean, South African and Venezuelan embassies, and are planning to take their diplomatic mission overseas in the coming weeks and months.
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. Lakota country includes parts of the states of Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming.
The activists are calling the old treaties nothing more than "worthless words on worthless paper". They say the treaties have already been nullified as they have already been "repeatedly violated in order to steal our culture, our land and our ability to maintain our way of life," writes the reborn freedom movement. Means says that withdrawing from these treaties is entirely legal.
"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.
In September, the United Nations adopted a non-binding declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples -- despite opposition from the United States.
"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 becoming "facsimiles of white people," said Means. He points out the long-going history of oppression at the hands of the US government. Many native Americans have suffered from being confined to small areas and being forced to abandon ancient traditions. Lakota men have one of the shortest life expectancies in the entire world at less than 44 years. Teen suicides are 150% about the norm for the US. Infant mortality is also 5 times the US average. Lakota freedom activists believe this can be largely attributed to the substandard living they involuntarily adopted.
"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."
COMMENTS
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deathnitegrl
12:53 Jan 31 2008
At least you have guts to show you're against war.Kudos to that.