Posted on 12/19/2007 9:58:16 PM PST by Dundee
THE Lakota Indians, who gave the world legendary warriors Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, have withdrawn from treaties with the US.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 who live in the five-state area that encompasses our country are free to join us," Indian rights activist Russell Means said.
A delegation of Lakota leaders has delivered a message to the State Department, and said they were unilaterally withdrawing from treaties they signed with the federal government of the US...
The group also visited the Bolivian, Chilean, South African and Venezuelan embassies, and would continue on their diplomatic mission and take it overseas in the coming weeks and months.
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...
The treaties signed with the US were merely "worthless words on worthless paper"...
"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...
"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,"...
The Lakota relaunched their journey to freedom in 1974, when they drafted a declaration of continuing independence...
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,"...
One duck moved into place in September, when the United Nations adopted a non-binding declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples...
(Excerpt) Read more at theaustralian.news.com.au ...
If it's not, somebody needs to remind them of what happened to the last lot who decided to leave the Union.
This is nutty.
Goody. So the treaties are void, and all the special rights granted are revoked. No more reservations, no more tax free status, no more federal pork. Get a job Tonto, and be sure to file that 1040 come April.
That’s the logical end result of multicultural BS. That’s exactly what would happen if we don’t teach immigrants how to speak English.
Right, you want to go back to the way it was before the US was here? Get ready for shorter life spans, higher infant mortality, and, uh....
Indians on the warpath devolve, snicker.
Better yet, ask them if they will renounce alcohol.
Let’s see if this country can handle its “tribal regions” any better than Pakistan can. (hint: will they be hosting bin Ladin any time soon?)
Please! Everyone's ancestors were "indigenous peoples" somewhere. And how far back do you have to go to be "indigenous"? Didn't "Native" Americans originally come to the Americas from Asia?
What's next? A UN declaration on the rights of indignant peoples?
Got that right.
It’s time to take back those $$$$ casinos.
Apparently, they are testing the PC side of us. Will be interesting what happens. In Canaduh, they just gave in, and provided broader rights. I’m going to assume that the same will happen here, as this country grows spineless by the day.
Were they cannibals too?
Disconnect them from the power grid. Disconnect them from outside telephone, cable, water, oil and gas. No emergency services and no healthcare services. No anything.
Close all the roads entering “their country”. Let them go back to the “old ways” and provide for themselves.
And last but not least, no beer.
Indian Reservations are independent nations. So sorry, but it is entirely possible.
Unfortunately for the Lakota, this will probably kill most political support from non-Indians and definitely bodes ill for reservation members who recieve money from the U.S. Govt. A withdrawal should absolutely equate to NO MONEY! I sometimes think Russel Means is delusional.
That is why we should have nothing to do with the U.N.’s declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples. That document’s sole purpose is to attack the sovereignty of the United States, and to destroy us from within.
bmp for later
Why that means their congress critters are kicked out... who’s got the majority now?
Somebody have too much fire water. Want to go see big spirit.

The Sioux have a real grievance. The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, which gives them the Black Hills, was unilaterally abrogated by the US when gold was found there. The Sioux went on the warpath, and Custer paid with his life. In United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians, 448 U.S. 371 (1980) the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Sioux, but refused to order return of the lands, instead proposing monetary damages, which the Sioux have refused to accept.
This is all about wampum.
Actually, I live in a village where the majority of people are Native Americans, or Indians.
I really don’t have a problem with moves by the Lakota to reassert soveriegnty. None at all. After all, France gets along just fine while the principality of Monaco exists inside their nation. Ditto San Marino in Italy and Andorra in Spain and France. So the Lakota want to break away from the USA. Good luck to you guys.
By the way, being soverign means something. It means that your nation depends on your own efforts, strengths, and hard work. Food stamps, HUD housing, Indian Health Service -all should be stop immediately. After all, there is sufficient land, intelligence, human capital, and cultural tradition for every Lakota to do as well as their non-Native neighbors. I’m not even being ironic or sarcastic. The American welfare state has destroyed Native culture in a manner that an invading army could not - by removing pride, hard work, esteem, and vigor from Native culture. Native people deserve the same dignity as the rest of the us, to fail or succeed on their own. In fact, since I work and live with Native people, I know that they are up to the job. Cut them loose. Let them choose their own destiny, and I’ll bet a fair number will freely elect to rejoin the American republic.
Good luck to you guys.
Wouldn’t this make their casinos automatically illegal?
This reads like another publicity stunt from Means to me, and probably has about as much validity as the "Republic of Texas" breakaway group that was in the news a few years ago. Those guys had what, eight people?
Are they going to provide their own infrastructure, police, military, medical care, education, shopping centers,........?
Will they provide all their own necessities or depend on them being shipped on roads leading up to their land?
A lot of what they have now is not their own doing. Will they give it all back and start from scratch?
Pelosi wanted to waive a bit white flag... Half our country would rather surrender than fight for our own survival. Pretty sad huh?
Exactly
Piss poor example to cite. The Confederacy was legal under the Constitution. If the tribe wants out, let em’ out.
They had access to all the health care, etc. that any other American has. If their life expectancy was so short, they have no one to blame but themselves. There’s personal responsibility involved in caring for yourself.
Now that they’re separated, that’s all going to change overnight? I don’t think so.
Means has also been closely associated with the controversial activist Ward Churchill. Churchill gave the nominating speech for Means in 1987 when Means sought the presidential nomination of the Libertarian Party in a heated race against Representative Ron Paul. He was defeated by Paul, who later returned to the Republican Party.
Since the late 1970s, Means has often supported libertarian political causes, putting him at odds with several of the other leaders of AIM. In 1984, Means campaigned for the Republican nomination for vice president on a ticket with Larry Flynt; they lost to the incumbents, Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. In 1986 Means traveled to Nicaragua to express his support for Miskito Indians who were allied with the US-funded contra guerillas against the Nicaraguan government. In 1987, Means sought the nomination of the Libertarian Party for president and attracted considerable support within the party, but eventually lost the nomination to former Congressman Ron Paul.
He also played Chief Chingachgook in the 1992 production of Last of the Mohicans
.
Lotsa luck to them
Treaties work both ways
They lose all the goodies and freevies and access off their lands
Let them buy Cuba PUs and cars with wampum
I’m sure they will back their own money and others will accept it
Who will go to casinos giving out wampum?
Who will refine any oil they pump on their lands?
Hugo Chavez?
[issue its own passports and driving licences,]
Yes, it’s pretty silly. Lol, they won’t be able to drive off of the reservation “country” without a regular license or plate.
Pure silliness. Just thought you’d get a kick out of it.
OK, cut off the welfare.
On the other hand the Blackfeet, this side of Glacier, never were on a reservation, got along with the whites and learned from them and became successful ranchers and the like, adopting to European concepts such as owning property, holding magistrate and local judge positions and the like and to this day feel, correctly, that they never really were defeated. It’s harder to be more American than that Russell Means takes advantage of the streak of the Left that is in denial about American culture and hates it for the success that it is.
Why the hell do we still have a Spanish-speaking Caribbean colony anyway, other than for bases (which can be easily relocated) and to show Cuba how a welfare state should work?
Now, before I hijack this thread any further, I will say that, if the Lakota want to push their sovereignty in court, let them do so. If, in the unlikely event they succeed, let the cut in all government aid begin, and let the feds and the Dakotas start charging the newly sovereign nations for water, roads, etc.
I was wondering when Ward Churchill’s name would show up...
Works for me!
If Congressional Democrats were to support this (after all, many of them supported secession in 1860-61), it won't stop with the existing Sioux reservation lands--they would want all the lands that used to belong to the Sioux (some of them stolen from the Crow).
Time to drop them from the voting rolls.
.
My great grandmother was an Indian and I think this lefties are crazy
I knew that about your great Grandmother. Just didn’t remember what tribe.
Sounds like all involved went to American universities.
...and an embassy.
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You're right. Means doesn't represent the Souix. He runs Treaty productions in Hollywood, CA.
We still have Puerto Rico principally because the Regress established enormous tax incentives for companies, especially pharmaceutical companies, to build plants and operate business from that island. Section 504, if I'm not mistaken (and, if I am -- which is highly possible -- the exact section of the IRS code doesn't matter much in any case.) Fast equipment writedowns, preferred tax rates, the lot.
Merck and the boys would throw an absolute shjt-fit were we to allow/encourage Puerto Rican independence.
After all, there is sufficient land, intelligence, human capital, and cultural tradition for every Lakota to do as well as their non-Native neighbors.
I don’t know, there’s hardly any buffalo left.
We’ve been down this whole “secession from the US” thing before. It didn’t work out too well for the rebels.
Perhaps "reparations" is the wrong word, but payments from the U.S.A. to the indigenous peoples are undeniable. I would like to know what difference there is between the internment of the American Japanese, and the indegenious aborigiginals?
Does it boil down to a matter of choice?
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