Lakota Indians Withdraw Treaties Signed With U.S. 150 Years Ago

Fox News ^ | Thursday, December 20, 2007

[floridares]

The USA and the Lakota nations fought a war and the LAKOTA lost! But instead of destroying the Lakota as they did to the enemies they defeated we led them live and keep their nation.

The Lakota didn’t accepted the treaty is because they would be destroyed if they didn't.

ALL tribes receive millions and millions of dollars each year for education, welfare and medical support. But the Indians and the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) are allowed BY LAW to discriminate against non-indians. AND they do! This is the reason why the indians fail so terribly in educating their children in their indian run schools. They fail in health care in their indian run health care facilities. They fail in housing because of their indian and communistic run housing programs.

The LAkota are located on Pine Ridge Reservation. This vast area is some of the most productive agricultural land in South Dakota. BUT the Lakota refuse to farm the land! They also refuse to use the land as range land for buffalo and cattle. This is the same land across the Nebraska state line that is very productive with a great school system, health system, etc.

The poverty conditions found on the reservation Lakota are caused by their corrupt tribal system. The US government has given the Lakota billions of dollars over the years. By law the Lakota and other Indian groups ARE NOT required to maintain financial records and the US government cannot audit the financial records to determine if the tax dollars GIVEN to the Lakota are actually used to help the Lakota!

Money down a rat hole!

Why should we walk a red road together. Why not a black road or a white road? How about a non-racist road? Are you calling the Lakota red men? The you agree with the Washington Redskins name tag?

[NetCrusader2006]

I wonder how long it will take Serbia and Russia to recognize the independent state of Lakota, as a message to the United States of could happen if Kosovo is allowed to unilaterally separate from Serbia.

[N3WBI3]

Naa, take the money but let them have the land. Just put up a border fence and tax the crap out of anything going in and out. (25$ toll for starters, plus foreign winnings taxes on Casino money, ...)

This thing would be over in a few days..

[Greg F]

I bow to your superior deviousness.

[Centurion2000]

"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 said.

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 U.S. citizenship, Mr Means said.

All it will take is one or a few of these countries like China (for leverage against Taiwan), Russia (payback for Chechnya) or Venezuela (just to stick it in our eye) and this could get really ugly.

[Jeff Head]

There will be no seperate nation, seceded from and seperate from the US, requiring residents to renounce their US citizenship, within the borders of the US. If they continue to push for that, they will go down hard.

[N3WBI3]

I used to live in WNY and when they wanted to start taxing gas on Indian reservations the protesters starting blocking the highway, thats when it came to me... Let them eat cake while we make sure its damn painful to go into or out of their land..

[RockinRight]

Will it survive on casino revenue? Can we drive through on interstate highways without a passport?

If so, not much of a sovereign nation. They’ll come crying back when the welfare money dries up.

[Centurion2000]

Interesting ... looks like their territory is contiguous as well.

From here: Sious Nation

In North America the territory of the Lakota, Nakota and Dakota Nation covers some 200,000 km2 in the present day state of South Dakota and neighboring states.

The Lakota, Nakota and Dakota Nation (also known as the Great Sioux Nation) descends from of the original inhabitants of North America and can be divided into three major linguistic and geographic groups: Lakota (Teton, West Dakota), Nakota (Yankton, Central Dakota) and Dakota (Santee, Eastern Dakota). The total number of native North Americans is approximately 1,5 million, of which around 100,000 are Lakota. They reside near the Sacred Black Hills of South Dakota.

The Lakota ("friends" or "allies", sometimes also spelled "Lakhota") are a Native American tribe, also known as the Sioux (see Names). The Lakota are part of a band of seven tribes that speak three different dialects, the other two being the Dakota and the Nakota. The Lakota are the western most of the three groups, occupying lands in both North and South Dakota. The Nakota, the smallest division, reside on the Yankton reservation in South Dakota, the Northern portion of Standing Rock Reservation, and Canada (the Stoney and Assiniboine), while the Dakota live mostly in Minnesota and Nebraska.

[LexBaird]

None of the immigrants were forced to live on an arid and unproductive stretch of desert with failed promises from the US government that their lives would nevertheless be supported so that they could feed their families.

Tell that to the Mormon pioneers of that same era. They were driven out of their settled lands three times before going to the Utah desert and thriving. At one time they had an extermination order on them, issued by the Governor of Missouri.

One idea is to offer to start a business close by to allow them to have the chance at a job. These people live miles from any developed area, and many have no transportation to travel for jobs. A little development would be a great boost to them if done in the right way.

Where I grew up, the town bordered a big reservation. One of the major industries for the town was a fertilizer plant. Now, for tax and development reasons, the plant signed a deal with the local tribal council to build on the reservation. Part of that deal was to hold out a certain percentage of the jobs for tribal members.

A friend's father ended up being a manager there. He had endless stories about how the Indians who held the guaranteed jobs would not show up, show up drunk, or simply not work. He was not allowed to fire them, but found they usually quit within a month or two, only to be replaced by another placed in the guaranteed position by the tribal liaison.

Besides that plant, there were multiple other economic opportunities surrounding that reservation, not to mention good agricultural land on it. But, they mostly leased the land to adjoining farms, and paid a stipend to the tribal members. If they didn't mind living poor, they didn't have to work at all, so they didn't.

Alcoholism and paint sniffing were rampant. Those kids in my H.S. who were trying to break out of the mold and achieve were ostracized and ridiculed as sell outs to the White man. (note: this was in the 70s, the height of the AIM era). Needless to say, it did not make me a fan of the "assistance" approach. For that to work, the people need to want to be assisted out of where they are, not be assisted in staying where they're at.

[RockinRight]

Oppression at the hands of the U.S. 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 per cent above the norm for the U.S.; infant mortality is five times higher than the U.S. average; and unemployment is rife, according to the Lakota freedom movement's website.

I'm looking for the part where this is somehow the fault of White Americans. I see nothing to indicate that it is.

[RockinRight]

Yes. They want to be an independent nation? Treat them like one. No welfare, no federal money, nothing. And put up a border fence. And let them build their own damn military too.

Oh, wait...we can’t even do that at the Mexican border...so I doubt the Lakotan border would have one.

[norton]

"Wow. Interesting bit of news..."

Indeed.
Beyond the eighty or so posts so far, it's got implications for all sorts of mischief, by all sorts of people and groups.

For openers - how do you address a civil war inside a 'sovereign' indian tribe (just in case someone actually presses for secession and others don't agree).
Do the several casino wealthy tribes have anything to say in a stand off between the USA and another break away tribe? (Note: the one indian I've known from South Dakota was collecting large bucks off of casino profits so the destitute Sioux image is flawed)

If they try to go ahead with this we will have to deal with a kosovo that our government wants to separate from Serbia and one or more indian reservations that I'm sure the feds don't want to let go.
("Kosov - Si, Sioux City - No" ?)
The statement talks of several states, not a delineated reservation - reconquesta rather than Independence.
It would be interesting to watch how the self defined indian territories (a) dealt with the 'squatters' who deny citizenship in an indian tribe and how (b) they'd go about reclaiming property.
If they act as though they have withdrawn from the treaties they have released the US government of responsibility for the safety of members of the tribe - what's to stop non-indians from going on a warpath?
The UN has an opportunity to either act responsibly or climb all over our internal affairs - my bets are on the latter. (picturing a blue topped gaggle of third world peacekeepers trying to hitchhike from New York to ... what's the name of the town in North Dakota?)
How do we address North Korean and mexican efforts to establish embassies in Taos, Sioux City, or Yosemite Village?
To where do you deport a "Native American"?
Given Mean's record, I don't think it is too far-fetched to assume his break away group will include a terrorist friendly policy - the Little Mosque on the Prairie might not be just a gag line anymore.
Finally, also with an eye to history, even if he movement stays at the hot air level - how long before some nut case tries to enforce his tribal claims by force?

Knowing full well that this will end up either a non-event or a televised stand off between the FBI and a dozen loonies, on some run down farm, in the middle of nowhere; every day we come closer to the real possibility of the UN or our neighbors deciding they have the right to step in and decide questions like this for us.

Worse - probably half the population of the USA would go along with it.

[RockinRight]

In tribes in which there are casinos, such as in Minnesota, there is little if any, welfare paid, because the profits are distributed among the tribe members.

Unless all those members are owners and/or employees of the tribe, that IS welfare.

[CommerceComet]

Wouldn't the Kiowa have a prior claim on the Black Hills? Historians have established that the Lakota moved out of the Upper Midwest onto the plains when they acquired horses. By sheer force, the Lakota took what they wanted and drove away tribes like the Kiowa who lived in the Black Hills region. If the Lakota can claim the land by driving out another tribe, why can't the U.S. government do the same thing?

BTW, I'm all in favor of allowing the Native Americans to keep as much of their culture as they can while they integrate into society. They have to realize that a lot of the Lakota lifestyle died 150 years ago and it's not going to return.

[RockinRight]

There is no easy solution, really.

The honest truth is that, economically speaking, many of those on reservations would be best off to move off the reservation and join “regular” (pardon the term) American society.

[RockinRight]

The difference is that there is no “treaty” that gives the Southwest to us, it’s OURS now.

We had a treaty here to allow the Lakota to have this land.

[AuntB]

” IMHO, the poverty on the Lakota lands is an issue that needs to be addressed — it is a difficult problem with no easy solutions, but it is a travesty how we allow this to exist.

It would be more helpful than any of you know to offer help to these tribes, in a spirit of friendship.

We should walk the red road together.”

Look, every tribe in this country had bad treaties. It’s time these people became responsible for themselves. It’s that ‘we’re entitled’ mentality that keeps them in poverty and ignorance. The sad fact is these whiners would have NEVER survived during the time of their ancestors. In fact their ancestors would have laughed at them for their silliness.

[Salman]

Get a grip, folks.

This is one guy and a few hangers on doing a publicity stunt.

[Strutt9]

I do not understand the racism in your note. Has nothing to do with non(anything). Bureau of Indians Affairs owe billions to the Native Americans. Their lands were taken and whats' left to them is barren.

No need to take it personally.