The Lakota Indians have withdrawn from treaties with the United States

found on (PCT Thailand)

The Lakota Indians, who gave the world legendary warriors Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, have withdrawn from treaties with the United States.

“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.

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 U.S., 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 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.

The treaties signed with the U.S. were merely “worthless words on worthless paper,” 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 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.

The Lakota relaunched their journey to freedom in 1974, when they drafted a declaration of continuing independence — an overt play on the title of the 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 in a row,” Means said.

One duck moved into place in September, when the United Nations adopted a non-binding declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples — despite opposition 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. 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 U.S. “annexation” of native American land has resulted in once proud tribes such as the Lakota becoming mere “facsimiles of white people,” said Means.

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.

Were not the Lakota Sioux responsible, amonst others, for the Custer debacle.

secush? Wasn't that already tried in 1860?

Thailand?????????

I think this forum is not the place to discuss this topic although this is a topic close to my heart.

No I am not an American, only very interested in the native american history and culture.

I like to find a forum where we can discuss this topic.

cheers, rono

Were not the Lakota Sioux responsible, amonst others, for the Custer debacle. secush? Wasn't that already tried in 1860?

Yes, and they won. Custer was found wearing an Arrow shirt.

Hanta Yo !

The Lakota Souix are an interesting tribe. I'd be more interested in their attempt if it wasn't so dang cold in the Dakotas. I'm not a Russell Means fan, hes a bit of a horses patootie as a person. But an interesting point of law, and one reason I'm not a big fan of entering into any treaty that counteracts the US constitution.

A lot more info can be found on this topic by visiting "www.lakhota.com" The Native American Politics forum on this site.

This is such major news it hasn't reached any major American newspaper. If the Lakotas want to renounce their treaties, then I'm sure the U.S. government would be delighted to withhold the millions of dollars in federal funding that goes to the tribe every year. What a crock.

No taxes? What pays for the roads, fire department, police departments and medical facilities. Maybe a pay as you go plan. House on fire? Will that be by credit card or cash to put it out.

A subject dear to my heart as well, having had a Lakota boss, and having camped on Lakota land. However, not Thai related. You have places to continue the debate, as given above. Thanks; topic closed.