Descendants of Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse break away from US

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The Lakota Indians, who gave the world legendary warriors Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, have withdrawn from treaties with the United States, leaders said Wednesday.

"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 told a handful of reporters and a delegation from the Bolivian embassy, gathered in a church in a run-down neighborhood of Washington for a news conference.

A delegation of Lakota leaders delivered a message to the State Department on Monday, announcing 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 also visited the Bolivian, Chilean, South African and Venezuelan embassies, and will continue on their diplomatic mission and take it overseas in the coming weeks and months, they told the news conference.

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, Means said.

The treaties signed with the United States are merely "worthless words on worthless paper," the Lakota freedom activists say on their website.

The treaties have been "repeatedly violated in order to steal our culture, our land and our ability to maintain our way of life," the reborn freedom movement says.

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 US "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 US 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 percent above the norm for the United States; infant mortality is five times higher than the US average; and unemployment is rife, according to the Lakota freedom movement's website.

"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," she said, predicting that the battle would not be won in her lifetime.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iVC1KMTOgwiSoMQyT2LwZc9HyAgA

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Comment by Drumhugger on March 28, 2008 at 2:53pm: Aho! Gitche Migwetch!!!! The drums are sounding, and we wont go quietly!!!! The blood is on their hands, our hearts are cleansed and made "one".
Thank you for sharing this Lady Serenity. I will catch up with you a little later!!!!
Bamapee, Drumhugger

Comment by Tegan on February 7, 2008 at 7:26pm: This is amazing, I dont know why I havent heard of this before. I guess I need to pull my head up from the sand more often!

Comment by Drumhugger on February 7, 2008 at 10:46am: Musical artist Robbie Robertson, along with American Indian Movement, have been a force in creating awareness that Anishnabee are very much still alive, and the drums are getting louder.
Thank you for sharing all that you do Serenity!

Comment by Icey Vale on January 19, 2008 at 10:09pm: Do not under estimate the power of a few proud people.

“Everything the power of the world does, is done in a circle. The sky is round, the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls... the sun comes forth and goes down in a circle. The moon does the same… even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were before. The life of a man is a circle… and it is in everything where power moves.”
Black Elk – Lakota Sioux Elder

Comment by NCWyldewytch on December 30, 2007 at 9:19pm: Way to go Lakota!!!! More power to them and hope they can succeed. I am part Cherokee and feel the indignation of the other People who have lost their homes to the white man. Awesome.

NCWyldewytch

Comment by Orion on December 28, 2007 at 3:26am: Russell Means has been a hero of mine for a long time. Realistically, I know that this will prove to be symbolic more than practical. But, what Rosa Parks did was merely symbolic as well... and look what that led to. I fully support this move and will do whatever I can to help. I have enough Apache blood in my veins to comfortably call myself a "skin", and my heart beats to the same drum that the Lakota Nation does.

Comment by Fionn oMurchu on December 25, 2007 at 8:26pm: Gods bless, now who else is willing to stand up on their hind legs?

Comment by Brendan on December 25, 2007 at 7:31am: This is wonderfull news (:

Comment by apachestone on December 22, 2007 at 10:03pm: Interesting

it will never happen the US goverment wont let it the next thing you know is everyone who is fed up with our BS leaders who sold the american soul when kenndy was shot. no wits wal mart micro soft and cnn. ppl who wan tto be independant can do so there is ways to be a citizan of your own state with a internatanal driver licsance i read it yrs ago look good but the great harlot wont let her ppl free. wishful thinking and very sad to hope for something that isnt real. i hate to be negitive i truly do but life on this scale just wont happen. ppl would rise up and overthrow world goverment plans hmmm nope.

live in light and hope for love and share the knoladge to those who will appracate it.
Rick