which doctor
20th December 2007, 17:55
It's unsure whether this is just a declaration from a seperatist group or whether it reflects all the Lakota people. If it is the latter than it will be very interesting to watch how the federal government reacts. Nothing on this large of scale has happened for a while, historically violence has been used to suppress secession movements. What's interesting is that they are apparently opening this new nation to all people, setting it apart from traditional national liberation movements. They are soliciting support from several leftist South American countries. Also note that one of the lead activists, Russell Means, is a libertarian politician.
Originally posted by Press Release+--> Lakota Freedom Delegation to Withdraw from Treaties in DC
LAKOTA
Lakota Freedom Delegation
Mitaku Oyasin: We Are All Related
MEDIA ADVISORY
Immediate Release: 13 December 2007
Media Contacts: Naomi Archer, Communications Liaison (828) 230-1404 [email protected]
FREE, AGAIN! LAKOTA SIOUX MAKE HISTORY IN WITHDRAWAL FROM U.S. TREATIES
First Nation Travels to Washington D.C., Will Unilaterally Withdrawal from All Treaties with the United States Government
U.S., International Treaty Law Indicate Historic Land Range Returns to Sovereign Lakota People
Excellent Audio and Visuals: Press Conference to Feature Lakota Flag/Eagle Staff, Traditional Language and Music, Traditional Lakota Food and Other Refreshments
WHAT: A Historic Event between the Lakota Sioux Indians and the United States Government: Press Conference Announcing Unilateral Withdrawal of Lakota Nation From All U.S. Treaties and Return to Independence.
WHERE: Plymouth Congregational Church 5301 N. Capital Street, NE, Washington DC
WHEN: 11:30am, Wednesday December 19, 2007
WHO: Lakota Freedom Delegation, representatives of Lakota Sioux Indians- an Indigenous First Nation of North America. Delegation includes Lakota activist and actor Russell Means; Oglala Lakota Strong Heart Society leader Duane Martin Sr.; Gary Rowland, Leader Chief Big Foot Riders, Women of Red Nations founder Phyllis Young, Pearl Denet Claw Daniel and others.
SUMMARY: For far too long our people have suffered at the hands of the colonial apartheid system imposed on the Lakota Sioux. Our treaties with the United States government are nothing more than worthless words on worthless paper – repeatedly violated in order to steal our culture, our land and our ability to maintain our way of life.
The devastation this has wrought is clear: + Lakota men have a life expectancy of less than 44 years, lowest of any country in the World (excluding AIDS) including Haiti. + The Lakota infant mortality rate is 5x the U.S. Average.+ The Tuberculosis rate on Lakota reservations is approx 800% higher than the U.S national average. + 97% of our Lakota people live below the poverty line.+ Unemployment rates on our reservations are approximately 85%. + Teenage suicide rate is 150% higher than the U.S national average for this group.+ Our Lakota language is an Endangered Language, on the verge of extinction.
We have no choice but to take this historic action to protect our people and our way of life, and reclaim our freedom from the colonial systems of the United States Government. So we travel to Washington D.C. to withdraw from our treaties with the United States and announce full return of our sovereign status under Article 6 of the U.S. Constitution, International and Natural Law.
We are the freedom loving Lakota from the Sioux Indian reservations of Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana who have suffered from cultural and physical genocide in the colonial apartheid system we have been forced to live under. We are in Washington DC to withdraw from the constitutionally mandated treaties to become a free and independent country. We are alerting the Family of Nations we have now reassumed our freedom and independence with the backing of Natural, International, and United States law. For more information, please visit our new website at www.lakotafreedom.com (http://www.lakotafreedom.com). Lakota; 444 Crazy Horse Drive; P.O. Box 99; Porcupine, SD 57772.[/b]
News article
Descendants of Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse break away from US
11 hours ago
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://www.lakotafreedom.com/
Originally posted by Press Release+--> Lakota Freedom Delegation to Withdraw from Treaties in DC
LAKOTA
Lakota Freedom Delegation
Mitaku Oyasin: We Are All Related
MEDIA ADVISORY
Immediate Release: 13 December 2007
Media Contacts: Naomi Archer, Communications Liaison (828) 230-1404 [email protected]
FREE, AGAIN! LAKOTA SIOUX MAKE HISTORY IN WITHDRAWAL FROM U.S. TREATIES
First Nation Travels to Washington D.C., Will Unilaterally Withdrawal from All Treaties with the United States Government
U.S., International Treaty Law Indicate Historic Land Range Returns to Sovereign Lakota People
Excellent Audio and Visuals: Press Conference to Feature Lakota Flag/Eagle Staff, Traditional Language and Music, Traditional Lakota Food and Other Refreshments
WHAT: A Historic Event between the Lakota Sioux Indians and the United States Government: Press Conference Announcing Unilateral Withdrawal of Lakota Nation From All U.S. Treaties and Return to Independence.
WHERE: Plymouth Congregational Church 5301 N. Capital Street, NE, Washington DC
WHEN: 11:30am, Wednesday December 19, 2007
WHO: Lakota Freedom Delegation, representatives of Lakota Sioux Indians- an Indigenous First Nation of North America. Delegation includes Lakota activist and actor Russell Means; Oglala Lakota Strong Heart Society leader Duane Martin Sr.; Gary Rowland, Leader Chief Big Foot Riders, Women of Red Nations founder Phyllis Young, Pearl Denet Claw Daniel and others.
SUMMARY: For far too long our people have suffered at the hands of the colonial apartheid system imposed on the Lakota Sioux. Our treaties with the United States government are nothing more than worthless words on worthless paper – repeatedly violated in order to steal our culture, our land and our ability to maintain our way of life.
The devastation this has wrought is clear: + Lakota men have a life expectancy of less than 44 years, lowest of any country in the World (excluding AIDS) including Haiti. + The Lakota infant mortality rate is 5x the U.S. Average.+ The Tuberculosis rate on Lakota reservations is approx 800% higher than the U.S national average. + 97% of our Lakota people live below the poverty line.+ Unemployment rates on our reservations are approximately 85%. + Teenage suicide rate is 150% higher than the U.S national average for this group.+ Our Lakota language is an Endangered Language, on the verge of extinction.
We have no choice but to take this historic action to protect our people and our way of life, and reclaim our freedom from the colonial systems of the United States Government. So we travel to Washington D.C. to withdraw from our treaties with the United States and announce full return of our sovereign status under Article 6 of the U.S. Constitution, International and Natural Law.
We are the freedom loving Lakota from the Sioux Indian reservations of Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana who have suffered from cultural and physical genocide in the colonial apartheid system we have been forced to live under. We are in Washington DC to withdraw from the constitutionally mandated treaties to become a free and independent country. We are alerting the Family of Nations we have now reassumed our freedom and independence with the backing of Natural, International, and United States law. For more information, please visit our new website at www.lakotafreedom.com (http://www.lakotafreedom.com). Lakota; 444 Crazy Horse Drive; P.O. Box 99; Porcupine, SD 57772.[/b]
News article
Descendants of Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse break away from US
11 hours ago
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://www.lakotafreedom.com/