General Discussion

Algernon Moncrieff

(5,790 posts) Mon May 26, 2014, 11:18 AM May 2014

ICTMN: At UN, Oglala Lakota Says US Defies International Law to Steal Land, Water and Billions...

At UN, Oglala Lakota Says US Defies International Law to Steal Land, Water and Billions in Resources

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The Oglala Lakota Nation, is the historic and traditional homeland to some of the fiercest resistance against invasion and settler colonialism in the world; home to the great leaders, Crazy Horse, Red Cloud, Fools Crow and Russell Means; location of the historic opposition to the United States government at Wounded Knee in 1973, and home to the first international treaty conference in 1974, that laid the foundation for much of the work of Indigenous Peoples’ decolonization, including the Declaration about which we now speak. The Lakota Nation has a very long experience with the bad governance practices of invading settler states, but today we will limit our remarks specifically to the practices of the United States of America.

We continue to insist that the Oglala Lakota Nation possesses the unfettered, international legal right to self-determination. Article 3 of the UN Declaration affirms the full enjoyment of our inherent, natural right to self-determination, without limit and without qualification. We reject any limited interpretation of Article 3 of the Declaration, and we recall that Indigenous Peoples, in the drafting process of the UNDRIP, demanded that the international right of self-determination be applied to Indigenous Peoples in the same manner that it has been applied to all other peoples under colonial or foreign subjugation, domination or occupation. The denial of the rights embodied in Article 3 by the United States government, through its law and policies, presents a clinical case of governance that is fundamentally inconsistent with the UNDRIP.

The Oglala Lakota Nation further rejects the assertions of the United States government, as stated in its announcement of December 9, 2010, that the UNDRIP calls for “a distinct international concept of self-determination specific to Indigenous Peoples.” The Oglala Lakota Nation rejects the fabricated claim of the United States that the Declaration is intended “to promote the development of a concept of self-determination for indigenous peoples that is different from the existing right of self-determination in international law.” There is nothing in the historical record, or in the debates of the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations, that lends any legitimacy or credence to the U.S.’ distorted interpretation of the Declaration or its application. For the United States, or any state, to attempt to revise history, in an attempt to provide a unilateral and self-serving interpretation of the Declaration, is a prima facie case of bad governance.

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On April 22, 2014, in Kiev, Ukraine, U.S. Vice-President Joseph Biden proclaimed that, “no nation – no nation – has the right to simply grab land from another nation. No nation has that right.” (emphasis added) We agree. The United States, in constant violation of principles of good governance “grabbed” and continues to occupy, the lands, territories and resources of the Lakota Nation. The United States continues to occupy our territories, including our most sacred spiritual, ceremonial areas in the He Sapa (Black Hills). It refuses to engage in best practices in resolving the land disputes over our territories under illegal occupation, in violation of our treaties. Because of its refusal, the U.S. has allowed the theft of hundreds of square miles of our territory, much of our sacred water, billions of dollars of natural resources including gold, timber, coal, and destroyed our ability to achieve and maintain economic self-determination.