Yay for the Lakota!

[Hydra]

The Lakota Sioux Indians, whose ancestors include Sitting Bull, Red Cloud and Crazy Horse, have withdrawn from all treaties their forefathers signed with the U.S. government and have declared their independence. A delegation delivered the news to the State Department earlier this week.

<snip>

"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," said Russell Means, a longtime Indian rights activist. "This is according to the laws of the United States, specifically Article 6 of the Constitution," which states that treaties are the supreme law of the land.

<snip>

The new country would issue its own passports and driver licenses, and living there would be tax-free, provided residents renounce their U.S. citizenship, he said, according to a report from Agence France-Presse.

The Lakota say the United States has never honored the pacts, signed with the Great Sioux Nation in 1851 and 1868 at Fort Laramie, Wyo.

http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2007/12/lakota-withdraw.html

-------------------------------------

I hope they pull this off, and that Blackwater doesn't get sent in.

[sniffa]

1. you're gonna get it

there's a few angry DUers about this.

:popcorn:

[Hydra]

2. I know

and I want to see who they are and why.

:evilgrin:

[sniffa]

3. i don't know/remember who

but Al Sharpton will be mentioned. :hi:

[Hydra]

7. No flames yet

*surprised*

[K Gardner]

4. We have the internet and TV today.. not something we had as the Indians were systematically

exterminated early on. I've worked on the Navaho and Hopi Reservations. It's not a life anyone would want to live. Generations of abuse and neglect later, I applaud their tenacity and wish them Peace and Prosperity.

[Dhalgren]

5. Hear! Hear! I am with you Hydra!

Any wind "is a fresh wind that blows against the Empire."

[Quixote1818]

6. This is awesome! This really makes me happy! I hope more Indian Tribes do the same thing.

nt

[Hydra]

8. I hope so too

and I hope this gets the ball rolling. As Patrick Henry said:

"The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government -- lest it come to dominate our lives and interests."

[glowing]

11. It would be hard going alone... Many reservations and Indian tribes

are allowed a lot of grants and subsidies from the US govt... It will take other countries outside of our own to recognize the Lakota as a Sovereign country and to accept their currency and set up trade... I wish them the best, and if it gets too bad, hope they're accepting new nationals.

[Hydra]

13. The hardest thing for them would probably be food and fuel

if they can manage that, I suspect the rest will be easy. Our economic system is cumbersome and self-defeating- it's far easier to do it when you don't have fat-cats running the show.

As for the Currency, as long as it can be traded for goods(considered "safe"), there's no trouble there either.

[glowing]

27. Probably the reason they are working with Venezuala and a few other

countries... I think its awesome for them... Too long they've been screwed from their homeland.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

9. Too many so called "white men" have played the serpent to

far too many for far too long.

http://ngeorgia.com/history/nghisttt.html

In his book Don't Know Much About History, Kenneth C. Davis writes:

Hollywood has left the impression that the great Indian wars came in the Old West during the late 1800's, a period that many think of simplistically as the "cowboy and Indian" days. But in fact that was a "mopping up" effort. By that time the Indians were nearly finished, their subjugation complete, their numbers decimated. The killing, enslavement, and land theft had begun with the arrival of the Europeans. But it may have reached its nadir when it became federal policy under President (Andrew) Jackson.



"I would sooner be honestly damned than hypocritically immortalized"
Davy Crockett
His political career destroyed because he supported the Cherokee, he left Washington D. C. and headed west to Texas.

[Hydra]

10. It's hard to disguise genocide

but they sure tried. I always wondered as a kid why the "Indians" were such a threat to the "brave cowboys" when they only had bows(patent BS, of course).

[Hydra]

12. Nice to have 2 votes

do you think we can get this to the greatest?

[Desertrose]

14. Well here's a K&R for ya

I think it's #5.

:)
Peace
DR

[Hydra]

28. Thanks!

:yourock:

[formercia]

15. The GOONS aren't going to like this.

'ndians killing Indians.

The boys always get other 'ndians to do the dirty work.

just like they did to Sitting Bull:

http://www.bgsu.edu/departments/acs/1890s/woundedknee/sitbull.html

[Didereaux]

16. Means is a LEECH and does NOT represent the Lakota tribe! end of fucking discussion

[Truth2Tell]

18. end of fucking discussion?

Rage against the machine doesn't think so:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdhk3kau3yI

Sooo.. Leech? Please, do tell us why... :shrug:

[AZ Criminal JD]

17. The OP is false. The Lakota tribe has not withdrawn from anything

Russell Means is a long time grandstander who only represents himself. Whenever he has run for office the Lakota voters have rejected him.

[Truth2Tell]

19. Link please

Show me where Means has run for office...

My understanding is that Means (and many others) reject the existing tribal leadership as a construct of the White Man's system. Who are you or I to say who represents the Lakota?

[AZ Criminal JD]

22. You have got to be kidding

Means run in 1974 for the Presidency of his native Oglala Sioux tribe against the incumbent Dick Wilson. Means lost the election.

Since then he has resigned from the American Indian Movement six times. He has joined the Libertarian Party and contested Ron Paul for the nomination for who could be the nuttest. Paul won that time in a close vote.

If you are going to pretend to know something about American Indians (Means term) then you should find another horse to ride.

http://www.aimovement.org/moipr/onrussellmeans.html

[Truth2Tell]

26. I'm not going to pretend

to know much about it. But this I do know: There are two sides to this story, and two versions of the splitting up of AIM. And it's not up to me or any other white American (you?) to declare which side is legit.

[K Gardner]

20. Recommended Reading: "In the Spirit of Crazy Horse" by

Peter Matthiessen and "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee". Means has a very long and troubled history with AIM. I will have to research further, as I wasn't aware the facts were in dispute, but certainly understand if Means is in dispute. If anyone would like to clear it up, I'd love to hear it. It is an issue that is close to my heart. Otherwise, I'll figure it out :-)

[sniffa]

21. ah, i see the angry ones have shown up

:patriot:

[K Gardner]

23. You'll only get one of two extremes if the subject matter is centered on Russell

Means. Can't really blame them when you go back to 1975 and Pine Ridge.

[sniffa]

24. but i love how this is dismissed because of him

it's like another side dismissing something because it's associated with Michael Moore, regardless of it's truthiness.

[K Gardner]

25. Well, yes and no..

AIM splintered back in the early 1990s. Means called his group the Anti-Imperialist Movement (or AIM), which is probably purposefully designed to look like... AIM (American Indian Movement). I'm not going to comment further because I just don't know enough about the rift and its relation to what is going on currently.