'Fighting terrorism since 1492'
Friday, January 25, 2008 at 20:09 - From: ISN
- Image: coyotescorner.com, ISN
American Indians have suffered under foreign invaders for 500 years. Now the descendents of Sitting Bull are fighting back, withdrawing from treaties with Washington..
By John C K Daly for ISN Security Watch (25/01/08)
Editor's Note: This is the first in a three-part series on separatist movements in the United States.
The Native American Lakota Sioux tribe has declared independence from the US unilaterally, citing a string of broken treaties dating back to the 19th century.
In the wake of 9/11, the Bush administration declared a dual global campaign, a war against terror and a US-led effort to promote democracy around the world. The latter campaign has resonated within the US, with secessionist movements agitating for the values that Washington proclaims abroad: from American Indians through secessionist movements in the two most recent states added to the Union, Alaska and Hawaii, all the way to one of the original 13 colonies, Vermont.
While the efforts have been largely ignored or ridiculed by the mainstream press, because of the internet and the evolving global communications network, their causes have attracted immense interest abroad.
On 17 December, the Sioux "Lakota Freedom Delegation" delivered a seven-page document of "unilateral withdrawal" from the US to the State Department in Washington. The withdrawal notice was hand-delivered to Daniel Turner, deputy director of Public Liaison at the State Department.
The document, entitled "Lakotah Unilateral Withdrawal from All Agreements and Treaties with the United States of America," states: "Lakotah, formally and unilaterally withdraws from all agreements and treaties imposed by the United States government on the Lakota People."
The eight-member group included Lakota Sioux activist Russell Means, Women of All Red Nations (WARN) founder Phyllis Young, Oglala Lakota Strong Heart Society leader Duane Martin Sr and Wounded Knee incident veteran Gary Rowland.
Means, a long-time Sioux Indian activist, politician and actor, led the group, which also visited the embassies of Bolivia, Venezuela, Chile and South Africa to share the declaration.
According to Means, both Ireland and East Timor have expressed that they are "very interested" in the declaration; Iceland and Finland have also shown interest. Means said that the document would also be delivered to the UN and to state and county governments covered by treaties.
Bolivian Ambassador Gustavo Guzman, who attended the press conference at Washington's Plymouth Congregational Church out of solidarity, took the Lakotas' declaration of independence very seriously.
"We are here because the demands of indigenous people of America are our demands. We have sent all the documents they presented to the embassy to our Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bolivia and they'll analyze everything," he commented to those present.
Means' group, based in Porcupine on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, is not an agency or branch of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. Means joined the American Indian Movement (AIM) in 1968 and became its first national director two years later. He has remained at the forefront of Indian activism, leading AIM's 1972 takeover of the Bureau of Indian Affairs office in Washington, DC and the group's occupation of Wounded Knee a year later.
The Republic of Lakota, based on the 1851 treaty, includes parts of Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming.
Age of communication, age of recognition
While the US media largely either ridiculed or ignored the declaration, it attracted intense interest abroad. In fact, The Republic of Lakota's website crashed after receiving more than 500,000 hits in the week following the declaration.
Dr John C K Daly is a Washington DC-based consultant and an adjunct scholar at the Middle East Institute.
