Great! Lakota are intitled to do this when you look at the way the are treated over the last 150 years (and more). I hope they will succeed. Concerning international law they have all the rights to do so. I am curious how the US administration will handle this.
The will try to cheat again I think.

Mark is looking at this from the view that non-Indians own this land. Indians own their own lands and maintain sovereign governments. The U.S. has backed out on treaties, so Lakotas want to have their independence. The U.S. should stand up to its Constitutional obligations and uphold the treaty rights of these sovereign nations, so they don’t feel forced to make political statements such as these. It’s just the right thing to do.

Trying to play devil’s advocate here. What exactly do they hope to accomplish with this move? The US will surely not recognize their claim. Even if it does, what changes for them? Now instead of some, if very little, aid from the US they get none. They get just about everything a regular American citizen gets, don’t they? (free education, medicare, socail security, tell me if I’m wrong because I’m not sure) Plus they already get to self govern so what is their beef? Do they want to go back to their culture pre-1850 and roam around around the country living in tepees hunting buffalo? I’m guessing that is not it. Or are they looking for a free hand up? Again, I do not think that could be it either. The only thing I can plausibly think of is respect, but this is a very dangerous way to try and get that.

Also, what specifically is their problem with the treaties. All the google searches I do on the subject only seem to come up with this story, in various forms. All I see is the blanket “white people are taking our things” phrase from the Lakotas. (taking your children? comeon)

There is a treaty — hundreds of them, in fact. If the U.S. wants to go to war with Native America, so be it. They can’t desecrate us any more than they already have. And we have won.

bushsux, you can move to any Indian reservation you want — just be sure to bring money to help the people out.

Yes they should start a war.

For a country with such a horrible history, the U.S. leaders sure likes to think they are above everything. It’s nice that they can start wars in other countries, pretend to liberate the countries that want nothing to do with the stars and stripes and ignore treaties with Native American tribes. I wish more tribes would demand the U.S. lives up to the signed treaties or tell them that they are taking a hike, along with their land and resources.

Some tribes have proven to be successful with casinos that help fund various tribal activities and health care so they don’t even need the greedy U.S. gov’t. Hopefully these tribes with really successful business operations could work with the tribes that are hurting.

Very short sighted commentary by Joop. There is now no way to “cheat” since there are no treaties. What the U.S. can now legally do is deny overflight rights so that the Lakotas will not be able to fly over U.S. territory. That means no flights at all out of their “country”. The U.S. can also require the Lakotas to go through a lengthy Visa process in order to leave their “country” by land if at all. Trade with the Lakotas can be restricted or made illegal. In short, the future for the Lakotas looks very dismal. All of this assumes however that our politicians have any sense and guts and would do what was in the best interest of the United States and we all know that that is not the case.

So what makes you think the US will immediately slap a Cuba style embargo on the country? It’s possible that it can be a nation within a nation. The most likely scenario the US government will do is just ignore the whole damn thing. They’ll treat it as a non-issue and if there are any protests they’ll ignore them and treat any physical acts as crimes or domestic terror.
I don’t think the US government will even acknowledge it.

Thanks for calling us all idiots.

I have a right to form my own sovereign nation. Look in the Constitution, buddy. I’m a card carrying Indian. You idiots know nothing about Indian law.

Thanks for calling us all idiots.

I have a right to form my own sovereign nation. Look in the Constitution, buddy. I’m a card carrying Indian. You idiots know nothing about Indian law.

I’m sorry — not you. I just get so mad at people who know nothing about Indian rights carrying on like they should rule us again.

Dear all, my first statement remains. Laws (made after the invasion) by the Founding Fathers are based on european ones. I am interested in history and I believe that I can tell if there is great unjustment done. I think it’s time to pay the interest.
I also would like to talk ‘with’ native American Lakota, instead talking ‘about’ them!
When discussions start as if you are in the trenches, ‘open’ discussions will fail.
Everybody needs a place to be him- or herself. In mind, in deed and on earth.
I know that most native Americans didn’t know the words for ‘owning land’.
There philosophy and perspective was/is differend. And what I like most of it: THEIR LACK OF GREED. For me this is a great example. Hope ‘our’ western world didn’t infected there minds too much.
To find out how Lakota people think, I would like you all to read one of my fafourite books called: ‘Hanta Yo’, written by Ruth Beebee Hill. She’s American. She translated and converted here novel from english to the lakota language with advice of Lakota seniors. The funny thing is that a lot of english words are gone because there are no words for it. And even so they had an respectful way off communicating and being completely individual without being asocial. Their community had an very sophisticated democratic system. I think it is mind blowing!
By the way, I live in Holland.

This statement was done in response to the several decades of the United Stated government refusing to uphold its treaties yet insisting that they were doing the right thing. Remember friends, the entire United States was founded by thieves and English prisoners who were trying to get away from their “civilization.” If the hundreds of treaties that our “forefathers” established with native american nations are able to be broken, then the entire constitution and bill of rights has absolutely no legal or moral standing as well. All of these documents were created with the same intentions, therefore if one of these documents no longer has to be upheld, then NONE of these documents has to be upheld. The Lakota are a brave and extremely peaceful people, this act of freedom will ring throughout America and will cause some sort of change, because if the Lakotas don’t receive the change they deserve (poorest region in the western hemisphere, including Haiti!!), then those Americans who have felt like ants for so many years will raise a feeling of anarchy and will stand up, in unison with the Lakota, against the grasshoppers that are our United States government. May the Lakota be successful in the awareness that they are trying to raise amongst the otherwise blind and deaf American people!!

Hey Irgo, Do you ave an urge to conquer the whole world? What’s wrong with small settlements with it’s own culture, trying to live in peace? In the US today there is more killing than in the day’s before the white tsunami.

Irgo is sadly uneducated thinking that the land here was vastly unsettled when the whites arrived. There where millions of natives who had lived here for thousands of years at that point. Just because they didn’t pave over everything does not mean that the land was not being used by humans. And thinking that the different languages and tribal conflicts justifies the genocide Europeans practiced upon our peoples is a stupid and self-serving point of view. Irgo, you just don’t want to have to give back the things your great-granddaddy stole from “us.”

Europeans wouldn’t have even gotten a toehold here if the natives on the coasts hadn’t saved their stupid asses!!! Maybe we shouldn’t have.

I am the product of the melting pot we call America and my tribal heritage has been stolen from me. So much so that the crazy whites here who call themselves Miami Indians make ignorant remarks such as “We are glad you think you are Piankashaw.” (I can verify my piankashaw heritage, but I can’t verify the Cherokee - go figure!)They don’t even know the history of the relationship of my tribe to theirs! At least I still look Native to those with eyes to see, unlike the vast majority of the people who claim to be Miami.

The US Government has been violating the treaties it signed with my ancestors for hundreds of years. I read them and there is no expiration date on them, so the US Gov’t MUST abide by them, and because they haven’t I do not feel bound to live by their other laws either.

I want the Lakota to succeed. Even if the Piankashaw tribe is almost totally destroyed, it makes my heart glad to see the Native peoples fighting for their rightful legacy. And I will gladly give up my US citizenship to live in a desolate country with people whose heartsong is more similar to my own, Cuba style embargo or no. The natives didn’t need the whites back then and we don’t need them now. We need to teach the old ways again, and much love to those who are doing this important work.

The sky is red. The time has come!

Then let the US crush them and see how that plays to the rest of the world.