Lakota Indians Withdraw Treaties Signed With U.S.

WASHINGTON — The Lakota Indians, who gave the world legendary warriors Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, have withdrawn from treaties with the United States.

"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 said.

A delegation of Lakota leaders has delivered a message to the State Department, and said they were unilaterally withdrawing from treaties they signed with the federal government of the U.S., some of them more than 150 years old.

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 U.S. citizenship, Mr Means said.

I pose this question to American taxpayers; why do you allow your taxpayer money to be used to cause death and distruction to millions of people around the world? Yet you do not say a thing when your government refuses to spend any taxpayers money to relieve the disastrous destruction of a natural disaster such as the Tsunami or the 100,000 dying in the Sudan of starvation and millions in other parts of the world? To use and overuse colloquialism. What is wrong with this picture?

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.

ARTICLE 5. The aforesaid Indian nations do hereby recognize and acknowledge the following tracts ofcountry, included within the metes and boundaries hereinafter designated, as their respective territories,viz;

The territory of the Sioux or Dahcotah Nation, commencing the mouth of the White Earth River, on theMissouri River; thence in a southwesterly direction to the forks of the Platte River; thence up the northfork of the Platte River to a point known as the Red Buts, or where the road leaves the river; thence alongthe range of mountains known as the Black Hills, to the head-waters of Heart River; thence down HeartRiver to its mouth; and thence down the Missouri River to the place of beginning.

It is, however, understood that, in making this recognition and acknowledgement, the aforesaid Indian
nations do not hereby abandon or prejudice any rights or claims they may have to other lands; and further,
that they do not surrender the privilege of hunting, fishing, or passing over any of the tracts of country
heretofore described.