Lakota Sioux Indian representatives declared sovereign nation
status on Wednesday, December 19th 2007 in Washington
D.C. following Monday’s withdrawal from all previously signed
treaties with the U.S. Government. The withdrawal, hand
delivered to Daniel Turner, Deputy Director of Public Liaison at
the State Department, immediately and irrevocably ends all
agreements between the Lakota Sioux Nation of Indians and
the United States Government outlined in the 1851 and 1868
Treaties at Fort Laramie, Wyoming.

“This is a historic day for our Lakota people,” declared Russell
Means, Itacan of Lakota. “United States colonial rule is at its
end!”

“Today is a historic day and our forefathers speak through us.
Our Forefathers made the treaties in good faith with the sacred
Canupa and with the knowledge of the Great Spirit,” shared
Garry Rowland from Wounded Knee. “They never honored the
treaties, that’s the reason we are here today.”



These are great news for those who (still) believe in poetic
justice and a slap in the face for the U.S. authorities who
usually ride roughshod over people's rights and liberties
without paying the bill for those misdeeds. It is to be hoped
that more indigenous peoples will follow suit.

Read more at the Independent Media Center.

For a brilliant historical account of the dispossession, expulsion
and deprivation of the Native American Indians in the late 19th
century see Dee Brown, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.