On Dec. 17, 2007, the Sioux Native Americans of the Lakota Tribe declared themselves a sovereign nation, independent from the United States. Since 1851, the tribe has engaged in 33 treaties with the US, none of which have to date been honored. According to Russell Means, founder of the American Indian Movement, the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties of 1980 gives the Lakota the legal right to secede.
And why wouldn't they want to? Under US jurisdiction, the reservation has seen an infant mortality rate 300 percent higher than the average US infant group; the second largest incarceration rate in the country; 97 percent of the Lakota tribe below the poverty line; among numerous other problems including unemployment, alcoholism, disease and resource theft (according to nowpublic.com).
Despite these horrific statistics, there has scarcely been any mainstream coverage regarding the secession. In fact, two months later, the US State Department has still not responded to the Lakotas' declaration. But it's not as if no one has heard the call; news outlets in Russia, France and Turkey, as well as Al Jazeera, Polish TV and BBC have all covered the event. In addition, the Republic of Lakotah has appealed to a number of countries for international support, who will, with any luck, put political pressure on the US to recognize the new nation.
The only one not involved is the very country from which the Lakota have seceded. Does the State Department plan to simply ignore the factitious Republic of Lakotah until it eventually goes away? Laugh at it until it becomes embarrassed of itself? This process sounds historically like the treatment of any grassroots group that poses a threat to empire.
For hundreds of years, the British Empire could not let go of its colonial Ireland because that would send a signal of weakness to the rest of the world. The same is true of the Lakota's struggle for independence: With US power slipping in so many sectors, to let Lakotah loose would only reinforce the emerging image of the United States as bumbling and clownish. Because of this, it is unlikely that the US government will loosen its grip any time soon. (Strange, then, that the US would support the independence of Kosovo.)
There is furthermore an obvious convenience tied to keeping natives under the American government's thumb: By not recognizing the Lakota as a nation, the US is able to continue exploiting their land and their resources, leaving their communities to languish amid perpetual treaty violations and unsustainable living conditions. Besides, their new Republic of Lakotah map carves out large sections of North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska and Montana, which would make a hefty dent in the cartography of America. More direly, however, it would make the Lakota for the first time visible.
The United States government can only pretend not to see Native Americans for so long - as Gandhi said, "First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win."
This would not be the first declaration of independence that America has seen. And in light of politicians' insistent "freedom" rhetoric, the continued colonial existence of the Lakota is indeed disturbing. Isn't it about time that we gave the real Americans the freedom they deserve?
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
