Lakota Sioux withdrawal

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[Michael]

Freedom! Lakota Sioux Indians Declare Sovereign Nation Status

Threaten Land Liens, Contested Real Estate Over Five State Area in U.S. West

Lakota Satisfies Treaty Council Mandate of 33 Years, Drafted by 97 Indigenous Nations

Dakota Territory Reverts back to Lakota Control According to U.S., International Law

Washington D.C.  – Lakota Sioux Indian representatives declared sovereign nation status today in Washington D.C. following Monday’s withdrawal from all previously signed treaties with the United States 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 an 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.”

The four member Lakota delegation traveled to Washington D.C. culminating years of internal discussion among treaty representatives of the various Lakota communities. Delegation members included well known activist and actor Russell Means, Women of All Red Nations (WARN) founder Phyllis Young, Oglala Lakota Strong Heart Society leader Duane Martin Sr., and Garry Rowland, Leader Chief Big Foot Riders. Means, Rowland, Martin Sr. were all members of the 1973 Wounded Knee takeover.

“In order to stop the continuous taking of our resources – people, land, water and children- we have no choice but to claim our own destiny,” said Phyllis Young, a former Indigenous representative to the United Nations and representative from Standing Rock.

Property ownership in the five state area of Lakota now takes center stage. Parts of North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming and Montana have been illegally homesteaded for years despite knowledge of Lakota as predecessor sovereign [historic owner]. Lakota representatives say if the United States does not enter into immediate diplomatic negotiations, liens will be filed on real estate transactions in the five state region, clouding title over literally thousands of square miles of land and property.

Young added, “The actions of Lakota are not intended to embarrass the United States but to simply save the lives of our people”.

Following Monday’s withdrawal at the State Department, the four Lakota Itacan representatives have been meeting with foreign embassy officials in order to hasten their official return to the Family of Nations.

Lakota’s efforts are gaining traction as Bolivia, home to Indigenous President Evo Morales, shared they are “very, very interested in the Lakota case” while Venezuela received the Lakota delegation with “respect and solidarity.”

“Our meetings have been fruitful and we hope to work with these countries for better relations,” explained Garry Rowland. “As a nation, we have equal status within the national community.”

Education, energy and justice now take top priority in emerging Lakota. “Cultural immersion education is crucial as a next step to protect our language, culture and sovereignty,” said Means. “Energy independence using solar, wind, geothermal, and sugar beets enables Lakota to protect our freedom and provide electricity and heating to our people.”

The Lakota reservations are among the most impoverished areas in North America, a shameful legacy of broken treaties and apartheid policies. Lakota has the highest death rate in the United States and Lakota men have the lowest life expectancy of any nation on earth, excluding AIDS, at approximately 44 years. Lakota infant mortality rate is five times the United States average and teen suicide rates 150% more than national average . 97% of Lakota people live below the poverty line and unemployment hovers near 85%.

“After 150 years of colonial enforcement, when you back people into a corner there is only one alternative,” emphasized Duane Martin Sr. “The only alternative is to bring freedom into its existence by taking it back to the love of freedom, to our lifeway.”

We are the freedom loving Lakota from the Sioux Indian reservations of Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana who have suffered from cultural and physical genocide in the colonial apartheid system we have been forced to live under. We are in Washington DC to withdraw from the constitutionally mandated treaties to become a free and independent country. We are alerting the Family of Nations we have now reassumed our freedom and independence with the backing of Natural, International, and United States law. For more information, please visit our new website at www.lakotafreedom.com.

[jimtzu]

Pilamaya (thank you in Lakota) Michael.  i saw a shortened article on this earlier today.  it will be interesting to see what, if any, effect this has on things.  when you have a culture that declares Manifest Destiny and has broken every treaty, in one way or another, it's hard to believe that anything substantial will come of this, but who knows.. change  is in the wind.

[jimtzu]

same news.. different source:

Descendants of Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse break away from US
23 hours ago

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

"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 told a handful of reporters and a delegation from the Bolivian embassy, gathered in a church in a run-down neighborhood of Washington for a news conference.

A delegation of Lakota leaders delivered a message to the State Department on Monday, announcing they were unilaterally withdrawing from treaties they signed with the federal government of the United States, some of them more than 150 years old.

They also visited the Bolivian, Chilean, South African and Venezuelan embassies, and will continue on their diplomatic mission and take it overseas in the coming weeks and months, they told the news conference.

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 US citizenship, Means said.

The treaties signed with the United States are merely "worthless words on worthless paper," the Lakota freedom activists say on their website.

The treaties have been "repeatedly violated in order to steal our culture, our land and our ability to maintain our way of life," the reborn freedom movement says.

Withdrawing from the treaties was entirely legal, Means said.

"This is according to the laws of the United States, specifically article six of the constitution," which states that treaties are the supreme law of the land, he said.

"It is also within the laws on treaties passed at the Vienna Convention and put into effect by the US and the rest of the international community in 1980. We are legally within our rights to be free and independent," said Means.

The Lakota relaunched their journey to freedom in 1974, when they drafted a declaration of continuing independence -- an overt play on the title of the United States' Declaration of Independence from England.

Thirty-three years have elapsed since then because "it takes critical mass to combat colonialism and we wanted to make sure that all our ducks were in a row," Means said.

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.

"We have 33 treaties with the United States that they have not lived by. They continue to take our land, our water, our children," Phyllis Young, who helped organize the first international conference on indigenous rights in Geneva in 1977, told the news conference.

The US "annexation" of native American land has resulted in once proud tribes such as the Lakota becoming mere "facsimiles of white people," said Means.

Oppression at the hands of the US government has taken its toll on the Lakota, whose men have one of the shortest life expectancies -- less than 44 years -- in the world.

Lakota teen suicides are 150 percent above the norm for the United States; infant mortality is five times higher than the US average; and unemployment is rife, according to the Lakota freedom movement's website.

"Our people want to live, not just survive or crawl and be mascots," said Young.

"We are not trying to embarrass the United States. We are here to continue the struggle for our children and grandchildren," she said, predicting that the battle would not be won in her lifetime.

[Nickeson]

Means has been planning this for a long time. In 1976, or whenever forever ago, I was writing a text book on Native American Water Rights, hanging out in D.C. I was asked to go to a private home a couple of blocks behind the Capital Building where I met with Means and some of his lawyers...Indian law specialists and criminal defense types (he needed both at the time)...and gave them all a short hand lesson in water rights and strategies on how to claim god's own amount of water for their liberated sovereignty. This was going on while on the other side of the Capital Building Jimmy Carter was being sworn in as the President.

[jimtzu]

thanks Steven, i thought you might have something to add from your experiences from back in the day.  Means and Leonard Peltier were part of the American Indian Movement (AIM) in the 70's when it came to a head at the Wounded Knee incident, Peltier was arrested and convicted and is still serving time for killing and FBI agent. back then any group that had an antigovernment view were targeted and since there were uranium deposits on the South Dakota rez's they were put down and taken out so access could be had to the uranium for national security.  the Lakota and some of the southwest tribes are some of the poorest people in this country, holding onto their traditional ways, and in the case of the Lakota, an extreme bias due to the fact that they inflicted the most memorable and recent defeat to the amercian military (Custer). AIM doesn't speak for all the NDN's, especially those who have been co-opted and in case of those of the smaller, eastern tribes who now have casinos in their names. 
it does seem like they have their legal ducks in a row and it will be interesting to see what develops. 

[henry]

first, commendations to jimtzu for his support of lakota causes. beginning with alcatraz in 1964 through wounded knee in 1973, the native movement energized the "counter-culture" and a few celebrities( remember sasheen littlefeather's refusal of brando's oscar?). now there is much broader and influential support. hopefully the resolution of this will have a healing impact on our planet ..henry

[jimtzu]

Pilameya! Many thanks to all people who are sharing their support and solidarity with us. The whole world is watching! We have heard from people all over the world: Turtle Island, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Russia, Eastern and Western Europe, Australia and our Native sisters and brothers in Hawaii.

http://lakotafreedom.com/index.html

[Jana]

"Property ownership in the five state area of Lakota now takes center stage. Parts of North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming and Montana have been illegally homesteaded for years despite knowledge of Lakota as predecessor sovereign [historic owner]. Lakota representatives say if the United States does not enter into immediate diplomatic negotiations, liens will be filed on real estate transactions in the five state region, clouding title over literally thousands of square miles of land and property."

That is an interesting precedent....however the whiteys won't allow "their" land to be confiscated...and the Lakota has no military power against the US. Lakota will also forfeit aid (for what its worth). If the Lakota get restitution...then all indiginous people around the world will regain some power in their human rights. Maori have been given many tokens over the years but it still hasn't reinstated their society. So even if the Lakota was given all the land and resources coming to them, they may not be able to save their cultural health. This is very interesting. If the other Indian nations followed suit then there would be no land or resources left for the white americans...what fun!

[jimtzu]

the Lakota have never been compensated for the taking of the Black Hills. around the time it was taken, they were offered something like $6 million, but since it was a sacred place for them (they called it the heart of all things, hmmm where have i heard that before  )they decided to stand on principal and refused the money.  it was taken anyways and the money held by the BIA. a few years ago they were offered a settlement of around $3 billion and again refused. i think it goes to show that they have the resolve to put their money where there mouth is so to speak.

[jimtzu]

Lakota Sioux - The Bravest Americans

By Kathryn A. Graham

12/25/07 "Tribe" --- - And So It Begins

In an incredible irony, the very people that the United States have most oppressed throughout our history may hold the key to freedom for all of us.

Few Americans remember the siege at Wounded Knee in the mid-1970s, but perhaps they should. Members of the AIM, or the American Indian Movement, occupied parts of Pine Ridge in protest over the brutal killings of two of their own, the disgustingly mild prosecutions for those murders, and the beating of the mother of one of those two when she attempted to seek justice from the U.S. government. The AIM were seeking their rights under U.S. law and for the U.S. government to honor treaties with the American Indian that had been ignored for more than a century. It was a lawful - and a peaceful until attacked - protest.

In response, the FBI fired almost 200,000 rounds at the protesters (the protesters did fire weapons in their own defense, but only over their attackers' heads) in an illegal show of force that betrayed every ideal of real freedom. The siege at Wounded Knee lasted 71 days. This was Waco decades before Waco, largely ignored by the U.S. population due to media indifference and the fact that the victims were not white Americans.

Later, the defense team for Russell Means and Dennis Banks was infiltrated by a government informant, which led to perjured testimony and a very angry judge who stated that the government was more interested in convictions than in justice. South Dakota Judge Nichols was quoted as saying, "It's hard for me to believe that the FBI, which I have revered for so long, has stooped so low," and dismissed all charges against the defendants.

Apparently, all those years ago, at least a portion of our justice system still operated as it was designed to do.

Leonard Peltier was not so lucky. He was tried in North Dakota, and was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences in prison. He remains there today, even though evidence recovered after the siege clearly showed that the two FBI deaths were attributable to friendly fire. During his years in prison, through his art and letters, Peltier has continued to work for oppressed people everywhere.

Russell Means has remained free, and he has not been idle in the intervening decades. A committed libertarian, he has written several books, run for office on the Libertarian ticket, and continued to pursue a film career that has made him a household face and name. Apart from that, he has bided his time, waiting for just the right moment in history.

That moment has come. In September of this year, the United Nations passed a non-binding Resolution on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Naturally, Canada, the United States and Australia refused to sign, but this resolution paved the way for a move that has been waiting in the wings, so to speak, since the 1970s.

On Wednesday of this week, Russell Means led a delegation of the Lakota Sioux people to the U.S. State Department and the embassies of Bolivia, Chile, South Africa and Venezuela, declaring their secession from the United States of America.

Means stated, "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." The lands of the Lakota Sioux encompass portions of Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana. In the coming weeks, they will take their diplomatic mission overseas to seek further support.

Means also stated that anyone willing to renounce their U.S. citizenship would live on Lakota land tax free, and that the Lakota would issue their own passports and driving licenses. Since a large group of libertarians have recently moved to Wyoming, this opens up some interesting possibilities for a free society growing up in our midst.

The coming road will not be an easy one. I cannot see the U.S. neo-conservatives leaving this alone. I imagine that there will be another bloody and vicious siege taking place on Lakota land, but I also believe that Means has timed his move correctly. If this happens as I fear it will, the neo-conservatives will be the clear authors of their own destruction. The American people have had enough!

You go, Russell!! You are the bravest and best of us, and the sanest and best of America stands with you in the trials you will face over the coming months and years.

Kathryn A. Graham, author of Flight From Eden and America Hijacked!.
 

[Daniel]

I saw this report with two thumbs up 

[jimtzu]

the Big Foot ride is going on as we speak...

The Big Foot Memorial Ride starts at the site of Sitting Bull's log home, where he was killed by tribal police 110 years ago. The contemporary riders will retrace the route of Lakota who fled Standing Rock Reservation fearing for their safety. A group of about 100 joined Chief Big Foot's band at Cherry Creek. Big Foot led a large group through the Badlands. But federal troops intercepted the Indians near Porcupine and escorted them to Wounded Knee. On Dec. 29, 1890, more than 250 Lakota men, women, and children were massacred by the soldiers. The contemporary riders are retracing the entire route to commemorate the journey


Historical markers nearby tell the story of the massacre. They outline the events that led to Wounded Knee, beginning with Sitting Bull's death in a botched arrest Dec. 15, 1890. That caused about 40 of his followers to flee Standing Rock Reservation. They met up with Big Foot's people, many of whom were close to starving after a summer drought ruined their crops and the government provided only half the winter rations agreed to by treaty.

Convinced that Sitting Bull's death was a result of his perceived role as a leader in the new Ghost Dance religion many of them were practicing, and that they all were in danger, the group headed for the Badlands. They hoped to seek safety there among Oglala Ghost Dancers. The religion promised that the Messiah who had appeared to the whites would appear to Indians and cover earth and white civilization with a new land rich with bison and ponies.

Some whites, including the new agent on the Pine Ridge Reservation, construed this as a prelude to war. Their pleas for federal troops increased the presence of the U.S. Army on the northern plains in the winter of 1890.

Traveling at night to avoid detection, Big Foot's people crossed more than 140 miles of wintry South Dakota, but were discovered about five miles from Wounded Knee on Dec. 28. The chief himself was gravely ill with pneumonia. The Indians surrendered to an Army detachment and were taken under a flag of truce to camp at Wounded Knee Creek prior to being escorted to the nearby Red Cloud Agency.

During the night, the 7th Cavalry reinforced the command. In all, 470 soldiers now had charge of about 400 Indians. They surrounded the Indian camp and placed four Hotchkiss cannons on a low hill to the west.

The following morning, Col. James Forsyth, commanding the 7th Cavalry, wanted to disarm the Indians before proceeding to Red Cloud Agency. Displeased with the handful of worn and obsolete weapons produced, he directed troops to search the camp. In the process they roughly handled women and children, frightening them. The search apparently uncovered a rifle. A shot was fired in a struggle for possession of it.

According to the testimony of Joe Horn Cloud, who survived the massacre, an officer ordered the soldiers to fire into the ranks of about 90 warriors. Half fell, including Big Foot. The remainder, armed mostly with knives, clubs and desperation, threw themselves at the soldiers.

Two cannons on the hill opened up on the camp, lobbing two-pound explosive shells into tipis full of women and children. Survivors made for the ravine.

Today, it is choked in places with green ash, their trunks and branches brittle and bare in late December, and a power line crosses it in one place. In 1890, there was timber in there, too, according to testimony of survivors who described hiding in the brush. Some left shelter trying to rescue children caught in the open.

The cannons were repositioned to cover the ravine, and the soldiers on the shoulders of the draw pursued the fleeing Indians, raking them with gun fire. In the undisciplined shooting, 25 troops were killed and 39 wounded, mostly by their own people.

[jimtzu]

old... perhaps old hat... but still resonates today


"For America to Live, Europe Must Die"

By Russell Means

The following speech was given by Russell Means in July 1980, before several thousand people who had assembled from all over the world for the Black Hills International Survival Gathering, in the Black Hills of South Dakota. It is Russell Means' most famous speech.

11/01/08 "ICH" -- -- The only possible opening for a statement of this kind is that I detest writing. The process itself epitomizes the European concept of "legitimate" thinking; what is written has an importance that is denied the spoken. My culture, the Lakota culture, has an oral tradition, so I ordinarily reject writing. It is one of the white world's ways of destroying the cultures of non-European peoples, the imposing of an abstraction over the spoken relationship of a people.

So what you read here is not what I've written. It's what I've said and someone else has written down. I will allow this because it seems that the only way to communicate with the white world is through the dead, dry leaves of a book. I don't really care whether my words reach whites or not. They have already demonstrated through their history that they cannot hear, cannot see; they can only read (of course, there are exceptions, but the exceptions only prove the rule). I'm more concerned with American Indian people, students and others, who have begun to be absorbed into the white world through universities and other institutions. But even then it's a marginal sort of concern. It's very possible to grow into a red face with a white mind; and if that's a person's individual choice, so be it, but I have no use for them. This is part of the process of cultural genocide being waged by Europeans against American Indian peoples' today. My concern is with those American Indians who choose to resist this genocide, but who may be confused as to how to proceed.

(You notice I use the term American Indian rather than Native American or Native indigenous people or Amerindian when referring to my people. There has been some controversy about such terms, and frankly, at this point. I find it absurd. Primarily it seems that American Indian is being rejected as European in origin-which is true. But all the above terms are European in origin; the only non-European way is to speak of Lakota-or, more precisely, of Oglala, Brule, etc.-and of the Dineh, the Miccousukee, and all the rest of the several hundred correct tribal names.

(There is also some confusion about the word Indian, a mistaken belief that it refers somehow to the country, India. When Columbus washed up on the beach in the Caribbean, he was not looking for a country called India. Europeans were calling that country Hindustan in 1492. Look it up on the old maps. Columbus called the tribal people he met "Indio," from the Italian in dio, meaning "in God.")

It takes a strong effort on the part of each American Indian not to become Europeanized.
The strength for this effort can only come from the traditional ways, the traditional values that our elders retain. It must come from the hoop, the four directions, the relations: it cannot come from the pages of a book or a thousand books. No European can ever teach a Lakota to be Lakota, a Hopi to be Hopi. A master's degree in "Indian Studies" or in "education" or in anything else cannot make a person into a human being or provide knowledge into traditional ways. It can only make you into a mental European, an outsider.

I should be clear about something here, because there seems to be some confusion about it. When I speak of Europeans or mental Europeans, I'm not allowing for false distinctions. I'm not saying that on the one hand there are the by-products of a few thousand years of genocidal, reactionary. European intellectual development which is bad; and on the other hand there is some new revolutionary intellectual development which is good. I'm referring here to the so-called theories of Marxism and anarchism and "leftism" in general. I don't believe these theories can be separated from the rest of the of the European intellectual tradition. It's really just the same old song.

The process began much earlier. Newton, for example, "revolutionized" physics and the so-called natural sciences by reducing the physical universe to a linear mathematical equation. Descartes did the same thing with culture. John Locke did it with politics, and Adam Smith did it with economics. Each one of these "thinkers" took a piece of the spirituality of human existence and converted it into code, an abstraction. They picked up where Christianity ended: they "secularized" Christian religion, as the "scholars" like to say- and in doing so they made Europe more able and ready to act as an expansionist culture. Each of these intellectual revolutions served to abstract the European mentality even further, to remove the wonderful complexity and spirituality from the universe and replace it with a logical sequence: one, two, three. Answer!

This is what has come to be termed "efficiency" in the European mind. Whatever is mechanical is perfect; whatever seems to work at the moment- that is, proves the mechanical model to be the right one- is considered correct, even when it is clearly untrue. This is why "truth" changes so fast in the European mind; the answers which result from such a process are only stopgaps, only temporary, and must be continuously discarded in favor of new stopgaps which support the mechanical models and keep them (the models) alive.

Hegel and Marx were heirs to the thinking of Newton, Descartes, Locke and Smith. Hegel finished the process of secularizing theology- and that is put in his own terms- he secularized the religious thinking through which Europe understood the universe. Then Marx put Hegel's philosophy in terms of "materialism," which is to say that Marx despiritualized Hegel's work altogether. Again, this is in Marx' own terms. And this is now seen as the future revolutionary potential of Europe. Europeans may see this as revolutionary, but American Indians see it simply as still more of that same old European conflict between being and gaining. The intellectual roots of a new Marxist form of European imperialism lie in Marx'- and his followers'- links to the tradition of Newton, Hegel and the others.

Being is a spiritual proposition. Gaining is a material act. Traditionally, American Indians have always attempted to be the best people they could. Part of that spiritual process was and is to give away wealth, to discard wealth in order not to gain. Material gain is an indicator of false status among traditional people, while it is "proof that the system works" to Europeans. Clearly, there are two completely opposing views at issue here, and Marxism is very far over to the other side from the American Indian view. But let's look at a major implication of this; it is not merely an intellectual debate.

The European materialist tradition of despiritualizing the universe is very similar to the mental process which goes into dehumanizing another person. And who seems most expert at dehumanizing other people? And why? Soldiers who have seen a lot of combat learn to do this to the enemy before going back into combat. Murderers do it before going out to commit murder. Nazi SS guards did it to concentration camp inmates. Cops do it. Corporation leaders do it to the workers they send into uranium mines and steel mills. Politicians do it to everyone in sight. And what the process has in common for each group doing the dehumanizing is that it makes it all right to kill and otherwise destroy other people. One of the Christian commandments says, "Thou shalt not kill," at least not humans, so the trick is to mentally convert the victims into nonhumans. Then you can proclaim violation of your own commandment as a virtue.

In terms of the despiritualization of the universe, the mental process works so that it becomes virtuous to destroy the planet. Terms like progress and development are used as cover words here, the way victory and freedom are to justify butchery in the dehumanization process. For example, a real-estate speculator may refer to "developing" a parcel of ground by opening a gravel quarry; development here means total, permanent destruction, with the earth itself removed. But European logic has gained a few tons of gravel with which more land can be "developed" through the construction of road beds. Ultimately, the whole universe is open- in the European view- to this sort of insanity.

Most important here, perhaps, is the fact that Europeans feel no sense of loss in all this. After all, their philosophers have despiritualized reality, so there is no satisfaction (for them) to be gained in simply observing the wonder of a mountain or a lake or a people in being. No, satisfaction is measured in terms of gaining material. So the mountain becomes gravel, and the lake becomes coolant for a factory, and the people are rounded up for processing through the indoctrination mills Europeans like to call schools.

But each new piece of that "progress" ups the ante out in the real world. Take fuel for the industrial machine as an example. Little more than two centuries ago, nearly everyone used wood- a replenishable, natural item- as fuel for the very human needs of cooking and staying warm. Along came the Industrial Revolution and coal became the dominant fuel, as production became the social imperative for Europe. Pollution began to become a problem in the cities, and the earth was ripped open to provide coal whereas wood had always simply been gathered or harvested at no great expense to the environment. Later, oil became the major fuel, as the technology of production was perfected through a series of scientific "revolutions." Pollution increased dramatically, and nobody yet knows what the environmental costs of pumping all that oil out of the ground will really be in the long run. Now there's an "energy crisis," and uranium is becoming the dominant fuel.

Capitalists, at least, can be relied upon to develop uranium as fuel only at the rate which they can show a good profit. That's there ethic, and maybe they will buy some time. Marxists, on the other hand, can be relied upon to develop uranium fuel as rapidly as possible simply because it's the most "efficient" production fuel available. That's their ethic, and I fail to see where it's preferable. Like I said, Marxism is right smack in the middle of European tradition. It's the same old song.

There's a rule of thumb which can be applied here. You cannot judge the real nature of a European revolutionary doctrine on the basis of the changes it proposes to make within the European power structure and society. You can only judge it by the effects it will have on non-European peoples. This is because every revolution in European history has served to reinforce Europe's tendencies and abilities to export destruction to other peoples, other cultures and the environment itself. I defy anyone to point out an example where this is not true.

So now we, as American Indian people, are asked to believe that a "new" European revolutionary doctrine such as Marxism will reverse the negative effects of European history on us. European power relations are to be adjusted once again, and that's supposed to make things better for all of us. But what does this really mean?

Right now, today, we who live on the Pine Ridge Reservation are living in what white society has designated a " National Sacrifice Area." What this means is that we have a lot of uranium deposits here, and white culture (not us) needs this uranium as energy production material. The cheapest, most efficient way for industry to extract and deal with the processing of this uranium is to dump the waste by-products right here at the digging sites. Right here where we live. This waste is radioactive and will make the entire region uninhabitable forever. This is considered by the industry, and by the white society that created this industry, to be an "acceptable" price to pay for energy resource development. Along the way they also plan to drain the water table under this part of South Dakota as part of the industrial process, so the region becomes doubly uninhabitable. The same sort of thing is happening down in the land of the Navajo and Hopi, up in the land of the Northern Cheyenne and Crow, and elsewhere. Thirty percent of the coal in the West and half of the uranium deposits in the United States have been found to lie under reservation land, so there is no way this can be called a minor issue.

We are resisting being turned into National Sacrifice Area. We are resisting being turned into a national sacrifice people. The costs of this industrial process are not acceptable to us. It is genocide to dig uranium here and drain the water table- no more, no less.

Now let's suppose that in our resistance to extermination we begin to seek allies (we have). Let's suppose further that we were to take revolutionary Marxism at it's word: that it intends nothing less than the complete overthrow of the European capitalists order which has presented this threat to our very existence. This would seem to be a natural alliance for American Indian people to enter into. After all, as the Marxists say, it is the capitalists who set us up to be a national sacrifice. This is true as far as it goes.

But, as I've tried to point out, this "truth" is very deceptive. Revolutionary Marxism is committed to even further perpetuation and perfection of the very industrial process which is destroying us all. It offers only to " redistribute" the results- the money, maybe- of this industrialization to a wider section of the population. It offers to take wealth from the capitalists and pass it around; but in order to do so, Marxism must maintain the industrial system. Once again, the power relations within European society will have to be altered, but once again the effects upon American Indian peoples here and non-Europeans elsewhere will remain the same. This is much the same as when power was redistributed from the church to private business during the so-called bourgeois revolution. European society changed a bit, at least superficially, but its conduct toward non-Europeans continued as before. You can see what the American Revolution of 1776 did for American Indians. It's the same old song.

Revolutionary Marxism, like industrial society in other forms, seeks to "rationalize" all people in relation to industry- maximum industry, maximum production. It is a doctrine that despises the American Indian spiritual tradition, our cultures, our lifeways. Marx himself called us "precapitalists" and "primitive." Precapitalist simply means that, in his view, we would eventually discover capitalism and become capitalists; we have always been economically retarded in Marxist term. The only manner in which American Indian people could participate in a Marxist revolution would be to join the industrial system, to become factory workers, or "proletarians," as Marx called them. The man was very clear about the fact that his revolution could only occur through the struggle of the proletariat, that the existence of a massive industrial system is a precondition of a successful Marxist society.

I think there's a problem with language here. Christians, capitalists, Marxists. All of them have been revolutionary in their own minds, but none of them really means revolution. What they really mean is continuation. They do what they do in order that European culture can continue to exist and develop according to its needs.

So, in order for us to really join forces with Marxism, we American Indians would have to accept the national sacrifice of our homeland; we would have to commit cultural suicide and become industrialized and Europeanized.

[jimtzu]

pt 2



At this point, I've got to stop and ask myself whether I'm being too harsh. Marxism has something of a history. Does this history bear out my observations? I look to the process of industrialization in the Soviet Union since 1920 and I see that these Marxists have done what it took the English Industrial Revolution 300 years to do; and the Marxists did it in 60 years. I see that the territory of the USSR used to contain a number of tribal peoples and that they have been crushed to make way for the factories. The Soviets refer to this as " the National Question." The question of whether the tribal peoples had the right to exist as peoples; and they decided the tribal peoples were an acceptable sacrifice to the industrial needs. I look to China and I see the same thing. I look to Vietnam and I see Marxists imposing an industrial order and rooting out the indigenous tribal mountain people.

I hear the leading Soviet scientist saying that when uranium is exhausted, then alternatives will be found. I see the Vietnamese taking over a nuclear power plant abandoned by the U.S. military. Have they dismantled and destroyed it? No, they are using it. I see China exploding nuclear bombs, developing uranium reactors, and preparing a space program in order to colonize and exploit the planets the same as the Europeans colonized and exploited this hemisphere. It's the same old song, but maybe with a faster tempo this time.

The statement of the Soviet scientist is very interesting. Does he know what this alternative energy source will be? No, he simply has faith. Science will find a way. I hear revolutionary Marxists saying that the destruction of the environment, pollution, and radiation will all be controlled. And I see them act upon their words. Do they know how these things will be controlled? No, they simply have faith. Science will find a way. Industrialization is fine and necessary. How do they know this? Faith. Science will find a way. Faith of this sort has always been known in Europe as religion. Science has become the new European religion for both capitalists and Marxists; they are truly inseparable; they are part and parcel of the same culture. So, in both theory and practice, Marxism demands that non-European peoples give up their values, their traditions, their cultural existence altogether. We will all be industrialized science addicts in a Marxist society.

I do not believe that capitalism itself is really responsible for the situation in which American Indians have been declared a national sacrifice. No, it is the European tradition ; European culture itself is responsible. Marxism is just the latest continuation of this tradition, not a solution to it. To ally with Marxism is to ally with the very same forces that declare us an acceptable cost.

There is another way. There is the traditional Lakota way and the ways of the American Indian peoples. It is the way that knows that humans do not have the right to degrade Mother Earth, that there are forces beyond anything the European mind has conceived, that humans must be in harmony with all relations or the relations will eventually eliminate the disharmony. A lopsided emphasis on humans by humans-the Europeans' arrogance of acting as though they were beyond the nature of all related things-can only result in a total disharmony and a readjustment which cuts arrogant humans down to size, gives them a taste of that reality beyond their grasp or control and restores the harmony. There is a need for a revolutionary theory to bring this about; it's beyond human control. The nature peoples of this planet know this and so they do not theorize about it. Theory is an abstract; our knowledge is real.

Distilled to its basic terms, European faith-including the new faith in science-equals a belief that man is God. Europe has always sought a Messiah, whether that be the man Jesus Christ or the man Karl Marx or the man Albert Einstein. American Indians know this to be totally absurd. Humans are the weakest of all creatures, so weak that other creatures are willing to give up their flesh that we may live. Humans are able to survive only through the exercise of rationality since they lack the abilities of other creatures to gain food through the use of fang and claw.

But rationality is a curse since it can cause humans to forget the natural order of things in ways other creatures do not. A wolf never forgets his or her place in the natural order. American Indians can. Europeans almost always do. We pray our thanks to the deer, our relations, for allowing us their flesh to eat; Europeans simply take the flesh for granted and consider the deer inferior. After all, Europeans consider themselves godlike in their rationalism and science. God is the Supreme Being; all else must be inferior.

All European tradition, Marxism included, has conspired to defy the natural order of all things. Mother Earth has been abused, the powers have been abused, and this cannot go on forever. No theory can alter that simple fact. Mother Earth will retaliate, the whole environment will retaliate, and the abusers will be eliminated. Things come full circle, back to where they started. That's revolution. And that's a prophecy of my people, of the Hopi people and of other correct peoples.

American Indians have been trying to explain this to Europeans for centuries. But, as I said earlier, Europeans have proven themselves unable to hear. The natural order will win out, and the offenders will die out, the way deer die when they offend the harmony by over-populating a given region. It's only a matter of time until what Europeans call "a major catastrophe of global proportions" will occur. It is the role of American Indian peoples, the role of all natural beings, to survive. A part of our survival is to resist. We resist not to overthrow a government or to take political power, but because it is natural to resist extermination, to survive. We don't want power over white institutions; we want white institutions to disappear. That's revolution.

American Indians are still in touch with these realities-the prophecies, the traditions of our ancestors. We learn from the elders, from nature, from the powers. And when the catastrophe is over, we American Indian peoples will still be here to inhabit the hemisphere. I don't care if it's only a handful living high in the Andes. American Indian people will survive; harmony will be reestablished. That's revolution.

At this point, perhaps I should be very clear about another matter, one which should already be clear as a result of what I've said. But confusion breeds easily these days, so I want to hammer home this point. When I use the term European, I'm not referring to a skin color or a particular genetic structure. What I'm referring to is a mind-set, a worldview that is a product of the development of European culture. People are not genetically encoded to hold this outlook; they are acculturated to hold it. The same is true for American Indians or for the members of any culture.

It is possible for an American Indian to share European values, a European worldview. We have a term for these people; we call them "apples"-red on the outside (genetics) and white on the inside (their values). Other groups have similar terms: Blacks have their "oreos"; Hispanos have "Coconuts" and so on. And, as I said before, there are exceptions to the white norm: people who are white on the outside, but not white inside. I'm not sure what term should be applied to them other than "human beings."

What I'm putting out here is not a racial proposition but a cultural proposition. Those who ultimately advocate and defend the realities of European culture and its industrialism are my enemies. Those who resist it, who struggle against it, are my allies, the allies of American Indian people. And I don't give a damn what their skin color happens to be. Caucasian is the white term for the white race: European is an outlook I oppose.

The Vietnamese Communists are not exactly what you might consider genetic Caucasians, but they are now functioning as mental Europeans. The same holds true for Chinese Communists, for Japanese capitalists or Bantu Catholics or Peter "MacDollar" down at the Navajo Reservation or Dickie Wilson up here at Pine Ridge. There is no racism involved in this, just an acknowledgment of the mind and spirit that make up culture.

In Marxist terms I suppose I'm a "cultural nationalist." I work first with my people, the traditional Lakota people, because we hold a common worldview and share an immediate struggle. Beyond this, I work with other traditional American Indian peoples, again because of a certain commonality in worldview and form of struggle. Beyond that, I work with anyone who has experienced the colonial oppression of Europe and who resists its cultural and industrial totality. Obviously, this includes genetic Caucasians who struggle to resist the dominant norms of European culture. The Irish and the Basques come immediately to mind, but there are many others.

I work primarily with my own people, with my own community. Other people who hold non-European perspectives should do the same. I believe in the slogan, "Trust your brother's vision," although I'd like to add sisters into the bargain. I trust the community and the culturally based vision of all the races that naturally resist industrialization and human extinction. Clearly, individual whites can share in this, given only that they have reached the awareness that continuation of the industrial imperatives of Europe is not a vision, but species suicide. White is one of the sacred colors of the Lakota people-red, yellow, white and black. The four directions. The four seasons. The four periods of life and aging. The four races of humanity. Mix red, yellow, white and black together and you get brown, the color of the fifth race. This is a natural ordering of things. It therefore seems natural to me to work with all races, each with its own special meaning, identity and message.

But there is a peculiar behavior among most Caucasians. As soon as I become critical of Europe and its impact on other cultures, they become defensive. They begin to defend themselves. But I'm not attacking them personally; I'm attacking Europe. In personalizing my observations on Europe they are personalizing European culture, identifying themselves with it. By defending themselves in this context, they are ultimately defending the death culture. This is a confusion which must be overcome, and it must be overcome in a hurry. None of us has energy to waste in such false struggles.

Caucasians have a more positive vision to offer humanity than European culture. I believe this. But in order to attain this vision it is necessary for Caucasians to step outside European culture-alongside the rest of humanity-to see Europe for what it is and what it does.

To cling to capitalism and Marxism and all other "isms" is simply to remain within European culture. There is no avoiding this basic fact. As a fact, this constitutes a choice. Understand that the choice is based on culture, not race. Understand that to choose European culture and industrialism is to choose to be my enemy. And understand that the choice is yours, not mine.

This leads me back to address those American Indians who are drifting through the universities, the city slums, and other European institutions. If you are there to resist the oppressor in accordance with your traditional ways, so be it. I don't know how you manage to combine the two, but perhaps you will succeed. But retain your sense of reality. Beware of coming to believe the white world now offers solutions to the problems it confronts us with. Beware, too, of allowing the words of native people to be twisted to the advantages of our enemies. Europe invented the practice of turning words around on themselves. You need only look to the treaties between American Indian peoples and various European governments to know that this is true. Draw your strength from who you are.

A culture which regularly confuses revolt with resistance, has nothing helpful to teach you and nothing to offer you as a way of life. Europeans have long since lost all touch with reality, if ever they were in touch with who you are as American Indians.

So, I suppose to conclude this, I should state clearly that leading anyone toward Marxism is the last thing on my mind. Marxism is as alien to my culture as capitalism and Christianity are. In fact, I can say I don't think I'm trying to lead anyone toward anything. To some extent I tried to be a "leader," in the sense that the white media like to use that term, when the American Indian Movement was a young organization. This was a result of a confusion I no longer have. You cannot be everything to everyone. I do not propose to be used in such a fashion by my enemies. I am not a leader. I am an Oglala Lakota patriot. That is all I want and all I need to be. And I am very comfortable with who I am.



 

[jimtzu]

i thought i'd re-post this for the message within:

Hau kola na tiyospaye (Hello friends & extended family),

Welcome to all new Circle members!  Each section of the Circle of Nations newsletter is written 'facing' one of the four sacred winds, beginning with the east, then the south, west and finally the north.  This is to honor the old ways.  It is to teach and to help us to focus and find the center.  I have designed the Native Circle website in the same spirit.  I welcome you all to the Circle....

EAST - Wiyohinyanpata - Yellow (Four Winds)
My sisters and brothers, there is much in our world today that might cause us to become bitter or skeptical about the future.  There are many prophesies, from many ancient spiritual peoples, including the Lakota, about the possibility of a great catastrophic change on our planet at some point in time.  These prophesies do leave room for human intervention, yet even so, they are still quite ominous.  With all that we see in these times, coupled with ancient prophetic messages, the outlook for the future may seem bleak.  In fact, it may seem downright hopeless.  Let me assure you right now that it is not.
As I often contemplate the state of the world, I always ultimately come to the same profound conclusion.... and that is, that I see hope.  In you who are reading this now, I see hope.  In all who give with compassion, and love without conditions, I see hope.  And in all who I meet who are learning to walk in balance and beauty with all that is, I see hope.  Hope is of the Spirit.  It is not of the flesh.  To hope is to trust in that which cannot be seen, or touched or measured, and to trust in it as if it were indeed here now, sitting in front of us.  That is hope.  It takes a connection with Spirit to begin to comprehend the depth of what hope is.  Without that connection, hope surely can seem like a fool’s dream.  Yet I assure you that hope is anything but.  Without it, there is no reason to reach, to pray, and to believe in possibilities.  Without it, we are lost on the sea with no compass to guide us home.  Without it, we are just plain lost.
It’s not about me, and it’s not about you.  It’s about us.  We must all get ourselves out of the way.  We must become empty, like a hollow bone, so that Spirit may come and fill us with humility, wisdom and love.  When Spirit is able to fill our emptiness, we will begin to understand, with humility, our life’s purpose.  We will also, through that intimate spiritual connection, gain a profound perspective on what this life of ours is about and what we are doing here, and what really matters in this life, and what really doesn’t.
It is not easy, but we all must find a way to turn our mental focus from the flash and allure of the material world, and take the time and effort it takes to tune in to, and connect with the power, peace, beauty, balance and love which is found in the fulfillment of our spiritual self.  With the humility of a hollow bone, and the healing medicine of love, we truly can change the world.  The Elk Dreamer power is alive and well. There really is hope....

The New 'Elk Dreamer' CD


SOUTH - Itokagata - Red (Red Earth)
A word from Peggy....

Hello friends and family,
The first couple of weeks in April are like magic in the Ozarks, everything is coming to life, the redbuds, dogwoods, flowers and greenery everywhere.  It is so beautiful that even the morning news or CNN can't negatively effect you.  What is the deal with the news anyway!!  Does it freak you out?  I like to look at it like the predictions we heard when the year 2000 was at hand. Terrible events predicted.  You felt like Jan 1st 2000 was the end of life as we knew it.  I take my morning newspaper with a cup of coffee, but I think I need to take it with a grain of salt.  I really enjoy my routine of morning paper and coffee, but I am beginning to think the news is a lot more detrimental than the caffeine.
As I look around me the sunset is still beautiful the rain smells incredible, the flowers are soul medicine.  Maybe I need to get my news from the forest.  For sure!

The New ‘Elk Dreamer’ CD is now in-house and wow, wow, wow....  you will love this CD.  Talk about good medicine, this is it!
And have a look at the beautiful new 'Elk Dreamer Poster' too!
We will have a very special, intimate CD release concert in Hannibal Missouri this weekend, Fri April 4th.  You are all invited.  The release reception will be at the Garth Mansion, which is an incredible place, full of history and magic.  Click this link For Tickets.
April 5th we will do a CD signing appearance in Hannibal at the Native American Trading Post at 12:00.
Our first "Elk Dreamer" Concert will be in St. Charles MO, very close to St. Louis on April 25th.  Tickets are only available in advance at Silver City Trading in St. Charles, or you can call 866-444-0940, or get your Tickets Online.

We do have openings for the ‘Creative Expression Retreat’ in April.  Please check out all our Retreats and get your registrations in to hold a space!

I want to take the time each month to recommend a book to you.  This month I am encouraging you to read the book "Neither Wolf , Nor Dog" by Kent Nerburn.  We recommended this book last October at the Mending Medicine Retreat and I know many of you have read it and have told me that it was a wonderful book.  You will come away with a better understanding of American Indian culture and spirituality and will gain, more importantly, a new found respect.  Respect is a virtue which is terribly lacking in our present day society.  Respect for the earth and each other is a gift we can give to our planet. 

Well, I’m off to make a strawberry pie,
see ya,
peace,
Peggy
Red Earth
The Official JTH Site


WEST - Wiyohpeyata - Black or Blue (We are STILL Here!)
(In honor of my brother and friend, George....)
 
There are several foundations for the Lakota way of understanding the meaning of life.  Some of the core elements are: respect, honor, humility, courage, sacrifice, balance and wisdom.  Yet there is one quality which I feel is most important to living a balanced, happy life.  That quality is acceptance.  Acceptance was, and is still a virtue which is at the center of the Lakota world view.  Without it, we certainly could not have endured the relentless assaults on our culture over the last century and a half.  And without it, our ancestors certainly would not have been the balanced, happy, perseverant and wise people they were.  You see, acceptance means you don’t curse the bitterly cold winter wind when it whips into your face.  It means you still offer thanks to Wakantanka even when it seems there is little to be thankful for.  And it means you recognize that there are often reasons for things which are beyond our control and scope of understanding.  This is the old way of the Lakota.  Patience....  Resolve....  Humility....  Wisdom....   All of these are connected to acceptance....
When I was a boy, my Grandfather always reminded me from time to time about death.  You see, to Lakota people, Elders especially, there is a deep understanding that death is part of life.  For the Lakota, it is not something to fear, but something to simply accept.  And so my Grandfather  would speak of death at times, to wake me up and give me perspective.  You see, the acceptance of death carries the power to give us that perspective we need when we are unbalanced in our thoughts or actions.  I continue, to this day, to employ my Grandfather’s old Lakota way.  In the end, regardless of the circumstance, the reminder of death usually helps us to make wiser choices and gain some balanced perspective on, and acceptance of whatever our troubles may be.  In short, it sets our priorities straight.  It helps us see what is truly important - and what is not.  And so learning acceptance of all the facets of life - all the struggles and joys of the beginning, the middle and the end of it - will ultimately help us to become people who live our lives by the virtues of  respect, honor, humility, courage, sacrifice, balance and wisdom.  May we all gain the perspective we need to come to a place of acceptance in this life....


NORTH - Waziyata - White  (Words of Wisdom)
It is in the ‘little’ things....
I have had some amazing things happen while in ceremony.  Things that were mind blowing, powerful and profound.  These occurrences are fascinating and can lend a faith increasing element to a sacred rite.  They are the kinds of things that are tempting to tell others about because they don’t happen every day.  However....
Let me just get right to the point - the biggest ‘medicine’ of all is not found in the fantastic, but in the normal, everyday, seemingly mundane ‘little’ things.... the things that can go completely unnoticed.  That short time you take to help the elderly grandmother pick up her bag of groceries....  The crying child you give a smile to when no one else is looking....  The patience you give a new employee at a cash register....  These are the things which carry the most amazing spiritual power.  It is in these small acts that the greatest medicine exists.  For in these brief moments, Spirit comes through and touches the human being with the greatest power - love - right where they are, in the midst of struggles, fears, confusion and stress.  So, even though impressive things can and do happen sometimes in ceremony - and I prefer to keep most of these spiritual ‘occurrences’ to myself - remember that it is that kind word, gentle hand and genuine smile you give to someone when no one is watching that carries with it the most amazing spiritual power.  Where Spirit is concerned, it truly is the ‘little’ things that count most....


May Wakantanka encircle you and yours with faith to believe, hope for the future, and love for all....     

As always, in the spirit of mending the sacred hoop of the nations of the world
Your Oglala Lakota friend and brother,
John Two-Hawks
http://www.nativecircle.com
http://www.johntwohawks.com
Reprinting of this Circle of Nations newsletter is encouraged!  All I ask is that it be printed in its entirety, with no changes, and that I be given proper credit, unless I have otherwise okayed it.  Wopila (great thanks)!