Forget Moving to Canada...I'm headed to Nebraska...

So, let's just say things don't go so well in November for our side.

Who really thinks they can honestly live under eight more years of a repressive regime that arbitrarily violates and ignores international global climate treates, engages in illegal rendition and torture, wiretapping and spying on it's own citizens, continues to illegally occupy a foreign sovereign nation and to date, has now spent over half a trillion dollars on said occupation?

If, God forbid, we lose the White House in November 2008, where you gonna go, seriously? Just as we require student and work visas for foreign nationals, so do other countries and these are not easily obtained, unless you have a special skill set that is needed. Picking up and moving to France isn't quite as simple as it sounds.

Fortunately, there appears to be hope on the horizon and you won't even need a passport to get there.

Freedom! Lakota Sioux Indians Declare Sovereign Nation Status

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.  

Yep, you read it right. My next door neighbors had officially had enough and are withdrawing from the United States. This is no sudden act of impulse--Lakota delegates have been meeting with traditional treaty delegates for over a year and a half to build consensus and support for this withdrawl.

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.

Lest you question the level of betrayal the Lakota Nation has been subjected to...perhaps a review of just what level of poverty our next door neighbors are experiencing is in order:

   * Lakota men have a life expectancy of less than 44 years, lowest of any country in the World (excluding AIDS) including Haiti.
   * Lakota death rate is the highest in the United States.
   * The Lakota infant mortality rate is 300% more than the U.S. Average.
   * More than half the Reservation's adults battle addiction and disease.
   * The Tuberculosis rate on Lakota reservations is approx 800% higher than the U.S national average.
   * Alcoholism affects 8 in 10 families.
   * Median income is approximately $2,600 to $3,500 per year.
   * 1/3 of the homes lack basic clean water and sewage while 40% lack electricty.
   * 60% of housing is infected with potentially fatal black molds.
   * 97% of our Lakota people live below the poverty line.
   * Unemployment rates on our reservations is 85% or higher.
   * Federal Commodity Food Program provides high sugar foods that kill Native people through diabetes and heart disease.
   * Teenage suicide rate is 150% higher than the U.S national average for this group.
   * Our Lakota language is an Endangered Language, on the verge of extinction.

As for where our current administration stands, I'm sure this will come as no surprise.

In 1974, the Lakota drafted a declaration of continuing independence. Their cause got a boost in September, when the United Nations adopted a non-binding declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples. The Bush administration opposed the measure.

Presidential hopeful John Edwards often talks about Two Americas. I respectfully disagree. There are Three Americas. The third one has been consistently ignored by this country for over 150 years...to the great and never ending shame of each and every human being who deplores segregation, poverty and racism. And make no mistake, these all factor heavily into the ongoing neglect of our neighbors, who apparently, have officially had about enough.

For more information on how to get involved, visit the Lakota Freedom website.

Update: See Meteor Blades comment regarding this declaration. (H/T to DH for this.)

•  Tips for freedom.

  "Free at last, free at last, Great God Almighty..."

  I'd say they are overdue, no?

  by Pager on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 09:13:07 AM PDT

  •  The cavalry 'll clear that

    little spot of revolution up.

    by Salo on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 09:19:46 AM PDT

    •  Sadly enough, I think you are right.

      I can only imagine the conversations taking place at the White House, after the official hand delivered their statement to the State Department guy.

      by Pager on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 09:21:38 AM PDT

      •  mmm, yep.

        As someone living in Colorado, a place where people who massacred the native populations are still regarded as folk heroes, I have to question whether there would be widespread outrage to violent suppression of anything of the sort.

        by corvo on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 10:02:08 AM PDT

•  Actually, no one declared independence

  The governments of the Lakota Nations haven't, anyway.    This entire thing has been virtually a publicity stunt by Russell Means without any input from tribal governments.

  by DH from MD on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 09:21:11 AM PDT

  •  I keep reading that, as well, but the website

    says differently. There seems to be a division within the tribes over this but there are some interesting power brokers such as Means, Rowland and Young involved here.

    by Pager on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 09:22:48 AM PDT

    •  Well...

      ...here's what Meteor Blades had to say about it.

      by DH from MD on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 09:25:58 AM PDT

      •  Thanks, I'm going to add that as an update

        to the diary, I think.

        by Pager on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 09:27:01 AM PDT

    •  The real pity is that too many of...

      the other natural partners in secession are in such disarray, especially the Cherokees. I like this guy's take on their current political woes:

      Tribal government, any government, should be more than a crapshoot. If the structure makes sense, and we have enough honest people to blow the whistle when something goes wrong, we should stumble along without regard to personalities. When tribal governments go wrong, it is usually for the same reason that state or national governments go wrong: checks and balances have failed.

      If the Eastern Band would just secede, I would move to the NC mountains and deal blackjack, if I had to, in a heartbeat.

      by va dare on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 09:31:26 AM PDT

•  even for the sake of argument it is all true

  what on earth makes you think the Lakota Nation would welcome you, unless of course you are a full fledged member of the nation? in which case you are probably a  lready living in poverty.        

  You think it hard to get into France try Nebraska!  you can run but you can't hide.

  The UK is tightening it's visa requirements even for people with needed skills and initiating some kind of points system where incomers have to help pay to run the country.  Better to stay here and clean up our own messes ourselves, noone else will want us.                                            

  by soccergrandmom on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 09:30:11 AM PDT

  •  Oh, I intend to stay here

    but I know quite a few folks that are ready to leave and aren't just saying it as hyperbole.

    Also, I am part Cherokee, not Lakota Sioux but from what I understand as a Cherokee, the nations are often far more welcoming to us than we are to them.

    by Pager on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 09:34:27 AM PDT

    •  I would not doubt that for one moment. If you

      have not already done so, read Sherman Alexie's riveting book indian Killer. it is inspiring, terrifying, revealing and from my own experiences living in a tri-cultural community (Hispanic, Native and mongrel Anglo), very true to the reality of cultural relations.

      by soccergrandmom on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 10:19:13 AM PDT

      •  Great tip, thank you for that!

        I'm treating myself to buying some books for Christmas and that one just went on the list.

        by Pager on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 10:27:20 AM PDT

      •  I'm moving to Montana soon

        Gonna be a dental floss tycoon.

        by Downpuppy on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 10:43:09 AM PDT

•  Alaska gets $20M for a ferrry to nowhere

  and the Lakota Sioux get diddly sqwat.  Our government is so outrageously and disgustingly evil and uncaring, it is a wonder we still exist.  I do believe our greed has reached  beyond saturation point and our world as we know will crumble very soon.  The Lakota Sioux will know how to survive while the rest of us die of hunger and pestilence.

  I am from Iowa originally and I know of the pathetic  situation the surrounding Indian tribes exist under year after year.  It never gets any better for them.  Yet bankers and wall street mogals set aside Billions for their yearly bonuses.  It is a very sick upside down world!

  by Janet Wright on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 09:39:42 AM PDT

  •  There was a famous political cartoon once

    -- by Herblock, I think, but my memory is REALLY hazy on this -- about the Marshall Plan.  Shows a Native American toiling away in the sun, saying something like "Millions of dollars for the Europeans -- not one red cent for the Navajo."

    by corvo on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 09:58:52 AM PDT