THE Lakota Indians, who gave the world legendary warriors Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, have withdrawn from treaties with the US.
"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," 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 US...
The group also visited the Bolivian, Chilean, South African and Venezuelan embassies, and would continue on their diplomatic mission and take it overseas in the coming weeks and months.
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...
The treaties signed with the US were merely "worthless words on worthless paper"...
"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...
"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,"...
The Lakota relaunched their journey to freedom in 1974, when they drafted a declaration of continuing independence...
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,"...
One duck moved into place in September, when the United Nations adopted a non-binding declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples...
?
