From: [n--t] at [blythe.org] (NY Transfer News)
Newsgroups: alt.activism,soc.rights.human,soc.culture.native
Subject: Lakota Petition UN for Sovereignty
Date: 16 Jul 93 17:29:10 GMT

Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit

Thu, 15 Jul 1993 09:45:14 -0600 (MDT)

LAKOTA PETITION U.N. FOR SOVEREIGNTY

by Mark Todd and Kym O'Connell-Todd

Representatives of the Lakota Sioux Indians file their final
documents for sovereignty with the U.N. in Geneva today. 

Antoine Black Feather, spokesperson for the Teton Sioux Treaty
Council, will take the floor to address their struggle with the
United States to regain the right of self-determination and the
status of sovereignty for their people.  This is Black Feather's
10th trip to Geneva on behalf of indigenous peoples of North
America. The Lakota have also petitioned the World Court in The
Hague, Netherlands, for protection from the U.S. Government.

Black Feather said his tribe has never been able to find a U.S.
attorney to represent their appeal for sovereignty. As a result,
he and other tribal elders have spent the past 10 years preparing
documents to support their case.

"The same thing is happening all over the world," Black Feather
said. "There seems to be no remedy, and if that's true, people
lose faith in the system. It's time to stop right here."

By gaining U.N. recognition, the Sioux Treaty Council strives to
focus attention on the indignities that occur on Indian
reservations.

Black Feather said: "Washington thinks that the Indians are doing
fine. But sometimes we go hungry. We starve."

According to Black Feather, "conditions on the reservations are
like concentration camps."

"We are all stuck with each other," Black Feather said. "We have
to live according to reason. It's not just Native Americans. All
people are threatened by government oppression including
minorities and women. A third-world country exists right here
inside the United States."

The United States invalidated the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty, which
deeded 2 million acres to the Sioux, according to Black Feather.
The deed included portions of the Dakotas, Nebraska, Wyoming and
Montana.

In 1877, nine years after the Fort Laramie Treaty, the federal
government forced the Sioux to reduce their land holdings. By 1924
all Indians were coerced into U.S. citizenship by The Indian
Citizen Act, which allowed the government to negate all former
treaties.
                               -30-



+        Join Us! Support The NY Transfer News Collective        +
+       We deliver uncensored information to your mailbox!       +
+ Modem:718-448-2358   Fax:718-448-3423   E-mail: [n--t] at [blythe.org] +