December 29, 2007

Press befuddled by Means

The Indians just quit US! ... Or DID they?

Sioux Indians "withdraw from the USA"? Or not![I]n report after report, this Means character is presented as if he is "the Lakota Sioux" when, in truth, all he really is, is A Lakota Sioux—not a representative of all of them. He does not represent American Indians except as a tangential, activist. He has no authority to make this "declaration of Independence" from the U.S.A. for "the" Lakota or any other American Indian tribe for that matter.

It turns out that these reports are nearly all just a rehash of Russell Means' press releases and not based on any real reporting at all.

And here is the worst part. The bulk of the news outlets that have picked up this story are foreign press agencies like the Agence Presse France, The Telegraph, and Radio Netherlands, all of whom presented this as if it was somehow legal and binding instead of an activist's scheming.

2 comments:

Carole said...

I have to agree with much of what the blogger is saying about Means's grandstanding. On the other hand, who is this blogger? How can you take anyone seriously whose webpage posts ads from the Minutemen and other "out there" groups. Creepy.

dmarks said...

The site is Renew America, which is run by Alan Keyes, who has in the past been a joke candidate for President. He is of the "Religious Right".

The title of his article implies that the Souix = all Indians. So what else is noew.