Tea Party to return Black Hills?!

Tea Party Will Give Black Hills Back to Lakota?!Host "wanbli" expresses surprise, as did many of the chat room participants during the broadcast, that the local folks would invite Tea "Party" folks onto traditional lands.

Karmelita Two Bulls Rowland says her group is in the middle, bipartisan, a watchdog group that is autonomous from the national Tea Party. When a listener asks why organizers would call it a Tea Party if it's autonomous, Two Bulls Rowland explodes with a lot of treaty talk but fails to answer the question. Host wanbli asks about the failures of the Republican administration that ran the Bureau of Indian Affairs for eight years, and TBR goes off on Al Franken coming to the Oglala Lakota Nation Pow Wow, again utterly failing to answer the question posed.

TBR also says Theresa Two Bulls is an illegitimate leader of the tribe, elected by only 2000 out of 5000 registered voters. By that philosophy, there isn't a single legitimate elected leader on any city council in America.

Host wanbli points out that TBR has announced a speaker from the national Tea Party is coming to speak to the group and asks what the national Tea party's position is on returning the Black Hills to the Lakota. TBR again utterly dodges the question with a discussion of the government creating a culture of welfare dependence. She says the national Tea party wants to empower Indians...ah, and she finally says the national Tea Party has "no qualms about returning the Black Hills." Really? I think I heard tea-flavored Pastor Steve Hickey suggest giving back the Black Hills is the right thing to do, but is there any evidence that giving the Black Hills back to the Lakota is a major plank of any tea-flavored organization?Comment:  I'd be astonished if any Tea Party member more official than a "tea-flavored pastor" called for returning the Black Hills to the Lakota. Indeed, I'd be surprised if a Tea Party took a pro-Indian stance on any Indian-related issue. These people are closely aligned with Republicans, and Republicans favor limits on tribal sovereignty, gaming, and the funding of Indian programs.

For more on the subject, see Lakota Tea Party and Columnist Shows How Racists View Indians.

Lakota Tea Party

Pine Ridge Tea Party Friday Organized by SecessionistIf the American Revolutionaries dressed up as Indians for the original Tea Party, then what will the Pine Ridge Indians wear for their Tea Party Friday, Glenn Beck suits? Sarah Palin heels?

Some nice Lakota folks are getting together at Wounded Knee Friday to talk about Lakota rights and Second Amendment freedoms. So, some Lakota warriors walk into a bar or a courthouse with semi-automatic weapons and shout, "Hoka hey!"—we're all for that, right, my fellow South Dakotans?

I am amused to see that the Wounded Knee Tea Party is being organized by secessionist Garry Rowland, a participant in the 1973 Wounded Knee takeover and one of the main activists in the Republic of Lakotah. That movement seeks to annul Indian treaties (I think we white folks already did that) and establish Native sovereignty for West River and adjoining territory in other states. Ah, Tea Parties and secession—a perfect fit, right, Gordon?Comment:  Russell Means and company still haven't made any progress on seceding from the Union. What's that gonna happen?

For a previous Native Tea Party, see Crow Nation Tea Party. For more on the subject, see Real Indian at Tax Protest and Teabaggers Misuse Indian Imagery.

Means's dream coming true?

Russian Analyst Predicts Decline and Breakup of USAAsked why he expected the U.S. to break up into separate parts, he said: "A whole range of reasons. Firstly, the financial problems in the U.S. will get worse. Millions of citizens there have lost their savings. Prices and unemployment are on the rise. General Motors and Ford are on the verge of collapse, and this means that whole cities will be left without work. Governors are already insistently demanding money from the federal center. Dissatisfaction is growing, and at the moment it is only being held back by the elections and the hope that Obama can work miracles. But by spring, it will be clear that there are no miracles."

He also cited the "vulnerable political setup," "lack of unified national laws," and "divisions among the elite, which have become clear in these crisis conditions."

He predicted that the U.S. will break up into six parts--the Pacific coast, with its growing Chinese population; the South, with its Hispanics; Texas, where independence movements are on the rise; the Atlantic coast, with its distinct and separate mentality; five of the poorer central states with their large Native American populations; and the northern states, where the influence from Canada is strong.

He even suggested that "we could claim Alaska--it was only granted on lease, after all."Comment:  The "five poorer central states" will become The Republic of Lakotah, presumably.

Is the United States doomed? Probably not--at least not this time. But the Great Depression and this recession show we're more vulnerable to economic attacks than terrorist attacks. If anything will destroy the US eventually, it's our cultural mindset--touting the superiority of excessive, unregulated capitalism. In other words, a philosophy of greed and selfishness--the opposite of what most indigenous people believe.

Means: Lakotah = OST

Means Would Declare Reservation Disaster AreaAs Hurricane Ike beat up on Texas in mid-September, Russell Means watched as President Bush declared 29 Texas counties major disaster areas, making federal funds available for storm recovery.

Means hopes to use that same tool to bring federal and international aid to his own ailing people, the Oglala Lakota, if he's elected tribal president on Tuesday.

"This is far beyond a national disaster area," he said of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. "It's an international disaster area."

If federal aid can be spent on one of the richest cities of the world, Houston, why not one on of the poorest places in the world? Means asked.Means is running for president of the OST, but he's already the leader of the Republic of Lakotah. What's up with that?Means, a former American Indian Movement leader, has a history of suggesting extreme solutions to Indian problems. This spring, he announced that he and a group of Native leaders planned to secede from the United States to form the independent Republic of Lakotah, a nation formed on the basis of the Treaty of 1851 and the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868.

Means appears to be backing off from that plan.

He said this week it's not necessary to secede as the Oglala Sioux Tribe is already a sovereign nation, a fact he plans to force the U.S. government to respect if he's elected tribal president.The OST was as sovereign last year as it is now. Yet Means felt the need to secede. The OST's sovereignty wasn't good enough for him then.

In fact, he called the OST tribal council a puppet government, or words to that effect. Yet now he wants to be the head puppet? What's up with that?"That's what my candidacy is all about is conquering genocide," he said. "This is the Republic of Lakotah. This is our land."So now the Republic of Lakotah is the same as the OST?! What happened to the Republic of Lakotah's declaration of sovereignty over parts of four states? And its people's refusal to obey US laws within its boundaries?

It's pretty clear what's going on. Means wanted to be in charge, so he declared himself the head of a fictitious nation. When he saw a chance to become the head of a real nation, he abandoned his Lakotah claims.

As many of us said, these claims were nothing more than a publicity stunt. They raised his profile enough so he could run for real. Indeed, that may have been the whole point of his Lakotah stunt.

No more Lakotah?

Now he seems to be saying that the Republic of Lakotah is the Oglala Sioux Tribe. That's funny, because he sure wasn't saying that before. His position in Means Declares Independence was:"I want to emphasize, we do not represent the collaborators, the Vichy Indians and those tribal governments set up by the United States of America to ensure our poverty, to ensure the theft of our land and resources," Means said, comparing elected tribal governments to Nazi collaborators in France during World War II.Now that his "republic" has served its purpose, he can toss it into the dustbin of history. That is, he can magically merge the four-state Republic of Lakotah into the one-state OST. And he can declare that the OST now represents all the Oglala Sioux, including the citizens of Lakotah.

Renouncing the Republic of Lakotah became almost mandatory when Means decided to run for OST president. What was he going to tell OST voters? Surely not the following:

"I want to be president of the OST even though I've pledged my allegiance to the Republic of Lakotah and its government. If elected, I'll a) declare the OST an independent nation also; or b) work for the OST within the US federal system. You can be sure I'll have your best interests at heart even if I ditch you again as another publicity stunt."

Below:  The OST's Pine Ridge Reservation is the small dark-red block in the lower left of the orange block in the center of the yellow block representing the former Republic of Lakotah. If the Republic of Lakotah is equivalent to Pine Ridge and the OST, someone sure fooled this mapmaker.

Means in hot water after all?

Russell Means faces charges over fishing protestActivist Russell Means faces charges in South Dakota for a treaty-based fishing protest, The Rapid City Journal reports.

Means says the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie allows Sioux people to fish without a state license. But state officials apparently don't feel the same way and are moving to file charges.

In December 2007, Means and other activists declared independence for the Republic of Lakotah. The republic's website includes videos about a fish-in.Comment:  So much for Means's claim that the police didn't arrest him because they recognized his inherent treaty rights.

Lakotah Freedom Fishing Day

Lakotah plan civil disobedience fishing near Rapid CityIn the tradition of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Russell Means, the Chief Facilitator of the Republic of Lakotah, is organizing a group of Lakotah Indians to enter Sheridan Lake Recreation Area near Rapid City, South Dakota, refuse to pay the admission fee, and fish without paying the license fee. Means claims that Lakotah retained the right to fish and pass in the 1851 Fort Laramie Treaty territory and that those rights continue today and backed by Article VI of the Constitution of the united states of America.

The event, which is being billed as the Lakotah Freedom Fishing Day, is about much more than the admission fee or the fishing license fee; it is about getting the South Dakota and United States governments to follow their own laws. Means said, "After having been an occupied nation for over 150 years, we have asked the United States government to leave our country. Meanwhile, until the United States Government leaves Lakotah territory we will take every opportunity to insist it follow its own laws and that its states do the same."Comment:  Well, well. I guess Russell Means isn't just talk after all. He's moving from the "yell at bystanders through a megaphone" phase to the "get arrested as a publicity stunt" phase.

For more on the subject, see The Republic of Lakotah.