The Lakota Nation Denounces U.S. Government and Citizenship

With statistics like these I am surprised that December 17ths act by the Lakota Nation, consisting of parts of Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming, didn't come sooner with a delegation of Lakota leaders delivered a message to the State Department announcing they were unilaterally withdrawing from treaties they signed with the federal government. There are a total of 33 treaties, some more than 150 years old, that the Lakota entered into with the United States that they claim that the government have not honored.

One would suspect that this would be big news and get national attention, but it's barely made a ripple while stories like the pregnancy of Britney Spears 16 year old sister have the limelight. The secession of the Lakota Nation from the United States into their own country that would issue its own passports and drivers licenses and live tax-free provided the residents renounce their US Citizenship should be big political news, especially with a presidential election around the corner. It's no secret that the Native American Indians have never been enamored with the U.S. Government, but this act only proves that the political tide in America is changing. The want of the American people for change in the government is reflected in the popularity of presidential contender Ron Paul.

Surfing the internet looking for information and news stories on the Lakota Nation yesterday brought me to several message boards and blogs where people were discussing the event. Not everyone seems to support the move that the Lakota Nation has made to preserve their culture and try to save their own people from poverty and early deaths.

Popular opinion on AOL, where the most heated debate seems to be taking place, is that the Lakota Nation will still be receiving US Government assistance in forms such as food stamps, welfare and medical care. Someone even went as far as to say that any money they get from the federal government won't different than the foreign aid we give other countries. These people fail to realize that Indian reservations are some of the poorest communities in America with substandard education. The Lakota have either finally had enough of broken promises by the United States Government or have given up entirely on it. They now want to be left to fix things themselves in a way that will protect their culture.

I can't say I blame them.

Instead of seeing this a catalyst for change and reform, others seem to think that the U.S. government will never take this event seriously or that we should build fences and hire border guards to keep the Lakota in their "nation" and out of the United States, that they should be treated like every other foreigner. Never mind that they were here first. The European settlers are the ones that changed their way of life and in the end confined them to reservations. I sometimes wonder if those reservations, that were supposed to be a compromise in the beginning, have not turned into another form of segregation promoting bigotry.

With the "speak English or get out of the country" attitude a lot of people have against immigrants it's not surprising that society, for the most part, is still expecting the Native Americans to conform and accept "the way of life as the white man". Since it is our ancestors that came to the United States shouldn't we be adapting to the way of life of the natives?