International Court of Justice: The Lakota's Last Stand
by:
Jason Coppola, Truthout | Report
It is often said that the United States of America is a nation of laws. There is a group of Lakota who would disagree with that.
The Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council is the traditional governing body of the Lakota Nation. The Council is responsible for the preservation of their lands for future generations and, according to the Council, the "ancient Lakota ways of governance, culture, and spirituality."
Over a century ago, the United States signed the Fort Laramie Treaties, which guarantee the Lakota "ownership" (a foreign concept to the Lakota, who see stewardship over land to be more appropriate than ownership) of the Black Hills as well as surrounding lands through Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, and North and South Dakota.
Treaties are protected by article 6, paragraph 2 of the US Constitution, which states, "This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding."
But the treaties were soon broken, as was every single ratified treaty that the United States ever made with a Native nation, in order to make way for more settlers, gold mines and railroads in the quest for Manifest Destiny.
On March 28, President Obama, in his address to the nation concerning events in Libya, declared, "Wherever people long to be free, they will find a friend in the United States."
Here at home, it's been a different story. The violations of the treaties threaten the very way of life of the Lakota as uranium mining runoff poisons their land and water with radioactive waste and they continue their fight to live according to their "traditional value system in rejection of a colonized world view," says Sicangu Lakota linguist and lifelong activist Rosalie Little Thunder.
Bring Back the Way
In the Lakota language, Owe Aku means "bring back the way." Founded in 1997 by Alex and Debra White Plume, Owe Aku is a grassroots, nongovernmental social change organization which, they state, is dedicated to, "the preservation and revitalization of the Lakota way of life, 1851 and 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty rights, and human rights."
Under the direct guidance of the Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council, Owe Aku's International Justice Project's (IJP) mission states that it is meant, "to be a resource to traditional Indigenous leaders and communities who are preserving ancient Indigenous wisdom and a world view that honors and respects the earth and all her descendants. That is, we seek to bring back the way."
Just like their ancestors, the Lakota are fighting to protect the protocols surrounding the governance of their people, which, the Treaty Council says, "have never been surrendered or sacrificed since our peoples first had contact despite the ongoing attempts to do so by the colonizers and invaders from the Untied States of America." Adding, "Our only foreign conflict in modern history has been the government, military, people and corporations of the USA"
The Way Forward
After exhausting all efforts in dealing directly with the US government, the Treaty Council, its members mostly direct descendants of the signatories of the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, has tasked the IJP with bringing their case to the United Nations (UN) International Court of Justice, also known as the World Court.
Alex White Plume, who, in addition to being the leader of Owe Aku and IJP, is also the former president of the Oglala Sioux tribe, told Truthout: "We see this as our last stand - our last stand to keep our ways, to keep our culture.... If we stand together in solidarity against the opposition, we will see our way of life survive. We have been through the Supreme Court and we have exhausted the remedies under World Court rules."
In late January, the treaty council president, Chief Oliver Red Cloud, called a council meeting among all bands of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota people, as well as Cheyenne, Arapaho, Haudenosaunee (the six-nation Iroquois Confederacy), First Nations representatives from the Treaty 6 and Treaty 4 regions in Canada, and the International Indian Treaty Council.
The meeting charted a path forward and passed several resolutions, including one, "condemning the United States for its unreasonable and inequitable limitations and qualifications placed on the [United Nations] Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples." The resolution also stated that, "the Americans make it very clear in the first paragraph that the Declaration is in no way a legal document, nor are they bound by it." The Lakota statement on US "support" of the Declaration further denounced it as, "nothing more than false rhetoric designed to deceive the world on the US violations, historic and contemporary, against the human rights of Native Peoples."
Resolutions were also passed to address uranium mining, the Keystone XL oil pipeline, and language preservation, and to demand the immediate release of Leonard Peltier, whose imprisonment the council declared illegal.
In its meeting summary, the Council said, "Sovereignty is an inherent right of the land and territories of the Lakota Oyate [Nation] and we are responsible to future generations for the Nation of our ancestors. In acknowledging this truth, internationally recognized treaties were signed by our grandfathers in 1851 and 1868 with the invented nation of "Americans" whose ancestry heralds from other places."
International Court of Justice
As the primary judicial organ of the UN, the stated role of the World Court is, "to settle, in accordance with international law, legal disputes submitted to it by States and to give advisory opinions on legal questions referred to it by authorized United Nations organs and specialized agencies."
The IJP is now organizing a campaign in the hope of establishing the Lakota Nation treaty case as an advisory opinion and become, says IJP, "a specific example to apply the general principle of the legitimacy of Indigenous treaties and their contribution to world peace."
As White Plume explains, the stakes could not be higher. "When the government took the Black Hills illegally in 1871, that broke the spirit of our people because that is our sacred place. That's where we go to do our rituals to stay in harmony," he told Truthout. "We don't want money. We want our land back - our sacred areas - because the Lakota need to survive, and we have our spirituality and our ceremonies, which were designed for the Black Hills. Right now, we perform our ceremonies on the outskirts of the Hills because the government policy is that we have to buy a permit."
Kent Lebsock, coordinator of IJP, is well aware of the challenge. "A lot of people tell me that we are wasting our time because the United States is too big and too powerful to challenge, and this is all ancient history and nothing will ever change for Indian people."
But he remains hopeful. "What has been happening in Egypt and throughout the Mideast is so important," he said. "The tyrant installed and supported by the US for over 30 years in order to defend American interests was driven from the country in an overt exercise of self-determination by a people without an army or economic power. Like us in the 21st century, they simply relied on the Internet."
"Our work is, in effect, to do the same thing," said Lebsock. "Educate people about our right to self-determination in a place where it is completely and intentionally hidden from view."
If IJP and its peers were to do nothing, he adds, "We contribute to the process of colonization."
Instead, said Lebsock, "the Lakota Nation can lead the world in giving the United Nations the opportunity to reverse the inconsistencies of international law and justly address indigenous peoples and our treaties.
This work by Truthout is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
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familymann familymann
Mon, 2011-05-23 06:23
Coppola has worked unembedded in Iraq as well as on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Click here to sign up for free. Click here for free Truthout email updates. Support Truthout by clicking here. The Council invites scorn and ridicule when siding with such a denigration of authentic Indian spirituality. You also ignore the fact that two other cases were dismissed while Peltier was focused on for being a leader in the American Indian Movement. A lot of us non Native Americans are fully aware of what is still being done to Native Americans. Finding out what was done sickened and outraged me. And I will make it a point to follow up on this case to the World Court. They followed the seasons and game to where ever it took them and when they did encounter more agrarian societies vicious territorial wars broke out. Long before the Evil White Man arrive on the scene many of the Native tribes in the Southwest were decimated by the roving bands. What I appreciate about you is that you at least are not in the closet but very open as to where you stand. That and the hypocrisy of the christian white man. I suggest that YOU reread your history and find the real facts. The tribes that we know of that are no longer we have no idea how they met their demise.EVEN THOUGH I AM PRUSSIAN ENGLISH MY HEART IS SIOUX.BECAUSE THE FUTURE HAS NO EXCITING PROSPECTS THAT INSPIRES.THE NATIVES ARE AMERICAS CONSCIENCE. My mother came from the family of Peltier. She was adopted and lost touch with the Peltier side of her family. Of course I am wondering if Leonard Peltier might be a relative. For some reason the name of the site slips my mind all of a sudden.This was my online family tree maker.
familymann familymann
Mon, 2011-05-23 06:23
Coppola has worked unembedded in Iraq as well as on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Click here to sign up for free. Click here for free Truthout email updates. Support Truthout by clicking here. The Council invites scorn and ridicule when siding with such a denigration of authentic Indian spirituality. You also ignore the fact that two other cases were dismissed while Peltier was focused on for being a leader in the American Indian Movement. A lot of us non Native Americans are fully aware of what is still being done to Native Americans. Finding out what was done sickened and outraged me. And I will make it a point to follow up on this case to the World Court. They followed the seasons and game to where ever it took them and when they did encounter more agrarian societies vicious territorial wars broke out. Long before the Evil White Man arrive on the scene many of the Native tribes in the Southwest were decimated by the roving bands. What I appreciate about you is that you at least are not in the closet but very open as to where you stand. That and the hypocrisy of the christian white man. I suggest that YOU reread your history and find the real facts. The tribes that we know of that are no longer we have no idea how they met their demise.EVEN THOUGH I AM PRUSSIAN ENGLISH MY HEART IS SIOUX.BECAUSE THE FUTURE HAS NO EXCITING PROSPECTS THAT INSPIRES.THE NATIVES ARE AMERICAS CONSCIENCE. My mother came from the family of Peltier. She was adopted and lost touch with the Peltier side of her family. Of course I am wondering if Leonard Peltier might be a relative. For some reason the name of the site slips my mind all of a sudden.This was my family tree maker.
familymann familymann
Mon, 2011-05-23 06:02
Coppola has worked unembedded in Iraq as well as on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Click here to sign up for free. Click here for free Truthout email updates. Support Truthout by clicking here. The Council invites scorn and ridicule when siding with such a denigration of authentic Indian spirituality. You also ignore the fact that two other cases were dismissed while Peltier was focused on for being a leader in the American Indian Movement. A lot of us non Native Americans are fully aware of what is still being done to Native Americans. Finding out what was done sickened and outraged me. And I will make it a point to follow up on this case to the World Court. They followed the seasons and game to where ever it took them and when they did encounter more agrarian societies vicious territorial wars broke out. Long before the Evil White Man arrive on the scene many of the Native tribes in the Southwest were decimated by the roving bands. What I appreciate about you is that you at least are not in the closet but very open as to where you stand. That and the hypocrisy of the christian white man. I suggest that YOU reread your history and find the real facts. The tribes that we know of that are no longer we have no idea how they met their demise.EVEN THOUGH I AM PRUSSIAN ENGLISH MY HEART IS SIOUX.BECAUSE THE FUTURE HAS NO EXCITING PROSPECTS THAT INSPIRES.THE NATIVES ARE AMERICAS CONSCIENCE. My mother came from the family of Peltier. She was adopted and lost touch with the Peltier side of her family. Of course I am wondering if Leonard Peltier might be a relative. For some reason the name of the site slips my mind all of a sudden.This is my family tree
familymann familymann
Mon, 2011-05-23 06:02
Coppola has worked unembedded in Iraq as well as on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Click here to sign up for free. Click here for free Truthout email updates. Support Truthout by clicking here. The Council invites scorn and ridicule when siding with such a denigration of authentic Indian spirituality. You also ignore the fact that two other cases were dismissed while Peltier was focused on for being a leader in the American Indian Movement. A lot of us non Native Americans are fully aware of what is still being done to Native Americans. Finding out what was done sickened and outraged me. And I will make it a point to follow up on this case to the World Court. They followed the seasons and game to where ever it took them and when they did encounter more agrarian societies vicious territorial wars broke out. Long before the Evil White Man arrive on the scene many of the Native tribes in the Southwest were decimated by the roving bands. What I appreciate about you is that you at least are not in the closet but very open as to where you stand. That and the hypocrisy of the christian white man. I suggest that YOU reread your history and find the real facts. The tribes that we know of that are no longer we have no idea how they met their demise.EVEN THOUGH I AM PRUSSIAN ENGLISH MY HEART IS SIOUX.BECAUSE THE FUTURE HAS NO EXCITING PROSPECTS THAT INSPIRES.THE NATIVES ARE AMERICAS CONSCIENCE. My mother came from the family of Peltier. She was adopted and lost touch with the Peltier side of her family. Of course I am wondering if Leonard Peltier might be a relative. For some reason the name of the site slips my mind all of a sudden.This is my online family tree maker
James Simon
Sun, 2011-05-15 05:14
While I applaud White Plume and his Council for their resolution concerning the Black Hills, they make a serious mistake by calling for the release of convicted killer Leonard Peltier. Rather than show remorse and ask for forgiveness from his victims’ families, Leonard merely flaunts his guilt and wallows in comparisons with genuine Indian heroes like Chief Crazy Horse. The Council invites scorn and ridicule when siding with such a denigration of authentic Indian spirituality. Leonard remains unrepentant, wickedly manipulative, and very guilty. For the truth about the myth of his innocence, see www.americanindianmafia.com. Don’t get fooled again.
Lee Burt
Sun, 2011-05-15 14:03
You are convinced Peltier is guilty when so much about this case was mishandled and obstructed from the prosecutions side. You also ignore the fact that two other cases were dismissed while Peltier was focused on for being a leader in the American Indian Movement.
Decades later, a man named OJ Simpson was acquitted not because he was "not guilty" of murders, but because the prosecution was targeted as racist and unethical, but for reasons I like to call "the Bush jurisprudence", you still have FBI agents crying on national television calling Peltier a murderer.
Peltier represents what every indigenous person encounters through American courts and racial divides between non-native and Native peoples. I know natives that are doing 50 plus years in prison for a crime thats not murder where an Anglo American would only receive 10-15 for murder if even that.
The man is in prison James Simon, how does one flaunt oneself behind bars?
James Simon
Sun, 2011-05-15 17:32
Agree with the comparison to OJ, as far as guilt, but the rest is pure propaganda. If you read the legal record and listen to Peltier’s own words who, by the way, was a follower (bucking for the job of Dennis Banks’ body guard at the time), not a leader, when he blew away those two federal agents, you’ll see that he has been running away from his past ever since he realized he could con people into honoring his blood lust with human rights awards. And in case you didn’t know, Leonard interrogated Anna Mae Pictou Aquash, another AIM murder victim, by putting a loaded gun in her mouth. Peltier’s crime bosses, as the record shows and recent convictions demonstrate, ordered her execution in December 1975. Even Janet Reno cited Leonard’s involvement in the Aquash murder as another reason to turn down his clemency petition. Until Leonard admits his guilt and asks for forgiveness, he should stay where he is.
Lee Burt
Sat, 2011-05-14 14:48
If the US cannot abide by treaties within its own continental boundaries, what makes foreign treaties legitimate and standing?
For the many non-natives that think that this was all about war centuries ago, it is not. Apart from the genocide through military campaigns and the murder of human life, this intrusion and invasion still persists through legislative taxations; land use and the exploitation of resources on Indian lands such as timber, oil, natural gas; uranium; coal, water rights; and the lists goes on.
We are still being silenced and murdered everytime you read about a native being shot or killed by racist communities or law enforcement.
Americans remain arrogant and ignorant to the plight of Indian people and by their own logic, Mexican nationals are "invading their" country and "way of life" when less than one century ago, most of these rabid racists grandparents came to this country for the same reasons.
I would trade Mexicans over Anglo Americans anytime, except for Willie Nelson.
June Meek
Sat, 2011-05-14 19:10
I sincerely hope that the Lakota succeeds in taking this case to the world court. Although I am not a Native American, I do have a Native American Soul. I was a Native American in 6 previous lifetimes. The one lifetime that still resonates with me is when I was an Apache during the 1800's. A lot of us non Native Americans are fully aware of what is still being done to Native Americans. We don't approve of it, we don't like what was done to all Native Americans in the past and what is still being done. Finding out what was done sickened and outraged me. Many non Native Americans want to help but we don't know how. And I will make it a point to follow up on this case to the World Court. My prayers will be with you all, hoping that this case will be heard and justice will finally come to you.
Joleen Brown
Sat, 2011-05-14 10:23
It is said if all of the Red Nation Stands together we will be heard. I think this is a time we need to puts the issue and call out for all Native Americans, First Nations, People from every tribe, and nations, To ban together and Make our voices be heard. And if that is not enough numbers for the government, then we should take DNA tests to enroll in our tribes(Non Native Law)And make sure our numbers are higher and then let the world know WE ARE HERE!! WE WILL NOT GO AWAY!!! As in a song I love to listen to"You may kill my body. You condemn my soul, for not believing in your god, and some world down below. You don't stand a chance against my Prayers!" And I have to agree with that!!
Meg Goodrich
Sat, 2011-05-14 05:16
I'm a white, Christian female of no particular denomination (I don't like hypocrisy, either) and a US citizen. Though I am happy to be living here, I am sickened and ashamed by the history of this country's beginnings and how its government has dealt with the original people of this beautiful land. I live in the state of New York, but have always had the view of "looking from the west to the east". The fact that the government is STILL breaking its own laws doesn't surprise me. What can I do to help?
Robert Wise
Fri, 2011-05-13 23:23
If you want to read a current novel that addresses these issues in a dramatic, vivid way, look to the novel "The Black Hills."
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Bobby Soetoro
Fri, 2011-05-13 15:37
Of course the "concept of ownership" was foreign to the Lakota and most of the nomadic Native tribes. They followed the seasons and game to where ever it took them and when they did encounter more agrarian societies vicious territorial wars broke out. Long before the Evil White Man arrive on the scene many of the Native tribes in the Southwest were decimated by the roving bands.
Study a little history and quit buying the peaceful earth worshiping Indian B.S.
They lost the wars to the Europeans and to the victor went the spoils.
Giovanna Lepore
Sat, 2011-05-14 10:54
So this justifies the foreign invasion by hordes of racists? Oh and what hordes they were claiming a "christian" ethos! It would strike me that invasion, genocide and theft are incompatible with Christianity to which the whites added the enslavement of Africans. What I appreciate about you is that you at least are not in the closet but very open as to where you stand. Study a little history: Ward Churchill, A Little Matter of Genocide; Vine Deloria, God is Red to mention only two sources.
Robert Wise
Sat, 2011-05-14 02:02
This comment actually shows a great lack of historical knowledge regarding the Black Hills legal controversy. Please see "Black Hills/White Justice: The Sioux Nation versus the United States, 1775 to the Present", Ed Lazarus.
Mike Aguilar
Fri, 2011-05-13 22:31
So Bobby, what about the many different treaties you white men made with us that you continue to break? Does that mean anything or is the word of a white man worth nothing?
Yes, we fought with each other over territory. But your interpretation of history and our culture couldn't be farther from the truth. read the story again. The Lakota are mainly just asking two things:
1: That the United Stated government abide by the Treaties and Laws they themselves put in place and ratified, and
2: Free access to what the Lakota consider to be sacred lands.
Imagine if your grandparents were buried in the next city over and that city said that in order to visit them, you either had to pay the city a tribute, or acquire an expensive permit. Would that be right? This is one of the main things that Native American tribes across the country are fighting about. That and the hypocrisy of the christian white man.
The Tribes may have moved around, following game and the seasons, but not as much as you appear to want people to believe. I suggest that YOU reread your history and find the real facts.
Please, enlighten us as to what Southwest Tribes were decimated by roving bands. The tribes that we know of that are no longer we have no idea how they met their demise.
cheyenne bode
Fri, 2011-05-13 10:16
I LIVE NEAR A BUTTE THAT IS SACRED TO SCORES OF TRIBES INCLUDING THE SIOUX..MY WORSHIP TAKES PLACE THERE..EVEN THOUGH I AM PRUSSIAN ENGLISH MY HEART IS SIOUX..THEY NEED SUPPORT AND JUSTICE.. MOSTLY COMPASSION...BECAUSE THE FUTURE HAS NO EXCITING PROSPECTS THAT INSPIRES..THE NATIVES ARE AMERICAS CONSCIENCE..IT MUST BE PRESERVED..
Marie ST.Pierre
Fri, 2011-05-13 09:25
I am a Canadian Immigant living in the US. My mother came from the family of Peltier. She was adopted and lost touch with the Peltier side of her family. Of course I am wondering if Leonard Peltier might be a relative. How can I research to discover if we are related? Contact me at m-lynne@hotmail.com
Mike Aguilar
Fri, 2011-05-13 22:32
Family tree services online might help. For some reason the name of the site slips my mind all of a sudden. My family tree is there.