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O'siyo Brothers and Sisters!
My half-side, The Lovely Janet, has taken note
of recent news items; and ponders the possibilities.
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Well, well, well....things are shaping up in a very interesting manner.
I think Eloise Cobell may have started this all. One little Blackfoot
bookkeeper who had the guts to hold the US Government accountable. And
when faced with not one, but two federal agencies and their ranks of
legal experts in their own courts, she has not backed down in over a
decade. Maybe she gave the rest of our tribes the courage to start
standing up, too.
It was seven years ago when the Osage opening salvo claimed their home
county, in the face of intense political and financial opposition, and
continued the fight to reclaim land they say was never legally taken.
Nobody thought they'd make it stick this long.
The Mohawk in Ontario are under siege in Caledonia, refusing to let
developers appropriate land they say they never legitimately ceded to
Canada (and Canada isn't out there waving documents saying otherwise --
they're just puffing and posturing).
In the past week, Dennis Banks led a deputation to Washington to reject
Lakota treaties on behalf of the Lakota -- and was taken seriously by
international delegations and was not (as had been anticipated) soundly
rebuked by many Lakota. In fact, Avis Little Eagle (who is certainly no
Russell Means crony) reported this week that the matter would be taken
up in the Standing Rock Council.
I'm sure the government hoped its courts would quickly kick this door
shut by rejecting the Osage claim before it ever got started. This news
instead kicks it wider open.
Read: "Osage Nation's Lawsuit over State Taxes advances"
Wonder how many more indigenous peoples in how many countries will be
following these tribes' leads?
Remember that the Supreme Court decision invalidating the taking of the
Cherokee Nation hasn't ever been overturned -- the Cherokee have room
for a toe in that door, themselves, if they want to use it.
I've got to say, I never expected the tribes to do this, and never
expected them to get where they have with the attempt. I truly expected
the Lakota tribal councils to all tell Dennis to sit down and shut up. I
know it's not a done deal yet, but to have even one council give the
matter the credence of a hearing speaks volumes. It looks to me like
quite a few Indian people are done with lying down.
Janet Smith owlstar@bellsouth.net
P. O. Box 672168
Marietta, GA 30008, U.S.A.
http://www.owlstar.com
OwlStar Trading Post jewelry, music, flags, herbs
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Dohiyi Ani Oginalii
Gary Smith (*,*)
wotanging@bellsouth.net
P. O. Box 672168 (`-') gars@nanews.org
Marietta, GA 30006, U.S.A. ===w=w===
http://www.nanews.org
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CONTENTS LIST OF ARTICLES IN
VOLUME 16, ISSUE 001
FOR ARTICLES GOT TO
WOTANGING IKCHE-Native American News
Editorial Section: . Tribes Reasserting Land
Rights, Sovereignty
- Osage Nation's Lawsuit Over State Taxes Advances
- 'Lakota Nation' Confirmed - Precedent For Others?
- Official Says Council Will Consider Treaty Pullout
- Global News: Republic Of Lakota
- Indigenous Villages Check The Bering's Pulse
- American Indian Genocide Museum
- Censorship, Struggling Against The New Mccarthyism
- 'Broken Promises' To Promote Cobell Litigation
- Dirty Power Plant Deal Keeps Getting Dirtier
- Pine Ridge Group Wants Firm To Divulge Mine Plans
- Mining Is Genocide For Indigenous Peoples
- Judge Sides With Tribe, Feds Over Yankton Sioux
- Stillaguamish Hoping Grant Money Will Save Chinook
- Development Slow Year After Ban Lifted In Freeze
- Retired Bishop Apologizes For Mistreating Miwok
- Indian Mortgage Glass Half-Empty In 2007
- MOWAs Continue Fight For Official Recognition
- Indian Blood Samples Could Help Transfusions
- Southern Ute Tribe's Influence Behind Moratorium
- Flathead Reservation Has Biggest Economic Impact
- Russell: Social Capital And How To Hoard It
- Harjo: New Starts
- Mazria: Sleepwalking Toward Disaster
- Yellow Bird:
Story Reminds Me Why I Dislike Zoos
- Giago: Mascots Insulting To Most Indians
- Spies Spooked - Red Ops Outed
- Foul Play Suspected In Death Of Aboriginal
- Comunique On Women's Encounter
- Federal Appeals Court Hears Bald Eagle Case
- Navajo Corrections
- 61 Beds For 38,540 Inmates
- Native Justice-- Carcieri Won't Testify At Smoke Shop Trial
- Rustywire: Way Up On Red Lake Road
- Del "Abe" Jones Poem: Veteran Suicides
- Native Languages Emerge From The Grave
- Upcoming Events
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"I tell them that the aboriginal Lakota people
of this country look at this flag as a piece of red, white and blue
cloth that stands for the foreign racist system that has oppressed
Indigenous peoples for centuries."
"For traditional Lakota people, that piece of red, white and blue cloth
stands for a system and a country that does not honor it's own word."
"If it stood for honor and truth, it would remember our treaties and
give them the appropriate place under international law. But it doesn't.
It dishonors its own word and violates its treaties, that piece of red,
white and blue cloth." --- Tony Black Feather, Lakota, in his statement
to the Working Group on Indigenous Populations.
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As
historian Patricia Nelson Limerick summarized in "The Legacy of
Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West...
"Set the blood quantum at one-quarter, hold to it as a rigid definition
of Indians, let intermarriage proceed as it had for centuries, and
eventually Indians will be defined out of existence. When that happens,
the federal government will be freed of its persistent 'Indian
problem.'"
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Once a language is lost, it is gone forever. Of the 300 original Native
languages in North America, only 175 exist today. * 125 of these are no
longer learned by children. * 55 are spoken by 1 to 6 elders; when they
die, their language will disappear. * Without action, only 20 languages
will survive the next 50 years. Source: Indigenous Language Institute
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