Descendants of Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse break away from US
Thu Dec 20, 1:16 AM ET
The Lakota Indians, who gave the world legendary warriors Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, have withdrawn from treaties with the United States, leaders said Wednesday.
"We are no longer citizens of the United States of America and all those who live in the five-state area that encompasses our country are free to join us," long-time Indian rights activist Russell Means told a handful of reporters and a delegation from the Bolivian embassy, gathered in a church in a run-down neighborhood of Washington for a news conference.
A delegation of Lakota leaders delivered a message to the State Department on Monday, announcing they were unilaterally withdrawing from treaties they signed with the federal government of the United States, some of them more than 150 years old.
They also visited the Bolivian, Chilean, South African and Venezuelan embassies, and will continue on their diplomatic mission and take it overseas in the coming weeks and months, they told the news conference.
Lakota country includes parts of the states of Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming.
The new country would issue its own passports and driving licences, and living there would be tax-free -- provided residents renounce their US citizenship, Means said.
The treaties signed with the United States are merely "worthless words on worthless paper," the Lakota freedom activists say on their website.
The treaties have been "repeatedly violated in order to steal our culture, our land and our ability to maintain our way of life," the reborn freedom movement says.
Withdrawing from the treaties was entirely legal, Means said.
"This is according to the laws of the United States, specifically article six of the constitution," which states that treaties are the supreme law of the land, he said.
"It is also within the laws on treaties passed at the Vienna Convention and put into effect by the US and the rest of the international community in 1980. We are legally within our rights to be free and independent," said Means.
The Lakota relaunched their journey to freedom in 1974, when they drafted a declaration of continuing independence -- an overt play on the title of the United States' Declaration of Independence from England.
Thirty-three years have elapsed since then because "it takes critical mass to combat colonialism and we wanted to make sure that all our ducks were in a row," Means said.
One duck moved into place in September, when the United Nations adopted a non-binding declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples -- despite opposition from the United States, which said it clashed with its own laws.
"We have 33 treaties with the United States that they have not lived by. They continue to take our land, our water, our children," Phyllis Young, who helped organize the first international conference on indigenous rights in Geneva in 1977, told the news conference.
The US "annexation" of native American land has resulted in once proud tribes such as the Lakota becoming mere "facsimiles of white people," said Means.
Oppression at the hands of the US government has taken its toll on the Lakota, whose men have one of the shortest life expectancies -- less than 44 years -- in the world.
Lakota teen suicides are 150 percent above the norm for the United States; infant mortality is five times higher than the US average; and unemployment is rife, according to the Lakota freedom movement's website.
"Our people want to live, not just survive or crawl and be mascots," said Young.
"We are not trying to embarrass the United States. We are here to continue the struggle for our children and grandchildren," she said, predicting that the battle would not be won in her lifetime.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Friday, December 7, 2007
Navajo president published in law review
For Immediate Release: December 5, 2007
Navajo Nation Office of the President & Vice President
www.opvp.org
Navajo President Joe Shirley, Jr.'s, speech published in law review to commemorate founding of Jamestown, Virginia, 400 years ago
WINDOW ROCK, Ariz.- Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley, Jr., has been published in the Richmond Law Review's Jamestown Commemorative issue.
The President's speech, "Native America and the Rule of Law," presented during the University of Richmond School of Law's April 2007 Rule of Law Conference, was published as one of four articles from the four-day conference.
Also published in the same issue was "Global Issues and the Rule of Law" by Lord Chief Justice Nicholas Phillips of Worth Matravers, Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales; "Human Rights in China and the Rule of Law" by Xu Wenli, Senior Fellow at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University; and "Social Justice and the Law" by Elaine R. Jones, the former President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP's Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc
As part of a national effort to commemorate the founding of the first permanent English settlement, the University of Richmond School of Law hosts the Rule of Law Conference
Jamestown founded on May 14, 1607. It is located on Jamestown Island in the Virginia Colony. It is commonly regarded as the first permanent English settlement in what is now the United States, following several earlier failed attempts. It became the first capital of the colony for 92 years, until 1699, when it was relocated to Williamsburg.
TO READ THE FULL STORY CLICK HERE
TO READ THE LAW REVIEW CLICK HERE
Navajo Nation Office of the President
George Hardeen,
Communications Director
E-mail: pressoffice@opvp.org
Ofc: 928-871-7917 Cell: 928-309-8532
Navajo Nation Office of the President & Vice President
www.opvp.org
Navajo President Joe Shirley, Jr.'s, speech published in law review to commemorate founding of Jamestown, Virginia, 400 years ago
WINDOW ROCK, Ariz.- Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley, Jr., has been published in the Richmond Law Review's Jamestown Commemorative issue.
The President's speech, "Native America and the Rule of Law," presented during the University of Richmond School of Law's April 2007 Rule of Law Conference, was published as one of four articles from the four-day conference.
Also published in the same issue was "Global Issues and the Rule of Law" by Lord Chief Justice Nicholas Phillips of Worth Matravers, Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales; "Human Rights in China and the Rule of Law" by Xu Wenli, Senior Fellow at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University; and "Social Justice and the Law" by Elaine R. Jones, the former President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP's Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc
As part of a national effort to commemorate the founding of the first permanent English settlement, the University of Richmond School of Law hosts the Rule of Law Conference
Jamestown founded on May 14, 1607. It is located on Jamestown Island in the Virginia Colony. It is commonly regarded as the first permanent English settlement in what is now the United States, following several earlier failed attempts. It became the first capital of the colony for 92 years, until 1699, when it was relocated to Williamsburg.
TO READ THE FULL STORY CLICK HERE
TO READ THE LAW REVIEW CLICK HERE
Navajo Nation Office of the President
George Hardeen,
Communications Director
E-mail: pressoffice@opvp.org
Ofc: 928-871-7917 Cell: 928-309-8532
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Native Authors Earn Recognition
Excellent News - not only did Sherman Alexie win a National Book Award last night in New York City for his young adult novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,
but also N. Scott Momaday is being honored at the White House today. See the following links to read more about both of these amazing Native authors.
2007 National Book Award Winner, Young People's Literature:
Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Little, Brown & Company
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Bush adding to poet's honors
By M.J. Van Deventer
http://newsok.com/article/3169308/?print=1
NewsOK.com - Oklahoma City,OK,USA
Oklahoma Centennial Poet Laureate N. Scott Momaday will receive the National Medal of Arts in a ceremony at the White House today. President Bush announced the 10 recipients for 2007 on Monday.
Momaday is the only Oklahoman and the only author to be honored. The recipients will be honored in a ceremony in the East Room of the White House this morning. President and Mrs. Laura Bush will present the awards.
The National Endowment for the Arts manages the National Medal of Arts nomination process and notified the recipients of their selection to receive the medal, the nation's highest honor for artistic excellence.
"We are delighted that N. Scott Momaday has received this distinguished honor for his contributions to American literature. His books, poetry and memoirs, which so lyrically celebrate Native American culture, have made a historic contribution to our national letters,” NEA chairman Dana Gioia said.
Established by Congress in 1984, the National Medal of Arts goes to recipients based on their contribution to the creation, growth and support of the arts in the United States.
"Scott is one of those rare individuals who belong to Oklahoma and to the world,” said Betty Price, former executive director of the Oklahoma Arts Council. She will attend the ceremony.
"His generous spirit touches our lives — both Indian and non-Indian. He is among the few honored ones who have been named an Official Oklahoma Cultural Treasure. His compositions allow us to see the world through his eyes and have enriched our national culture,” Price said.
Momaday is the third Oklahoman to receive the honor. Ballerina Maria Tallchief and sculptor Allan Houser were previous recipients.
Momaday is a Pulitzer Prize- wining writer who celebrates American Indian art and oral tradition in his novels and essays. A member of the Kiowa tribe, he also is a poet, painter, playwright, photographer, storyteller and professor of English.
Gov. Brad Henry named Momaday the Oklahoma Centennial State Poet Laureate on July 12 at an Oklahoma History Centerceremony.
Momaday, whose first name is Navarre, was born in Lawton on Feb. 27, 1934. Momaday learned the Navajo, Apache and Pueblo Indian cultures of the Southwest while growing up because both his mother and father taught on Indian reservations in Arizona and New Mexico.
After receiving his undergraduate degree from the University of New Mexico, Momaday won a poetry fellowship to the creative writing program at Stanford University.
He earned a doctorate in English literature there in 1963, and took a teaching position at the University of California in Santa Barbara.
Of Momaday's books, "The Way To Rainy Mountain," written in 1969, and "The Names,” written in 1976, emphasize the importance of landscape and heritage. His collections of poetry include most recently, "In The Presence Of The Sun,” published in 1992, and "In The Bear's House,” published in 1999. A new collection of poetry is in progress.
Momaday divides his time between Oklahoma City and Santa Fe, N.M., where he is a senior scholar at the School for Advanced Research.
He is the founder and chairman of The Buffalo Trust, a nonprofit foundation for the preservation and restoration of Native American culture, a founding trustee of the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington and a founding member of The Stewardship Council of the Autry Center for the American West in Los Angeles.
but also N. Scott Momaday is being honored at the White House today. See the following links to read more about both of these amazing Native authors.
2007 National Book Award Winner, Young People's Literature:
Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Little, Brown & Company
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Bush adding to poet's honors
By M.J. Van Deventer
http://newsok.com/article/3169308/?print=1
NewsOK.com - Oklahoma City,OK,USA
Oklahoma Centennial Poet Laureate N. Scott Momaday will receive the National Medal of Arts in a ceremony at the White House today. President Bush announced the 10 recipients for 2007 on Monday.
Momaday is the only Oklahoman and the only author to be honored. The recipients will be honored in a ceremony in the East Room of the White House this morning. President and Mrs. Laura Bush will present the awards.
The National Endowment for the Arts manages the National Medal of Arts nomination process and notified the recipients of their selection to receive the medal, the nation's highest honor for artistic excellence.
"We are delighted that N. Scott Momaday has received this distinguished honor for his contributions to American literature. His books, poetry and memoirs, which so lyrically celebrate Native American culture, have made a historic contribution to our national letters,” NEA chairman Dana Gioia said.
Established by Congress in 1984, the National Medal of Arts goes to recipients based on their contribution to the creation, growth and support of the arts in the United States.
"Scott is one of those rare individuals who belong to Oklahoma and to the world,” said Betty Price, former executive director of the Oklahoma Arts Council. She will attend the ceremony.
"His generous spirit touches our lives — both Indian and non-Indian. He is among the few honored ones who have been named an Official Oklahoma Cultural Treasure. His compositions allow us to see the world through his eyes and have enriched our national culture,” Price said.
Momaday is the third Oklahoman to receive the honor. Ballerina Maria Tallchief and sculptor Allan Houser were previous recipients.
Momaday is a Pulitzer Prize- wining writer who celebrates American Indian art and oral tradition in his novels and essays. A member of the Kiowa tribe, he also is a poet, painter, playwright, photographer, storyteller and professor of English.
Gov. Brad Henry named Momaday the Oklahoma Centennial State Poet Laureate on July 12 at an Oklahoma History Centerceremony.
Momaday, whose first name is Navarre, was born in Lawton on Feb. 27, 1934. Momaday learned the Navajo, Apache and Pueblo Indian cultures of the Southwest while growing up because both his mother and father taught on Indian reservations in Arizona and New Mexico.
After receiving his undergraduate degree from the University of New Mexico, Momaday won a poetry fellowship to the creative writing program at Stanford University.
He earned a doctorate in English literature there in 1963, and took a teaching position at the University of California in Santa Barbara.
Of Momaday's books, "The Way To Rainy Mountain," written in 1969, and "The Names,” written in 1976, emphasize the importance of landscape and heritage. His collections of poetry include most recently, "In The Presence Of The Sun,” published in 1992, and "In The Bear's House,” published in 1999. A new collection of poetry is in progress.
Momaday divides his time between Oklahoma City and Santa Fe, N.M., where he is a senior scholar at the School for Advanced Research.
He is the founder and chairman of The Buffalo Trust, a nonprofit foundation for the preservation and restoration of Native American culture, a founding trustee of the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington and a founding member of The Stewardship Council of the Autry Center for the American West in Los Angeles.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
