Lakota Oyate Unilateral Declaration of Independence to the International Community Updated March 14, 2020
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Original: English
Whereas the Tetuwan Lakota Oyate is an original First Nation of people on Turtle Island and has occupied its territorial land base (hereafter Lakota Territory) since time immemorial into present including modern day portions of the states known as South Dakota, North Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, and Nebraska. Whereas the Tetuwan Lakota Oyate is by right a free people and has never relinquished nation status and retains all inherent, natural rights of a nation including the right of customary tenure, aboriginal title, as well as free and unrestricted access and use of its territorial land base and freedom of movement without, to develop and preserve Lakota customary political, social, economic, and cultural institutions. Whereas the assertion of independent Lakota political, economic, and cultural identity was present long before the presence of european settlers, and has not ceased since contact with european settlers and the American state.
Unilateral Declaration of Independence
Independent Lakota Nation
Whereas a truly independent Lakota Nation with a sovereign political, economic, and cultural identity has been continually maintained through our matriarchal system of respectful elders and other customary political and cultural institutions since contact with european settlers and the American state. Whereas the Independent Lakota Nation represents the intergenerational assertion and defense of independent nation status that began with treaty making between the Oceti Sakowin and the United States Government in the mid-late 1800s and has been subsequently represented to the United States and the International Community by Chief He Dog, the Grey Eagle Society, 1973 Wounded Knee declaration; Chief John Grass, and the Lakota Freedom Delegation among others. Whereas the Lakota People have the right to assert independent status, sovereign jurisdiction, and eminent domain within our parochitorial territory under International Law, the United States Constitution, Trade Law, and Treaty Law. The 1961 and 1969 Vienna Convention on Treaties, 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 2007 Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and Article VI of the United States Constitution are mere starting points in the solid legal framework that underlies our rights to freely assert our nation status without interference. Whereas all treaties between the United States Government and the Lakota Oyate have been abrogated by past and present United States actions resulting in material breach of treaty terms and conditions including but not limited to, a) Conspiracy to defraud; b) Forgery; c) Land theft; d) Manifest violation through U.S. military incursion into sovereign Lakota territory without our consent; and, e) Systemic failure to honor treaty agreements resulting in conditions of life resulting in the destruction of the Lakota People. Under the Preamble to the Law of Treaties, Article 45-63 of the Vienna Convention of the Law of Treaties, treaties
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Unilateral Declaration of Independence
Independent Lakota Nation
between the Independent Lakota Nation and the United States are terminated with all previous land claims reverting back to aboriginal title of the respective Indigenous nations. Whereas the free and independent Lakota Oyate have never ceased to resist and repudiate, through armed protest when necessary, the foreign rule of our territory only made possible by force and fraud and only maintained by military occupation and threat of force against the will of the Lakota Oyate. Whereas the Independent Lakota Nation reasserts our rights to free and unfettered access and use of any and all areas within the territorial boundaries of the Lakota Independent Nation State without prejudice or interference by another foreign jurisdiction for the purposes of hunting, fishing, gathering of medicinal plants and foods, ceremonial activities, and any other activities that preserve and advance customary social, cultural, religious, economic, and political knowledge and institutions. Whereas the Lakota Oyate alone have power to make law binding on the people of the Lakota Nation and must repudiate the jurisdictional authority of United States Courts and its applications of law against the Indigenous nations of Turtle Island which are constructed upon the racist and genocidal Doctrine of Discovery creating an illegal and morally reprehensible legal justification for United States “ultimate dominion” or “ultimate title” over independent Indigenous nations as “domestic dependent nations” subverting our own political and judicial institutions. Whereas the Lakota Oyate have the inherent human right to resist oppression, genocide, and future colonization in our desire to be free, and to form coalition between sympathetic and supporting governments of other Nation States as well as individual citizens of other Nation States, who recognize and share in their
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Unilateral Declaration of Independence
Independent Lakota Nation
responsibility for the past and ongoing illegal and inhumane actions perpetrated by the United States of America on the Lakota Oyate. Whereas the Independent Lakota Oyate shall exercise its independence and self determination according to the interests of the Independent Lakota Nation including the defense of land and people, and the use of eminent domain to exert jurisdiction over Lakota Territory forcefully or coercively removed from Lakota jurisdiction and to recover possession of Lakota children and adults removed from Lakota custodial jurisdiction by illegal and genocidal acts of the United States government, State and local governments, or its citizens. Whereas the Independent Lakota Nation and all those persons who stand with us shall work together to assert our independence free of foreign control and interference, with recognition and support of every free nation in the world, and in honor of our ancestors who sacrificed for our lives today, and with love for our children and grand children so they may have a tomorrow as free Lakota Oyate. Hoka Hey!
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