And perhaps the larger story here at the moment, most of all,
given LaDonna’s analyses, is how world communities
can take up and repeat ‘news’ like the child’s game of ‘Telephone,” in the same way that individuals take up
false ‘urban legends’ as whole cloth… at least until someone exposes their faulted origins.

It is true that in all human nature, there is a desire to
hear ‘news’ that supports one’s views, salves one’s wounds, makes one feel strong and walk with pride, to hear someone say out loud what many are secretly thinking. It is true of all of us. We probably, seriously, need an international Snopes… for when news instead of being covered has become unwittingly or not, a publicity auxiliary … and for whenever journalism has fallen into jingoism.

dr.e

The main actor in this grand stand is Russell Means whose home address on Crazy Horse Drive of Pine Ridge serves as business address for Lakota Freedom Delegation. Pine Ridge Reservation is the home of the Oglala, one of the seven bands of the Lakota Nation (settled on eight reservations). Each band has two forms of government: the Tribal Council, established by democratic vote in elections, and the traditional elders’ council which deals primarily with the issues of territorial rights, the various treaties signed with the U.S., ETC.. Russell Means has a residence on Pine Ridge and tried to get elected as Chairman of on Pine Ridge Reservation on three occasions, and each time lost the elections, but he is not an Oglala. The reason is quite simple: all Oglala lakota people know he is not an Oglala , but a Rosebud individual (reservation of Sicangu or Brule, next door). His two brothers, Bill and Ted, quite correctly live on the Rosebud reservation. Their genealogy, to be found in the archives of the Oglala Lakota College, states that Ruseell Means was born of a Rosebud woman, and a father who was the son of a Crow woman and a white man, a member of the American military forces.

The only two newspapers that seemed to know the real facts behind the appearance of official representation were the local newspapers, the Rapid City Journal and the Indian newspaper Indian Country Today. Both took this story with a grain of salt, and the RCJ did the right thing: they got in touch with the Chairman of the Rosebud Reservation (note: not the Pine Ridge reservation) to ask his take on the matter. The Chairman of the Rosebud Reservation, of which Russell means is a constituent, replied that he knew absolutely nothing of this stunt, and he and his government certainly had not seceded and did not intend to. As for the claims of having contacted all sorts of ruling bodies of the Lakota nation for three months before announcing the annulment of the Treaty with the US government, it seems that too is not the outright truth as Avis Little Eagle of Standing Rock reservation also stated that this was the first she had heard of it, and Avis – whom I know personally – works both as a member of the Tribal Council and with the traditional viewpoint.

It is unfortunate that the AFP has circulated a story which is essentially no more than a stunt, that Le Monde has reprinted it and that the world press is eager to reprint without factual background as to its veracity. Even the Turks are now sending words of congratulations to Russell Means, which should shame him (but he is beyond shame and honor) as the Turks are known for their genocide of the Armenians, their “imperialist” Ottoman Empire, and more recently, their desire to crush the KURDS of northern Iraq. If Mr. Means knew history, he would know that every freedom fighter in the world sees an ally in the Kurds. The Kurds are the friends of those who seek equity and democratic freedom. Shame, shame on the Lakota Freedom Delegation, Russell Means, Gary Rowland, Duane martin, and Phyllis Young, for publicizing the fact that the Turks are pleased with their actions.

1. These things aren’t taken too seriously. Often it’s just the occasional true extreme Rightist, who claims his home or property is indepedent, often for [anti-]tax activist purposes. As with them, with this case, the issue won’t last long. It will take less time to resolve than Manifest Destiny took to settle a much larger question of force over who had jurisdiction over much of North America.

2.

What will happen if the Indians secede and take their casinos with them.

The secession wouldn’t last long, and if we wanted to be creative in imagining things, rather than commando raids on the casinos or bombing them, just imagine a full cordon and blockade of that “sovereign nation.” No power, no water…nothing allowed in or out. (Kind of what we should have done in many cases in Iraq, but we weren’t prepared or ready to do.)