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In
the fall of 1875, the United States government issued an ultimatum
to a nation of people that stood in the way of their advancement
across the North American continent. The Lakota people were given a
few weeks to leave their own country and return to a reservation
established by the Americans "or be considered 'hostiles'
subject to forced removal." The Lakota refusal to heed the
ultimatum resulted in a war that included the charge of the 7th
Cavalry under the command of Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and his
ultimate defeat on June 25, 1876.
On
March 18, 2003 George W. Bush issued a 48-hour ultimatum to Iraqi
President Sadaam Hussein and his sons to go into exile or face
"military conflict." Shortly after the world listened to
the American president's demands, the assault and invasion by
American troops began. Again, the 7th cavalry is advancing on a city
of people living on their own terms in their own territory.
If
America, or the world for that matter, wants to understand the
American mind-set behind the war in Iraq, it's simple. Ask an Indian.
The current invasion and planned occupation of Iraq is the latest
chapter in the American colonial process. It is a process that hides
behind the forced imposition of "democracy" and "human
rights" as Americans interpret these terms. Usually that
interpretation involves benefits for American interests whether those
interests are land, resources, gold or oil.
In
our nation, the Lakota Nation, it started about 153 years ago. Our
territory was to be "liberated" by the Americans when gold
was discovered in the Black Hills. The occupation of our land by
foreign forces began shortly after the American discovery of these
resources and, in violation of international treaties and
conventions, has continued ever since. Our battle to eject the
"infidels" has also continued.
The
Tetuwan Oyate, Teton Sioux Nation Treaty Council, was founded in
1894, four years after the 7th Cavalry took its revenge for the loss
at the Battle of the Little Big Horn when a peaceful camp of mostly
sickly elders, women and children were massacred in the snows at
Wounded Knee in present day South Dakota. The Teton Sioux Nation
Treaty Council was established to enforce the provisions of our peace
treaties lawfully made with the United States that guaranteed our
sovereignty over our land, resources and culture. For over a century
the United States has used every weapon in its massive arsenal to
ensure that the rights of the Lakota Nation are abrogated and that
our people are held in servitude. Our elders and leaders have taken
our battle from the Supreme Court of the United States to the
institutions of the United Nations in order to preserve our right to
our territory, our sovereignty as a nation and our self-determination
over our own future. The Lakota Nation defends the sovereignty of all
peoples, not necessarily the sovereign.
Today,
watching the media reports on American television, we see the same
history unfolding that our people have and continue to experience. As
American troops open fire on vehicles filled with families escaping
the horrors of the invasion of their territory, our genetic memories
recall the massacres in our own country. Tony Black Feather, the
Spokesman for the Teton Sioux Nation Treaty Council and the United
Nations delegate of the traditional Lakota Nation in our
international efforts, stated:
"This
is the same history. We are watching history repeat itself again and
again. This is not a war. It is a mass murder for oil and resources -
the same thing they did to us - the same people are in Iraq that
killed my Lakota people and stole our Lakota land. We are not
involved in this so-called war because we are a nation that has
treaties which separate us from the United States. We have always
been a nation. We are saddened that the United States is using the
wealth that they stole from our territories to make war on innocent
people. We cannot condone the use of what are our resources under
international treaties to support the [United States] invasion of
Iraq. We sympathize with the people of Iraq. The United States is
trying to put the Iraqi people under the same reservation and trust
system that they have used against our people."
Support
of Mr. Black Feather's assertion was provided in a BBC report on
April 3, 2003, when the British Foreign Minister for the Middle East,
Mike O'Brien, stated that the American post-war plans include the
appointment of 23 American "ministers" who will be
established in Baghdad. These "ministers" sound very
similar to the Indian "agents" installed on reservations
throughout the United States whose job is to represent the interests
of the American government. Although Mr. O'Brien stated emphatically
that the United States has no plans to "colonize" Iraq, the
facts seem to dispute the denials.
In
its colonization of Indian territory in North America, in violation
of the United States constitution in which "all treaties made,
or which shall be made .&ldots; shall be the supreme law of the
land" , the American government has gone to great lengths to
give the appearance that our territory was never colonized in
violation of these treaties. Indeed the myth has evolved into a
romantic history in which the land never really belonged to anyone
but the Americans. Plenary power, sovereignty, nation-to-nation,
citizenship and Indian reorganization are all terms familiar to
individuals aware of America's manipulation of the language of colonization.
Clearly,
the same propaganda efforts have begun with respect to Iraq. At the
beginning of the invasion, Donald Rumsfeld enumerated several
objectives: the first was to topple Saddam Hussein and the
second to locate and destroy Iraq's alleged weapons of mass
destruction. President Bush, his team, and the Pentagon media sources
now more frequently speak of "freeing the Iraqi people."
This has replaced disarming Iraq as the main focus. Some analysts see
the re-ordering of priorities and shriller language as a response to
the realities on the ground in Iraq. Saddam has not used
non-conventional weapons and U.S. and British troops have so far not
found any to justify a war which much of the international community
opposes. Many analysts, both in the United States and abroad,
however, see the shifts either as a consequence of Bush's failure to
making a convincing case for war or as evidence of a hidden agenda in
the Middle East. For the leadership of the Lakota Nation, the
American agenda is not so hidden, and many experts agree.
"The
real target of the war is to make US supremacy prevail on a
strategic oil-rich region, and to protect Israel's regional
superiority and its monopoly over weapons of mass destruction in the
Middle East," alleged British Middle East expert and journalist
Patrick Seale. "I think the basic reasoning behind the policy,
as far as most people around the world are concerned, is for oil and
control of the Gulf region," said Li Jianying, vice president of
the Chinese People's Institute of Foreign Affairs. Despite the
rhetoric of the American, British and Spanish leaders, few outside of
the United States seem fooled by the American motives in this invasion.
Official
movement within the United Nations in opposition to the war is also
growing. On April 1, 2003 Secretary-General Kofi Annan said there is
"lots of unhappiness" at the United Nations about the war
in Iraq and that Arab nations want the United Nations to do more to
bring about a cease-fire. The 22-member Arab Group met with Annan and
announced that it would push for adoption of a resolution in the
General Assembly to show the strength of world opposition to the U.S.
military campaign. The Organization of the Islamic Conference Group,
with 57 member nations, also supported taking the issue to the
General Assembly. Based on our own history, the Lakota Nation
supports these efforts in opposition to the American invasion and
colonization, especially with respect to actions applying
international law to an international situation. For our people, this
is how a civilized, peaceful world is achieved.
During
our long experience with American occupation, the Lakota Nation has
seen the United States utilize its vast economic and military power
to suppress opposition to its own agenda. In the same way, the United
States has stubbornly ignored the overwhelming opposition to this war
by the rest of the world. In a communication, obtained by Greenpeace,
the United States urged countries to vote against or abstain from
supporting a General Assembly meeting to discuss the war, adding it
would be considered "unhelpful and directed against the United
States." The United States further threatened that invoking the
Uniting for Peace resolution will be "harmful to the UN."
"This
communication is nothing short of a thinly veiled threat. This is
the last chance for the overwhelming majority of UN member states who
are opposed to this war to stand up for the charter of the UN and the
rule of law," said Greenpeace campaigner Mike Townsley.
"It's vital that UN member states reject US pressure to
undermine their rights, and support the Arab League's resolution to
call for an end to the ongoing invasion of Iraq which is costing more
lives day by the day," he added.
Within
the United Nations system the Teton Sioux Nation Treaty Council of
the Lakota Nation has been fighting alongside other Indigenous
peoples for the passage of the Declaration on the Rights of the
World's Indigenous Peoples. However, some powerful states, including
the US, are opposed to many of its provisions on group rights,
self-determination and the management of resources provided in the
Declaration. It would appear that aspects relating to these same
issues can be found in the current invasion of Iraq by the American
regime. Undermining fundamental international law and human rights
seems to be the current strategy of the United States government. At
the latest meeting on the Draft Declaration on Indigenous Rights at
the United Nations in December 2002, the US was more vocal than ever,
having had a State Department directive to basically prevent
Indigenous peoples from anything other than US defined internal
self-determination (which would give legitimacy to plenary power,
abrogation of treaties, no control over resources, etc.) and other
basic human rights.
"It
was a fierce struggle with words between representatives of
Indigenous peoples allied with some of the governments against a few
of the very large states: the USA, Canada, and Australia, to name a
few. The very fact that it is a struggle over human rights is
appalling. Yet when the idea of recognizing the inalienable human
rights of Indigenous peoples comes to the forefront, some of the
largest and most powerful governments in the world begin to
experience anxiety. Why? Because their domestic activities begin to
see the light of day, and the world family starts to learn of abuses
that go against the ideals and images those governments wish to
portray. It is similar to when the abusive activities of a
dysfunctional family start to be exposed for all the world to see.
The abusers experience much anxiety and will try everything to
maintain the status quo."
On
the next to the last day of the Draft Declaration meeting, the
United States seemed to give the same thinly veiled threat that the
Greenpeace communiqué exposed, stating that unless the
Declaration was passed with the U.S. changes and the way they wanted
it, they would consider it null and void in two years. Again, the
same tactics that are being used against the Lakota Nation and other
Indigenous peoples by the United States are now being used by the
United States against Iraq. The world family of nations must act now
and together in order to strengthen the institution of the United
Nations as a viable venue for peaceful dialogue.
Peace
and justice are what the Teton Sioux Nation Treaty Council works
for. In a prophetic statement before the United Nations 54th Session
of the Commission on Human Rights in Geneva in March of 1998, Tony
Black Feather spoke of the need for the United Nations to oppose the
violation of the sovereignty of any nation by another:
"The
threat to human rights, self-determination and sovereignty over our
unique cultures cannot be tolerated at any level. No nation-state,
despite its superior economic or military power, can be permitted to
control the lives of the world's people. We believe the efforts by
nation states like Iraq [this was said during the embargo that was
going on in 1998 after the first Gulf War] to defend the sovereignty
of their territory is a fundamental principle of international
relations. Historically, tactics of divide, starve and conquer have
been used against our people so we understand the use of embargoes
and pressure from within and without. While we cannot condone
the oppression of ethnic groups within modern nations, we staunchly
defend Iraq's right to protect its sovereignty."
The
Lakota Nation stands with UN member states that have called on the
United Nations to reject moves by the United States to block a
resolution in the UN General Assembly condemning the invasion of
Iraq, calling for a ceasefire and a withdrawal of US and British
armed forces. Human rights, sovereignty and self-determination are
fundamental principles of both Lakota Natural Law and the United
Nations Charter. Unilateral invasion and colonization is a violation
of international human rights law and cannot be condoned or
supported. By going to the General Assembly, where there are no
vetoes, war opponents have a much better chance of winning approval
for a resolution if they can draft a text with broad appeal based on
these principles. " It is certain that
self-determination is now a human right in international law."
"Human rights can only exist truly and fully when
self-determination also exists. Such is the fundamental importance of self-determination
as a human right and as a prerequisite for the enjoyment of all the
other rights and freedoms."
Implementation
and universal respect for these principles are the real battles and
victory can be had if the world stands united against tyranny. The
Lakota Nation and Indigenous peoples everywhere are aware of the
devastation caused by colonization and the lack of respect for the
right to sovereignty and self-determination. The example of Lakota
history has much to teach a world in which one nation's intentions
are to impose American values and interests upon the world's cultures
and races until all that is left are American values and interests.
The Teton Sioux Nation agrees with British Middle East expert and
journalist Patrick Seale who said, "whatever the military
outcome of the battle of Baghdad, the Americans and the British have
lost the war politically and morally."
In
another 100 years, if the United States can survive, will it still
be hiding its history of colonization and domination? When will
Americans realize that the people who died on September 11th died for
nothing if America refuses to examine its own role in the tragedy?
When will Americans learn that their way is not the only way, and
that peoples have cultures and histories that they are willing to
fight to protect and preserve? The Teton Sioux Nation Treaty Council
acknowledges that many American individuals are asking these
questions and ally with us and we are grateful that diverse peoples
can come together to stop American government and corporate interests
in their unrelenting pursuit for domination.
The
UN Charter and many of its conventions and standards are established
in recognition of what Lakota people call Natural Law. That is why we
have gone to the United Nations. We are hopeful that our world of
nations will stand together against the abuser, the schoolyard bully,
and the violator of international law. The Right to Self
Determination in the preamble of the UN Charter applies to all
peoples. Diversity is the cornerstone of Natural Law. It does not say
that might makes right.
The
people of the Lakota Nation pray for the peoples and nations
(Indigenous and non-Indigenous) that have experienced and are
experiencing the weight of American imperialism. We pray for true,
sacred peace which includes true justice and stand with those states
within the United Nations calling for an end to current American aggression.
Tetuwan
Oyate
Teton
Sioux Nation Treaty Council
Tony
Black Feather Kent Lebsock
Spokesman
Legal & Corresponding Secretary
308-862-2607
505-341-4230
klebsock@comcast.net
www.tsntc.org
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