Lakotah and Beyond: the Native Independence Movement
By Rick Gunderman
On September 13, 2007, the United Nations passed the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Declaration prohibits discrimination against indigenous peoples, as well as “promotes their full and effective participation in all matters that concern them and their right to remain distinct and to pursue their own visions of economic and social development.”
On December 19, only three months later, the Lakota nation of North and South Dakota declared their independence. They have done so after generations of broken treaties, destroyed livelihoods, and a continual denial of their national rights by the US government. Unemployment at 20% would be considered critical mass in any developed country; among the Lakota, unemployment is at 80%.
The Lakota have been given little, if any, developmental assistance, have had their land sold off to European-American prospectors and farmers, and lack the political autonomy necessary to rebuild their community independently. Four of the top five poorest counties in the United States are included in the Republic of Lakotah’s claimed boundaries.
This is why the Lakota have taken the measure of declaring independence from the United States.
Whether or not the Republic of Lakotah will ever be recognized (the fact that Omaha, Nebraska and some other small cities lie within their claimed boundaries make it doubtful) is less important than the significance of their stand. Gone are the days when a band of good ol’ boys could saddle up their horses, get their guns and ride into the night to terrorize Native Americans. The American and Canadian governments may deploy their cops and armies whenever Natives take up arms to defend their rights, but to do so against a self-declared sovereign nation would raise far more issues than putting down a gang of “rabble-rousers” (I personally have heard them been called much, much worse).
Socialism requires new national arrangements, just as occurred in the Soviet Union. A plan was devised to allow for the largest nationalities in the USSR to have their own homelands. Ultimately, fifteen distinct republics were created, and autonomy was given to dozens of other nationalities (e.g. Tatars, Chechens, Chuvash, Abkhaz, Kalmyks, etc.).
If the United States and Canada are to ever embrace socialism, the European-descended population must come to grips with the crimes of the governments that acted in our name against all Native Americans/Canadians. We must accept their right to secession but offer them a place in a fair and equal union of nations.
The Republic of Lakotah is already trying to establish an energy company to develop solar and wind energy, expand sugar beet farming for biofuel, and they are working on several construction projects. The largest project is for a Total Immersion School, much like Maori have in New Zealand, to teach Lakota language, art, dance, music, science and oral tradition to their children.
This is the sort of development that can take place once a nation is freed from the constraints of colonialism and imperialism. Socialism will cast off those shackles once and for all and give the Native peoples of North America, for the first time in centuries, the ability to govern and develop their own social, economic and political institutions.
All they need is for traffic to start moving on the other side of the two-way street of respect.
