Marty Durlin

Online Editor

A delegation of Lakota leaders led by activist Russell Means this week announced their withdrawal from the United States at a press conference in Washington, D.C., after earlier delivering their message to the State Department.

“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,” said Means.

Means said the new country, including parts of Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Wyoming and Montana, would not levy taxes and would issue its own passports and driver’s licenses.

The treaties signed with the U.S., some more than 150 years ago, are “worthless words on worthless paper…repeatedly violated in order to steal our culture, our land and our ability to maintain our way of life,” according to the Lakota freedom activists’ website.

The website draws sharp contrasts between the tribe’s health and well being and that of the general U.S. populace:

- Lakota death rate is the highest in the United States.

- The Lakota infant mortality rate is 300 percent more than the U.S. average.

- Tuberculosis rate on Lakota reservations is about 800 percent higher than the national average.

- Alcoholism affects 8 in 10 families.

- Median income is $2600-$3500 per year, and 97 percent live below the poverty line.

- One-third of the homes lack clean water and sewage while 40 percent lack electricity.

- Unemployment rates on Lakota reservations is 85 percent or higher.

- Teenage suicide is 150 percent higher than the national average.

Means said the Lakotas’ rights are ensured by the Vienna Convention of 1980, and bolstered by the United Nations’ non-binding declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples — opposed by the United States when it was adopted in September.

The press conference was attended by Bolivian Ambassador Gustavo Guzman. “We are here because the demands of indigenous people of America are our demands,” he said.

Means said the new country, including parts of Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Wyoming and Montana, would not levy taxes and would issue its own passports and driver’s licenses.