(Following transcription is from the published Press Release of 1995)
Lakota Traditional Government Reconvenes
A sovereign Nation was re-established at Bear Butte on July 14, 1991
From June 12 to June 29 the traditional government of the Lakota Nation will be officially reconvening on its northern Hunkpapa territories. Hosted by the Hunkpapa Oyate of Running Antelope, Rain-the-Face, and Sitting Bull, and all the traditional tyospayes and tokojas, the meetings will be held at the Standing Rock College auditorium in Fort Yates, North Dakota.
June 12th and 13th will be open to the public to formulate the agenda for the Tribunal and Testimonies, to be held June 23-29 in the same location. Primary topics will be the Black Hills Land Claim, Water/mineral rights, Religious Freedom, and the violations of the human rights of the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota Oyates.
The June 23-29 tribunal will be attended by official representatives of the United States and Canadian governments, as well as the Vatican Administration from Italy. International organizations will also be sending official delegations for the Tribunal. These include the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO), the United Nations, the OAS, AIM, and the Bear Butte Council, and the League of Indigenous Sovereign Nations (LISN).
Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) Tribal Councils will also be allowed to contribute to the discussions for the renewal of the Lakota Nation, in the name of the traditional unanimity of the Ikce Wicasa Ta Ominiciye.
Treaty and non-Treaty Itanscans will be part of the effort for a peaceful Yuwitaya Lakota, following the preamble of the Sioux Valley Indian Band Accord:
“We, the duly elected leaders of the sovereign independent Indian Nations, being aware of our close kinship and recognizing the benefits to be derived from uniting in common cause, do hereby affirm and establish a Unification Accord for Peace, Alliance, and Sovereignty. Further, to exercise our fundamental and inalienable right to determine our own destiny and to govern our own affairs. Further, to follow our original instructions to strengthen our Oyate, to cooperate with one another, to live one earth in harmony and peace with all peoples and creatures.”
Traditional Akicita security societies will be providing protection and service to diplomats and delegates and Itanscan, in the time-honored right of all Peoples and Nations to provide for their Defense.
International Bands and Tribes who are members of this Alliance include those across the illegal Canadian-American MEDICINE LINE: Dakota Plains, Sioux Valley, Standing Buffalo, Wahpeton, Pheasants Rump, Dakota Tipi, Birdtail, White Cap, Pauls Nakota, Alexis Nakota, Stoney Nakota, Wood Mountain, and Oak Lake Dakota.
Tribes and Bands currently confined within the illegal United States boundaries include: Sisseton Wahpeton, Yankton, Oglala, Devil’s Lake, Lower Sioux Community (Minnesota), Hunkpapa, Minneconjou, Itazipo, Oohenupa, Brule, Sicangu, Sihasapa, Santee, Turtle Mountn, Can Onasabye-Bde Tatankan Ospaye, and Shakapee.
Other Bands and Tribes in kinship and relationship include: Bear Paw/Ciniki Nakota, Ft. Belknap and Ft. Peck Assiniboine Nakota, Good Stoney, Crizzly Bears’ Head-Mosquito Band, Carry the Kettles, Ocean Man, Flandreau, Prairie Island Sioux.
In addition to these ancient Siouan-Speakers, the Confederacy of the Mato Paha Okolokiciye (Bear Butte Council), in Alliance with Lakota, includes the Algonuian-Spearkers and Iroquois-Speakers of the Black Hills bioregion, outlined by non-Native mapmakers as the Louisiana Purchase Lands of 1803. These territories stretch across what was called ‘Indian Territory’ in the 19th century, from the Mississippi River to northern Alberta and British Columbia.
In alliance with the Iroquois and Okanagan/Shuswap Confederacies, the Lakota Nation and the Confederacy of the Black Hills, with headquarters on the Sacred Mountain of Nowah’wus (Bear Butte), have entered into formal governmental Agreements for mutual Defense and Economic Development. They are all members of the League of Indigenous Sovereign Nations, which follows the Iroquois Great Law of Peace, of the Huron Prophet Deganawidah.
In January, 1995, the traditional government of the Lakota Nation was officially sworn in as a full member nation in UNPO, in the Hague, Netherlands. Other members and Supporting Members of the UNPO include: Armenia, Estonia, Latvia, Georgia, Chechnya, Kalahui Hawaii, Kurdistan, Taiwan, and many other Peoples and Nations who have never been recognized by the United Nations. There are only 184 U.N. members, out of 5,000 Nations worldwide.
The traditional Lakota government does not recognize the effectiveness of the U.N.’s Non-governmental Organization (NGO) status for Lakota, nor its legality.
Officially re-established in a unanimous summit of Treat and non-Treaty Lakota elders and council at Bear Butte on July 14, 1991, a “Provisional Elders Council’ has been functioning as the Government, until all tiyospayes and itanscan had been consulted and included in the renewal process.
Policies include full equality for women in all decision-making powers; economic development through clean high technology, such as a telecommunications Studio in the Black Hills, to make movies and form and Native TV cable channel, and radio, publishing. This will be complemented by a 25-year plan for a Buffalo Commons. Warrior Societies will be trained to serve the People as Protectors. Alcohol will be declared illegal, with all liquor distributors and bootleggers severely punished and blockaded from Sacred Lands.
An International Convention on the prevention and punishment of the crime of Genocide, as perpetrated by the governments of the United States and Canada, is the central purpose of the June Tribunal on Standing Rock. The Administrations of Prime Minister Chretien and President Clinton have been served notice of their crimes against humanity; and no amount of public relations posturing as ‘Democracies’ can excuse the ongoing deaths of millions of indigenous peoples, and all poor peoples of this continent regardless of race or creed, in the name of NAFTA, ‘Free Market Reform.’
The Bear Butte Council also recognizes the reality and the necessity of getting along with its many non-Native relatives in the bioregions. They know there are many sympathizers among the poorer peoples of the West who are also being deprived of their rights/freedoms by the oppressive central governments in Washington and Ottawa.
Reconvening of the Lakota Nations Traditional Government: June 12-29, 1995, Standing Rock College Auditorium, Fort Yates, North Dakota.
For more information contact: United States – Reginald Bird Horse (605) 845-2678, Richard Grass (605) 343-3046, Joe Walker/Phyllis Wilcox (701) 854-2025, Germaine Tremmel (612) 724-6191. Canada – Wayne Wasicuna, Dakota Nation, Griswold Mintoba, ROMOSO (204) 855-2671. (these numbers are no longer active, several of these members have crossed over and now look on from Spirit)
