All posts by Independent Lakota Nation

[Official Correspondence] Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council 9/9/18

 

 

Pte Ole, Floyd Looks For Buffalo Hand; Naca
Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council
P.O. Box 150
Pine Ridge Agency, SD 57770

To:             Oglala Sioux Tribal Council Members & Executive Officers
                        Po Box 2070, Pine Ridge, SD 57770
President                     Troy “Scott” Weston                   tsweston@gwtc.net
Vice-President          Darla Black                                    darla@oglala.org
Secretary                      Donna Solomon                        donnas@oglala.org
Treasurer                      Mason Big Crow                        Mason@oglala.org

To:                         Mr. Ryan Zinke
Secretary of the Interior
1849 C Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20240
202-208-7351
exsec@ios.doi.gov

To:                 And Concerned Traditional Lakota Oyate

From:         Naca, Floyd Hand, Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council

The Great Sioux Nations and it’s people (Oyate) possess Inherent powers/rights over their affairs and civil authority over non-members within tribal lands to the extent necessary to sustain health, welfare, land, water, mineral interests and integrity of the people.

These rights of sovereignty have been preserved in Article VI of the U.S. Constitution as the “Supreme Law of the Land”, ONLY Congress may change this. What has changed in the course of time is the gradual inability to exercise Inherent Powers/Rights & Sovereignty due to the forced assimilation and overpowering of the Tribes by the US Government in spite of treaty obligations. Inherent powers belong to those who are, defined as the original people of a land colonized by outsiders; OUR Inherent Rights are still viable.

Congressional history has proven the lack of insight in dealing with the signed Treaties and the obligations therein, by disregarding the meaning of what was put in writing to honor these ratified Treaty laws, such as evident in Article XII stipulated in the signing of the 1851 and 1868 Treaties; the consensus agreement that ¾ of All adult Indian males MUST concur with any request to implement Treaty changes and the judicial process as written; not simply the less than majority vote present.

Whereas, the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 “Article 12” states that NO Treaty for the cession of any portion or part of the reservation herein described which maybe held in common shall be of any validity of force as against the said Indians. Unless executed and signed by at least three fourths of all the adult male Indians occupying or interested in the same: and no cession by the tribe shall be understood or construed in such manner as to deprive, without his consent, any individual member of the tribe of his rights to any tract of land selected by him, as provided in Article VI, to this Treaty.

However, continuing violations of Article 12 have diminished Reservation Boundary lands through trespassing for the purpose of making the White man rich and the Indian poorer. These egregious acts of Congress have resulted in hostility on both sides and allowed the creation of the 1%, at the expense of the Indians and subsequently reduced Indian Federal Funding, without merit.

Whereas, the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 was signed by the Lakota Tiospaye Headsmen. The services & annuities provided to the Lakota Trust Beneficiaries under the 1868 Treaty are the private property of the Treaty Signatories and their Direct Lineal Descent. This lineal descent is based on Traditional matriarchal custom and has not changed since Lakota Tradition recognizes the Lakota Woman as the Direct Full Bloodline since time immoral. With the inception of the IRA of 1934, this paved the way for Tribal Council governance without the use of Treaty Laws as the true Indian representation of governance and interjected Patriarchal half-blood governance, which is a direct conflict of interest of the sworn OST Constitution Preamble to uphold Lakota Treaty Law, as a promise to serve All the people; thus resulting in favoring the select few.

We must stand up against the IRA/CFR government violations caused by Tribal Council actions which have put us in DEBT to the U.S. government.

We must choose the use of our Traditional (holistic) authority to control the US government actions against us.

Whereas, millions have died because of the Papal doctrines, and while there is a movement for their repeal, they remain as the root of all contemporary “Indian” law, thus ignoring Traditional Lakota Treaty Law, which is the “True” Indian Law according to Article VI and the US Constitution.

Sincerely,
Naca – Floyd Hand
Pte Ole
Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council

AI Homer
Article VI Advocate

Cecilia Martin: Lakota Matriarch, American Indian Movement Grandmother Dies at 98

Independent Lakota Nation
Strong Heart Warrior Society
February 16, 2018   |   Original: English
Contact: Canupa Gluha Mani 605-517-1547

Cecilia Martin: Lakota Matriarch, American Indian Movement Grandmother Dies at 98

feature photo caption: Lakota delegation at Mandan train platform. Oyate Wyokb Win is the young girl in the center. Year unknown.

On the morning of February 12, 2018, Oyate Wyokb Win (Lakota) or Lorraine Cecilia Martin (english), the fierce matriarch of the Tetuwan Lakota Oyate on Pine Ridge Reservation and last living Grandmother of the American Indian Movement (AIM), passed over into the Spirit World near Custer, South Dakota in Lakota Territory.

She had recently told her grandchildren she was tired and it was her time to go. She was at least 98 years old but was thought to be considerably older since records were not kept at the time of her birth.

She left behind many grandchildren and great-grandchildren and touched the lives of many more Lakota people.

Two wakes will be held for Cecilia. A wake in Pine Ridge will start at 10:00am on February 18th at Billy Mills Hall. The following day on February 19th, a wake will start at 10:00am at Our Lady of Lords parish hall in Porcupine Community. Her burial will occur the following day next to her home in Porcupine. Oyate Wyokb Win was the matriarch of the Lakota Cante Tenza or Strong Heart Warrior Society and the warrior society will be handling the memorial events.

EARLY LIFE

Oyate Wyokb Win was born in Porcupine Community to mother Grace Little Crow, descendent to Fort Laramie treaty signer Little Crow, as well as Crazy Horse’s wife Black Shaw.

Her father Paul Moose was descended from the fierce warrior No Ears, who was killed in the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre and lies buried at the Wounded Knee Memorial.

Cecilia lived her early years in Porcupine but in 1929 was stolen from her home in Porcupine and placed in the Holy Rosary Mission Boarding School where she faced heinous abuse by Catholic missionary nuns. She struggled with the legacy of boarding school abuse throughout her life but never gave up Wolakota – the Lakota language and way of life.

She had three brothers and four sisters including her brother Bill who drove for the infamous bank robber John Dillinger, and brother Charlie who was a well-known horse jockey.

Following her marriage to Roy Martin, she lived in Slim Buttes on Pine Ridge. In addition to raising three of her own children, she raised children from other families. She also worked with Roy to help bring customary Lakota justice to the reservation. During this time she was recorded as an expert marksman and still holds the record for longest bull’s-eye with a snub-nose 38 revolver in the state of Nebraska.

ACTIVISM

Like many of those traditional Lakota born during the late 1800s and early 1900s, she was active in resistance to white racism and colonialism in Lakota Territory.

In 1969, Cecilia and her family joined Bob Yellow Bird and other Lakota elders in Crawford, Nebraska to protest the threatened desecration and destruction of Crazy Horse’s burial site by a cement corporation. This protest was among the first in the series of increasing militancy and activism by Lakota and other Indigenous activists following years or discrimination and mistreatment at the hands of white America.

In 1970, she and many in her family were part of the group led by Lehman Brightman, Minnie Two Shoes, Archie Fire, and Dennis Banks in a three month takeover of Mount Rushmore to protest treaties broken by the United States Government and the takeover by the U.S. Park Service of sacred Lakota land.

Following the 1972 take-over of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation by Dickie Wilson and his private militia known as Guardians of the Oglala Nation (GOON Squads), in February 1973, Cecilia joined Russell Means, Frank Fools Crow, Dennis Banks, and about 200 AIM and grassroots Lakota in the 71 day occupation of Wounded Knee community.

In the years following Wounded Knee, Cecilia became known for her fiery attacks on the discrimination faced by traditional and grassroots Lakota Oyate and the corruption by the Bureau of Indian Affairs supported Oglala Sioux Tribe (OST). In 2000, she helped lead the occupation of the Red Cloud Administrative Building in attempts to uncover evidence of mass fraud and embezzlement that was impoverishing poor Lakota Oyate in the outer districts.

Again in 2011, she helped lead the 34 day occupation of the Porcupine Elderly Meals Building to protest mistreatment by program staff, unsafe building conditions, and food served to elders that contained insects and mouse droppings. Promises to replace the condemned building by the OST were never honored and Cecilia openly questioned what it would take for the elders in Porcupine to be treated with dignity and respect.

In 2012, she joined other Lakota grandmothers in formally charging the Oglala Sioux Tribe Tribal Council with elder abuse, neglect, and chronic mistreatment due to lack of food, housing, and support. Their complaint was illegally rejected and tribal laws against elder abuse were ignored to protect tribal officials.

Despite the lawless and corrupt nature of OST government and the inhuman conditions it created, Oyate Wyokb Win continued to call tribal offices and attend Tribal Council meetings in support of the grassroots Oyate. She provided inspiration to younger grandmothers and grassroots Lakota people and could offer a wry laugh and twinkling eye when amused.

APPEARANCE IN MOVIES

As a well-known and steely activist of the people, Cecilia was featured in the documentaries 500 Nations (1995), Battle for White Clay (2008), Pine Ridge: Beauty and Despair (2011), and Red Cry (2013). During Red Cry, Cecilia described the inhumane conditions faced by traditional and grassroots elders on Pine Ridge, “It’s like we are living in hell, the way things are.”

Cecilia also appeared in the dramatic mystery film Thunderheart (1992), a fictional, loosely based portrayal of events relating to the Wounded Knee incident in 1973.

LATER YEARS

Repeated mistreatment and neglect of elders by the Oglala Sioux Tribe took its toll and Oyate Wyokb Win’s health waned during her last few years. Never comfortable speaking the english language, she said before she died, ” I want to be remembered as someone who held on to language and tradition.”

###

The Independent Lakota Nation continues the inter-generational movement to assert Lakota independence and grows from past efforts by Lakota chiefs, elders, treaty councils, and more than 165 years of resistance to illegal settlement on unceeded Lakota territory.

Racism, Corruption in Justice System Fuel Wyoming’s Removal of Lakota Children

Independent Lakota Nation
Strong Heart Warrior Society
International Indigenous Human Rights Office
Office of the Provisional Government

P.O. Box 512 Hill City, SD 57745, Unceeded lakota Territory

ILN Press
November 13, 2017   |   Original: English
Immediate Release: October 17, 2017
Contact: Canupa Gluha Mani 605-517-1547  Email: cantetenza13@gmail.com

Mitchell Family Latest Casualty in Wyoming’s War on Indians

Racism, Corruption in Justice System Fuel Wyoming’s Removal of Lakota Children

Lakota Territory – The International Indigenous Human Rights Office (IIHRO) of the Independent Lakota Nation (ILN) is alleging wide scale racism and corruption in State of Wyoming’s Justice system that is fueling the continuing removal of Lakota children and the illegal incarceration of Indigenous men and women that contributes to genocide.

The latest casualty is Stephen Mitchell, an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe who was deprived due process and incarcerated under false charges of kidnapping by the State of Wyoming and colluding members of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe in order to remove his seven year old daughter into the custody of former girlfriend Dawn Ashley Preston.

Preston, who is white and non-Native, has a history of drug and alcohol abuse as well as documented abuse and negligence of their young daughter. She’s alleged to have told Stephen things like, “Come take this brat, I have no time for her!” and once kept the young girl buckled in a car seat for over 24 hours causing an extensive rash requiring medical care. She is also alleged to have kept the child locked in a room while gone from the house and left in the supervision of teens.

But Preston is white, from a family with connections to the corrupt good-old-boy network of Wyoming officials, judges, and those who protect them.

The Mitchell family, including 75 year old fluent Lakota speaking grandmother Rose Red Bear Mitchell, have kept extensive records of custody, care of the child, and checks of child support demanded by Preston for care she rarely gave.

“If she [Preston] had been a loving caring mother in the beginning, we would not be here today,” Rose Mitchell said.

Despite these extensive records and an October 2017 admission by Preston that Stephen had never kidnapped his daughter, Mitchell remains in jail for no apparent reason except that he’s Lakota, and the corrupt system wants him there. He has tried numerous times to present evidence and file protection orders for his daughter, but he’s been denied by the system at every turn and curiously given a $100,000 bond, labeled a “flight risk” with conditions put on his incarceration that remain unknown.

The Office of the Wyoming Ombudsman agreed to visit Mitchell today to check on his failing health. He is reported to have lost over 130 lbs while jailed.

A former attorney for Mitchell reportedly stated he had never seen a case such as this and that he felt like he could not speak up because judges had already decided before trial what they were going to do.

“The whole system is working together to keep my grandson in jail,” Rose Mitchell said.

The Strong Heart Warrior Society has also stepped in to demand justice in this case and provide security for Rose Mitchell who has custody of her granddaughter but continues to receive threats and see unfamiliar people stalking her house.

Preston, and her mother Cynthia Grant, are alleged to have threatened the Lakota grandmother multiple times and attempted to forcefully take the child who is also an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe at gunpoint.

“They told me they would follow me and when they found me I would ‘be sorry,’” Rose said.

Legally, the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) of 1978 (25 U.S. Code Chapter 25) stipulates the child’s welfare is served by continuing custody within the tribe and with parents or grandparents as she currently resides.

“We can’t relax and live a normal life,” Rose Mitchell shared sadly. “We have paperwork to prove all of this is true but no one will listen to us.”

Despite the clear legal guidelines of ICWA, the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe has been complacent if not complicit in the attempted removal of the Lakota child as have other corrupt programs on other Lakota reservations who have found ways to profit off of child removal.

The IIHRO strongly condemns any attempts to remove the child from Lakota custody and deprive the child of cultural identity which is guaranteed by International Law.

“This is nothing less than serial warfare through population management,” explained Canupa Gluha Mani of the Lakota Strong Heart Warrior Society. “Lakota have inherent rights and the purpose of intent by U.S. State government agencies to violate and destroy these inherent rights is a crime against humanity.”

The IIHRO is currently preparing a complaint for the United Nations based on the facts of the case as they have been presented. Evidence of racism, collusion, and corruption contributing to an Act of Genocide has been documented.

Canupa Gluha Mani said, “The interpretation of International law demands the enforcement of these laws as an instrument of a natural birth right, which is Lakota.

If the U.S. does not like it, we will see them in World Court,” he promised.

###

The Independent Lakota Nation continues the inter-generational movement to assert Lakota independence and grows from past efforts by Lakota chiefs, elders, treaty councils, and more than 165 years of resistance to illegal settlement on unceeded Lakota territory.

Lakota Treaty Council Files Cease & Desist Order to Block Negotiation or Access to Black Hills Settlement Interest Money

Lakota Treaty Council Files Cease & Desist Order to Block Negotiation or Access to Black Hills Settlement Interest Money

Press Release for Immediate Release October 17, 2017

Contact: Canupa Gluha Mani 605-517-1547 and for forwarded interviews to Floyd Looks for Buffalo Hand.  

Lakota Territory – On Monday, the Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council filed a Cease & Desist order in U.S. Federal Court in Rapid City. The Cease & Desist order was filed by Black Hills Sioux Nation representative Floyd Looks for Buffalo Hand with support from Strong Heart and the Independent Lakota Nation.

The order seeks to block any attempts to negotiate or otherwise access interest accrued on the Black Hills Settlement by any person or organization without approval of the seven bands of the Lakota Oyate.

Currently, the Lakota refuse to accept the 1981 settlement money or its accrued interest that now tops over one billion dollars that attempts to settle the illegal United States illegal seizure of the Black Hills and surrounding treaty lands without Lakota consent and in violation of the 1851 and 1868 Ft. Laramie Treaties.

The Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council has asked for penalties of one hundred million dollars for any person attempting to negotiate or access the settlement or its interest.

A meeting on October 7, 2017 at the Ramkota Hotel in Rapid City broached the issue of accessing the hundreds of millions of dollars in accrued interest. But the traditional and grassroots Lakota fear any withdraw of money from the Black Hills settlement will be considered as Lakota acceptance for the sale of the Black Hills.

The International Indian Treaty Council (IITC) was the host for the October 7th meeting that included several Indigenous attorneys but did not outreach to traditional and grassroots Lakota people of the seven bands, many who live on reservations.

“It’s really sad these groups proceeded on this without informing the poor people,” said Strong Heart Warrior leader Canupa Gluha Mani. “When will they put the people first?”

Canupa Gluha Mani along with Lakota Oyate Itacan Mel Lone Hill found out about the meeting and interceded when topics steered towards accessing the settlement interest. Anger has grown on the reservations as Lakota people have learned people were discussing settlement moneys without broad Oyate consent.

“You neutralize your people’s rights by not telling or including them in what’s going on,” Canupa Gluha Mani explained.

It is customary for Lakota leaders or people acting in ways that affect treaties or issues affecting the seven bands to represent themselves with Lakota language and do so in togetherness with grassroots Lakota elders and people – many of whom are poor and cannot travel long distances from the reservations.

“The IITC must be accountable for their illegal behavior in not telling the people about possible actions that affect our land base.”

###

The Independent Lakota Nation continues the inter-generational movement to assert Lakota independence and grows from past efforts by Lakota chiefs, elders, treaty councils, and more than 165 years of resistance to illegal settlement on unceeded Lakota territory.

Black Hills Treaty Council and Oyate, October 21, 2017

The Black HIlls Sioux Nation Treaty Council, the Strong Heart Warrior Society of the Independent Lakota Nation, and the Lakota Oyate met with the Department of Justice on the unexplained deaths of our people. October 21, 2017.

Following Lakota testimony, an agreement was made to go forward with an independent investigation! Hoka Hey!

Stolen Lives and Lost Lands: Lakota Force Action and Accountability with Justice Department Meetings, One Hundred Million Dollar Lawsuit

October 17, 2017   |   Original: English
Press Release, Immediate Release: October 17, 2017
Contact: Canupa Gluha Mani 605-517-1547. Email: cantetenza13@gmail.com

Lakota Territory – The Independent Lakota Nation along with other traditional and grassroots Lakota institutions are forcing action and accountability from local, state and Federal governments for stolen Lakota lives and lost Lakota lands.

On October 10, 2017, the Strong Heart Warrior Society of the Independent Lakota Nation again met with a team of investigators from the Department of Justice to seek accountability for missing, murdered, and mistreated Indigenous people at the hands of a racially discrimanatory Pennington County Sheriff, Rapid City Police, and the South Dakota court system.

Specifically, the meetings are looking at Lakota people’s abuse at the hands of law enforcement and overall deaths in the community as a consequence of the policies and proceedures of United States governments, State and local governments.

“It’s the will of the Lakota people to surive the bias they face by a law enforcement and justice system that eliminates the values of being Lakota from it’s actions and proceedings so that we have no Lakota representation in our rights of way,” said Strong Heart Warrior leader Canupa Gluha Mani.

This was the second meeting between independent Lakota representatives and the Department of Justice following continued questions on the murder of Mariah High Hawk and other Lakota women and men. Seeking accountability and garnering public support has been hindered by media outlets who admist they refuse to publish Lakota perspectives because of behind-the-scenes police pressure.

“We are taking direct action because action in the death of Mariah High Hawk has not been met with suitable criteria for the Lakota people to see,” Mani said.

The Department of Justice is also indicating it seeks to interview and explore discriminatory practices in the Oglala Sioux Tribe police, courts, and Tribal Council that are affecting traditional and grassroots Lakota people on Pine Ridge Reservation. Discriminatory violence on the reserveration sets the stage for bias Lakota face in border towns and cities and in State justice systems.

As the Independent Lakota Nation pushes the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate and hold its state and local governments accountable, it is now joining with the Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council (BHSNTC) in blaming the State of South Dakota and the Federal reservation system by supporting the filing of a $100,000,00 law suit against the State and Federal governments for lives stolen and lands lost through Constitutional violations of the Supremacy Clause of Article VI.

The lawsuit contends the Federal Government has not followed its own law in honoring treaty agreements between itself and a still independent Lakota Nation, and has further allowed State governments to engage in defacto treaty making with independent Indigenous nations or non-traditional, quasi-sovereign tribal governments which violates Article VI.

The Independent Lakota Nation and the BHSNTC assert these violations have pushed Lakota people into a purgatory constructed to neutralize Indigenous values of life, including language, tiyospaye family structures, and matriarchal political and cultural systems leading to the genocide of the Lakota people.

Canupa Gluha Mani explains, “To protect the matriachal way of life we are pushing these issues forward to make things happen for the Lakota survival.”

The Independent Lakota Nation continues the inter-generational movement to assert Lakota independence and grows from past efforts by Lakota chiefs, elders, treaty councils, and more than 165 years of resistance to illegal settlement on unceeded Lakota territory.

Second Meeting with the DOJ on Missing, Murdered Lakota

Here are photos from the October 10, 2017 meeting with the Department of Justice team of investigators.  The team is looking at Lakota people’s abuse at the hands of law enforcement and overall deaths in the community as a consequence of the policies and proceedures of United States governments, State and local governments.

The DOJ has indicated it seeks to interview and explore discriminatory practices in the Oglala Sioux Tribe police, courts, and Tribal Council that are affecting traditional and grassroots Lakota people on Pine Ridge Reservation. Discriminatory violence on the reserveration sets the stage for bias Lakota face in border towns and cities and in State justice systems.