UNPO - Lakota Nation

covers some 200,000 km2 in the present day state of South Dakota and neighbouring states.

People:
Population

The Lakota, Nakota and Dakota Nation (also known as the Great Sioux Nation) descend from of the original inhabitants of North America. The total number of native North Americans is approximately 1,5 million, of which around 100,000 are Lakota.
They reside near the Sacred Black Hills of South Dakota.

The Lakota consist of eight main tribes today: Oglala, Brule, Sicangu, Minneconjou, Hunkapapa, Sans arcs, Two Kettles and Blackfeet.

Language

Lakota is the largest of the five major dialects of the Sioux language. The Lakota dialect represents one of the largest Native American language speech communities left in the United States, having approximately 8000 to 9000 speakers, living mostly in the northern-plains-states of North and South Dakota. Lakota is predominantly associated with the Teton Sioux bands living west of the Missouri River.

Around 1840, missionaries put the language into written form. It has since evolved to reflect contemporary needs and usage. Lakota is part of the Sioux language family. The number of fluent speakers is decreasing rapidly and it is found increasingly solely among the elders. A revitalization program started in the 1970' to secure the future survival of the Lakota language.

History

1851 The US signed the First First Laramie Treaty with several indigenous Nations, which formally recognised the Lakota as being entitled to a huge tract upon their sacred land and that Indians were an independent political community which possess sovereignty. Despite the Treaty, the clash between the Lakota people and the invaders continued.

1868 The Second Fort Laramie Treaty was signed and secured traditional Sioux territories. After that, the Treaty was almost immediately violated and Euro-American exploitation went on in full strength.

1877 US government forced the Chiefs to transfer the Black Hills to white control, and organised the partition of the vast Sioux Territory into a number of small reservations.

1979 The US Court of Claims ruled that the US government had violated the 1868 Treaty and that the Sioux were entitled to US$ 110 million in compensation for the Black Hills. The US Supreme Court upheld the rule.

1989 The Sioux were awarded US$ 40 million for losses based on the treaty of 1868, which designed lands to the Lakota. This US$ 40 currently lies in a trust fund in Washington. There is now division in the Sioux nations as to whether to claim the money, and therefore relinquish their rights to the Black Hills forever, or to press for the return of the Black Hills.

1994 The Lakota, Dakota and Nakota Nation became a member of UNPO.

The Lakota, Nakota and Dakota descend from the original inhabitants of North America. The country's largest gold mine is operating in the Black Hills, the spiritual home of the Lakota, without the consent and against the wishes of the people. In 1851 the US signed the First Laramie Treaty with several indigenous Nations, which formally recognised the Lakota as being entitled to a huge tract upon their sacred land and that Indians were an independent political community, which possess sovereignty. Despite the Treaty, the clash between the Lakota people and the invaders continued.

Following almost half a century of bloody encounters and peace treaties between the Sioux and the westward migrating whites, the Second Fort Laramie Treaty was signed in 1868 by the U.S. and the Sioux, establishing a great Sioux reservation in their traditional territories, surrounding their sacred mountain the Black Hills, for the absolute and undisturbed use and occupation by the Indians.

However, when six years later gold was discovered in the Black Hills, white prospectors followed. In 1877, after clashes with the army, the U.S. government forced the Chiefs to transfer the Black Hills to white control and organized the partition of the Sioux Territory in violation to the 1868 Treaty.

More than a century later, in 1980, the U.S Supreme Court ruled that the Sioux were entitled to US$ 122 million in compensation for the Black Hills. The Sioux refused to accept the money, which lies in a trust fund in Washington.

The Lakota have suffered greatly from white colonisation. All the indigenous nations were subjected to slaughter and relocations. Increasingly, this led to loss of cultural identity, which resulted in depression and despair. In many reservations there is violence, drunkenness, drug abuse and apathy.

Suicide among the indigenous people is twice the US national average and unemployment runs around 80%. Indians are twice or three times more likely than others to succumb to diseases associated with the poor such as tuberculosis and diabetes.

The government's institution to deal with Native Americans is the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). It is a federal agency, created in 1834, which exercises enormous political and economic power on many reservations -running schools, police departments and welfare programs and managing the leasing of farming, grazing and mineral rights on tribal lands.

Another organ meant to deal with Native American issues is the Senate Indian Affairs Committee which has repeatedly brought up the issues of unemployment and poverty of Native Americans but which has consistent difficulty in mobilizing institutional support for many initiatives.

US federal and state policy appears to continue to dissident and to prevent any form of unity from arising. In many reservations, there is violence, drunkenness, apathy and despair. Schools dropouts?rates range from 45 to 62%. Suicide among the indigenous people is twice the US national average and unemployment runs around 80%. The Lakota have formed The Alliance of Tribal Tourism Advocates, whose goal is to enhance prospects of tourism development in accordance with the nation organisations, beliefs and priorities.

In 1996, the Lakota band of Hunkpapa, on Standing Rock Reservation, proclaimed inherent powers of sovereignty by using cultural resource laws relating to tribal landowners and tribes. The Hunkpapa Treaty Council strives for self-determination for the Lakota nation, pursuing international support for the UN Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. However, the enthusiasm of the Indians about the Draft Declaration is, by no means, shared by U.S government, which is continuously lobbying for changes in the document especially to the provision that calls for the restitution of traditional Indian lands. In august 2004 the Wakpala School is putting the finishing touches on implementing a $400,000 government grant it hopes will help save a language from extinction. The grant, to promote bi-lingual learning, was used to create classroom tools, mostly computer-based, to help students and teachers keep alive the Lakota language.

In February 2005, members of the Defenders of the Black Hills, Tetuwan (Sioux) Nation members and Indigenous Peoples of the Great Plains of South Dakota, U.S.A all met in the Sacred Paha Sapa- Black Hills to discuss the great concerns and issues within the 1851-1868 treaty lands.

In March 2005, in a Legislature where both women and American Indians are in the minority, Theresa Two Bulls, a Pine Ridge Woman stands out as the first Indian woman to serve as a state lawmaker in South Dakota.

Organizations:
The Lakota have formed several organizations for the development of tribal people, such as the Alliance of Tribal Tourism Advocates, whose overriding goal is to enhance prospects of tourism development in accordance with the traditional values and cultural integrity of the native people. Other self-help projects are the Oglala Lakota College and KILI radio, the voice of the Lakota Nation and the Lakota Fund, which makes small loans to help entrepreneurs start businesses on the reservation. In 1994, the Lakota Nation Human Rights Organization was founded. The organization monitors the situation in the reservations (tribal courts, social service programs, communication between tribal councils and the State/Federal Agency with respect to case complaints filing etc.). The Lakota Nation Human Rights Organization also prepares media presentations on the situation in the reservations. Economy Traditionally, the Lakota hunted buffalo. Today, the economy is based on agriculture, cattle, sheep ranches, fishing and tourism. Natural resources are gold, silver, oil, ore and shale. The country largest gold mine is in the Black Hills, which is being mined against the wishes of the indigenous Lakota.

Statistics: