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Russell Means: International Disaster Declaration

info (at) republicoflakotah.com, 605-867-1025

Oglala Sioux Pine Ridge Indian Reservation
STATE OF EMERGENCY
Governor Michael Rounds of South Dakota has declared the State a disaster area. However, Indian Reservations are NOT included in the declaration.

I, Russell Means, due to the total absence of Tribal Government and its leadership, and as candidate for Tribal President and Chief Facilitator of the Republic of Lakotah, am declaring an INTERNATIONAL STATE OF EMERGENCY.

The reason for this declaration is two-fold: 1) The current life-threatening severe weather conditions and 2) The ongoing genocidal policies of the United States Government that still remain unaddressed:

* Unknown thousands are still stranded by high snow drifts for 3rd straight day.
* Unknown number of people without heat and/or electricity.
* Impassable road conditions preventing emergency services and propane deliveries.
* Confirmed fatality due to inability to get to dialysis treatment. Status of other dialysis patients is unknown.
* Second fatality bled to death due to no emergency services.
* Tribal President Steele and Vice President Brewer’s whereabouts unknown as reported by Officers of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (B.I.A.).
* Officers rescue mother with new born and 2-year old child from heatless home.
* Tribal Police dispatch unable to determine road conditions.
* Wide-spread telephone service interruptions.
* Hardest hit is the eastern portion of the Reservation, which includes Pass Creek, Eagle Nest and Medicine Root Districts. Also Red Shirt Table, Cuny Table, Slim Buttes,Oglala and Porcupine communities.
* Unconfirmed reports of National Guard due to arrive today.

Genocidal Results of the Failed American Indian Policies of the United States Government:

MORTALITY:

* Lakotah men have a life expectancy of less than 44 years, lowest of any country in the World (excluding AIDS) including Haiti.
* Lakotah death rate is the highest in the United States.
* The Lakotah infant mortality rate is 300% more than the U.S. Average.
* One out of every four Lakotah children born are fostered or adopted out to non-Indian homes.
* Diseases such as tuberculosis, polio, etc. are present. Cancer is now at epidemic proportions!
* Teenage suicide rate is 150% higher than the U.S national average for this group.

POVERTY:

* Median income is approximately $2,600 to $3,500 per year.
* 97% of our Lakotah people live below the poverty line.
* Many families cannot afford heating oil, wood or propane and many residents use ovens to heat their homes.

UNEMPLOYMENT:

* Unemployment rates on our reservations are 80% or higher.
* Government funding for job creation is lost through cronyism and corruption.

HOUSING:

* Elderly die each winter from hypothermia (freezing).
* 1/3 of the homes lack basic clean water and sewage while 40% lack electricity.
* 60% of Reservation families have no telephone.
* 60% of housing is infected with potentially fatal black molds.
* There is an estimated average of 17 people living in each family home (may only have two to three rooms). Some homes, built for 6 to 8 people, have up to 30 people living in them.

DRUGS AND ALCOHOL:

* More than half the Reservation’s adults battle addiction and disease.
* Alcoholism affects 9 in 10 families.
* Two known meth-amphetamine labs allowed to continue operation. Why?

DISEASE:

* The Tuberculosis rate on Lakotah reservations is approx. 800% higher than the U.S national average.
* Cervical cancer is 500% higher than the U.S national average.
* The rate of diabetes is 800% higher than the U.S national average.
* Federal Commodity Food Program provides high sugar foods that kill Native people through diabetes and heart disease.

INCARCERATION:

* Indian children incarceration rate 40% higher than whites.
* In South Dakota, 21 percent of state prisoners are American Indians, yet they only make up 2% of the population.
* Indians have the second largest state prison incarceration rate in the nation.
* Most Indians live on federal reservations. Less than 2% of Indians live where the state has jurisdiction!

THREATENED CULTURE:

* Only 14% of the Lakotah population can speak the Lakotah language.
* The language is not being shared inter-generationally. Today, the average age of a fluent Lakotah speaker is 65 years.
* Our Lakotah language is an Endangered Language, on the verge of extinction.
* Our Lakotah language is not allowed to be taught in the U.S. Government schools.

* * *

Please contact: info (at) republicoflakotah.com, 605-867-1025

~~~~~~~~~~~~

What does This Moment signify for Radical and other Progressive Media?
by Petros Evdokas

Legal aspects of the current Emergency in the context of International and US Law

In December 2007 came the Lakota Declaration of Sovereign Nation Status,
redefining its independence from the US and a withdrawal from the various
failed treaties which the US Government had violated repeatedly.

All this was done in accordance to US laws and International Law, and with
proper notification of the United Nations. According to all those laws
and to the Geneva Convention the US Government, being the legally recognized occupying force that has physical, military and financial control of the Lakota country, has a legal and moral responsibility to provide
protection for the communities under its dominion.

Instead, the US is exploiting the humanitarian crisis brought on by the current life-threatening extreme weather conditions to further exacerbate its genocidal policy.

* * *

Where is the outrage of the "revolutionary" media in the US and elsewhere?
Where is this news item hidden? Why is it not being reported, promoted, republished, commented on, expanded, investigated?

I'm astounded to see that the Declaration of Emergency by Russel Means is being entirely ignored by both progressive and establishment media online.

I searched for the declaration in various ways: at 10 AM PST on Sunday the only media outlet that was carrying it was Censored News, operated by Brenda Norrell (thank you Brenda),
bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2008/11/russell-means-international-disaster.html
plus only one more outlet which credits Censored News for the source.

I'm left speechless! If Russel Means, a person so highly respected by millions of people for his dedication to the liberation process can be ignored by progressive media and silenced this way, what does this say about our Movement for Peace and Justice? I find it greatly embarrassing.

I don't quite know what the remedy for this is in the larger picture, but without doubt it will have to include:
- challenging the unconscious racism that's built into the Movement at all levels;
- challenging the disconnectedness, figuring out how we can re-connect media organizations (like IndyMedia) to the actual realities of the Movement.

I feel doubly embarrassed, because I'm an active member of the IndyMedia network.

I would ask indymedia editors and journalists, plus other organizers who are active on related campaigns and projects within the Green, Red, and Black Anti-War /Peace and International Solidarity wings of the Movement to promote the story of course, but also to find ways to remedy this embarrasing lack of relevance of our own media to peoples' real struggles.

Petros Evdokas, petros (at) cyprus-org.net
from the Belly of the Beast
petros-evdokas.cyprus-org.net/Another-sort-of-Introduction.html
________

A reminder of the legal steps:
bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2007/12/lakota-freedom-delegation-announces-it.html

Legal Basis for Sovereignty
www.republicoflakotah.com/

More information:
www.republicoflakotah.com/

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