Copyright © 2000 NLThomas
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Pine Ridge Indian Reservation - On March 21, 2000 the Tetuwan Oyate (Teton Sioux Nation Treaty Council) held a meeting at the site of the Pine Ridge Occupation at the Oyate Building (formerly Red Cloud Tribal Building). The stated purpose of the meeting was to discuss possible strategies and methods designed to encourage and support the occupation of the Pine Ridge tribal council offices by the traditional Oglala Lakota Oyate. Representatives of the Tetuwan Oyate Treaty Council from other Lakota reservations (including Rosebud, Cheyenne River and Lower Brule) attended in order to express their support of the Oglala men, women and children occupying the building. Kent Lebsock of the American Indian Law Alliance (with offices in New York and New Mexico) made an oral and written presentation. The American Indian Law Alliance has offered its support to the Tetuwan Oyate since 1992. In that presentation, it was stated:

"We are here to offer suggestions and receive input on possible assistance to the occupation with an emphasis on international intervention. With the intention of replacing the Indian Reorganization Act tribal council with the traditional system of government of the Tetuwan Oyate, these strategies will hopefully help in a peaceful resolution to the occupation. However, no action or strategy will be implemented without the express support and instruction from the people of the Tetuwan Oyate. The occupation is an historic attempt to assert the sovereignty of the Lakota Nation and it is our duty to support it."

The offer by the Tetuwan Oyate Treaty Council and the American Indian Law Alliance included suggestions for a variety of strategies including broader media coverage, international appeal to the United Nations (including the Commission on Human Rights, the Working Group on Indigenous Populations and specialized agencies known for support of Indigenous peoples), supervision and intervention by international human rights organizations, appeals for support to other Indigenous nations (including the Haudenosaunee, Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy) and the possibility of internationally supervised referendums on the replacement of the IRA government by the traditional law of the Lakota Nation. Tony Black Feather (spokesman of the Tetuwan Oyate Treaty Council) framed the offer for support of the Oglala Oyate takeover:

"We are not a nation within a nation. We are a nation protected by international law and we file our grievances internationally and through the United Nations."

In the afternoon meeting, Arlette Loud Hawk spoke strongly in support of the suggestions, stating:

"Let’s follow the elder, Tony Black Feather, and support these suggestions and strategies. This is a plan to me. This is the best thing I have read since we have been here."

Kent Lebsock of the American Indian Law Alliance repeatedly stated that no action would be taken without express instructions from the Oglala Oyate and the Tetuwan Oyate. After the document was read aloud by Ms. Loud Hawk, the proposals were supported by unanimous consensus of the Lakota people gathered and the Law Alliance and Tetuwan Oyate were instructed to proceed. At the end of the meeting, the words of Marie Randall inspired the people in their renewed commitment to the goal of revitalizing the traditional Lakota Nation:

"I am the color of this Earth. I come from that dirt and no one can be above me. I am a nation builder and a generation giver. The supreme law of this land is the land itself; the land from which we come and to which we return."