Copyright © 1999 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

On March 22, 1999, in Pierre, the South Dakota capitol, more than 200 Lakota people and non-Indian supporters protested a rider to the 1999 Omnibus Appropriations Act. Commonly called the Mitigation Act, or Restoration Act, the long title is: Title, VI, the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, and state of South Dakota Wildlife Restoration Act.

Realizing the Lakota are one of the smallest nations in the world confronting the most powerful nation on the Earth, the people choose to confront this major problem, with spiritual ceremonies. Following the directions given in a sacred ceremony, a tipi was erected on LaFramboise Island which is located in the middle of the Missouri River and connected to the East bank in Pierre by a causeway. Lakota people say the island is treaty land. A sacred fire, representing the first fire of the Oceti Sakowin (Seven Council Fires), symbolizing the original Seven Tribes of the Lakota Nation was ignited. The flame has continued to burn constantly since March 22nd, and is to remain lit until a Congressional Oversight Hearing is conducted. The Lakota men who watch over the fire say Congress must be made aware that the two treaties were violated.

The Lakota people also say they are presenting the United States with a gift; they are providing the United States an opportunity to right a major wrong, they are providing the gift of integrity.

Members from the Christian Peacemaker Teams, an international human rights monitoring organization based in Chicago, live in the camp on LaFramboise Island with the Lakota and monitor all activities. Harassment by the public and law enforcement officials, including a drive-by shooting, have occurred.

A Brief History of the Treaties with the Sioux

Each society has a foundation which its laws are established, in the case of the United States of America, that foundation has been a written constitution based upon the principles to guide the moral and ethical direction of the people. At the time of the writing of the Constitution, the United States was a very small, fledgling nation. The Constitutional writers knew the power and importance of having the ability and the trust of another nations in order to be able to survive. Therefore, Article, VI of the Constitution stated that treaties were the supreme law of the land. This enabled them to form alliances and keep their boundaries intact. It also enabled them to be able to conduct trade and other activities to forge strong foreign relationships.

Prior to the Civil Ware, the US government realized in 1851 that they needed to come to some sort of agreement with a large nation of people if settlers were ever to go overland to the Northwest. They mistakenly called these people the Sioux. The Indian people called themselves Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota. A treaty was signed with only a handful of Sioux men. The entire nation was much larger. According to a map released by the US Geological Survey in 1911 and reprinted in 1929, the territory of the Sioux people prior to 1868 reached over 12 states and three Canadian provinces.

Following the end of the Civil War, by the year 1868, the US once again increased its westward expansion. However, they were again hampered in their efforts to reach the gold fields of Montana by the Sioux. In 1868, another treaty was signed with the Lakota people, the largest of the three sub-nations. That treaty was ratified by the US Congress and could not be changed unless three-fourths of all adult Lakota males agreed to any changes. It was a peace treaty and allowed roads and railroads to be built around a vast land area on the northern plains. This land area was called the Great Sioux Reservation and encompasses all of western South Dakota.

The boundaries of the Great Sioux Reservation extend from the East bank of the Missouri River beginning at the forty-six parallel of north latitude, following the Missouri River south to the northern line of the state of Nebraska, then west along the Nebraska State line to the one hundred and fourth degree longitude, turning north along that longitude to intercept the forty six north latitude, and again following the north latitude east until it met the River. It was also agreed that the land north of the North Platte River in Nebraska (which would include the controversial town of White Clay, NE) and east of the summits of the Big Horn Mountains in Wyoming and Montana would be un-ceded Indian territory. (This was similar to the DMZ separating north and South Korea.) No white person would be allowed to settle in, or pass through that specific land area.

The Black Hills were, and still are, considered a holy place by not only Sioux people but also many other indigenous nations as well. The yellow metal so frequently found there was called "the metal that makes men crazy." It was called gold by the Americans and caused the Americans to begin passing their own laws trying to justify why they should be allowed into the Great Sioux Reservation. Those laws violated their own Constitution as well as the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868.

In 1889, an Act was passed that created the states of North and South Dakota among otherwise. A commission was sent to try to gather the three-fourths Lakota adult male votes to insure the 1868 Treaty was followed. A starve or sign policy was implemented. Many non-Indian and non-Lakota signatures, as well as those of women, children and the deceased were presented to Congress as lawful signatures. Congress declared the Act of 1889 legal. The people of the Great Sioux Nation were divided and placed on separate reservations.

Upon learning the English language and the American Court System, the Lakota nation again persevered in the struggle to regain the original Great Sioux Reservation. In 1880, the US Supreme Court ruled that the taking of the Black Hills by gold seekers and others was illegal. However, instead of returning the land back to the Lakota people, as would have happened in other cases, the Supreme Court offered money to the Lakota people. Instead, the Lakota said, "The sacred Black Hills are not for sale" The money was placed in a bank where it sits gaining interest today. In the meantime, the Lakota continue to live as the most impoverished people on the continent.

The most recent effort at theft of land that is protected under the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, took the guise of a rider on the 1999 Omnibus Appropriations Act. In 1998, Senator Tom Daschia, D-SD, the minority leader of the Senate, tried to have the measure passed under a Public Works bill in the House of Representatives. It was defeated when the Committee learned that a treaty was involved. Daschia, working with the republican governor of South Dakota, William Janklow, then inserted the rider into the 1999 Omnibus Appropriations Bill bypassing the public hearing process. They also convinced the governing bodies of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, and the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, to become parties to the Act. The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe has since passed a resolution asking for a Congressional Oversight Hearing and have stated the language they agreed to in the original bill was changed.