Ongoing Impact
LAKOTA AND CHEYENNE INDIAN TRIBES DECLARE INDEPENDENCE FROM US
PAHA SAPA -- On July 14, at an historic summit meeting in the Black Hills (Paha Sapa) of western South Dakota, leaders of the Lakota (Sioux), Cheyenne and other Indian nations declared the reestablishment of the Lakota nation's traditional boundaries and the tribes' total separation from the United States of America, denouncing their "illegal" US citizenship imposed under 19th century treaties which were never accepted by these Indian peoples. 1991, as reported in the Earth Island Journal |
Sixty-seven and eighty-six years after the Indian Citizenship Act, tribes still contested the unilateral conferral of citizenship. The Lakota and Cheyenne declared independence from the US; the Iroquois refused to accept the "one-time waiver" offer of the US Department of State to allow them passage on their Haudenosaunee passports.
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The redistribution of land from Indian to non-Indian control was an explicit goal of the Dawes Act;
the results are readily apparent in the maps below.
the results are readily apparent in the maps below.