Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Federal Judiciary Blogs -> Supreme Dicta

Federal Judiciary

: Supreme Dicta

Ft. Sumnter...again!

I can think of no better way to celebrate the peace and goodwill of the holiday season than secession. No, you have not been transported back to 1861. This is 2007, and the United States just got a little smaller.

The Lakota Indians (yes, the tribe that produced Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse) have withdrawn from every treaty they have made with the United States government. "We are no longer citizens of the United States of America," declared long-time Indian rights activist Russell Means. The new country (creatively named the Lakota Nation) will issue its own passports and drivers licences. Anyone can live there would be tax-free -- if you agree to renounce your U.S. citizenship.

Means claims that this action is completely legal because the United States government has not honored its treaty obligations, despite the Article VI requirement to follow treaties as supreme law of the land. The State Department has not issued a response. If negotiations with the State Department are not successful, the tribe plans to file liens on property in parts of South Dakota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming that were illegally homesteaded.

Here's a word of advice to the Lakota people: Appomattox. Yeah, secession didn't turn out so well the last time it was attempted. The federal government tends to get a little pissed off when this kind of thing happens. And you are a bit more outnumbered than the Southerners.

Look, I am completely sympathetic to your cause. Those treaties that you signed with the federal government are worth no more than the paper they are written on. But I just don't see this situation ending well for the Lakota people. Good luck (you're gonna need it).

Full post as published by Supreme Dicta on December 21, 2007 (boomark / email).