Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council

Greetings on behalf of the Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council and Owe Aku International Justice Project.  Recently, at a Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council meeting in Pine Ridge, will all of our vast territories represented, the people discussed several policies, including international strategy.  It has never been a secret that our elders and leaders believe that the only potential justice on Indigenous treaties will be found outside of settler nation colonial systems as used by the Untied States.  We have argued, in resolution of both the Study on Treaties, Agreements and Other Constructive Arrangements and the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, along with many other North American Indigenous treaty nations, that the appropriate place for treaty resolution is before an international mechanism such as the International Court of Justice.

In the attached presentation to Mr. James Anaya, the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, who will be welcomed on the Lakota Homeland at Sicangu territory on May 1, 2012, we make a series of recommendations designed to create actual mechanisms with some authority to hear the violations of member nations against the rights of Indigenous peoples.  Since the passage of the Declaration and the establishment of the Permanent Forum the only course for any kind of acknowledgment that our rights even exist have been to make recommendations to one body who then makes recommendations to another body that then puts the recommendations into a report.

It is our purpose here then to begin, at last, a meaningful discussion on action-orieanted mechanisms with the ability to directly address violating nations and propose international methods for the resolution of those violations to Indigenous rights.  Are the violations of Indigenous human rights around the world any less important than the violations against other peoples and, if not, should there not be mechanisms for addressing those settler nations who repeatedly violate international law and standards with impunity against Indigenous peoples that continue to result in genocide, cultural degradation, language destruction, and most importantly, environmental matricide against Mother Earth for the benefit of a few?  We do not believe our rights are any different and therefore respectfully submit the attached(click image).