Lakota independence

Chief Big Foot Riders, 1990
Lakota Freedom Delegation

someone told me today that the Lakota Nation declared themselves no longer part of the United States. They are issuing their own passports, talking to Bolivia and Venezuela. They "withdrew from the constitutionally mandated treaties to become a free and independent country."

“This is an historic day for our Lakota people,” declared Russell Means, Itacan of Lakota. “United States colonial rule is at its end!”

“In order to stop the continuous taking of our resources – people, land, water and children- we have no choice but to claim our own destiny,” said Phyllis Young, a former Indigenous representative to the United Nations and representative from Standing Rock.
Young added, “The actions of Lakota are not intended to embarrass the United States but to simply save the lives of our people”.

After 150 years of colonial enforcement, when you back people into a corner there is only one alternative. That alternative is to bring freedom back into existence by taking it back - back to the love of freedom, to our lifeway. Canupa Gluha Mani

fiction

photo from near where I've been living for the past few months. where the grass all dies in the summer and the burrs are everywhere so you can't walk off the well worn paths.

what I've been reading: The Gangster We Are All Looking For, by le thi diem thuy.
and The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, by Serman Alexie.

what I've been thinking about: how so many people I talk to lately don't read fiction, and how much I've learned from fiction - how important I think it is. I've learned the feeling behind so much history, embodied the knowledge like I don't with pure history. like what it means to live under a violent racism, what life is like under colonialism, what it means to traditional cultures when the kids leave for the citys, what voices have been silenced, what forms they take when breaking out of the silence. I have learned about how people think, how they use reason, how they use emotion, and insights into what I do and how I want to strive to be. and stories that evoke hidden emotion. that teach me places that I need to look deeper. these and a million more things I have learned from fiction.