…so says activist Russel Means, who last year led the Lakotah Nation in renouncing its treaty obligations with the U.S. Government. Since then, Means and his supporters have worked to be recognized as an independent, sovereign country and have a slick website to tell their story and to solicit assistance. Means basically just wants the government to stay out of his and fellow Lakotah’s affairs - a simple concept that has significant implications.

After hundreds of years of mistreatment by the U. S. Government the Lakotah have said “enough!” And for good reason. The government has stolen their land, stripped them of their culture, language, and traditions through the separation families and indoctrination at bording schools (*Note that such activity is not restricted to this relationship but to governments throughout history exploiting and subjugating the “other”.) Even today, there is almost no activity on reservations in which the federal government doesn’t intervene via the Bureau of Indian Affairs (the fact that the BIA was originally housed under the Department of War should tell you something).

Think about how inefficient and depressing it is to go to the DMV or Post Office. Then think what it’d be like if that were applied that to every aspect of your life. Unfortunately that’s what those living on reservations have had to deal with. Or worse.

Mark Milke touched on this issue recently on the Western Standard in an article entitled Big City Indians in which he compared the living situation for Indians living on and off the reservation in Canada. And though Milke’s article is chocked full of good statistics, he unfortunately devotes scant attention to the incentives (and disincentives) created by the imposition of a massive nanny state. Milke concluded his article by noting that the big difference in standard of living between the two groups stemmed from educational and career opportunities available in urban areas as compared to rural areas. While that’s true, it alone doesn’t account for the differences. It’s only when coupled with such extensive governmental meddling that such communities been devastated.

Means has stated, “We are working towards complete freedom in a lawful, non-violent, non-aggressive way.” It’ll be interesting to see what course of action the Feds take. While some may see this as a fringe issue and Means as a radical, that need not be the case. Simply ask: Who owns you? If you answered yourself, then the logical extension is that no one individual or group has the right to claim authority over you without your voluntary consent. If you believe that you do not own yourself, then what follows is a system of slavery in one of its various shades.

For more on this, check out the Freedom: My Anti-Gov and Who Owns You? overview on Bureaucrash Social.