Part B: "The Lakota People" Responses

In December of 2007 the Lakota Indians successfully succeeded from the United States, and went almost completely unnoticed within the realms of the United States. No U.S. press devoted their time or effort to reporting this cause, yet three different nations recognized the Lakota as independent from the U.S. They declared themselves to not be citizens of the U.S. and laid claims to the land which they owned in parts of Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming. They had been drafting this declaration stating their independence from the U.S. since 1974, and just now released it. This just shows how the media controls what the public hears.


Response 1: The Lakota people are completely justified in their actions. They were not satisfied with the actions of the United States government, and according Lockean philosophy, if a government is not protecting the rights of its constituency, then they have every right to rebel. In fact, he even claims that it is their duty to rebel in order to protect their rights. Now, in the United States Government, there are 2 checks that the people have on the government in order to assure that their individual rights are protected. These checks are: 1; the people are the ones who elect the officials into their offices. Thus the people can choose to not reelect an official if he or she fails to fully represent the voice of their constituency. 2: if the government fails to do their job properly, the people can rebel, and succeed from the nation. The rights of the Lakota people have been trampled on ever since the killing of Sitting Bull, and the Massacre at Wounded Knee. They have the obligation to ensure that their rights are protected, and if that means leaving the U.S. and creating their own country then so be it.

Response 2: The main purpose behind this notion, in relationship to our English 104 course is most obviously the power of the media expressed in this passage. This passage expresses that these Lakota Native American's have been drafting their succession from the United States for over 30 years and the press just gave word. This is a dangerous lesson for our citizen's because, if the media is able to keep things under wraps for that long a period of time, what else are we unaware of that is occuring in our country? or even, what else are we unaware of that's occuring overseas? The war in Iraq is one that has been held in a negative light from day one, but still, the media doesn't provide the citizens of this country with full information. Many people of this country are still unaware of what we are even "fighting" for, which provides us with the scary realization that there could be far more corrupt actions occuring that the media isn't educating us about.

Response 3: The Lakota Indians succeeding from the United States and being un-noticed by the media and general public shows two things; 1, the government must have not been taking care of its’ people must if the Indians were happy in the United States and how they were being treated then they would not have succeeded, and 2, either the media was told not to blow this story out of proportion because other Native Americans might follow suit, or they are not doing their job. The Lakota succeeding gives the feeling that the government has ignored them and has not treated them the way they wanted. The lack of Americans knowing of this succession shows how the news either reports on wars happening in far away lands or on local stories about a dog finding its owners. As Americans we need to know real news about what is happening within our country and the first way to do that is to tell the media what we want to hear.

Response 4: It is interesting how the Indians often get forgotten. Americans like to think of the United States as a virtuous country built on pure ideals, but no one ever remembers how we acquired this 'pure' land. Old treaties made, even if forgotten, still exist. If the Lakota community feels that the United States has not upheld their end of the contract, then they have every right to break away. Wouldn't it be strange if they did though? Can you imagine only 45 stars on the American flag? I think it is hard to imagine the US growing any more, and even harder to think of it getting smaller. I also wonder if there are similar treaties with other Indian tribes, and do those Native Americans also feel that the United States has not fulfilled its part of the agreement?