Tie granny's rocker on the truck, Ma, we're a'movin' to Meania!

AFP:

The Lakota Indians, who gave the world legendary warriors Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, have withdrawn from treaties with the United States, leaders said Wednesday.

"We are no longer citizens of the United States of America and all those who live in the five-state area that encompasses our country are free to join us," long-time Indian rights activist Russell Means told a handful of reporters and a delegation from the Bolivian embassy, gathered in a church in a run-down neighborhood of Washington for a news conference. . . .

Lakota country includes parts of the states of Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming.

The new country would issue its own passports and driving licences, and living there would be tax-free -- provided residents renounce their US citizenship, Means said.

I was getting tired of being a United Statesian, anyhow.

(via the only peer-reviewed blog on the net, Pirate Ballerina)

Update: "The US 'annexation' of native American land has resulted in once proud tribes such as the Lakota becoming mere 'facsimiles of white people,' said Means." Obvious joke: it's also made some white people mere facsimiles of Indians.

Update II: President Means is already planning his first official acts.

Update III: Commenter Heidi, who I'm sure is Native American and I think is Lakota (is that right, Heidi?) comments in comments:

I don't think Russell speaks for any Lakota, except himself. I just emailed some friends and they had a good laugh about the story.

Update IV: In Indian Country Today, Suzan Shown Harjo picks her "Mantle of Shame" award-winners for 2007, and guess who makes the cut:

Russell Means - for his mid-December announcement in D.C. that he is unilaterally withdrawing the Lakota Sioux from treaties with the United States. News flash to Means: treaties are made between nations; you are a person and not a nation; you are not empowered to speak for the Great Sioux Nation; as an individual, you can only withdraw yourself from coverage of your nation's treaties. (Means is the same Oglala Sioux actor who tried to beat domestic violence charges by challenging the sovereign authority of the Navajo Nation to prosecute him - he took it all the way to the Supreme Court and lost.)