And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: Oglalas rely on rights outlined in 1868 BY DON WALTON Lincoln Journal Star http://www.journalstar.com/stories/neb/sto7 The 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie, which Oglala Indians have cited in claiming ownership of Whiteclay, Neb., and its surrounding land, is at the heart of fundamental tribal claims. The treaty reserved all of the Dakota land west of the Missouri River for the Sioux tribes, they argue, including land in northwestern Nebraska and Wyoming. Indian tribes occasionally win treaty cases in court, University of Nebraska-Lincoln law professor John Snowden said Monday. But it would be impossible to judge the viability or merits of this case without seeing the specific language of the claim, he said. The 1868 treaty between the United States and the Sioux nation is also the pivotal issue in a South Dakota controversy over a 1998 congressional action transferring control of more than 100,000 acres along the Missouri River from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The legislation hands control to the state of South Dakota and two tribes whose reservations border the river, the Cheyenne River Sioux and the Lower Brule Sioux. The Oglala on the Pine Ridge Reservation in western South Dakota and other tribes claim ownership rights under the treaty. The Fort Laramie treaty, whose signatories include Gen. William Sherman and Oglala Chief Red Cloud, was also the centerpiece of a landmark federal trial in Lincoln in 1975. But the issue raised in that case was a claim of Indian sovereignty under the 1868 treaty. District Judge Warren Urbom rejected that claim and proceeded with the trial of defendants in criminal cases stemming from the 1973 occupation of Wounded Knee. Indian leaders at Pine Ridge have also pointed to the 1887 Dawes Allocation Act in making their claim to Whiteclay. That law, also known as the general allotment act, was designed to end the status of Indian tribes as domestic nations and absorb Indians into American life by allotting tribal lands for individual ownership. Oglala Sioux Tribal President Harold Salway said the land where Whiteclay is now located was originally intended as a buffer between white settlers and the Lakota. It still belongs to the tribe, he added. "How it went out of tribal control was irresponsible negligence by the federal government," he said. Russell Means, an Oglala and leader of the American Indian Movement, said the Dawes Act gave the pine-covered ridges of northwestern Nebraska to the Oglala people. "That's our land," he said, adding that the remedy is in simple enforcement of the treaties, not protracted lawsuits. Reprinted under the fair use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
