Support and Reactions
The extent of popular support among the Lakota people for independence is unclear. Russell Means and Canupa Gluha Mani have claimed that some 13,000 Lakota, including 77% of the population of Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, have shown support for the Republic of Lakotah, and that the 8-member delegation which traveled to Washington, D.C. was only a portion of some 77 tribal elders and activists taking part in the movement. However, Rapid City Journal reporter Bill Harlan reported on his blog that "most folks I talk to hadn’t heard about the declaration. The ones who had heard the news, to a person, did not want to talk about it on the record." The Journal has also noted that "there were no tribal presidents in the group which made the announcement, no one from the top ranks of any of the Lakota Sioux tribes." Nanwica Kciji, an Oglala Lakota and first president of the Native American Journalists Association, has also discredited the December 2007 developments, arguing that the Lakotah Freedom Delegation "never considered that treaties are made between nations and not individuals."
The Alaskan Independence Party, in an announcement dated December 21, 2007, "applauded" the independent Lakota nation and granted it "full recognition". The secessionist movement Second Vermont Republic has also announced its support, and encouraged other American Indian groups to similarly declare independence from the United States.
Read more about this topic: Republic Of Lakotah
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