Hello Everyone,
Thank you to Sylvia L. for her $100.00 gift/donation to the Treaty Council for my birthday. What a nice birthday gift. Thank you also to Steve W. and Jennifer S. for their donations of stamps and for Jennifer’s donation of envelopes. You have no idea how much this helps.
1. Decolonization In February, the UN Secretary-General (S-G) Antonio Guterres gave a statement congratulating the Decolonization Committee that there were only 17 territories to be decolonized. As I took exception to this since we have been trying to get to the Decolonization Committee for years, I wrote a letter to the Secretary-General with a copy sent to the Chairperson of the Decolonization Committee asking to meet with them in New York in June. That’s when the Committee will be meeting. The letter was sent via postal mail and email. They probably will not answer, as in the past, but we have to keep trying.
Also regarding the S-G position, our relatives from the South are conducting a campaign to call out the UN on their stance on Self-Determination of all peoples, by seeking to replace Guterres during the upcoming UN elections with an Indigenous nomination. It probably won’t happen as none of us are members of the UN, but it will show the hypocrisy that is in the UN when they don’t uphold their Charter. We have been meeting with our relatives from the South via Zoom meetings.
2. Report on the Human Right to a Healthy Environment There was a call for input into a report to be submitted by the Special Rapporteur on the human right to healthy environment. Her report will be given to the General Assembly next Fall. We submitted a Report which is attached.
3. INCOMINDIOS PROJECT We are still finalizing the report to INCOMINDIOS on the project they funded for us last Fall. There were three parts: the Analysis of the 1868 Treaty which was sent to all the region’s high schools; the International Work of the 1868 Treaty Council, a video of a Power Point presentation; and a Report entitled “To Revitalize our Nation”, also attached. I am still trying to get the video as it was lost someplace in the clouds. As soon as I have it, I’ll let you know.
Respectfully submitted by
_______Sgnd___________________ _______Sgnd________________
Charmaine White Face, Spokesperson Zumila Wobaga, Itancan
Attachments (3): Letter to S-G Guterres; Report on Health; Report on Revitalizing our Nation
Attachment - Letter to S-G Gutterres
Feb. 23, 2026
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres
United Nations
405 East 45th Street
New York, NY 10017 USA (Also sent via email)
Dear Secretary-General Guterres,
Your remarks at the Feb. 16th meeting of the United Nations (UN) Decolonization Committee were very interesting. However, they were also disheartening that only seventeen (17) more nations are being considered as remaining for the Committee’s work without once including Indigenous Nations. We came to the UN as a Nation seeking our freedom and independence, not seeking economic and social help.
What about ALL of the Indigenous Nations with legal International treaties with colonizing governments? Are we to be left behind? Aren’t our freedom and Self Determination at the same level as other nations? Are we to be left in situations of belligerent, illegal occupation by domineering colonizing governments until we disappear? That is genocide! That is our reality NOW!
Please, Secretary-General Guterres, Indigenous Nations need to be allowed the opportunity to be heard and listed on the Decolonization List before we become extinct. Our ancient Nations have so much to teach the world.
The UN Charter specifically states that it is “for all nations great and small.” Does that also mean EXCEPT for Indigenous Nations? We have no where else to go to present our situations except at the UN.
Can our delegation meet with you and the Chairperson Menissa Rambally and Vice-Chair Ernesto Soberon Guzman of the Decolonization Committee in June, 2026, when they have their next two week meeting in New York City?
We look forward to your response and hope we can have a mutually productive meeting. Thank you for considering our request.
Sincerely,
Sgnd Sgnd
Charmaine White Face, Spokesperson Zumila Wobaga, Itancan
cc: UN Decolonization Committee Chair and Vice Chair
Attachment Report on Health
HEALTH REPORT ON THE 1868 FORT LARAMIE TREATY TERRITORY
Thank you to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human right to a healthy environment, Astrid Puentes Riano for this opportunity to present this information for her thematic report to the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly.
The Sioux Nation is an Indigenous nation of approximately 90,000 people. However, the human rights of all of the people residing in this area, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, are being affected by radioactive pollution caused by mining of Uranium and other elements. For the Sioux Nation, this is certain genocide as the majority of the Sioux people live in western South Dakota on four of the largest American Indian Reservations, which began as Prisoner-of-war camps, in the United States. Starting in the 1950s, more than 25,000 Sioux people currently live in surrounding cities and towns in western South Dakota and the southern portion of North Dakota.
The Sioux Nation is an ancient, Indigenous nation that at one time covered nearly half of the North American continent. During the invasion and belligerent occupation by European-American colonizers, the Sioux Nation signed many treaties with France, England, and finally the United States. The final treaty with the United States, the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868contained a provision for a land base that was a small area in which the Sioux nation could continue to survive. Article 2 of the Treaty states that the area shown in Fig. 1. would be for “the absolute and undisturbed use and occupation” of the Sioux nation.[1] However, with the discovery of gold in the Black Hills in 1874, the U.S. government allowed miners and settlers into the area and continue to allow their citizens to occupy this International Treaty protected area to today. 2
The Sioux Nation Treaty Council established in 1894 is submitting this communication through their Spokesperson, Zumila Wobaga, also known as Ms. Charmaine White Face. There is no need to keep any of the submitted information confidential, as the information has been presented many times seeking resolution in many fora.
The difficulty arising in answering the Special Rapporteur’s Key Questions is the illegality of the United States in the 1868 Treaty Territory. As a belligerently occupied nation, we have no control of the dangerous environmental effects destroying our human right to a healthy environment.
In 1980, the Supreme Court of the United States admitted to the illegal taking of the Black Hills, admitting it was unlawful and illegal, but would not return that small portion of the Treaty territory to the Sioux Nation. Shortly thereafter, the 1894 Sioux Nation Treaty Council began approaching the United Nations for a resolution.
Figure 1. The Northern Great Plains and the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty Territory
According to a report entitled The Great Plains Area Leading Causes of Death, Jan 3, 2022, the American Indian/Alaska Native rate of mortality is above the rate for all races in the United States.3 The areas with high mortality rates are: heart disease, malignant cancers, other causes, accidents and adverse effects, diabetes mellitus, chronic liver disease and cirrhosis, COPD and allied conditions, Cerebrovascular diseases, Pneumonia and influenza, and suicide and self-inflicted injury. The rates for mortality of non-Indigenous people living in this region is also higher than the rates for the entire country. Yet no one asks why. However, there are more than 2,000 open, abandoned Uranium mines in our Treaty Territory and more than 10,000 open, abandoned exploratory wells for Uranium also. Radioactive pollution could be a major factor in these higher mortality rates for all people living in this region. More than twenty years ago when the author of this report via a phone call asked the US Center for Disease Control (CDC) to investigate the situation, the answer was that as there were not one-million people in the state of South Dakota, they would not come in. South Dakota is a low-population agriculture state in the US.
The perpetrators of this dire health situation in our Treaty Territory are many national and international mining and oil companies under the auspices of the U.S. federal government and also include the governments of the states of Montana, Wyoming, North and South Dakota. There have been many violations by extractive industries starting in 1874 and continuing to today. The ones that are emitting radioactive pollution are the most hazardous and are the ones described in this Report. Radioactive pollution is long-term and affects the human right to good health for generations to come.
The major perpetrator denying our human right to a healthy environment is the US government. With the Trump administration eliminating environmental laws, the situation will only get worse. In addition, their federal laws, rules and regulations allow the industries to operate within the 1868 Treaty Territory when the US government does not have the legal authority to grant such operations.
The federal agencies involved include: the U.S. Department of the Interior, the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the U.S. Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other federal agencies dealing with fiscal and mining regulations. In addition, the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs and the U.S. Indian Health Service are extremely negligent as they illegally hold the responsibility for the health and wellbeing of the people of the Sioux Nation through the US government.
The state agencies regarding clean air, clean water, mining and drilling operations, natural resources, water resources and health in the following states are also complicit and come from the states of South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming in which the 1868 Treaty territory is located. (See Fig. 1) Their departments and agencies grant permission or licenses and oversee the numerous private industries which conduct the extractive processes. The industries pay taxes and excise fees to these states. The Sioux Nation receives nothing.
The number of private businesses conducting the extractive processes are too numerous to mention in this report. However, they would not be able to contribute to the radioactive pollution without the permission of the federal, state, and county governments.
The radioactive pollution that isgrievously affecting the health of the people of the Sioux Nation comes from the Abandoned Uranium Mines (AUMs), Surface Strip Coal Mines and Coal-fired Power Plants. The coal contains Uranium. All three pollution sources have been occurring for more than 60 years. The problem of radioactive pollution without any remediation or reclamation will continue for thousands of years. Beginning in the 1950s and continuing into the 1970s, more than two-thousand (2,000+) open-pit Uranium mines were dug in the 1868 Treaty Territory in the Northern Great Plains region.
However, the majority of these open-pit mines were never covered over, or reclaimed as reclamation laws were not in place at the time of their closure. One of the larger open pit mines in the southwestern portion of South Dakota would cover a mile square. Called the Darrow Pits Mine, it still sits uncovered. Therefore, the winds can pick up radioactive particles in the dust and carry it from the West and Northwest to the South and Southeast. South Dakota lies in the southern and western focus of the wind currents. With the prevailing westerly winds, the dust is then carried further East and South over the rest of the American states. When it rains or snows, these large holes in the ground, the abandoned Uranium mines, collect water which becomes toxic with radioactive pollution then runs off into creeks and streams, or soaks into the ground entering underlying aquifers.
A nuclear physics professor from the University of Michigan, who also studied the radioactive emissions at Fukushima shortly after the tsunami and nuclear power plant accident, stated that the levels she and her students found in one abandoned Uranium mine in South Dakota were four (4) times higher than at Fukushima! Nevertheless, after years of bringing this to the attention of both state and federal lawmakers, nothing has been done to stop this devastating situation. This situation was also reported to the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in the early 2000s, to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), and to the Special Rapporteur on the implications for human rights and hazardous substances and waste, Mr. Baskut Tuncak. Following his report to the UNHRC’s 30th Session in September 2015, he verbally informed this author that his request to study our situation was denied by the US government.
On June 8, 2007, and again from Feb. 18 to March 7, 2008, a report with this same information was given to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination ofRacial Discrimination at their 72nd session.4 Help from the World Health Organization (WHO) for a study on the abandoned Uranium mines situation in the United States was also given as a recommendation to the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. The recommendation was accepted and presented in their report to the Human Rights Council but the WHO never did a study. This issue of abandoned Uranium mines and their effect on the Sioux Nation was also presented many times at the United Nations during the debates of the Intercessional Working Group on the Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
According to a study conducted for the U.S. Indian Health Service, the Sioux people of the Northern Great Plains have the highest rate of many cancers in the United States.5 Prior to the United States illegally occupying our territory, we did not even have cancer.
As this dangerous situation of large amounts of radioactive pollution contaminating the central part of the United States has been allowed to continue for more than 60 years, we are coming to the United Nations to ask for your help. It must be stopped. For us, the members of the Sioux Nation, our increased diseases and other health problems mean certain genocide.
Recommendation
As the US government has consistently shown their lack of concern for our human right to health, we are requesting that our nation be granted our freedom and independence to care for our own environment and our own health within the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty Territory. This can be accomplished by recommending our nation to the UN Decolonization Committee.
Thank you.
Submitted by Zumila Wobaga, Itancan
Charmaine White Face, Spokesperson
Sources:
[1] Fort Laramie Treaty, April 29, 1868 (15 Stat., 635.Ratified, Feb. 16, 1869. Proclaimed, Feb. 24, 1869) The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, under Article 12 can only be changed by three-fourths approval of all adult Sioux males. Although this has never happened, the United States, in violation of their own Constitution, Article VI; and federal law, the March 3rd Act of 1871, forced the Sioux people into prisoner of war camps, now called American Indian Reservations located primarily in the state of South Dakota.
2 Study on treaties, agreements and other constructive arrangements between States and indigenous populations, Final report by Miguel Alfonso Martinez, Special Rapporteur to the UN Commission on Human Rights., Paragraph 286, E/CN.4/Sub.2/1999/20
3 The Great Plains Area Leading Causes of Death,
https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/sarah.shewbrooks/viz/GPAMortalityDashboard/GPAMortality
4 A copy of the 90-page report which includes all the documents pertaining to the report, both before and after the UN CERD meeting, is available upon request from the 1894 Sioux Nation Treaty Council, PO Box 2003, Rapid City, SD 57709
5 Cancer Mortality Among American Indians and Alaska Natives: Regional Differences, 1999-2003; Donald Haverkamp, MPH; David Espey, MD; Roberta Paisano, MHSA; Nathaniel Cobb, MD; February 2008
Attachment - Report - To Revitalize our Nation
“To Revitalize our Nation”
By Charmaine White Face March 21, 2026
When I was a child getting ready to enter First Grade, (there was no kindergarten in the early 1950s) my grandma told me to be a scout and learn all I could about the white people. She said I already knew who I was, so now I had to be a scout. She said someday I would write words on paper that would help our people. That’s what I have been doing for many years. That’s what this is about: my scout report.
Once we were a great nation composed of seven sub-nations. That is what Oceti Sakowin means, seven nations together as one, speaking the same language with only three letters different: Dakota, Nakota, or Lakota. Those names are not what our people called themselves. Those words mean “ally”. For a more detailed description including the names, go to www.siouxnationtreatycouncil.org and look up the history of the Oceti Sakowin in the June 28, 2023 Newsletter.
What I’ve learned over many years is that here are many differences between the white peoples’ culture and ours. Unfortunately, they thought theirs was better than ours so they tried to change us into being white people. That is like changing an eagle into a sparrow. Only now is it known that Indigenous peoples’ DNA is different and has also been damaged by the trauma brought by the invaders called colonists or settlers.
For us to begin to revitalize ourselves and our nation, we have to get over the brainwashing, or colonizing that tried to make us believe that we were not human and we were stupid. The situation is entirely different. We need to understand the differences between the white peoples’ culture and our own so we can be ourselves again. The differences have to do with our values and our mindset rather than the physical exploitation of everything. Because of the brainwashing or colonization, a large part of our culture has been lost or polluted. However, because of some of our courageous ancestors, some of the aspects of our old lifeways are still here.
There are two main differences that make us miles apart from the white peoples’ understanding, prejudice, values and culture. One is “spirituality” instead of “organized religion.” The second difference is the concept of “property.”
Spirituality versus Organized Religion
Someone once said to me that “organized religion” only causes wars while “spirituality” does not. ‘Organized Religion’ is man made. ‘Spirituality’ is an individual person’s relationship with the Creator. One of the main and first laws of our Ancient Laws is to never question a person’s relationship with the ‘Creator’ or their ‘Spirituality.’ That is why when Christian missionaries first arrived, our people were respectful and let them talk about their beliefs. However, the first missionaries saw all of the ‘miracles’ and the ‘Christian’ way our people lived and became alarmed. What could they teach these heathen savages about “religion”? The word “religion” was not even in our language. Members of the various denominations of organized religion pressured the US Congress to ‘outlaw’ our Spiritual practices so they could gain control of the people.
There was a letter in the historic archives in Bismark, ND, from a Catholic priest to a federal official which I read years ago. The priest says of one of our ceremonies that they (Christians) know this type of ceremony is impossible. However, he adds, the practice needs to be outlawed “just in case” it was possible. So the Congress passed many laws and regulations making our ceremonies and culture illegal. (See the Code of Indian Offenses of 1883) Also added was speaking about the treaties, or teaching about the treaties which were punishable by death or imprisonment.
Without being disrespectful, our old holy men like Black Elk became Catholic and were still able to pray and heal under the guise of Christianity. The same with keeping the treaty information alive through the use of the Saint Mary and Saint Joseph Societies which allowed the people to be able to travel to visit with our people on the other reservations. They needed written passes to travel between the reservations which were initially created as Prisoner of War camps. All of these activities were totally “foreign” to our peoples’ way of life. No, you won’t find this information in white peoples’ books. This information has been handed down by word of mouth.
When my grandmother was teaching me in the late 1940s and early 1950s, she also knew she could be arrested. She told me not to tell anyone, not even my parents, her son and daughter-in-law. I didn’t. However, our people are so misguided and confused at these end times, that I don’t think the ancestors and grandparents will be disturbed if I share our ways. There are also many good white people who have been misguided too. If they read this and learn something to help their spirits, that is good too.
Our values, our way of life, our culture were all based on ‘spirituality’ or how the Spirits and the Creator made us to live, to be. Taking the children to boarding schools, and introducing alcohol as something other than a medicine, further eroded our spiritual understanding thereby eroding our lifeways and culture. There was no such thing as ‘child abuse’ before meeting the white people and now many of our people are in prison because of ‘child abuse.’ (More on this later)
What is happening today in Gaza and Iran is between three different kinds of “organized religion” when all three have a common foundation which is the Old Testament of the Bible. Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, which all start from the Old Testament, start from a book written by men. Over the years, the three organized religions have split like three branches of the same tree. (I have always wondered why they fight each other as they all have the same Ten Commandments which say they will not kill, steal, lie, or want their neighbor’s possessions. Do they not know these are supposed to be orders from God?
(For the purposes of this writing, the word God or Creator will be used instead of Tunkasila (grandfather), Wakan Tanka, Great Mystery, Great Spirit, Jehovah, or Allah.)
As Indigenous peoples and nations all over the world have been coerced into Christianity, the Christians always say that they believe that God is in everything. For those of us who have taken the steps to relearn our old understanding, we don’t believe God is in everything. From our old knowledge of what Spirituality is, we know God is in everything. There is a big difference between believing and knowing. For example, if I believe that there is a hole in the road, but I don’t know it, I will step into the hole anyway, and probably break my ankle. However, if I know there is a hole in the road, I will walk around it.
In our old way of understanding Spirituality, we know that God is in everything. We even have a sacred name for God that in English means “the movement behind the movement.” We are not even supposed to speak the name out loud because of respect to God as thoughts and words have great influence.
Nuclear physicists, the scientists who study the atom, question what makes the electron move in the specific pathways it takes in each kind of atom. They are all different and the electrons should move erratically, unpredictably, any old which way, but they don’t. Astro physicists, the scientists who study the stars and planets, also question how the planets and stars move in the predictable patterns they do. Our people knew the answers to these questions for millennia.
Of course, it is the Creator, the Movement behind the Movement, from the smallest atom, to the tiniest grain of sand, to each cell in your body, to all the innumerable universes in the heavens. How do we know? Spirituality. When we increase our spirituality, our relationship with the Creator, we are led to learn many things and increase our wisdom...and humility. Christians will say we experience “miracles”. We say that is only a part of the learning. It is because of this “knowing” that God is in all things that ‘respect’ for everything becomes one of the foundations of our lifeways or life philosophy. Furthermore, it is not just respect for living beings, but respect for ALL things: stones, mountains, air, water, fire, the sun, the stars. They are all Spirits and have names too.
For example, our understanding of how Mother/Grandmother Earth came into being is called a myth by the white people. Our story says that a Sacred Being, or Sacred Spirit turned itself inside out and created Mother/Grandmother Earth. This means she is sacred and alive. Scientifically speaking, there is a seam that goes all around Mother/Grandmother Earth, like a seam with no beginning or end which scientists call the Mid-Oceanic Ridge. They even have videos showing how it continually is spilling out magma. Now how would us ignorant heathens coming from the middle of the continent know about the Mid-Oceanic Ridge even during the 1400s before Columbus “found” us? The white people didn’t know about it until the 1970s nearly 500 years later. Unfortunately, they don’t understand that is is sacred and alive which is why Grandmother/Mother Earth is sacred and alive. After all, our understanding is only a myth according to the white people.
Or, another example. How did we know that there were four (4) stars in the Pleiades when the white people only learned about that AFTER they had built their large telescopes in the late 20th Century?
We understood the spirituality of everything, and that certain things were very sacred. There was a time when we conversed with everything: animals, birds, all creatures, even the plants. Today there are some who say they can still do that. Even long ago, when someone said they could do such things, there was an old test that would show if the Creator had given that ability to them, or did it come from the Trickster, or the Evil One? Of course we knew about the Evil One, the Trickster, and the Double-faced Woman. They are spirits too and have abilities too. They are here to allow us choices. However, the humble little sage is also here and grows profusely so we can protect ourselves from their influence.
In the old test, if it was a man, he would be shirtless. If it was a woman, she would have to attach her sleeve to her shoulder. Then when a whirlwind came, the person had to stick their open hand into the whirlwind, close their hand, then pull their arm out. When they opened their hand, there would be a butterfly sitting in their hand. Simple. Then the people knew they could come to that person for prayers or healing. There were other tests too, but usually the family saw from the time a child was born that he or she would help the people. Being a medicine man or woman, or being a holy person was not something a person chose. The Spirits chose the person and showed the family at their birth, or when they were a baby. The Spirits would also show this to the people throughout the person’s life. Who are these Spirits? They would usually be the ancestors of all the people.
Our Spirituality taught us many things that could not be learned only with physical things like books. Our Spirituality lets us be able to travel without the need for oxygen or a space ship. But denying our ability to hand down that information, that kind of spirituality to the younger generations has put us in the place we are now...except for a very few. Increasing our Spirituality will help us in the days to come to remember who the Creator made us to be. We can ask our ancestors and the Creator to help us remember, and how to strengthen our Spirituality, our relationship with them, with Grandmother/Mother Earth, and with the Creator. They do listen to us. Even the Christian books say, “Ask and you shall receive.” Just don’t forget to say “Thank you. Wopila tanka.”
This doesn’t mean that a person needs to stop praying their Christian prayers, if that’s all a person knows. Increasing your Spirituality can be done by just talking to God. If the thought of God is too big, then talk to an ancestor, or an angel. We knew angels too. They can hear you just as easy, but remember they will answer you with thoughts. In our culture we are taught to watch our thoughts as they go outside of our skulls and can have influence. None of this is taught in organized religion.
The Concept of Property
Now that you know a little about our Spirituality, it makes talking about the concept of property much easier to understand. In our old culture, there was no such thing as property the way the white people understand property. In the white peoples’ culture, everything is property even women and children. The reason a woman takes a man’s last name when she marries him is because she becomes his property as do their children. In the United States, it is changing a little, but this concept of property through colonization, or forced assimilation, has polluted our relationships in our families.
In our old way, women, children, and elders were all sacred. The men had the saced honor of protecting and providing for them. The women were sacred because they could bring life into this world. Children were sacred because they had just arrived from the Spirit world. Elders were sacred because they were preparing to go to the Spirit world. That was why there were ceremonies just for men, to help them with their responsibilities. The Inipi, or sweat lodge is one such ceremony just for men.
Nowadays, women, children, and elders are treated grotesquely having to wait on the men, providing for the family, or being sexual objects for the men’s lust, and going through much physical violence if they do not not comply. Stockholm Syndrome is rampant as people become emotionally attached to their abuser. Our way of the sacredness of even the reproductive act has been desecrated.
Because we understood the sacredness of everything, having learned from our older relatives the buffalo and many other creatures, we lived by natural law. Yes, we had strong rules to live by, but that was for the good of the whole. A baby was taught not to cry out at birth because such a cry could scare away any food source that might be nearby and could feed the whole camp. The other living creatures also have strong rules for survival.
When you live with natural law, and spirituality, then you know and respect that others who also live with Mother/Grandmother Earth and you do not totally destroy anything. You share. You also know that Mother/Grandmother Earth is alive and the things inside Her need to remain there; things like oil, coal, uranium, gold, quartz and others. You know that there is a reason Creator put them there. Lodge poles or tent poles were gathered after a fire went through the forest. The fire, if it didn’t destroy them, made them stronger. In gathering plants, you first prayed and asked their permission, and gave them a gift. Then you only picked a variety not just the tallest, and especially not all of them. These all follow natural law. The wild animals and birds live in a similar fashion but not the domesticated animals. They live in concert with the two-legged humans and each help the other.
The white people don’t understand about ‘natural law.’ They only know man-made law although a few are learning. The white people make man-made laws, and try to punish those that break their man-made laws. This also does not follow natural law. Punishment doesn’t teach anything. Taking responsibility for their actions was what our people did to those who broke the rules. A murderer was responsible for all the responsibilities of his victim, and the people including the murderer’s family, made sure the duty was accomplished for the rest of his life. If not, banishment meant sure death.
In the 1980s, many of our elders were concerned that our young people were not knowing who they were. So they asked that our old rules be written down and called it
“The Ancient Laws of the Oceti Sakowin.” We were all hoping that someday we could live in peace again in our old ways. If we physically still had to live under the domination of the United States, at least we could keep our old ways as much as possible. These Laws can be found at www.siouxnationtreatycouncil.org . More is being added.
Conclusion
Can we revitalize our nation? We have to not just want to as the current situation in the world will disrupt our lives and ability to survive if we do not. We can ask the Creator, the spirits, our ancestors and angels for help. We can increase our Spirituality and know the Creator Who is in all things and everywhere. We need to teach each other our values and virtues and support each other in all our endeavors. We don’t need to participate in the white peoples’ ways of violence and exploitation of everything. We have survived this long working at their jobs for our survival. However, the white people are still learning. We need to be led by our old ways and survive to be who the Creator made us to be again.
Thank you for understanding why it is time for this scout report to be written.
Sincerely,
Charmaine White Face Zumila Wobaga