It involves the blowhard Russell Means, so I am sure that there will be jail time and law suits involving him and his followers. It involves NoDak, SoDak, Nebraska, Wyoming and Montana, so no great loss for 90% of that land (drive across it if you do not believe me. ;P).

The Lakota Indians, who gave the world legendary warriors Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, have withdrawn from treaties with the United States, leaders said Wednesday.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.
A delegation of Lakota leaders delivered a message to the State Department on Monday, announcing they were unilaterally withdrawing from treaties they signed with the federal government of the United States, some of them more than 150 years old.

Wounded Knee/Pine Ridge 2: Electric Boogaloo. But, it should be intersting to see if those states and the U.S Government decides to take this seriously, especially since there is that Law suit currently against the Interior Department for non payment/underpayment of royalties and such.

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.
The treaties signed with the United States are merely “worthless words on worthless paper,” the Lakota freedom activists say on their website.
The treaties have been “repeatedly violated in order to steal our culture, our land and our ability to maintain our way of life,” the reborn freedom movement says.
Withdrawing from the treaties was entirely legal, Means said.
“This is according to the laws of the United States, specifically article six of the constitution,” which states that treaties are the supreme law of the land, he said.
“It is also within the laws on treaties passed at the Vienna Convention and put into effect by the US and the rest of the international community in 1980. We are legally within our rights to be free and independent,” said Means.

Yes, as do many the “Patriots” hiding in their bunkers clutching their Armalites…oddly enough in places like Montana. One problem with Russell’s theory here is that the Senate has not approved the treaty, so I doubt that the Lakota will have any standing in court, not that will stop them.

Thirty-three years have elapsed since then because “it takes critical mass to combat colonialism and we wanted to make sure that all our ducks were in a row,” Means said.
One duck moved into place in September, when the United Nations adopted a non-binding declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples — despite opposition from the United States, which said it clashed with its own laws.

So, this aught to provide much entertainment over the next several months, and it will be intersting to see if other groups sign up, most especially in Hawaii and Alaska, or here in Colorado, the Utes and Arapahoe…or if the Spanish count or not.

Atrios had this bit and he is right, be careful what you wish for.

Washington Mutual Inc. got what it wanted in 2005: A revised bankruptcy code that no longer lets people walk away from credit card bills.
The largest U.S. savings and loan didn’t count on a housing recession. The new bankruptcy laws are helping drive foreclosures to a record as homeowners default on mortgages and struggle to pay credit card debts that might have been wiped out under the old code, said Jay Westbrook, a professor of business law at the University of Texas Law School in Austin and a former adviser to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
“Be careful what you wish for,” Westbrook said. “They wanted to make sure that people kept paying their credit cards, and what they’re getting is more foreclosures.”
Washington Mutual, Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. spent $25 million in 2004 and 2005 lobbying for a legislative agenda that included changes in bankruptcy laws to protect credit card profits, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-partisan Washington group that tracks political donations.
The banks are still paying for that decision. The surge in foreclosures has cut the value of securities backed by mortgages and led to more than $40 billion of writedowns for U.S. financial institutions. It also reached to the top echelons of the financial services industry.

Ken Salazar (Co – Idiot) got paid very well for his vote on that turkey and I am sure that he still stands by that stupid law as the putz in charge of the fed continues to throw good money after bad to try and prop up the economy as banks continue to not trust each other enough to loan money to each other. King George II looks to end his reign with less homes being owned when he (hopefully) leaves office then when he took offfice.