The 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie: Preface

The 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie

The full text of the 1851 Treat of Fort Laramie is below. First, I want to say a few words of explanation and thanks - and some fighting words, too. At the moment I am part of a struggle to defend the most Sacred Mountain of all of Creator's Wakan He Sapa (Sacred Black Hills), Wakan Mato Paha, Sacred Bear Butte, from utter desecration and destruction at the hands of one or two or three illegal Capitalists who "own" land at the base of the most Sacred of these Sacred Mountains, and five illegal "County Commissioners" in "Meade County" "South Dakota" who have given them "permission" to do so. We are coming from all over Creator's land under U.S. control to protest this most Sacred of the most Sacred land for prayer and Ceremonies, the Heart of the Heart, of what we call Turtle Island. I know that these struggles must ultimately lead to the ultimate struggle, the ultimate problem: the fact that the U.S. took all of our land, including the land we need to support and sustain ourselves with sedentary and nomadic cultivation and hunting, and including the land we need because it is Spiritually Sacred for us, and as we need food, and clothing, and shelther, we need to pray, and have Ceremonies, and be alone with Nature, and Creator, and Creator's Creations.

I am posting the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie for several reasons. First, Mita Sic' Esi, My Brother, posted a comment reminding me to do so. Wopila, Sic' Esi, Great Gratitude, My Brother. This is a most critical Treaty. It is most critical because, like the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie it is still legal, still in effect, in law if not in fact. Why then, was the later Treaty of Fort Laramie signed? It is very easy to see, if you read the descriptions of land in the two Treaties, or look up the maps at the Canku Luta (Red Road) Website that provided this Treaty, and the address to which is provided here. In The 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie, the United States Government still "gives" the He Sapa (Black Hills) including Mato Paha (Bear Butte) to Native Peoples ("Indian" "Nations"). However, the amount of land the United States Government "gives" to Native Nations in the Treaty of 1868 is FAR FAR LESS than the amount of land the United States Government "gives" to Native Nations in 1851. Still, BOTH Treaties are still legal and binding - in and of themselves. In addition, the United States Congress passed an Act in 1871, which ended the practice of making Treaties with Native Nations - beginning our treatment as "Domestic Dependent Nations" or Internal Colonies. However, this same Act of Congress also ratified, in perpetuity, ALL TREATIES BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND NATIVE NATIONS. Why did Congress do this? Why did it give the "rich" - for Capitalists - Black Hills to Natives? Why does the United States and Capitalists now "own" the most Wakan He Sapa, Sacred Black Hills, despite these two legal, binding, and permanent Treaties, and this legal, binding, and permanent Act of Congress?

General George Armstrong Custer was not content to battle and massacre Natives. In 1874, AFTER the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie and the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie and the 1871 Act of Congress made them permantent International Treaties, which included the stipulation that "no white man" could enter the land the United States had "given" to Natives, General George Armstrong Custer led an illegal expedition into the Wakan He Sapa, the Sacred Black Hills, to seek and find gold. GOLD. The reason Columbus came here 514 years ago. The reason 95% of the original inhabitants of the two continents named after a European mapmaker were killed A.C. After Columbus, After Contact, After Conquest, After Colonization, After Capitalism. When Custer found gold in the Wakan He Sapa, the Sacred Black Hills, he found the only thing Capitalism and Capitalists find sacred. He started an illegal gold rush into the Sacred Black Hills. An illegal gold rush into the Sacred Black Hills that began in 1874, and continues to deprive us of the land the United States "gave" us in the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie, the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie, and the 1871 Act of Congress, an illegal gold rush that continues to desecrate and destroy these Spiritually Sacred Black Hills for gold, coal, uranium, tourism, an annual weeklong motorcycle rally with half a million or more participants - which would be fine, but now three men "own" land at the base of the most Sacred Black Hill, and they intend to build there, where we must pray and have Ceremonies in silence, along with Creator's Nature and Creator, and the Meade County Commission has "given permission" for them to do these things at the base of the most Sacred Black Hill: bars, selling beer and liquor and featuring strip contests, one 22,000 square feet; parking lots for cars and motorcycles, one the same size as that bar; two concert arenas, the "biggest in the Black Hills" - to seat 40,000 people...within a mile across the silent prarie and farm lands from the most Sacred Black Hill.

This is where I have been. This is what I have been doing. And, Wakan Tanka, the Wakan Spirits, and my Elders and our people willing, what I will be doing from now on, is struggling to compel the United States to enforce its own Treaties, its own Act of Congress, and let us use Creator's land for our material survival, for our cultural survival, and for our Spiritual Survival.

Mitakuye Oyasin, Hante Unpan Winyan (Cedar Elk Woman)