A delegation representing the Great Sioux Nation will leave La Framboise Island near Pierre at 10 a.m. on Thursday to embark on a trip to Washington, D.C.  According to a press release from the Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council, the delegation's purpose is to remind Congress that the United States still has a viable treaty, the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, with the Great Sioux Nation.

A camp was established on the island on March 22 to protest passage of the mitigation act entitled Title VI which was a part of the large 1999 Omnibus Bill. The legislation allows for the transfer of thousands of acres of land along the Missouri River from the federal government to South Dakota and the Cheyenne River and Lower Brule Sioux tribes.

Protesters maintain the law is a violation of the treaty and they have called for congressional oversight hearings to discuss it. In July the House of Representatives voted to repeal Title VI and the repeal is scheduled for review by a joint conference committee this month.  However, the same transfer legislation was inserted into the Water Resources Development Authorization Act and it was signed by President Bill Clinton in August.

The press release states that the delegation will consist of four generations of Lakota and Dakota people who will travel in a small caravan to the capital to meet with various officials. The delegation has scheduled stops along the way where presentations will be given.

*** Report from CPT:
From: Kathy.Kern.guest.48855@MennoLink.org (Kathy Kern, Rochester, NY)

CPTnet
September 9, 1999
SOUTH DAKOTA:  Sacred Fire on its way to Washington, DC

Two CPTers, Joanne Kaufman and Cliff Kindy, will accompany approximately  50 members of a Lakota delegation to Washington, DC, from September 9 -19.

There are two goals for the trip:  1) to bring visibility to Lakota treaty
issues and the protest camp on La Framboise Island, and 2) to influence
legislative action which threatens to transfer treaty land to the state of
South Dakota.

During the bus trek to DC there will be four stops for speaking and news
conferences.  Those will happen in conjunction with native issues study
centers at universities in Sioux City, Iowa City, Indianapolis, and DC.

Traveling with the group will be many elders and youth well-versed on the
issues of treaty rights and the experiences of the Lakota with the US
government.  Six people from the La Framboise protest camp will be part of
the delegation.  They will be carrying the camp's sacred fire, the first of the Seven Council Fires to be re-lit.  The fire is a symbol that the 1868 treaty, which grants to the Lakota all land west of the Missouri River in South Dakota, has not been extinguished.

In DC, in addition to the press conference, the delegation will be meeting
with legislators and other interested individuals and groups.  The effort
will be to encourage the repeal of both Mitigation Acts which have become
law and would transfer about 92,000 acres of tribal land to South Dakota.