Back on the warpath

The Sioux are back on the warpath.

150 years after signing the [peace] treaty that made them Americans, they are now accusing Washington (the Capital not the General) of not having respected the pacts and they are declaring independence from the US.

According to a leader of the Lakota tribe, 33 treaties have been violated and the loss of identity and the integration with the “whites” is creating the complete assimilation.

Numbers about juvenile suicides are spooky: 150 times the American average, child mortality is 5 times the US one and unemployment is very high.

The Leader, Russell Means, is inviting all Sioux tribes to join the newly declared State and give up the US passport. The new State promises no tax, their own driving license and new passports.

With all respect due to native Americans that I have had the pleasure of meeting a couple of years ago in Italy (a family of Lakota’s has settled 20 kms from Rome, 6 years ago), I think that this is a provocation, one of those that the Northern League performs nearly with a weekly sequence since they are out of power. However, I think that the problems of these communities are serious and that giving them the possibilities of building some Casinos is not what a State should do to preserve the heritage. Teaching that one can be diverse but still be part of a community and, even more, teach the white American guys that the fortune of America is the cultural diversity that has created this Nation. Alexis de Toqueville should be taught in the States and a bit less propaganda and self praise would make America realize that you cannot export democracy in the world if in your country there is lack of it.