DECLARATION OF CONTINUING INDEPENDENCE

The First International Indian Treaty Council of the Western Hemisphere was formed on the land of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe on June 8-16, 1974. The delegates, meeting under the guidance of the Great Spirit, represented 97 Indian Tribes and Nations from across North and South America.

We, the sovereign native peoples recognize that all lands belonging to the various native nations now situated within the boundaries of the United States are clearly defined by the sacred treaties solemnly entered into between the native nations and the government of the United States of America.

We the sovereign native peoples charge the United States with gross violations of our international treaties. Two of the thousands of violations that can be sited are:
1. The illegal taking of the Black Hills from the great Sioux Nation in 1877. Sacred land which belongs to them under the 1851 and 1868 Fort Laramie Treaties.

2. The forced march of the Cherokee people (The Trail of Tears) from their ancestral lands in the state of Georgia to the then "Indian Territory" of Oklahoma after the Supreme Court of the United States ruled the Cherokee treaty rights inviolate. This treaty violation known as the Trail of Tears, brought death to two-thirds of the Cherokee Nation.

The Council further recognizes that a committed/unified struggle, using every available political and legal resource must be undertaken to secure U.S. recognition of the treaties entered into and signed with native "First Nations". Treatiesand agreements between sovereign nations bind each party to aninviolate international relationship and are considered the"supreme law of the land".

We acknowledge the historical fact that the struggle for independence by the people of our sacred Mother Earth has always been over sovereignty of land. These efforts to proclaim sovereignty over the land have always involved the highest human sacrifice.

We recognize that all native nations wish to avoid the use of force, but we also recognize that the United States government has always used the diplomacy of force and violence to deny native nations basic human and treaty rights.

We adopt this Declaration of Continuing Independence, realizing that struggle lays ahead --a struggle certain to be won-- and that the human rights and treaty rights of all Native "First Nations" will be honored. In this understanding the International Indian Treaty Council declares:
The United States government in its Constitution, Article VI, recognizes treaties as part of the supreme law of the United States of America. We will peacefully pursue all legal and political avenues to demand U.S. recognition of its own Constitution in this regard, and thus to honor its own treaties with the native "First Nations".
We will seek the support of all the communities of the world in this struggle for continuing independence of native "FirstNations".

We recognize the sovereignty of all native "First Nations" and will stand in unity to support our native and international sisters and brothers in their respective and collective struggles concerning international treaties and agreements violated by these United States and other governments.

All treaties between the sovereign native "First Nations" and the U. S. government must be interpreted according to the traditional and spiritual ways of the signatory "First Nations".

We despise the United States of America for is gross violations of more than 385 known treaties and for militarily surrounding, killing and starving the many different indigenons "First Nations" into exile.

We demand that the United States of America recognize the sovereignty and self-determination of all indigenous "First Nations", and immediately stop all present and future prosecutions of sovereign native people engaged in the enforcement of their sovereign basic and human rights. We further call upon the United States of America for its premeditated and willful genocidal tactics, practices, and programs aimed at the extermination of the sovereign "First Nations", and for their continued refusal to sign the United Nations 1948 Treaty on Genocide.

We reject all executive orders, legislative acts and judicial decisions of the United States of America relating to native nations since 1871, when the U.S. unilaterally suspended treaty-making relations. This includes, but is not limited to, th upon the United States of America for its premeditated and willful genocidal tactics, practices, and programs aimed at the extermination of the sovereign "First Nations", and for their continued refusal to sign the United Nations 1948 Treaty on Genocide.

We reject all executive orders, legislative acts and judicial decisions of the United States of America relating to native nations since 1871, when the U.S. unilaterally suspended treaty-making relations. This includes, but is not limited to, the Major Crimes Act, the General Allotment Act, the Citizenship Act or 1924, the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, the Indian Claims Commission Act, Public Law 280 and the Termination Act. All treaties between native "First Nations" and the U.S. made prior to 1871 shall be recognized.

We recognize that there is only one color of people in the world who are not recognized by the United Nations, the Indigenous Red Nations of the Western Hemisphere. We further recognize that this lack of representation in the United Nations stems from the genocidal tactics, international economic black-mailing, deprivational policies and overall colonial power and influence of the U.S.

We will work in solidarity for recognition andm embership of the sovereign native nations into the U.N., and pledge our support to any similar application by any aboriginal people. We will also work to open negotiations with the government of the U.S. through its Department of State in order to establish diplomatic relations. When these diplomatic relations have been formally established, our first order of business will be to deal with U.S. violations of treaties with native "First Nations", and violations of the rights of those "First Nations" who have refused to sign treaties with the United States...

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