U.S. Citizenship: The American Policy to Extinguish the Principle of Lakota Political Consent

Abstract

In the formative years of the Lakota-American relationship, it was the expected norm of the Lakota that the United States must secure their consent prior to any U.S. policy decision which would effect the Lakota. Thus the formative years of Lakota-American interactions are replete with examples of treaties and agreements which recognized this norm of obtaining Lakota political consent. However, in the contemporary Lakota-American relationship, the historically established norm of Lakota consent is no longer a viable part of this relationship. U.S. policy decisions, which impact Lakota society, are unilaterally implemented without Lakota consent. For example, Lakota males who are eighteen must register for the U.S. military draft as a condition to receiving federal aid for education. If applying the norm of the formative years today, the United States would have to secure the consent of the Lakota that, registering for the draft is a condition that Lakota males must meet in order to receive federal aid for their education. The use of this example is important because the Lakota and the United States have already agreed on the question of federal aid for education with respect to the Lakota people. Specific provisions in a previous agreement have already committed the United States to financing the education of the Lakota people. The United States, as a condition for a peace settlement with the Lakota, agreed to the Lakota demand that the United States would provide educational facilities, personnel, and scholarships for Lakota education.1 Thus, the draft registration represents an additional condition to what the Lakota had initially agreed. The question of why Lakota consent is missing in the contemporary Lakota-American relationship is the subject of this paper. For the Lakota, political consent is an important principle in their exercise of self-determination, especially when U.S. policy decisions such as the draft registration condition for federal aid discards Lakota consent. Hence, my thesis is that the Federal policy of granting U.S. citizenship to Lakota people is, in effect, a policy to extinguish the principle of Lakota political consent by politically incorporating the Lakota into the body politic of the United States. One of the objectives of this thesis is to disclose how the political incorporation of the Lakota people into the American political system is inconsistent with the political realities of the world today. Thus this paper will discuss three topics, the history of political incorporation through U.S. citizenship, U.S. citizenship and its application to extinguish Lakota political consent, and Lakota political coexistence in the United States.