Topic: Ron Paul
Ron Paul Blimp “Loophole” Inventor Joins Republic of Lakotah Libertarian Activist and Ron Paul Blimp Guy, Jerry Collette is now the Interim Attorney General for the Republic of Lakotah.by Hickory Hendrickson
(libertarian)
Thursday, February 14, 2008
A fresh blanket of snow covers the rolling hills in Porcupine Lakotah as I start up the hill leading to Treaty Ranch, headquarters for the Provisional Government of the Republic of Lakotah. The tranquil surroundings are not enough to clear the cloud of despair which covers the landscape surrounding this impoverished Reservation.
Death and poverty confront me at every turn. I stopped to give Dave Whiteface a ride on the way up from Pine Ridge. He was walking back from an elderly woman's house and needed to find her some firewood so she wouldn't freeze to death when the cold front comes in later this week. His mother died last week and he said he wants to stay out of the house as much as possible.
I took him to his sister's house in Porcupine and at the turn off to her house he showed me where his friend hung himself last year behind an abandoned trailer house. The friend was scared to go to prison so he left 3 children fatherless living in poverty on the Rez.
The group of houses where Whiteface lives looks like something from the slums of a Mexican border town or maybe a war-torn country in the Middle East. Graffiti covers most of what pass for houses and abandoned cars sit where they died, years ago. Holes in walls and missing windows are the norm. The most horrific detail is the fact that this neighborhood is just one of many with the same conditions or worse.
The really bad conditions are out of town, where people sit alone with no electricity or heat and slowly die of exposure in their own homes, too far away to walk into town for help.
Inside Republic headquarters the atmosphere is much different. There is a sense of determination and of righteous anger.
A news crew from Turkish Television is conducting an interview with Chief Facilitator of the Republic of Lakotah, Russell Means and Interim Attorney General, Jerry Collette hacks away at a keyboard with focused resolve. Collette was director of the legal team for the Ron Paul Blimp project. A former member of the California Libertarian Party, Collette is best known for being an activist and Freedom Advocate who gets results.
"It was a down day with the Blimp because of the weather" said Collette. "I had a few choices. I could wait for the weather to clear, I could fly the Blimp to Florida or I could come to the Republic."
Collette brings his unique legal background with him to the Republic of Lakotah. Collette is the founder of Charity Legal, a non-profit organization which uses what Collette calls "leveraged giving".
Charity Legal has several projects currently on the table. They include help for the Republic of Lakotah with the "Indigenous Reconciliation" project. Collette's legal action to return the Ron Paul Dollars seized by the FBI is also one of the ongoing struggles initiated by Charity Legal on behalf of unrepresented victims of Big Government's rampant hostility.
The most successful project to date has been Charity Legal's "Rally on Federal Property" project. Collette recognized that the GSA permit process was an unreasonable restriction on free speech. He pointed this out to the GSA and its attorney. The GSA attorney agreed, and, with Collette's input, is in the process of revising the Federal code.
Also on the Charity Legal agenda is the "Impeach the New London 5" project. If we don't take action "no private property will be safe from eminent domain if the Government can show a plausible public benefit." Collette said.
Collette is a strict constitutionalist and has been a Libertarian Activists since 1989. He organized one of the largest anti-war rallies ever to protest the war in Iraq and has 30 years experience as a pastoral consultant.
The Ron Paul Blimp project was one of the largest loopholes ever found in the campaign finance system. The blimp was a media sensation and spawned the copycat Ron Paul Air Corps. With Ron Paul obviously done for in the Republican primary Collette has shifted full focus to Charity Legal and The Republic of Lakotah.
As a Libertarian Collette understands how important the Republic of Lakotah will be to libertarian Ideals.
Collette suggested I visit what could be the future commercial center for the new Republic, Hot Springs, Lakotah.
"I went to Rapid City first" Collette said. "It was terrible; really, really, racist. I told Russell, Rapid City won't work. Russell told me to go see Hot Springs."
In Hot Springs Collette and I stopped for lunch and visited with the owner of a small bakery and coffee house in the historic downtown area. Gwen Caldwell, an articulate Cherokee woman, is the owner of "Stone Soup" which looks like something one would find in Paris or Vienna not South Dakota.
Caldwell is a passionate Libertarian Activists and founder of "Voice of Women" a group dedicated to teaching women about their role as Generation Keepers and advocating for the rights of children abused by their state appointed foster parents. Caldwell has plans to start an independent, self-sufficient, "Cob Community" which she suspects could not only be self sufficient but produce an income for families living and working in the community.
Caldwell is the leading Libertarian vote getter in the state of South Dakota. She is also responsible for convincing people on the Reservations, who are 90% Democrat, to vote Tom Daschle out of his 29 year congressional seat.
We had an organic Lunch and a pastry and Collette showed me the rest of Hot Springs. Across the street from Stone Soup is a limestone cliff cut by a small river. The river steams and never freezes, the entire river is warm as bath water even during the brutal South Dakota Winter. The surrounding cliffs are dotted with caves and a unique geology bleeds brilliant colors onto the exposed rock. Steam from the river creates a sheen of crystalline Ice over top of the colored cliffs and looks like an ever- changing kaleidoscope of colors.
On the way back to Porcupine, Collette pointed out the Casino as we passed it by.
"People think those casinos are the future of the American Indian." Collette said, "Their wrong! All the casinos do is create another problem, another place to spend money.......another addiction."
Did you like this article? If you did, Thumb It! 68 thumbs so far
The views expressed in this
article are those of Hickory Hendrickson only and do not represent
the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. Hickory Hendrickson is
solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an
employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.
I love your stories, but I often find myself feeling somewhat like I've missed part of them. I don't know if its an anglo disconnect from the Native American story telling tradition or if I simply don't have enough background or knowledge of your local situation. Either way, keep plugging I am getting part of it from you, even if I feel its just fragments of the wisdom you are trying to impart.
I love how people are so gullible and naive. Nor do they have an understanding of whats happening.
First off. Withdrawing from the treaties means they have no more legal ground to stand on, as its the treaties that, no matter how much you hate them, are whats holding things together. No treaties means they lose all rights and the govt. can dissolve the reservations. Etc.
Second off. Since the Delegation's press conference, the Rosebud Sioux Tribe and the Cheyenne River Reservation have rejected Means's and the delegation's declaration of secession.
"They're individuals acting on their own. They did not come to the Rosebud Sioux tribal council or our government in any way to get our support and we do not support what they've done. We do not support what Means and his group are doing and they don't have any support from any tribal government I know of. They don't speak for us," said Rosebud Sioux Tribe president, Rodney Bordeaux.
This means, this is not a legal or legit thing taking place. Its wishful thinking. And of course you have people like Russell Means and this party of his misleading people into believing it is. Until the above mentioned organizations recognize this, NOTHING will happen.
Nor will the U.S. govt. need to recognize them (Means and his group) as they do NOT represent the tribes in any legal way nor do they deal with the treaties. This is just a faction group is all. And at the same time this group is not making it clear to people that this is legally NOT happening or legally recognized by either the U.S. govt. OR the tribal councils. They are giving a lot of false impressions. Thus giving people a false since of hope and actually making this worse in the long run.
Many people sympathize with the Lakota. Problem is, stunts like this also are creating angst towards them. As they give the false impression this is a legit thing, when its not. Its not recognized by those it needs to be recognized by.
As well, I think maybe the tribes like the Kiowa, the Omaha, the Ponca, the Oto and the Pawnee should reclaim their land back that the Lakota took from them illegally around 100 yrs before the Europeans arrived. This includes the Black Hills and surrounding plains. The Lakota hold just as much right to that land as the white man/Europeans do. They wiped out tribes that had lived in and around the Black Hills and Plains THOUSANDS of years before them. Stealing the game and land for their own. Why don't they take back the land in MN the Chippewa kicked them out of? They can talk about the govt and the people all they want. Fact is, they too have done a lot of hypocritical actions.
What this group is doing now, by misleading and not properly informing people of whats happening (ie, this has not been approved by the elders, etc), is no different than what the U.S. govt. has been doing. And they claim what they are doing is for a better cause to the people? Get real.
Want to comment on this
article? Leave your comment here. Your email address is
required to track your comment. However, we will neither
publish your email address nor distribute it to other
organizations or persons. The only reason we might use
it would be if we needed to contact you regarding your
comment. All comments are subject to our
terms of use policy.
