Land Rights.

[Gob]

UN official calls for US return of native land

A UN special rapporteur has called for the US to restore tribal lands, including the Black Hills of South Dakota, site of Mount Rushmore.

James Anaya announced the recommendation at the end of a 12-day tour, during which he met tribal leaders and government officials.

"The sense of loss, alienation and indignity is pervasive throughout Indian Country," Mr Anaya said.

He met with tribes in seven states on reservations and in urban areas.

The trip, Mr Anaya's first tour of Native American lands, was to determine how the United States is faring on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

President Barack Obama endorsed the declaration in 2010, reversing a previous US vote against it.

Mr Anaya used the Black Hills, located in South Dakota near reservations that are home to the Oglala Sioux tribes, as an example of land restoration.

"I'm talking about restoring to indigenous peoples what obviously they're entitled to and they have a legitimate claim to in a way that is not divisive but restorative," he said.

The Black Hills are public land but are considered sacred by the Sioux tribes. The area, as well as other lands, were set aside for the tribes in an 1868 treaty.

Nine years later, Congress passed a law taking the land.

The Sioux refused to accept a 1980 monetary award from the US Supreme Court, calling for the return of the Black Hills.

The reservations near the Black Hills are some of the most poverty-stricken areas in the US, with extremely high rates of unemployment and much lower than average life expectancy.

Mr Anaya cited ongoing systemic and individual racial discrimination as common themes in his discussions with community leaders.

He said ideas that native populations were gone, wanted handouts or that their culture has been reduced to casinos were "flatly wrong".

Mr Anaya will make formal recommendations in a report to be released in September.

The UN fact-finder said he had met members of the Obama administration and briefed the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, but was unable to meet individuals members of Congress.

He said that he typically meets individual legislators during his tours of countries but said he did not know the reason why that had not happened in the US.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-17966113

For reference.

[BoSoxGal]

It will be interesting to see what bits of Montana he thinks should be returned.

It will never happen.

[dales]

They can have everything!

I'll return to England and go one the dole.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Oh good. He can come here and restore South Africa to the San people. Don't know where all the Xhosas, Zulus, Vendas, Pondos, Afrikaaners, rooineks and all the other assorted peoples should go - back north to shove out the Igbo I suppose (among others)

Next he can suggest we get rid of all motorized vehicles, move to a true barter system, hang witches (Medi please note), keep women barefoot and pregnant and forget how to make fire and ice cubes.

Should be fun. I think the UN should be defunded at once!

Meade

[Lord Jim]

Apparently somebody at the United Nations didn't think that they were considered a big enough joke in the US, so they came up with this brilliant idea....

[Econoline]

"rapporteur"??? (rapper + reporter + amateur?)



(Yes, of course I looked it up to find out what it meant; it's still a funny word.)

[rubato]

At what point in time do we say "well fuck you we raped you and now we can get away with it"?

More than 70 years later we are returning paintings stolen from Jewish families by Austria.

Yes,
Rubato

[MajGenl.Meade]

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 now

[dgs49]

It would be interesting to see an honest appraisal of the validity of these claims, based on treaties signed by the U.S. Government at various times with the indigenous, aboriginal "nations."

It occurs to me that this action by Congress might not come within the Fifth Amendment w/r/t taking of property without due process (and compensation), and thus may not be resolvable by the payment of money. This is not a claim by an individual person for wrongful taking of real property, it is a claim by, arguably, a sovereign for the taking of territory.

And in complete keeping with America's current mode of thinking on the subject of government's financial shenanigans, since this won't cost me a fucking dime one way or another, I say "Give it back to 'em!" Who cares?

[oldr_n_wsr]

A UN special rapporteur has called for the US to restore tribal lands,

Everyone, back to Europe, South America, Africa, Mexico, China, Korea, Japan........

Oh wait, we can keep Manhattan as we actually purchased that from the native Americans.

OK, everyone go to Manhattan.

[rubato]

So what exactly is the time limit?

Or can you even reason equitably about this?

Or not?

[Sue U]

Nobody is suggesting that anyone be "kicked out" of any territory proposed to be restored to Native Americans. The territory at issue here is now deemed "public land," and which had been specifically reserved as tribal land by treaty -- a treaty which was unilaterally abrogated by the U.S. government. The issue is control of the land -- and more specifically, I suspect, the right to exploit its grazing leaseholds, minerals, natural resources and tourist potential.

[Gob]

Native title is the Australian version of the common law doctrine of Aboriginal title.

Native title is "the recognition by Australian law that some Indigenous people have rights and interests to their land that come from their traditional laws and customs". The concept recognises in certain cases there was and is a continued beneficial legal interest in land held by local Indigenous Australians which survived the acquisition of radical title to the land by The Crown at the time of sovereignty. Native title can co-exist with non-Indigenous proprietary rights and in some cases different Indigenous groups can exercise their native title over the same land.

The foundational case of for native title in Australia is Mabo v Queensland (No 2) (1992). The recognition of the legal concept of native title in Mabo led to its recognition by the legislative system a year later when the Keating government enacted the Native Title Act 1993. It attempted to clarify the legal position of landholders and the processes that must be followed for native title to be claimed, protected and recognised through the courts.

The National Native Title Tribunal (NNTT), established under the Native Title Act 1993, is a body that mediates claims made by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Native title determinations are made by the Federal Court of Australia. Appeals against these determinations can be made to a full sitting of the Federal Court and then to the High Court of Australia.

The National Native Title Register (NNTR) is a register of approved determinations and is maintained by the NNTT. As part of the determination of native title, native title groups are required to nominate a Native Title Prescribed Body Corporate to hold (as trustee) or manage (as agent) their native title. Following a determination, Prescribed Bodies Corporate are entered onto the NNTR. At this point, the corporation becomes a Registered Native Title Body Corporate (RNTBC).

On 1 July 2011, the 160 registered determinations of native title (that native title does or does not exist) covered some 1,228,373 km2 (or approximately 16 per cent) of the land mass of Australia.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_title_in_Australia