"Like many such direct actions, it was both practical and improbable. Previous attempts to occupy the island had been made by Native American activists, who cited provisions in the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, which said that unused federal lands could be open to claims by certain Native Americans"
"The Treaty of Fort Laramie was born of war on the northern plains. Led by Chief Red Cloud, the Sioux and their Cheyenne and Arapaho allies defeated U.S. Army detachments and halted wagon trains moving across the Dakotas into the Wyoming and Montana territories. With its soldiers subdued, the United States dispatched peace commissioners to reach a settlement"
“It is my wish that the United States would honor this treaty.” —Chief John Spotted Tail (Sicangu Lakota, citizen of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe), great-great-grandson of Spotted Tail, one of the treaty’s original signers
"Standing Arrow was right, direct assertion of Mohawk sovereignty was a possibility - inspired young Mohawks such as Tom Porter to become advocates for traditional knowledge and a group of Kahnawakeronons to act on that knowledge in May of 1974 when they moved to secure a camp at Eagle Bay, NY and give birth to Ganienkeh. What Standing Arrow did was to show the viability of the longhouse in political matters. A Nation Council could govern and was seen as leading the move towards unifying Akwesasne."
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