Yolanda blogs:
This is huge. The decision by the Lakota leadership to withdraw from the United States was announced three days ago, but I only heard about it just this second. The Lakota have declared their independence from the US after over 150 years of broken treaties, oppression, and violence. The Lakota cite both the US Constitution and the United Nations’ Vienna Convention as legal precedent for their decision. The Nation has not only delivered official notice to the State Department, but have appealed to the embassies of several UN member nations, such as South Africa and Venezuela, for support and recognition.
The official press release is below. More information here and here.
No they didn’t.
My understanding is that the Means delegation is not representative of the Lakota leadership bodies which are legally recognized by the us government as party to the treaties. I dont have a great handle on the political structures of the Lakota Sioux, so perhaps others know more.
Apparently, the delegation was authorized to present a list of broken treaties, but not authorized to secede, and the Lakota has disclaimed the secession.
http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096416411
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Lakota_Freedom_Delegation_says_spokesman_Russell_Means_%27hijacked%27_organization
Would they then have to get passports to leave the reservation?
Any requirement for passports depends on the countries involved (remember, for decades you didn’t need to have one for canada or mexico) and is not fixed.
This may be–is–a political move, but an important one nonetheless. Yes, it’s probably about trying to draw attention to the various shitty things we’ve done to NAs, rather than to actually secede and attempt to live as an independent nation… but the attention is necessary, is it not?
There is quite a lot of coverage about this on Jason Pitzl-Waters’ excellent blog about Pagan and nature-based religions, The Wild Hunt. The initial story from two weeks ago here, and follow ups here and here, lead me to agree with Robert and curiousgirl (comments #1  above).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passport_to_Pimlico