CLAIM #1: MazaCoin was never an official currency and that was a lie.
The Reality: This is actually no fault of anyone's in the crypto community, as we couldn't have easily been aware of the current state of tribal government. Here's what this boils down to: there are two tribal governments. One is a traditional Indian construct, based on how they've governed themselves tribally for generations. The other is a construct sanctioned by the US Federal Government, which operates more like a "normal" municipal government elsewhere in the US. The federally sanctioned government, is of course, the dominant authority and is also tied to government subsidies and funding. Here's the important bit: the traditional Oglala Lakota government has fully embraced this idea and accepted MazaCoin.
My Opinion: You could easily say that, infact, MazaCoin's claim of being "official" was exaggerated - and you'd have good reason to do so. However, think carefully - the goal of this currency is to shake off dependence on dollars, federal subsidiaries, and establish a new sovereign currency. Why would the federally sanctioned machine that operates on dollars and subsidiaries approve its own downfall? It wouldn't. MazaCoin is the official currency of the sovereign free state of the Oglala Lakota. Part of the goal of MZC is to help make that state be recognized by the Federal government.
This is also a lie, based I think on misinformation spread by AnonymousPirate that there was some difference between the Ogala Sioux and the Ogala Lakota.
There isn't.
The MazaCoin site (
http://www.mazacoin.org/) has a link to the Traditional Lakota Nation (
http://www.oglalalakotanation.org/oln/Home.html).
Go to that webpage, click Government, click Executive Committee.
You will see that the President is Bryan Brewer, the same one who has publicly said that the tribe has
not adopted MazaCoin as an official currency.
Go to the South Dakota Department of Tribal Relations page for the Ogala:
http://www.sdtribalrelations.com/oglala.aspxScroll down to Current President. You will see that is it Bryan Brewer.
Check the 'View the Oglala Sioux Tribe's website' link. You will see it takes you to the same ogalalakotanation.org page.
The entity that MazaCoin say that they are working with is the same entity listed on the government web page as being the tribal government, and that entity has denied adopting MazaCoin as an official currency.
That is just repeating what Payu himself told people in IRC. I expect further clarification will come, I have actually spent some time today reading about the Wounded Knee standoff in 1973, and that also was largely due to this conflict between the federally sanctioned government, and the traditional chiefs and their followers.