• About
  • Join/Donate
  • Contact
Sunday, January 17, 2021
No Result
View All Result
The Brief
NB MEDIA CO-OP
Share a story
  • New Brunswick
  • Canada
  • World
  • Environment
  • Indigenous
  • Labour
  • Gender
  • Politics
  • Arts & Culture
  • Videos
  • COVID-19
  • New Brunswick
  • Canada
  • World
  • Environment
  • Indigenous
  • Labour
  • Gender
  • Politics
  • Arts & Culture
  • Videos
  • COVID-19
No Result
View All Result
NB MEDIA CO-OP
No Result
View All Result
Home Environment

Indigenous leaders arrested at Keystone Pipeline protest outside the White House

by Indigenous Environmental Network
September 5, 2011
3 min read
tom

tomAmerican Indian and Canadian Native leaders were arrested on September 2nd in front of the White House as they refused to move after being ordered to do so by the police. Representatives of Native governments and Native organizations from the United States and Canada traveled long distances to join thousands of people that have come to Washington, DC during the past two weeks to tell U.S. President Barack Obama not to issue a permit for the construction of a controversial 1,900 mile oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast.

Last Friday, August 26th, the US Department of State issued the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) concluding the pipeline would have “no significant impact” on the environment. President Obama now has about three months to determine whether the controversial project is in the national interest of the U.S.

“The Dene National Assembly in northern Canada passed a resolution standing in solidarity with Native Americans and other people opposing this Keystone XL project. We want the people of America to hear our concerns first hand, as peoples who live downstream from the tar sands development,” said Chief Bill Erasmus, Dene Regional Chief of Northwest Territories and representative of the Assembly of First Nations, Canada’s largest tribal organization.

Gitz Deranger, Dene from the village of Fort Chipewyan, Alberta, located downstream of the tar sands, said, “I have seen the devastation of our environment and people’s health with increased cancer deaths. If Obama approves this pipeline, it would only lead to more of our people needlessly dying.”

“This is an issue of our right to say no, as sovereign independent indigenous nations. The U.S. government doesn’t have our best interest in mind, nor the rights of Mother Earth,” said Deb White Plume, Lakota grassroots leader with Owe Aku, an Oglala Lakota organization in South Dakota. “Our Lakota people oppose this pipeline because of the potential contamination of the surface water and of the Oglala aquifer.  We have thousands of ancient and historical cultural resources that would be destroyed across our treaty lands.”

“It’s my responsibility as a woman to stand with Mother Earth against corporate male dominated greed.” White Plume stood proud as her hands were handcuffed behind her back and led away.

“This is a matter of life and death, our way of life and our human rights should not be on the altar of U.S. energy policy,” said Pat Spears, a Lakota with the Intertribal Council on Utility Policy of South Dakota. “The arrogant pollution from mining and pipelines for tar sands oil is totally unnecessary relative to meeting oil needs.  The building of this pipeline will result in the increase in the cost of oil and its exportation, from the Gulf Coast to other countries. This does not make good economic sense.”

frackiswackChief George Stanley, Cree Regional Chief of Alberta spoke eloquently reminding the protesters that the pipeline proposal was initiated under the previous Bush administration and inherited by Obama. “Our First Nations in Alberta have been concerned of the lack of consultation of the pipelines and tar sands expansion. President Obama can do what’s right. For the President to approve this pipeline is not in the national interest of U.S. or Canada.”

Tom Goldtooth, executive director of the Indigenous Environmental Network whose group organized this Indigenous Day of Action in DC, said, “The Canadian tar sands, the proposed Keystone XL and all the other current and proposed pipelines and heavy hauls are weapons of mass destruction leading the path to triggering the final overheating of Mother Earth. President Obama made promises to Native Nations. Here is an opportunity for him to honor those promises and be a man of conscience by standing up to corporate power, address the compounding changes of climate change and over consumption of the resources of Mother Earth; and saying no to the Keystone XL pipeline.”

Tags: fracking
ShareTweetSend

Related Posts

When drones guard the pipeline
*Opinion*

RCMP shrugs off findings it acted illegally at Rexton raid on anti-shale gas protesters

November 18, 2020

The RCMP is refusing to accept several findings made by the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission on the RCMP response...

Rural New Brunswickers talk about home through photovoice
Economy

Rural New Brunswickers talk about home through photovoice

January 21, 2020

Scarlet runners and garlic, gas flares and roadkill are just some of the subjects of more than 30 photo-stories being...

The Sisson Mine shakedown: The myth of a mine to save New Brunswick
Economy

The Sisson Mine shakedown: The myth of a mine to save New Brunswick

November 12, 2019

The story of the Sisson Mine development starts dramatically. As it unfolds it includes promises of riches and jobs, the...

Sept. 27 Climate Strike at the NB Legislature: “J’ai un rêve”
Environment

Sept. 27 Climate Strike at the NB Legislature: “J’ai un rêve”

September 27, 2019

One of the largest crowds in recent years gathered outside the New Brunswick legislature on Friday, Sept. 27 to protest...

Load More

Recommended

Shrinking Saint John at breaking point under provincial tax structure

3 years ago

Union leaders send out SOS for St. Andrews Biological Station

9 years ago
Negotiations deadlocked between province and general labour and trades workers

Negotiations deadlocked between province and general labour and trades workers

1 year ago

From the Margins: Response to Morgentaler Clinic closure [audio]

7 years ago
NB Media Co-op

© 2019 NB Media Co-op. All rights reserved.

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Join/Donate
  • Contact
  • Share a Story
  • Calendar
  • Archives

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • About
  • Join/Donate
  • Contact
  • Share a Story
  • COVID-19
  • Videos
  • New Brunswick
  • Canada
  • World
  • Arts & Culture
  • Environment
  • Indigenous
  • Labour
  • Politics
  • Rural

© 2019 NB Media Co-op. All rights reserved.

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Fill the forms bellow to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In