Leaders from 11 Native American tribes stormed out of a meeting with US federal officials in Rapid City, South Dakota, to protest the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which they say will lead to ‘environmental genocide.’
Native Americans are opposed to the 1,179-mile (1,897km)
Keystone XL project, a system to transport tar sands oil from
Canada and the northern United States to refineries in Texas for
various reasons, including possible damage to sacred sites,
pollution, and water contamination.
Although the planned pipeline would not pass directly through
any Native American reservation, tribes in proximity to the
proposed system say it will violate their traditional lands and
that the environmental risks of the project are simply too
great.
Russ Girling, CEO of TransCanada, the company that hopes to
build the pipeline, has promised in the past that Keystone XL will
be “the safest pipeline ever built.”
The Indian groups, as well as other activist organizations,
doubt the claim, saying the risks involved in the project are too
high.
In an effort to ease their concerns, officials from the
Department of State agreed to meet with tribal leaders on Thursday
in the Hilton Garden Inn in Rapid City, Michigan.
Before the talks could begin, however, tribal leaders walked
out, angered that the government had sent what they considered
low-level representatives.
In a press conference following the walkout, tribal leaders took
turns criticizing the project, as well as the Obama
administration.
“I will only meet with President Obama,” Bryan Brewer,
president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, told the Rapid City
Journal.
Others mentioned environmental concerns with the proposed
pipeline, which echo the concern of environmental groups across the
country.
Casey Camp-Horinek, an elder with the Southern Ponca Tribe based
in Oklahoma, compared the pipeline and other environmental damage
to the historical events that had decimated her people during
European colonization.
“We find ourselves victims of another form of genocide, and
it’s environmental genocide, and it’s caused by the extractive
industries,” she said.
Charles LoneChief, vice president of the Pawnee Business
Council, headquartered in Oklahoma, said the public was misinformed
about the pipeline’s environmental risks.
Unlike a traditional crude oil pipeline, Keystone XL will pump
oil that is collected from tar sands. To turn this substance into a
transportable liquid, oil companies must add chemicals that
environmental groups warn are highly toxic.
“That gets into our waterways, our water tables, our
aquifers, then we have problems,” LoneChief said.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has estimated that
the Keystone XL pipeline will increase annual US carbon pollution
emissions by up to 27.6 million metric tons — the impact of adding
nearly 6 million cars on the road, according to the Environment
News Service.
Robin LeBeau, a council representative for the Cheyenne River
Sioux Tribe based in South Dakota, pledged to protest against any
construction, even if that meant standing in front of
bulldozers.
“What the State Department, what President Obama needs to
hear from us, is that we are going to be taking direct action,”
she said.
I believe this is going to be one of the biggest battles we are
ever going to have, LeBeau added.
This is not the first time that Native American groups have
spoken out on the project.
Leaders from ten Canadian and US indigenous groups gathered in
Ottawa, Ontario in March to protest the construction of
pipelines.
“Tar sands pipelines will not pass through [our] collective
territories under any conditions or circumstances,” the tribes
said at a press conference.
This article originally appeared on : RT