Native Delegation in DC: A final 'NO!' to Keystone Pipeline

Debra White Plume, Lakota from Pine Ridge, tells the 'Great White Father' Obama that the Lakota Nation has not given "free, prior and informed consent" for this pipeline to poison Mother Earth. Photo by Rocky Kistner/NRDC

In Washington during the final hearing on Keystone pipeline.
Photo Tar Sands Action

Sleeping in the State Department
to make sure big oil didn't hijack the final hearing on the Keystone Pipeline.
Photo Josh Lopez/Tar Sands Action

By Brenda Norrell

Censored News

http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

WASHINGTON -- A delegation of Native Americans and First Nations spoke out against the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, after dozens of pipeline opponents spent the night on the floor of the US State Department so that big oil would not be able to hijack the final hearing and place dollars and dirty oil over the need to protect the water and earth for future generations.

Watch the hearing, by way of C-Span, and listen to Debra White Plume, Lakota from Pine Ridge, S.D.; George Poitras, former Chief of the Mikisew Cree First Nation; Regional Chief George Stanley, Frog Lake Cree, Alberta; Dene National Chief Bill Erasmus; Marty Cobenais of the Indigenous Environmental Network and Pat Spears, Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, representing the Intertribal Council on Utility Policy.

Debra White Plume 28:54 - 31: 47, George Poitras 1:05:50 - 1:08:25, Regional Chief George Stanley 1:11:34 - 1:15:11

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/XLP

Dene National Chief Bill Erasmus, 7:16 - 10:34, Marty Cobenais, 23:15 - 26:30, Pat Spears 50:27 - 54:23.

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/SCanadaP

Deborah White Plume of the Lakota Nation said the pipeline would cross hundreds of rivers and put her community at risk. “Just say no to a pipeline that is against mother earth and sacred water.”
Quote from Rocky Kistner's blog:
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/rkistner/tar_sand_protesters_co2_emissi.html

Also see today's New York Times:
Pipeline Review Is Faced With Question of Conflict

By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL and DAN FROSCH

The State Department assigned an important environmental impact study of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline to a company with financial ties to the pipeline operator, flouting the intent of a federal law meant to ensure an impartial environmental analysis of major projects.      

The department allowed TransCanada, the company seeking permission to build the 1,700-mile pipeline from the oil sands of northern Alberta to the Gulf Coast in Texas, to solicit and screen bids for the environmental study. At TransCanada’s recommendation, the department hired Cardno Entrix, an environmental contractor based in Houston, even though it had previously worked on projects with TransCanada..." http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/08/science/earth/08pipeline.html?_r=1&smid=tw-nytimes&seid=auto